Today's customers are more inclined to use electronic contacts rather than more traditional methods, yet only 36% of these customers are satisfied with their Internet purchasing experiences.

With the expansion of the World Wide Web, today's customers are more inclined to use electronic contacts rather than the more traditional telephone or snail-mail contact. However, only 36% of these customers are satisfied with their Internet purchasing experiences, according to a study conducted earlier this year by the International Customer Service Association and e-Satisfy.com.

Surveying more than 50,000 electronic customers, the study addresses contact response expectations, customer satisfaction with current practices and the impact of electronic customer service on customer behavior and loyalty.

The study also solicited responses from e-commerce as well as brick-and-mortar companies to gauge how they provide customer service over the Internet.

The study also concluded:

• Poor handling of e-contacts create 30% to 48% lower customer loyalty among the two-thirds of e-customers who are not satisfied with their online experience.

• Dissatisfied online customers tell twice as many people about their experience than satisfied customers.

• E-customers have higher expectations for both acknowledgement and final response time than company service standards.

• E-customers across all industries expect acknowledgement of their e-contact within one hour. However, only 12% receive an acknowledgement within one hour and only 42% receive one within 24 hours.

• As e-contacts increase, the volume of phone and mail contacts remains the same. Almost half of online customer-service questions require a phone call from the customer to resolve the issue.

• One-fourth of all companies are pushing outgoing e-mails to customers with suggestions and promotions. Only one-third of e-customers indicated a high interest in receiving such e-mails.

For more information, contact Eden Segal at eden@esatisfy.com or at 703/524-1456.