Online Shopping

** Fufiling the promise of online shopping **

You want to know that someone cares

Two years ago, you worried that purchasing over the internet would lead to credit card fraud equal to Australia's current account deficit. Last year, you stayed awake at night worried that the products you ordered wouldn't arrive, in one piece, on time and in the right colour. This year, evolution has created a new area of concern; fear that the site you order from won't provide the level of customer service you want from a shop that you can't physically visit.

The first thing to recognise is that on-line shopping is easy, safe and, mostly enjoyable. As long as you get the product without having your credit card number stolen, the experience is good. However, in the off chance something goes wrong and you start getting picky, the level of customer service is pretty important. This is the area where Australian, as opposed to American, e-tailers have the most to improve.

Global Reviews conducted a survey of shopper priorities when making a purchase on-line. With over 1500 responses, shoppers indicated that, in the area of customer service, the most important thing was that e-mails were responded to in a quick and knowledgeable manner. This was seen as more important than criteria relating to telephone service such as the flexibility of call centre hours and their treatment by telephone-based customer service operators.

TIPS FOR e-shoppers

The first step in the process of evaluating customer service is to look around the website. I was amazed at how many major sites do not display contact telephone numbers. Admittedly, this is most often the case with off-line brands rather than pure on-line e-tailers but even some of the small, one-person e-tailers are able to muster up a telephone number. You decide whether you want to order from a site without a telephone number.

Once you have located a telephone number, take note of whether it is a 1800, 13 or 1300 number. However, don't be confused into thinking that the type of number indicates how big the e-tailer is. Even a small e-tailer may get a 1800 number but if they go to the trouble of getting a 1800 number, they are likely to be concerned about customer service.

Another thing to note is whether the site has one or more phone numbers or e-mail addresses. I am always warmed to see an e-tailer with a few e-mail addresses and phone numbers for different people in the company. I want to be able to direct my technical questions to one place and my stock/product questions to another. This reduces the number of people you are likely to contact if you have a question.

If you want to really test an e-tailer, in an easy manner, send them an e-mail and wait to see if they reply. We found that very few replied in less than 4 hours and most took between one and three days. I can't envisage what is happening at an e-tailer that prevents them from responding more quickly. Either they don't care or they do not have enough people dedicated to the task. My advice to them, as a consumer advocate, is start caring and employ more people to answer messages.

Global Reviews - Intelligence for e-shoppers.

Global Reviews is the dedicated on-line consumer watchdog. It evaluates the customer experience of 100 major e-tailers and publishes the reviews in ranked order at www.globalreviews.com.au. The evaluations are undertaken by purchasing from the e-tailers, contacting their customer service operators and examining their websites in detail. Provide Global Reviews with feedback on the e-tailers you have shopped from and go in the draw to win $3000 worth of prizes.