July 13, 2007 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- UK Web hosting provider Fasthosts Internet (fasthosts.co.uk) announced on Friday the results of its recent survey which shows that 78 percent of British consumers have been disappointed by a slow response to a customer service email enquiry, with the average consumer sending three emails before receiving a satisfactory response.
Further results from the Fastshosts survey, which surveyed 1,300 UK consumers, revealed that one-third of British consumers have sent more than 10 emails about a single customer service enquiry, nearly 60 percent of customer service email enquiries wait more than 24 hours for a reply and 89 percent of this group has been led to turn to a competitor brand as a result.
The 'Fasthosts Customer Service Email Study' also found that the average British consumer is only willing to wait up to 24 hours for a reply, with 19 percent abandoning their enquiry after only 12 hours. Women were found to be more patient than men, with 12 percent prepared to wait up to a week, compared with only 7 percent of men.
"British businesses really need to sit up and pay attention to their response rate for customer emails, or risk losing their customer base to competitor brands," says Mark Jeffries, CTO of Fastshosts Internet. "The public suffers real stress from slow or sub-standard email replies so it is no surprise they feel so strongly about the issue."
