The Customer Respect Group has released results from its Summer 2004 Online Customer Respect Study of the USA's largest 100 companies. In this third annual study, Microsoft scored highest with an index score of 8.7 out of 10, while the mean score was 6.2.
The study attempts to bring an objective measure to the analysis of corporate performance from an online customer's perspective by assigning a Customer Respect Index (CRI) rating to each company on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest achievable score. The CRI is a qualitative and quantitative in-depth analysis and independent measure of a customer's online experience when interacting with companies via the Internet.
The attributes measured are grouped into six main areas: Simplicity (ease of navigation), Responsiveness (quick and thorough responses to inquiries), Privacy (respects customer privacy), Attitude (customer-focus of site), Transparency (open and honest policies) and Principles (values and respects customer data). The company has recently expanded this list to include respect for individuals with disabilities.
Surveyed firms receive the best overall rating (CRI: 7.3) for Simplicity and the worst (CRI: 4.4) for Responsiveness. Some 12% do not respond to any online enquiries, while at the other end of the scale a respectable 40% respond to all enquiries in less than a day, and 20% respond to all enquiries but take more than one day.
Eighty-five percent of companies provide email forms for online enquiries, and 14 percent provide email addresses. Only one percent only provide offline contact information.
Ninety-three of the 100 companies provide a privacy policy that states how they use personal data, but the policies differ widely. Of the 93:
30% use personal data only for the purposes provided or for internal marketing purposes
35% share data with affiliates or subsidiaries
23% share data with business partners
12% 'need to be more explicit about personal data usage'.
Almost half (47%) are not clear about their opt-in/opt-out policy. On the new measure, fully 84% were deemed to provide forms that could not be easily used by those with disabilities.
Roger Fairchild, president of The Customer Respect Group, says that over the three studies, many firms have made positive improvements to their sites, but 'too many still aren't taking the Web seriously enough from a business perspective or aren't knowledgeable about best practices. For example, about one-third still aren't responding to all Web site inquiries. And more than one half of firms share submitted customer data with subsidiaries, affiliates or business partners without seeking permission to do so. Moreover, more than three-fourths provide forms that can't be easily used by those with disabilities. Our research indicates that 20 percent of the time, individuals click directly to a competitor's site after an undesirable experience. So firms must pay more attention to how they treat customers online or risk losing them'.
