Online shops neglect customer service

Nine out of ten consumers are dissatisfied with customer service
novomind Services Day 2006 shows where e-commerce performs well

Internet shoppers dissatisfied with service  
Nine out of ten consumers are dissatisfied with the service provided by online shops in Germany. There is great room for improvement in complaints management. More than half of consumers feel left to their own devices when shopping online. The result: about one in five turn their back on the shop. These were the findings of the novomind E-Shopping-Trend 2006 survey conducted in collaboration with wiwo.de and handelsblatt.com. Experts will be discussing what customers expect of the ideal e-shop and how online traders identify and cater to customer needs at the novomind Services Day on 21 September at Schloss Tremsbüttel near Hamburg. 
  
Complaints management leaves much to be desired  
Internet shops are lagging behind stationary retail, especially when it comes to complaints management. Whereas one in two customers will tell their retailer where they see room for improvement, only one in three customers do so on the Internet. The reason for this is that only a small proportion of Internet traders offer the consumer a professional service. Only every fourth online shop at present invests in customer care. If traders wish to attract consumers to their online shop, they need to take the customer’s service wishes into consideration. 
  
Companies neglect customers’ wishes    
This is important as the choice of Internet shop depends to a particular degree on the service offered. Three out of four customers rate good terms of delivery highly, yet most companies are unaware of this. Only every third shop operator assumes that delivery terms play an exceptional role in customer satisfaction. The mode of payment is equally important. Over half of consumers want a reliable method of payment and women customers (65 per cent) especially require a high level of security. Here, consumers are on the same wavelength as Internet traders, as this is where online shops see the greatest need for action over the next few years. The electronic department stores also fail to match up with their stationary retail counterparts when it comes to presentation of goods. 
  
Poor goods presentation discourages customers from buying  
Seven out of ten consumers think it is a shame that they cannot touch or try out products, yet less than half of online traders propose to improve their merchandise presentation by introducing zoom functions, for instance, or virtual changing rooms. There is also acute room for improvement in consulting. Although one in two consumers (51 per cent) would welcome an opportunity to ask questions in electronic shops, only two out of five companies are investing in the desired services, such as virtual consultants or dynamic FAQ systems. 
  
novomind Services Day 2006  
On 21 September 2006, the Hamburg software company will be inviting e-commerce managers to exchange notes at Schloss Tremsbüttel. Experts will give talks on search engine optimisation for highly dynamic online shops, innovative methods for improving the customer experience during Internet shopping, Web analyses and quality control. In a subsequent workshop, the participants will define the requirements of the ideal e-shop 2010. More information at www.novomind.com. 
  
novomind: innovative software for professional customer communications  
novomind is a software developer in Hamburg and the fastest-growing company in the field of electronic customer communications and mail management. As the leading provider of innovative solutions for digital customer communications, novomind AG provides software for service-oriented and personalised customer dealings. The software not only optimises efficiency in customer administration significantly, it also gives the user a faster return on investment. The portfolio of the Products division includes the novomind Self Service Suite™. The software package contains all the communication modules necessary for a customer service centre on a central knowledge basis: e-mail management, virtual customer consulting and systems for interactive, real-time communication. The novomind AG Services division implements complex e-business applications. More than 40 major companies have already decided in favour of novomind technology, among them Citibank, Otto, Yello Strom and the German pension institution Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund. Club Bertelsmann, EnBW and Mexx as well as public-sector users, such as the German Bundestag (parliament) and the German Department of Trade and Industry, have already successfully introduced novomind systems to optimise their customer communications, turnover and PR.

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