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Online Requests to Increase

With the biggest shopping season of the year upon us, retailers can expect more customers turning to online channels for service inquiries, according to a poll by Harris Interactive. While many American consumers will continue to contact retailers through traditional phone (74 percent) and store (47

percent) channels, online channels - e-mail (26 percent), websites (15 percent) and instant messaging (8 percent) - are rapidly becoming a preferred method of handling service issues for many consumers.

U.S. companies spent $7.14 billion on customer relationship management (CRM) software and services in 2002, and 65 percent of U.S. retailers plan to increase their CRM spending in 2004. "Companies need to be more smart about using the Internet to handle repetitive customer service inquiries in order to free up their contact center staff to handle more expensive, complex service issues," says Greg Gianforte, chief executive officer, RightNow Technologies, Bozeman, Mont.

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