Online customer service in 2010 worse than last year

A new study has revealed that European consumers are more frustrated by online customer service than they were a year ago. The latest benchmark study of 5,000 consumers in the UK, France, Germany and Spain, conducted by ecommerce services provider ATG, found that 43 percent of consumers rate online service as satisfactory or worse--a rise on last year’s figure of 25 percent.

The results also indicate that more than half (51 percent) of consumers find the most frustrating aspect of shopping online is the difficulty they have reaching retailers by phone or online chat to answer questions. The second most common frustration was trouble completing orders at the checkout, cited by 23 percent of respondents. Breaking the data down into specific territories, more than a third (35 percent) of UK consumers would not describe their experience of online shopping as anything more than satisfactory. Brits are most likely frustrated by forgetting their account information and difficulties with logging into their customer accounts. A similar percentage of French consumers shares that concern (29 percent), but the problem appears to be nonexistent in Spain.
 
Drilling down further, the study reveals that the speed of service (22 percent) and the option to shop via their preferred channel (22 percent) is what consumers like most about buying online. In Spain, the ability to compare prices and find the best deals, is the top answer.

Forty-five percent of UK consumers wouldn’t spend more than £50 online in a single transaction. This is comparable with the rest of Europe, where overall, 43 percent are willing to spend no more than €50 online in a single transaction. This is down appreciably on last year’s figure of 53 percent, indicating that Europeans are becoming more confident shopping online.