Recent studies indicate that when customers or potential customers contact an online organisation, 80% prefer communicating by email over phone and over 50% will not do business with a company if they do not receive an adequate response to their email within 24 hours. The average response time to a customer email inquiry is 72 hours.
Most online organisations communicate regularly with customers and clients by email, but few provide a level of email customer service that satisfies their customers. While email service standards are low, the benefits of communicating via email are palpable:
- Cost - an email conversation generally costs 75% less than a phone conversation.
- Time - the time it takes to respond to an email is significantly less than a phone call. Email also allows both the customer and your company representative to multi-task, responding to email messages while attending to other matters.
- History - email allows for the easy tracking and retrieval of email conversations, which ensures accountability and allows for organisational benefits derived from the sharing of customer history and knowledge.
Source: deerfield.com (providers of email management systems)