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~ Salesupply ~

cosmetics and jewellery imposing the lowest surcharges. Long waiting times: please hold the line
Express delivery options can attract customers who need Still, the phone might not be the ideal channel for reaching
their purchases quickly and are willing to pay for expedited the customer service team: more than a quarter of the top
shipping. shops do not publish a customer service number. And six of
the 100 retailers reviewed hid the customer service number as
well as they could.

Half of the retailers surveyed took over five minutes to answer
phone calls, with the average being 8:23 minutes. Retailers
also take some time to respond to customer enquiries on the
other channels. Email enquiries to customer service were
answered after an average of 12 minutes. On social media,
testers waited an average of 10 minutes for a response and
WhatsApp questions were answered after an average of 15
minutes.

Customer technology to the rescue
Customer Service: long wait times and limited Two-thirds (66%) of online retailers now use chatbots to
availability manage customer queries, reflecting an industry shift towards
One aspect that strongly influences pre- and post-sales automation to enhance efficiency and manage customer
satisfaction is customer service. Good customer service interactions at scale. This adoption of automation highlights
contributes to long-term customer loyalty. Customers are the need for retailers to balance efficiency with personalised
more likely to make repeat purchases from retailers where customer service.
they feel well looked after. The results of this study show that
there is quite some room for improvement in the UK. Jonathon Huggett – Senior Business Developer at Salesupply
added: “These findings should serve as a call to action for UK
Opening hours not in line with consumer behaviour retailers to critically assess and improve their customer service
One in four major UK online retailers is available only during to deliver the exceptional service that today’s customers
business hours, and only one in seven offers customer service expect and deserve.” ••
throughout the day and evening on weekdays and weekends.
This misalignment with consumer behaviour is a missed
opportunity, as peak online shopping times in the UK are
between 8pm and 9pm. Retailers not available during these
hours risk losing customers to competitors with longer service
hours.

Customer service channels
UK’s top online stores offer their customers a variety of
contact channels (2.8 channels on average) ranging from
telephone (the most offered channel) to social media, email
or contact form and chat. WhatsApp, one of the preferred
communication channels of the younger generation, is not yet
widely used as a customer service channel.

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