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Subject: Response to email requests
Category: Computers > Internet
Asked by: swt-ga
List Price: $25.00

Posted: 22 Sep 2003 09:32 PDT
Expires: 22 Oct 2003 09:32 PDT
Question ID: 259087

I need to find surveys conducted to measure the response of business
to email requests. I have found two:

http://www.worldlingo.com/resources/nov_email_survey.html (conducted
quarterly)

http://www.abaconsulting.com.au/emailsurveyart.htm

I have also found this article on the subject: 
http://ecommerce.internet.com/news/insights/trends/article/0,,3551_755531,00.htm

I need more surveys and articles on this subject!

Answer

Subject: Re: Response to email requests
Answered By: bobbie7-ga on 22 Sep 2003 12:52 PDT
Rated: 4 out of 5 stars

Hello swt-ga, I've organized a digest of links to articles, surveys and studies related to business responsiveness to email requests. I am providing short excerpts for each one; however, I highly recommend that you read each publication or article in its entirety. ------------------------------------- When Can I Expect an Email Response? A Study of Rhythms in Email Usage - 2003 Joshua R. Tyler, John C. Tang Abstract “A study of email responsiveness was conducted to understand how the timing of responding to email messages conveys useful information. Interviews and observations explored users' perceptions of how they responded to email and formed expectations of others' responses to them. We identified ways in which users maintain and cultivate a responsiveness image for projecting expectations about their email response. We also discuss other contextual cues for responsiveness, including using tools such as the calendar and phone, accounting for the amount of work time overlap available, and establishing a pacing between email correspondents. These cues help users develop a sense of when to expect a response and when breakdown has occurred requiring further action.” HP Laboratories http://www.hpl.hp.com/shl/papers/rhythms/ You may download the 20 page study here: http://www.hpl.hp.com/shl/papers/rhythms/ECSCWFinal.pdf ------------------------------------- Change and Response on the Corporate Web Site by Greg Leichty & Stuart Esrock Abstract “The study examined the how much the content and format of Fortune 500 corporation web sites changed over a 12-month period. Most corporations actively updated and changed their sites. The study also examined how companies responded to inquiries initiated by web site visitors. Nearly 85% of the web sites had email links, but less than half of the corporations responded to inquiries within one week. Responsiveness to email inquiries varied by corporation size and by the type of inquiry. The email response data indicate that some organizations may experience a cultural lag in adapting to the interactive features of corporate web sites.” American Communication Journal http://acjournal.org/holdings/vol5/iss1/articles/leichtyesrock.htm ------------------------------------- EstatSA Online Responsiveness Survey “EstatSA has run its second annual study of SAs top 100 companies’ website and email responsiveness, published in the Financial Mail. From the results of this study it seems that if a company has not responded within 2-3 days the chances of getting a reply from it are unlikely even after reminding.” Media Toolbox http://www.mediatoolbox.co.za/pebble.asp?relid=3027&p=39 The 18 page executive summary of the survey is available for download here: http://www.it-globalforum.org/panamit/dscgi/ds.py/Get/File-1394/Top100_2001.pdf ------------------------------------- February 5, 2002 Managing email inquiries from investors By Dominic Jones “THERE were some big surprises in a recent study we conducted of how top companies invite and deal with email questions sent to the investor relations department.” IR Web Report http://www.irwebreport.com/features/020201.htm Response Time Results: “Respond in 24 hours: 56% of the recipients replied within that time.” “Only 8% of companies took longer than two days to get back to us, the worst taking 22 days to respond.” “56% of firms responded within 24 hours, but 35% never replied.” “However, over 35% of companies failed to reply to our message. In one case, the email address on the company's IR website was incorrect and our message was returned undelivered. ” IR Web Report http://www.irwebreport.com/features/020201-2.htm ------------------------------------- The Customer Respect Group “The Customer Respect Group is an international research and consulting firm that uses its Customer Respect Index methodology to help companies measure and improve how they treat their customers online - versus their competition.” http://www.customerrespect.com/ The following results are based on the 2003 Online Customer Respect Study of the Fortune 100 Companies: Responsiveness - 31% of all companies do not respond to online inquiries Of the 69% that do respond to online inquiries - 84% respond within 48 hours - 8% respond within 72 hours - 8% respond after 3 or more days - Only 25% use Autoresponder technology. - 96% of those follow-up with a full response - 4% don't follow-up The Customer Respect Group http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt162.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOMbebQCIB The Customer Respect Group provides research by industry: Airline Industry – Responsiveness All companies responded to online inquiries 88% responded within 48 hours 12% responded in 4 days or more 75% use Autoresponder technology. 