Retailers, both online and brick-and-mortar, failed to respond quickly to customer service e-mails during the 2001 holiday season.
A new report from Jupiter Media Metrix show that 30% of all retailers resolved online customer-service requests within six hours, compared with 27% last year.
"Santa might be relaxing now, but retailers can't," said David Daniels, Jupiter senior analyst, in a statement. "The implications of unsatisfying online service remain particularly harsh."
Online-only retailers had a slight edge—33% responded within in six hours, compared with 28% for brick-and-mortar operations. But 40% online-only players took three days to respond, versus 28% for brick-and-mortar companies.
Jupiter conducted the study in December, tracking the performance of 250 leading Web sites in the automotive, business-to-business, packaged goods, financial services, health, music, retail and travel sectors.
In November, 57% of consumers polled by Jupiter said that a retailer's speed in responding to an e-mail service inquiry would sway their decision to buy again from that Web site.
