BizNet OnLine Magazine, Answer Your E-mail

Answer Your E-mail

If it is rude not to answer an e-mail inquiry from a customer, or to answer it with useless or irrelevant information, many companies need etiquette training, according to a new Yankee Group report.

The report, "E-mail Response Systems 1999," contains results from a test the research company conducted on a Sunday during a holiday weekend earlier this year. Fewer than 30 percent of the companies to which the Yankee Group sent e-mail had responded to the inquiries within 24 hours, only 60 percent had responded after another 24 hours, and a few companies sent no response whatsoever.

The companies chosen for the test included Web-based retail, brokerage, and Internet software companies.

"The Internet is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and I sent my inquiries out on a Sunday, but very few [companies] responded quickly," said Steve Robins, a senior analyst at the Yankee Group's Internet Computing Strategies Planning Office. "Any of these companies can have customers who have issues on a Sunday. Yet the vast majority responded over a day later."

A few companies did get high marks in the report. A response came from eToys within 26 minutes, and clothing retailer Lands' End took 33 minutes. Wavo (formerly Wavephore) was the first software company to respond, at 1 hour and 39 minutes, while Fidelity Investments led the brokerage pack at 20 hours, sending an answer early on Monday morning. Overall, brokerage firms Fidelity and Datek Online, and outdoor-apparel retailer L.L. Bean, ranked highest for overall e-mail response in the Yankee Group's test.

But the quality of e-mail responses often left much to be desired, the Boston-based research company noted. The test found that companies only answered questions correctly half the time, and many sent responses that "negated the value of e-mail" by directing customers back to a Web page with little useful information, or asking them to contact the company by telephone.

In addition, just 24 percent of the companies tested even confirmed receipt of an e-mail.

"People have implemented some e-mail response systems, but they haven't gone as far as they should in answering the broader question: How do I give good customer service to my customers, or how do I give outstanding customer service to my customers?" Robins said. "When you see eToys responding within half an hour on a Sunday, that's exemplary service. If you were considering making a purchase from eToys vs. someone else, you could say, 'They answered my question and gave me the information I need to move forward,' as opposed to, 'I didn't get an answer; maybe I should go to another Web site.'"

Robins said the questions asked were tailored to each type of company. E-tailers were asked what their return policies are on a purchase after 45 days. Brokerage firms were asked for the minimum balance needed to keep an account active. The software companies were asked how a damaged CD might be replaced.

"The questions were very general, but it gives you a sense of how people are responding just the same," Robins said.

Robins said test results a year ago would have been far worse, and noted larger-than-expected growth in the market for e-mail response products over the past year. The Yankee Group predicts that market will increase from $117 million this year to $400 million in 2001.

The report offers ideas on how companies can use those products to do better. In addition to the promptness issue, it includes recommendations on ways to improve the quality of responses and determine the right levels of responsiveness.

"It's not just a matter of, 'We get lots of e-mails; we need to install response systems,'" Robins said. "More appropriately, it should be, 'We get lots of e-mails; we have to develop an e-service strategy.' And that's partly response, partly staffing, and partly developing procedures in dealing with any system you've got.

"What constitutes a good e-mail? Does it have somebody's name? Contact information? A tracking number? Do you get automatic confirmation? Do you try to answer the question, or do you send them to a Web site or ask them to make a phone call? These are things that a lot of companies don't understand, and through this test it became very evident that that was the case."

The Yankee Group, in Boston, can be reached at www.yankeegroup.com.

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