Poorly thought out customer service policies, combined with lags in response time, will frustrate and ultimately alienate customers in the business to business arena, according to research from Jupiter Media Metrix.
According to Jupiter, only 41% of all B-to-B companies respond to customer e-mail inquiries within six hours – and of those, only half offer a satisfactory resolution. A total of sixty-five percent said they respond within 24 hours, and another 29% fail to respond at all.
Has this had an effect? Jupiter found that 45% of B-to-B buyers do not go online because they do not trust suppliers.
“The low level of accuracy in B-to-B companies’ responses will eventually drive customers to other, more costly communication channels and will lower confidence in e-mail as a customer service channel,” said David Daniels, Jupiter analyst, in a statement.
Other findings from Jupiter’s research include:
*While 96% of B-to-B companies offer e-mail support, only two-thirds post a toll-free customer support telephone number on their Web site, and a mere 4% offer text chat.
*While 65% of companies surveyed offer online self-service, all but 2% consist of long lists of frequently asked questions.