100% of those follow-up with a full response The Customer Respect Group http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt160.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOTZ#airline Chemicals Industry – Responsiveness 50% of all companies do not respond to online inquiries Of the 50% that do respond to online inquiries: 67% respond within 48 hours 17% respond within 72 hours 16% respond in 3 days or more Only 14% use Autoresponder technology. 40% of those follow-up with a full response 60% don't send a full response The Customer Respect Group http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt160.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOTZ#chemicals Food, Beverage & Tobacco Industry– Responsiveness 43% of companies don't respond to online inquiries. Of the 57% that do respond to online inquiries: 69% respond within 48 hours 9% respond within 72 hours 22% respond after 3 days Only 18% use Autoresponder technology. 90% of those follow-up with a full response 10% don't send a full response The Customer Respect Group http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt160.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOTZ#FBT You may view the responsiveness statistics for other industries at the following links: Financial Industry – Responsiveness http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt160.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOTZ#financial Healthcare Industry – Responsiveness http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt160.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOTZ#healthcare Insurance Industry – Responsiveness http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt160.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOTZ#insurance Medical Products Industry – Responsiveness http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt160.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOTZ#medproducts Pharmaceutical Industry – Responsiveness http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt160.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOTZ#pharma Retail & Specialty Retail Industry – Responsiveness http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt160.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOTZ#retail Technology Industry- Responsiveness – Responsiveness http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt160.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOTZ#Technology Telecommunications Industry – Responsiveness http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt160.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOTZ#telco Transport Industry – Responsiveness http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt160.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOTZ#transport Travel Industry – Responsiveness http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt160.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOTZ#travel Wholesale Healthcare Industry http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt160.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOTZ#wshealthcare Source: The Customer Respect Group http://www.customerrespect.com/offer/Cust_Respect/1276670236/EN/udt160.asp?N=4tp~DO~CH2tp~DOA~EG33oq~DOTZ ------------------------------------- Irked e-customers eschewing e-mail, picking up the phone Douglas Caldwell San Jose Business Journal “While 88 percent of consumers surveyed expect a response to e-mail inquiries within 24 hours, only 54 percent of companies sampled in Jupiter's research met these expectations, the same percentage as in 2001, despite the fact that spending on customer relationship management continues to rise.” Sacramento Business Journal: March 2003 http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2003/03/03/smallb8.html?jst=s_rs_hl ------------------------------------- Online customer service not good, says survey “30 percent of all retailers resolved basic customer service requests online within six hours in December” “Jupiter's data indicate that while a greater percentage of online-only retailers (33 percent) responded to customer service e-mails within six hours than brick-and-mortar retailers (28 percent) did, online-only retailers were less responsive overall. According to the survey, 40 percent of online-only retailers took more than three days to respond or did not respond to e-mails at all, compared with 28 percent of brick-and-mortar retailers in the same category.” San Jose Business Journal: January 3, 2002 http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2001/12/31/daily30.html?jst=s_rs_hl ------------------------------------- Customer e-mail inquiries get slow or no response Jupiter Media Metrix “says 53 percent of retail companies respond to e-mail customer inquiries within six hours, but most businesses in other industries are failing to meet consumer expectations.” “More than half of consumers expect to resolve their customer service inquiry within six hours but only 38 percent of companies are meeting this expectation and 33 percent are taking three days or longer to do so or are not responding at all, the Jupiter study found.” (..) “..travel companies (12 percent) and corporate brand Web sites (0 percent) are the least effective at resolving customer inquiries within six hours, while financial services companies (46 percent) rank second behind retailers.” Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal: April 2001 http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2001/04/30/daily4.html Customer service by e-mail is weak, survey says Sacramento Business Journal: April 2001 http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2001/04/30/daily8.html?jst=s_rs_hl Poor service stifles B2B growth San Jose Business Journal: May 2001 http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2001/05/14/daily34.html?jst=s_rs_hl ------------------------------------- E-Mail Response Time Lags This Report provides plenty of data and statistics. October 24, 2002 http://www.clickz.com/emailstrategies/rept/article.php/1487891 ------------------------------------- B2C Online Response Times Improved 37% In 4th Quarter According to Giga Information Group Inc. “Giga Information Group, Inc. has released results from research on 50 top B2C retail sites showing significant improvement in email support response times in Q4 over Q3. The average time to respond to an email inquiry dropped 37% from 19 hours to 12 hours. Even more significant, the response time required for a company to rank in the top 50% of the speediest responders dropped 62% from 13 hours to 5 hours, indicating that the best are getting better while the laggards are getting worse.” Giga Information Group: (January 30, 2002) http://www.gigaweb.com/aboutgiga/0,2351,pressreleases,00.html?strPubID=MPR-012002-00002 ------------------------------------- Contact Management and Analysis “According to good ‘netiquette’, e-mails should be processed within 48 hours.” “Only 35% of companies reply to Internet mail within 24 hours, while 33% never reply at all.” Jipo Interactive http://www.jipo-interactive.com/en/services/webmastering/jipi_services_contact_management ------------------------------------- EMAIL RESPONSE STANDARDS “According to Purdue University's Bechmark Portal, average email response is 33 hours with the top 25% of companies responding in two hours. At a minimum, most customers expect: - instant automatic confirmation that their message was received, a response within 24 hours, and an automatic reply after 24 hours that their request is still being processed.” Incoming.com http://incoming.com/queuetips/qt08160204.html ================================== Other earlier articles and studies ================================== Corporate Email Response Times Are Generally Poor “Two different surveys find that while some companies answer their "Contact Us" email promptly, many take too long--and many never respond at all. Both surveys name names and track the actual speed of corporate email response times.” Client Help Desk http://www.clienthelpdesk.com/statistics_research/email_response_times.html ------------------------------------- Rainier Web-Index Management Summary This report summarizes the findings of the second annual Rainier Web Index study. The study was conducted over the period 22 March 2000 to 1 July 2000 and sought to determine how effectively the FTSE 100 and top 100 Fortune companies are using their Web sites as a multi-purpose communication channel. “E-mails were sent at the middle of the UK and US working days to ensure FTSE and Fortune companies respectively could overcome time zone issues.” “E-mail response times were recorded by comparing the time and date the request message was sent with the time and date on the e-mail reply.” Download Rainier study here: http://www.rainierco.com/survey_2000/report.pdf ------------------------------------- Web site e-mail can be a black hole “Don't hold your breath waiting for a snappy reply from most U.S. corporate giants.” http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9902/11/webmail.idg/ ------------------------------------- ASERL Virtual Reference Membership Survey Executive Summary “In December 2001, the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries surveyed its membership to determine their current virtual reference practices, needs, and interests.” E-mail response times: The survey respondents reported their normal response time to email questions. - 28% respond in less than 24 hours - 53% respond in 24 hours or “next day” - 9% respond in 24-48 hours ASERL http://www.aserl.org/projects/vref/surveysum.htm ------------------------------------- Search Criteria: Email Response Times Survey Email response times OR time Corporate email response times Business email response times Email Responsiveness surveys OR survey Email Responsiveness study OR studies Email Responsiveness report OR reports I hope the above information helps you in your research. If anything is unclear or if a link does not function, please let me know and I’ll be glad to offer further assistance. Best Regards, Bobbie7-ga
Clarification of Answer by bobbie7-ga on 22 Sep 2003 13:08 PDT Telecommunications & Networking Industry Sending Mixed Online Customer Respect Signals: The Customer Respect Group Summer 2003 Study http://www.ivapp.com/offer/cust_respect/collateral/TelcoS03PR.pdf High-tech Companies Display Minimal Changes in Online Customer Respect Behavior: The Customer Respect Group Summer 2003 Study http://www.ivapp.com/offer/cust_respect/collateral/High-TechS03PR.pdf Transportation, Distribution & Logistics Firms Could Boost Business By Lifting Customer Online Experience: The Customer Respect Group Study http://www.ivapp.com/offer/cust_respect/collateral/tranS03.pdf
