Online Service Ratings Slip During Holiday Season
(Direct Newsline) Customer satisfaction levels among the top 40 online retailers dropped during the holiday season just finished. According to a study of online shoppers, only one – Buy.com – saw its satisfaction level rise, while three others were rated the same as they were during Spring 2005, when the survey was first conducted.
The remaining 36 saw drops of between 1% and 10%, according to ForeSee Results and FGI Research.
The top 40 were selected on the basis of their revenue – although if they don’t correct these trends, many will likely fall relinquish their positions on the list. Only four garnered satisfaction ratings of 80 or above, 80 being the baseline for “doing something right,” according to ForeSee Results. But satisfaction ratings for each of those four – Netflix.com; Amazon.com; LLBean.com; and QVC.com – dropped a bit from spring ‘05’s results.
These losses at the top were not offset by gains at the bottom. CompUSA.com received a 67 rating, a substantial drop from the 71 it earned earlier, while Kmart.com and Sears.com garnered a pair of 68s – in Sears.com’s case, down from the 74 consumers had given it in the spring.
ForeSee attributed the declines to two key dynamics. First, the holiday season brought a rush of first-time and infrequent visitors to the sites. These two groups ranked among the least satisfied segments, and consistently rated sites 12% lower than more-frequent visitors.
Second, consumers have higher expectations during the holiday season, especially when it comes to price discounts. In fact, price was the lowest-rated attribute across all retail categories measured, despite widespread discounting among online retailers.
The study also found:
Visitors that used a shopping search engine to locate a retail site are less likely to visit again, buy something or recommend the site to a friend than if they arrived at the site due to a company promotion or referral.
Satisfied customers were more likely to make additional purchases – both online and offline – from the retailer.
High gas prices contributed to one-third of respondents’ decisions to shop online, as opposed to in a retail outlet.
ForeSee itself may wish to review its customer interaction practices: The e-mail announcing its research was headed by a mis-executed mail merge program, with recipients addressed as “First_Name.”
