How long is too long to wait for a response for an email query?
Posted by MattE on 19 Feb 2006 at 09:53 pm | Tagged as: Marketing, Web
So you are ready to do business, but all you want is the answer to a simple question. So you happily send an email to the business. And wait….
How long is typical?
The average response time to e-mail queries is 30 hours, compared to 26 hours a year ago, according to the E-Tailing Group. With online customer service inquiries projected to grow 15% a year through 2008, small and medium-sized businesses must be better prepared to handle the growing volume of customer queries, the study continued. As a result, small businesses will struggle to keep up with the level of customer service now expected of them as consumers look for more ways to connect.
30 hours! I know in our business we get back to over 80% of emails within 6 hours and would be quickker except for time zone differences (we are in Australia and many customers are in the USA and UK).
I know that PayPal notally take 48-72 hours. But at least they replied - even if 99% of the time they don’t answer the question - for on average 12 emails.
If you are on the internet. there sould be NO reason why any email query is not answered TODAY, even if it is a personal response explaining that the full response will be another 12-24 hours.
If you don’t have a dedicated staff member to check the email - appoint someone today because ecommerce is about more than just taking orders via a form on your website!