Request for Answer Clarification by swt-ga on 23 Sep 2003 13:04 PDT Thanks! I found the links very helpful. However I would very much appreciate some surverys/articles from other countries than the US. I am sure there are some European surveys on this subject and maybe something from Asia?
Clarification of Answer by bobbie7-ga on 23 Sep 2003 14:22 PDT Hello again swt-ga, I'm very pleased the information I have found is to your satisfaction. In your clarification you request “some surverys/articles from other countries than the U.S.” In my original answer I presented you the information about email responsiveness for South Africa and the UK: ------------ South Africa ------------ EstatSA Online Responsiveness Survey on South Afica’s top 100 companies: “EstatSA has run its second annual study of SAs top 100 companies’ website and email responsiveness, published in the Financial Mail. From the results of this study it seems that if a company has not responded within 2-3 days the chances of getting a reply from it are unlikely even after reminding.” Media Toolbox http://www.mediatoolbox.co.za/pebble.asp?relid=3027&p=39 You may download the complete 18 page executive summary of the survey here: http://www.it-globalforum.org/panamit/dscgi/ds.py/Get/File-1394/Top100_2001.pdf -- UK -- The Rainier study I mentioned previously addresses email responsiveness in the UK as well as the United States. Download the Rainier study here: http://www.rainierco.com/survey_2000/report.pdf I did additional research and came up with the following data: ====== Global ====== “The November 2000 Web Responsiveness study surveyed a total of 400 financial institutions across EMEA, Asia, and the Americas. Its specific objective was to examine responsiveness to simple electronic requests for product information sent via a financial institutions' web site - with some notable findings. Out of the top 400 worldwide institutions, only 171 were contactable via their web sites and electronic mail. That means over 50 per cent had effectively locked their doors for online business.” “Even more surprisingly, a mere 94 responded with product information. This means that less than a quarter of the world's top banks were in a position to react to a relatively undemanding prospective customer.” “In another twist, 62 per cent took more than 2 days to reply, or did not even bother responding at all. So even for those banks that did have their on-line doors open for business, only 38 per cent appear to have anyone manning their online reception. That's just 65 (a little over 15 per cent) of the original 400 surveyed.” Onwindows.com http://www.onwindows.com/features/2001/jul/blind_eye.htm ------------------------------------------------ Invest Hong Kong ranked No. 1 for responsiveness ------------------------------------------------ “Invest Hong Kong, the inward investment promotion department of the Hong Kong SAR government, has been ranked No. 1 in Asia in a global responsiveness survey by 'Strategic Direct Investor' magazine.” “SDI conducted the survey by posing as a potential investor and sending identical e-mails to agencies' websites asking for help and advice.” “The magazine contacted 92 agencies throughout the Asia Pacific region and the ranking was based on the speed and quality of their responses.” Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/brandhk/0814001.htm ------ Global ------ The 30 page publication “Global E-Government” provides some interesting information on global email responsiveness This survey was carried out on e-government in 198 countries and the report published in September 2002. Email Responsiveness “We sent email messages to each of the 1,197 government websites we assessed. Our message was a simple question: "I would like to know what hours your agency is open during the week. Thanks for your help." “We tracked whether agencies responded, and if so, how many business days it took them to respond.” “Only 19 percent of agencies responded to our question, 75 percent did not, and 6 percent had broken email links or addresses that prevented a response.” “Twelve percent responded within one day, three percent took two days, two percent responded in three days, and two percent replied in four or more days.” You may download the complete publication here: Inside Politics http://www.insidepolitics.org/egovt02int.PDF --------------------------------- The eServices Technologies Survey Contact Centers in the New Communication Age contains relevant information Figure 24: Email response time by country This is a fee based report published by Datamonitor http://www.gii.co.jp/english/dc6830_eservice_tech_toc.html --------------------------------------------------- Additional information that may be of your interest --------------------------------------------------- Staples implemented KANA Response to meet the email management needs of its fast growing on-line business and productivity jumped 10% immediately and Continues to Grow “Customer service representative (CSR) productivity jumped by 10% immediately after KANA Response entered production, and has grown since then to an estimated 25% improvement. KANA Response also equipped CSRs to have an industry-leading email response time, helping Staples increase customer satisfaction” http://www.kana.com/pdf/staples.pdf I hope this additional information is useful for you. Best wishes, Bobbie7

swt-ga rated this answer: 4 out of 5 stars

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