TM0603_Nuts/E-mail

By Lisa Yorgey Lester

Despite significant and continual growth in online CRM spending, many companies continually fail to promptly respond to e-mail inquiries. In its recent Customer Service Webtrack report, Jupiter Research reveals that 88 percent of consumers surveyed expect a response to e-mail inquiries within 24 hours; only 54 percent of companies sampled met these expectations, despite an increase in CRM spending.

A lack of e-mail response to inquiries in a timely manner drives up the number of customer service telephone calls. This will result in higher customer service costs and lost revenues, which will be compounded as customer service e-mail inquiries are projected to jump from 1 billion in 2001 to 3.3 billion in 2008, according to Jupiter Research Senior Analyst David Daniels.