- 37% of visitors who have experienced problems conducting
online transactions would abandon the transaction after experiencing
problems;
- 40% would cease doing business with the
company after receiving poor customer service from a company’s
call centre when calling about website problems
Despite the increasing maturity of the ecommerce sector a new study
published today reveals that nearly 9 out of 10 (86%) British consumers
who have conducted transactions online in the past year have
experienced problems completing transactions. The survey, conducted by
Harris Interactive, and commissioned by Tealeaf, highlighted an
unforgiving attitude towards online stores, with 37% of those who have
experienced problems when conducting an online transaction in the last
12 months saying they would abandon their transaction entirely if they
experienced a problem.
According to the survey, consumer intolerance of an online experience
is exacerbated by poor customer support from contact centres when
people seek to rectify the problems they encounter. 43% of adults who
experience transaction problems contact customer service centres and
yet, worryingly, only 47% of these felt that this resolved their issue.
Ultimately, 40% of British consumers who experienced bad customer
service from a company's contact centre following an online issue
stopped doing business with the company altogether.
“After a decade of ecommerce, British consumers have very high
expectations of their online experiences, yet many companies doing
business online are still failing to deliver an acceptable level of
customer experience and service to internet customers. Online
businesses must pay attention to their customers' experiences and help
them to succeed, or risk losing them and their business
entirely,” said Rebecca Ward, CEO, Tealeaf. “The only way
to understand and pinpoint problems, improve conversion rates and
better serve customers is to have visibility into everything that
happens on your online channel.”
"The lack of face-to-face contact is an obvious disadvantage online,
but customers must feel as though they are valued and that their issues
are understood, processed and, ultimately, solved. Businesses need to
pay the same consideration to the experience of each and every online
customer, just as they would in a physical shop or via a call centre,
and to achieve this they require a clear picture of where their
websites work and where they fall short. Only then will they be able to
take steps to improve the service they deliver to their online
customers," said Ward.
Other key findings of the survey include:
- Online v. Offline 88% of adults were not willing to
accept lower levels of customer service online than they would receive
in person.
- Functionality 20% of those
conducting online transactions felt that the ease of completing a
transaction was the most important factor in a positive customer
experience. Yet 31% of those who had problems conducting online
transactions felt that the website was too difficult to navigate and
another 29% were unable to complete their action due to an
endless loop , for example.
- Security Privacy is
a primary concern of those conducting online transaction; in fact 32%
felt that website security was the most critical factor of a positive
customer experience. However, 40% of those who experience problems when
conducting an online transaction reported that, when they have
transaction issues, they are likely or very likely to question a
company s ability to keep their private information secure.
- Successful
transactions are more important than loyalty programs for travel
consumers For example, 92% of British consumers who have
booked travel online reported that the ability to complete a
transaction without encountering a problem was important or very
important to them, whereas only 24% reported that the travel provider s
loyalty or rewards program was important or very important.
Survey Methodology
Harris Interactive fielded the
online survey on behalf of TeaLeaf Technology, Inc. between August 13
and August 21, 2007 among nationwide cross-sections of 2,118 adults
aged 16+ in Great Britain. The data was weighted to be representative
of the total adult population on the basis of region, age, sex,
education, and income. The data was also weighted to be representative
of the population of online adults. In theory, with probability samples
of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results
have a sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Sampling
error for data based on sub-samples may be higher and would vary. This
online sample is not a probability sample and therefore no theoretical
sampling error can be calculated.
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