It's the Service, Stupid

摘要

The e-tailing group inc., a Chicago consulting firm, made a revealing discovery in March about customer service on the Web. If you bought something online during the fourth-quarter Christmas season, customer service wasn't too shabby. But if you tried to continue your habit into this year, you were in for a shock Things pretty much fell apart, says e-tailing President Lauren Freedman. "Clearly, they weren't keeping this part of the business up to speed." Simple stuff, such as e-mail confirmation of orders, slipped. Ninety percent of the sites surveyed provided e-mail confirmation during the holidays, but that dropped by ten percentage points two months later. Availability of real-time inventory fell nine points. Offers of free shipping slipped six points.