Customer Service: Attention to e-tail

When you want to choose a product to buy on a website and the product description doesn’t answer all your questions, where do you turn? Retail Week tested the product information and customer service tools available on eight popular sites to see whether they could transform undecided shoppers into converted customers.

The results show that some retailers are putting a huge amount of time and effort into creating content to help customers make informed purchasing decisions. Others have implemented more interactive systems, with mixed results.

However, in the case of the highest scoring retailers we discovered that it’s now possible to get as good, if not better, product advice online than you would get in many stores.

Highlights from the research involved in this report include a sensible discussion via instant messaging with a customer services assistant at Comet and a much less sensible discussion – if you can call it that – with an automated agent on Ikea’s website.

Another interesting area was retailers’ responses to emails. Despite the industry’s reputation for not serving customers very well this way, retailers provided helpful and timely responses.

Boots.com

Question: What can I take to help with insomnia?

Services offered: The site has a comprehensive health information section called Ask Boots, created with the British Medical Journal. It offers health news, an A-Z of conditions, a topics section, an operations and tests section and a search facility. The site warns it is not a substitute for seeing a pharmacist or doctor.

Did they help? I could not find anything on insomnia in the A-Z and the search only brought up insomnia among children. But the topics section had information under the heading Sleep. The information was comprehensive and the site detailed treatments that would be prescribed by a doctor and sold in a chemist, and possible side effects. This would help me decide whether I needed to visit a doctor or not. The information was a little tricky to find but answered all my questions.

(7/10)

Comet.co.uk

Question: Can I run Microsoft Office on a netbook or should I buy a laptop?

Services offered: Comet has a product advice section and a Click and Chat tool that connects visitors to customer services agents. Advice is free and there’s no pressure to buy.

Did they help? I went to the netbook section from the home page and watched a video clip on netbook basics. After looking over some product descriptions and getting confused, I turned to the Click and Chat tool. In seconds I was having an instant messaging conversation with an agent, Jayne, who answered all my questions sensibly, pointing out the merits of different netbooks before agreeing a laptop was the answer. I was instantly emailed a transcript of the conversation. The service was a little clunky and you may have to wait for the agent to respond, but the advice was good – possibly better than in many stores.

(8/10)

Figleaves.com

Question: Does the net material on a particular bra show through tight tops?

Services offered: Figleaves.com lets customers post questions on particular products, which can be answered by its own staff or by other customers who have reviewed the product. Questions are typically posted within 72 hours.

Did they help? I had to register with the site to post the question – and received a marketing email but no acknowledgement of my question. I went back to the site 48 hours later and the question had been posted but there was no response. There are lots of questions and answers about the fit of products and how they compare with other products in the same range, as well as other Figleaves ranges. And because many products have already attracted a selection of questions and answers, you may not need to ask an additional one. However, you can only ask questions about specific products, rather than more general ones such as “Can you recommend a bra with comfy straps?”.

(6/10)

Net-A-Porter.com

Question: I’m after a dress to wear at a spring wedding and at parties. I am a size 8 to 10 and 5ft 7in and want something with a fitted waist that will make me stand out. I’m willing to spend up to£400. Any ideas?

Services offered: Net-A-Porter gives an email address to contact its fashion advisers at if you want product information, styling or gift advice. Alternatively, you can call them between 9am and 6pm seven days a week.

Did they help? Within a minute of firing off an email, Net-A-Porter had sent an automated response saying that an unprecedented amount of emails meant it was not able to reply to customers as quickly as it would like. It gave no indication of how quickly I would get a response. However, the next day the fashion advisers sent me a personalised email suggesting a selection of dresses – including one for£250 that I would have bought – and links to all the recommendations. They offered to reserve any item I wanted or give me further advice if necessary. Although it took a little time to get back to me, it was worth the wait. And the fashion advisers were much less pushy than sales assistants I have encountered in other high-end clothing stores.

(9/10)

Mothercare.com

Question: What toy can I buy as a present for a one-year-old girl?

Services offered: Mothercare has come up with a system called Ask Carrie, which analyses the question you ask and gives you a range of frequently asked questions to choose from. Once you select an answer, you can also view related answers and rate the usefulness of the information you receive.

Did they help? I chose to read an answer to the question: “What toys are suitable for what ages?”. It provided a detailed breakdown of the kind of toys babies of different ages like, as well as information on the British Standard that toys should conform to. From the Ask Carrie answer page I was able to link straight to a list of products suitable for infants, where I could also refine the search for gifts by age. This would leave me confident that a gift bought for a friend’s child would be appropriate – despite my having very little knowledge about children. Other reasonable test questions I put to the site fared less well, although Mothercare invites feedback if you are not happy with the information received, so that it can improve the service.

(7/10)

Ikea.com

Question: Can you recommend a sofa bed that’s comfy enough to sleep on every night?

Services offered: Ikea’s home page has a link to a service called Ask Anna. It looks like it might link you to a real person, but it soon becomes clear it uses artificial intelligence to work out the meaning of questions and come up with computer-generated responses.

Did they help? You can’t access Ask Anna once you drill down into the product pages – only via the home page and the room pages, which is a little annoying.

However, this gripe seems trifling once you use the service. If you were looking for a product and could not find it on the site, Ask Anna would help, automatically directing your web browser to the correct category page. But for specific product questions it wasn’t up to scratch. Its initial response to my question was: “I don’t sleep, but thanks anyway. Goodnight.” In the end I emailed customer services and was told I would receive a response within 24 hours. I was emailed a sensible answer from a real person within an hour. Ask Anna would be better if it were badged differently, and the customer services contact tool should be highlighted better.

(6/10)

DIY.com

Question: What kind and how much paint and wallpaper do I need to decorate a bedroom?

Services offered: B&Q’s website Diy.com has a Knowledge Centre, where advice is broken down into four project sections: decorating, installation, building and fixing. Within these is a comprehensive range of advice and tools, including project checklists, calculators and buyer guides for specific product areas, as well as more general information on issues such as safety.

Did they help? Within the decorating projects section, I was quickly able to find sensible buying guides for wallpaper and paint. There is an extensive section on choosing colour schemes and it was possible to view a printable version. There were also guides on how to paint and wallpaper, including diagrams. Finally, I used the calculators to work out how much wallpaper and paint I’d need. The site has a wealth of information for the DIY novice. B&Q prides itself on employing experienced staff and the site reflects this. It would make me feel much more confident about buying products and taking on a project.

(9/10)

Direct.tesco.com

Question: How do I know what size curtains and blinds to buy to fit my windows?

Services offered: Tesco Direct provides buying guides for dozens of product categories, including computing, baby, power tools, and house and home. These are shown on relevant product pages and you can browse through all the guides in one place.

Did they help? I navigated into the curtains section of the site and was greeted by a link to the curtains and blinds buying guide. The information was useful, pointing out that you must decide what kind of curtain poles you have/want before you go any further. It then detailed how to measure up for different types of curtains and listed the sizes of ready-made curtains in stock. Once you have determined what size you need, you can search the site by curtain size. The advice was adequate but could have been better and the buying guide did not link to curtain poles, only curtains. A quick search of the internet found a more comprehensive guide on Argos’s website, including pictures, diagrams and a number for a “dedicated curtain helpline team”.

(6/10)