Research shows very mixed results in levels of customer service satisfaction. Generall y, call centres are failing their customers. For example, when tele- phoning a company you already do business with, you want the person on the end of the telephone to have all your details - but according to Forrester Research, only 1 in 50 companies can do this. The other put you on hold, ask you the same question again, or despatch you to another operator.
E-marketing isn't doing much better than bricks and mortar companies in providing decent customer service and response. In a recent survey, 150 UK companies which use an Internet address in their advertising were e-mailed with an urgent request from a potential customer. One in seven replied in 24 hours, but 39% never replied at all. And yet, according to research conducted by McKinsey amongst members of the Chartered Institute of Marketing in 1999, consumer understanding is a key issue for 81% of marketers. E-commerce "makes for a much wider audience and a far wider range of products". It also makes customers more demanding. Customers want delivery at a specified time, just as they do with an engineer coming to service an appliance.