A new report says that poor on-line customer service from a click-and-mortar retailer will drive 70% of US on-line buyers to spend less money at that merchant's off-line shop. Additionally, the report by research firm Jupiter Media Metrix says that only 18% of click-and-mortar retailers are capable of accessing a customer's consolidated account activity across all sales and service channels (on-line and off-line).
The company says click-and-mortar retailers must integrate their customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities if they are to retain customer relationships and meet consumer demand.
David Daniels, a Jupiter analyst, said:
"Multichannel retailers have been treating their on-line and off-line businesses as separate entities, but that's not what consumers want. Since e-mail customer service is a weakness among retailers, consumers want to be able to go to offline with their concerns.
"Click-and-mortar retailers need to build their customer service infrastructure for the long-term, and changes in the market indicate that bringing those operations in-house is the only way to retain relationships across multiple channels."
Other findings from the report, "CRM Moves into the Check-out Aisle," include:
- While few click-and-mortar retailers can track customers' transactions across all channels (on-line and off-line), 67% of on-line buyers said they expect shop staff to be able to view their on-line account information. Jupiter says that retailers should be using browser-based CRM applications.
- 83% of on-line buyers would like to be able to return on-line purchases at offline stores. Additionally, 59% said that they would like to order a product on-line and pick it up an off-line store although only 18% of relevant retailers offer this.
- 43% of on-line buyers said they would always return merchandise to stores, while 95% said they would sometimes return to stores.