Study: Companies Failing at Online Customer Service

U.S. companies are failing at online customer service, forcing consumers to bypass email service for the telephone, according to a new study from Jupiter Research.

The study shows that 88% of consumers surveyed expect a response to email inquiries within 24 hours. The problem is that only 54% of companies meet that expectation — the same percentage as in 2001, despite an increase in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology spending.

Growth in CRM spending is expected to continue at a rapid rate at least through 2008, according to another Jupiter Research report.

”Companies that fail to get serious about their management of customer service email now, will pay the price with higher customer service costs and lost revenues down the line,” says David Daniels, a Jupiter Research senior analyst. ”This issue will be compounded as customer service email inquiries will rise from 1 billion in 2001 to 3.3 billion in 2008.”

Daniels adds that inadequate service through the online channel will only continue to drive consumers to turn back to their telephones. ”Companies without efficient management of their customer service emails are better off sending site visitors directly to their phone support center,” he says.

IT managers are increasingly turning to CRM technology, according to a Jupiter Market Forecast Report. CRM technology spending is expected to grow from $2.3 billion in 2003 to $4.7 billion in 2008. The report also notes that financial services companies are expected to continue to be the largest spenders on CRM, with their expenditures jumping from $3.4 billion in 2003 to $5.9 billion in 2008.

RELATED NEWS AND ANALYSIS

• Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  December 04, 2020

• Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  November 18, 2020

• Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA

  FEATURE |  By Guest Author,
  November 10, 2020

• Top 10 AIOps Companies

  FEATURE |  By Samuel Greengard,
  November 05, 2020

• What is Text Analysis?

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  November 02, 2020

• How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 29, 2020

• Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 23, 2020

• The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 16, 2020

• Top 10 Chatbot Platforms

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  October 07, 2020

• Finding a Career Path in AI

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  October 05, 2020

• CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science

  FEATURE |  By Guest Author,
  September 25, 2020

• Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 25, 2020

• Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2020

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  September 22, 2020

• NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 18, 2020

• Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By James Maguire,
  September 14, 2020

• Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By James Maguire,
  September 13, 2020

• IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 11, 2020

• Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality

  FEATURE |  By James Maguire,
  September 09, 2020

• Anticipating The Coming Wave Of AI Enhanced PCs

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 05, 2020

• The Critical Nature Of IBM’s NLP (Natural Language Processing) Effort

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  August 14, 2020