A third of U.K. firms ignoring consumer emails

Email response time and quality of response was tested by eGain. Hundred and twenty five major British companies were contacted via email or web forms with a query regarding one of their high value products or services.

Amazingly, 38 percent of companies did not respond at all, ignoring the consumer contact. Even automatic acknowledgements were scarce, only 18 percent of companies had this service in place.

eGain’s results revealed that of those that did respond, just 19 percent provided an accurate response to the query. Two-thirds (67 percent) failed to provide adequate information.

The retail sector was the best overall performer with a 70 percent response rate. The quality of responses was higher too, 49 percent providing adequate and relevant information. Nearly 40 percent of retail queries were responded to within 48 hours and 10 percent were handled quickly, within one hour.

Telco firms were the worst performers, with 58 percent ignoring emails. No email facility was available on 15 percent of telco websites.

The research was conducted during December, 2006, at a time when companies are receiving up to five times the usual number of consumer communications. It’s hard to imagine that this wouldn’t have had some effect on the results.

Tags: eGain, email, response rate