A new report says that poor on-line customer service from a
click-and-mortar retailer will drive 70% of US on-line buyers to
spend less money at that merchant's off-line shop. Additionally,
the report by research firm Jupiter Media Metrix says that only 18%
of click-and-mortar retailers are capable of accessing a customer's
consolidated account activity across all sales and service channels
(on-line and off-line).
The company says click-and-mortar retailers must integrate their
customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities if they are to
retain customer relationships and meet consumer demand.
David Daniels, a Jupiter analyst, said:
"Multichannel retailers have been treating
their on-line and off-line businesses as separate entities, but
that's not what consumers want. Since e-mail customer service is a
weakness among retailers, consumers want to be able to go to
offline with their concerns.
"Click-and-mortar retailers need to build
their customer service infrastructure for the long-term, and
changes in the market indicate that bringing those operations
in-house is the only way to retain relationships across multiple
channels."
Other findings from the report, "CRM Moves into the Check-out
Aisle," include:
- While few click-and-mortar retailers can track customers'
transactions across all channels (on-line and off-line), 67% of
on-line buyers said they expect shop staff to be able to view their
on-line account information. Jupiter says that retailers should be
using browser-based CRM applications.
- 83% of on-line buyers would like to be able to return on-line
purchases at offline stores. Additionally, 59% said that they would
like to order a product on-line and pick it up an off-line store
although only 18% of relevant retailers offer this.
- 43% of on-line buyers said they would always return merchandise
to stores, while 95% said they would sometimes return to
stores.
