For this interview we spoke with Terry Golesworthy, president and CEO of The Customer Respect Group. Terry discussed how online shoppers assess a retailer’s appreciation of their business and analyzes his company’s most recent survey.

Hi Terry, let’s talk a little bit about your most recent Online Customer Respect Survey released in December 2007 which examined 51 top retail companies in the United States and rated them on how well they catered to their online visitors. What were some of your key findings?

Some retail Web sites have become more interactive, moving away from the purely self-serve environment to a more concierge based experience. We found help, including real-time help, more readily available and in a greater array of ways than expected. Even the increase of user input such as reviews can improve the interactive feel. Overall, while the retail industry does not have all the best practices, it does tend to lead the way in usability innovations.

How do you define customer respect?

We measure a broad set of criteria, now over 180, to represent the degree to which the customer is treated online. It is much broader than customer experience; we look at data privacy, site usability for a broad set of users, search capabilities as well as the willingness to interact with online customers. These are all issues that the customer has expressed are important to them.

Your report mentioned the increased prominence of proactive chat and click to call in your study. From your perspective, how do you feel these technologies can be leveraged to improve customer respect quotients?

Customers get frustrated when they cannot complete an intended task; this can be the fault of the site design or in fact the user’s own inability to navigate. What causes that problem is irrelevant; the customer will feel more respected if they think the company is trying to help and are available. In our studies, we found a very high correlation between overall responsiveness and perceived respect and while this was largely based on email responsiveness, real-time interaction has the same impact.

While your most recent survey featured several leading retailers, your focus is on financial services. What are some lessons that financial services institutions can learn about conducting business online from their retail counterparts?

Our focus is across many industries, one being financial services. In that industry, as well as others, there can be a huge gap between the “research and learn” phase on the Web and the execution or purchase phase. Financial services sites provide a lot of complex material but often require or encourage that an in-person meeting with a local agent be the next step and this may not be a logical progression for the customer. Retail sites, while admittedly providing simpler solutions do a good job in creating a continuum of experience from research to purchase. Financial services can learn from the retail Web site experience and transfer the research phase into a place where the customer is ready to select products and vendors.

 

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