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Poor online communication 'costing UK businesses'
Marketing News |
30/01/2012
British businesses are missing out on millions by failing to respond to their customers' online enquiries, it has been claimed.
According to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), one in ten firms fail to reply to people contacting them via their website or email.
Research commissioned by the organisation indicates that many companies are losing out on potential sales because they lack adequate systems to deal with customer enquiries effectively.
The average company response time to a customer's online request for a brochure is now 5.4 days, up 1.8 days from 3.6 days in 2009.
Just half of the companies surveyed offer an online or downloadable version of their brochure.
As few as one in three send an email acknowledging a request, and a mere five per cent actively offer to email a brochure.
The DMA said the majority of companies surveyed also lack the personal touch when replying to customer enquiries, with just 45 per cent personalising their communications.
Jo Varey, chair of the DMA's Response Management Council, said the findings of the study should alarm business and marketing leaders.
"Plenty of research shows the likelihood of a company converting a consumer enquiry into a sale declines the longer they take to reply," she said.
"In an age of instant communication, why are companies taking more than five days to respond to someone interested in making a purchase? It makes no commercial sense."
Ms Varey said companies are rightly spending money on marketing their products and services, but it appears many are failing to invest properly in the means to convert online interest into sales.
She suggested this is a false economy, particularly during an economic downturn.
"British retailers are undoubtedly losing millions of pounds in sales as a result. This should be worrying for any brand with an eye on the bottom line in these tough trading times," Ms Varey added.
According to research conducted by Google, the online economy is worth more than £100 billion to the UK every year, and companies have the opportunity to claim a share of this revenue.
Posted by John Lynes
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