News: Customer Service/Care
Retail customer service 'is becoming poorer'
09 March 2009
Customer service for consumers trying to return goods to some of the UK's biggest name retailers has become worse, research shows.
Snow Valley's Return Reports 2009 finds five of the 100 companies assessed made it impossible for products to be returned.
It states that these businesses' customer service phone lines were engaged "constantly", with the system down for the seven day period in which a refund could be obtained.
The research found in a quarter of cases the consumer had to contact the customer service department before a return by post could be arranged, with one in four insisting that courier charges were paid by the consumer.
Carlo Rimini, managing director of Snow Valley, adds: "One has to wonder what the impact of poor customer service will be in terms of turning customers away."
Girisha Chandraraj, vice president of marketing for BroderBros, recently told Sales and Marketing that consumer care can differentiate businesses from their competitors.
