Failing to respond quickly to customer emails will lead to them going directly to a competitor in almost nine out of 10 cases, research has revealed.
In a poll of 1,300 British consumers, 89% said a slow response would result in them approaching a rival firm while 78% said they had been disappointed with the length of time it took companies to get back to them. The average customer has to send three emails before receiving a satisfactory response, the research added.
When companies did reply by email, 64% complained of unhelpful automated responses and 40% sent them to email addresses that were out of date. But the biggest gripe, cited by 78% of respondents, was the length of time it took to reply.
The survey, carried out by Tickbox on behalf of Fasthosts, also found that good customer service can have the opposite effect, with 90% saying they are likely to spend more with a company that responded swiftly and helpfully to their enquiry.
"It is clear that businesses of all sizes can incur real damage by responding slowly to customer emails," said Mark Jeffries, chief technical officer at Fasthosts. "While most recognise that email is an important form of communication with their market, the majority remain misinformed about the kind of effects that poor email practices can have on their business."
The average British consumer is only willing to wait up to 24 hours for a reply, with one in five consumers (19%) abandoning their enquiry after only 12 hours. Women are prepared to wait longer, with 12% prepared to wait up to a week, compared with only 7% of men.
Small business are particularly ill-equipped to cope with customer emails, the survey found, with over half (56%) having no policy in place regarding response times and no consistent style for responses. Just under half (48%) believed there was no direct link between the amount of time it took them to reply to customer emails and the amount of sales they generated.