But, some reassuring news for companies who haven't yet cracked the Inter- net customer service problem is that Internet demand is still in its infancy. There's still time to get it right - just. Only 13°0 of the UK population currently has access to the Internet at home. Some of the UK's youngest and most dynamic companies, known for their strong Internet presence, are still doing most of their business via the phone, not the Web. First Direct - who came top in our rating of call centres - only do approximately 12% of their transactions via the Web.
It would appear that it's not too late for companies to get it right. Shopping online is not yet widespread enough for customer service failures over the Web to have a catastrophic impact on companies attei pting to do business online. But there is no doubt that it will do very soon. The C50 million campaign was all about establishing and maintaining a dialogue between the company and its customers. Cable and Wireless conducted a survey of 1.5 million homes, asking, "What can we do for you?" - making service appear more personal at a local level. Donations to Barnardo's with every form completed provided an incentive to return questionnaires, and the campaign evolved around customer responses. As they made clear, within our current confused and changing multimedia environment it is the companies who get their customer care message across most clearly that will survive.