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SMALL BUSINESSES NEED to offer better means of online communication to meet growing customer demand, according to new research on customer service. The most irritating trait a company can display is failing to have its contact details on its website, according to new research. The study by I & I INTERNET found that 77% of people listed this as their biggest customer service bugbear, followed by being held in a telephone queue (also 77%), speaking to staff with heavy accents (56%), poor on-hold music (42%) and inflexible office hours (40%). The poll also found 90% of consumers wanted the ability to interact with companies through live-chat, forums or call-me-back facilities, with one in three requiring it from a business they currently use. But the vast majority of small companies (92%) do not offer such facilities and 42% had no plans to introduce them, the survey found. One in three businesses (35%) even said they felt there was no need to provide further online communication options. “Our research clearly shows that struggling to contact a business from its website is a major cause of concern for consumers,” said And reas Gauger, chief executive of I & I Internet. “There is also a clear discrepancy between how consumers and businesses value internet-based customer service,” he added.“Consumers now place a high value on the ability to talk to businesses in real-time online and businesses of all sizes need to respond to this trend or risk losing sales.” Despite the fact that 42% of customers would choose real-time online dialogue as their preferred contact method, 44% of companies believed there was no link between online customer support and sales revenue and almost half (47%) felt providing such facilities would not increase customer retention. SOURCENOTE: Newbusiness.com
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