Multichannel communications preferences
Reports on research where 1000 UK consumers aged 18+ were surveyed to identify the role and importance of customer services and communications for online businesses. Despite the growing popularity of email as a communication tool, 53 per cent of those interviewed still prefer to communicate with businesses over the telephone, particularly for service enquiries, compared with 48 per cent for email and 16 per cent for traditional mail. However, when asked about their experiences, three out of ten UK consumers stated they found it difficult to locate contact details on websites.
Surprisingly, 53 per cent of consumers consider three minutes waiting time a satisfactory period to speak with an agent over the telephone.
Consumers particularly disliked ringing a contact centre only to be met with a computerised answering service.
Notes, replacing a skilled operator with an automated service might save money in the short term however, in the long term companies risk losing brand advocacy and sales.
Additionally, customers believe 24 hours is a respectable amount of time to wait for a response when contacting a business via email.
He concludes:
Overall the research shows that in this era of multi-communication, consumers are no longer allied to any particular mode of communication. They will select the most convenient or appropriate channel even if the retailer trades solely online. As a result, brands need to provide their contact centre agents with the tools to seamlessly combine different communication channels such as telephone, email, v-mail, web chat and SMS to communicate with the consumer and meet their expectations of service.
Agents also need to have real-time access to all past interactions with a customer
This should include text transcriptions of conversations and emails, scanned copies of letters received and despatched, as well as call recordings, comments and outcomes ensuring that the agent is fully briefed on the existing relationship that the customer has with the brand.
Importantly, this information can be further used to tailor all future contact with the customer, delivering greater levels of customer satisfaction.
By employing the customers preferred channel of communication, which has been identified using the data from real conversations with individuals, it is possible to meet customer expectations, and as a result maximise retention and brand advocacy.
A further assurance concern of e-commerce websites is the privacy and security of customer information.
Company that adheres to the UK Internet Shopping
Is Safe (ISIS) (www.imrg.org/isis) or TRUSTe principles (www.truste.org) will provide better assurance than one that does not. For security, ‘hacker safe’ accreditation is available from Scan Alert (www.scanalert.com) which is owned by McAfee security products.
This involves automated daily scans to test site security. Chaffey and Smith (2012) suggest that the following actions can be used to achieve assurance in an e-commerce site:
● provide clear and effective privacy statements;
● follow privacy and consumer protection guidelines in all local markets;
● make security of customer data a priority;
● use independent certification bodies;
● emphasise the excellence of service quality in all communications.
Empathy
Although it might be considered that empathy requires personal human contact, it can still be achieved, to an extent, through email and web communications.
Provision of personalisation facilities is also an indication of the empathy provided by the website, but more research is needed as to customers’ perception of the value of web pages that are dynamically created to meet a customer’s information needs.
It can be suggested that for managers wishing to apply a framework such as SERVQUAL.
In an e-commerce context there are three stages appropriate to managing the process:
1 Understanding expectations. Customer expectations for the e-commerce environment in a particular market sector must be understood.
The SERVQUAL framework can be used with market research and benchmarking of other sites to understand requirements such as responsiveness and empathy. Scenarios can also be used to identify customer expectations of using services on a site.
2 Setting and communicating the service promise. Once expectations are understood, marketing communications can be used to inform the customers of the level of service.
This can be achieved through customer service guarantees or promises. It is betteto under-promise than over-promise. A book retailer who delivers a book in two days when three days were promised will earn the customer’s loyalty better than the retailer who promises one day but delivers in two! The enlightened company may also explain what it will do if it doesn’t meet its promises will the customer be recompensed? The service promise must also be communicated internally and combined with training to ensure that the service is delivered.
3 Delivering the service promise.
Finally, commitments must be delivered through on-site service, support from employees and physical fulfilment. Otherwise, online credibility is destroyed and a customer may never return.
