Getting Help: Is Anybody Out There?

PCWorld did an experiment, a very good one, I might add. They went from website to website, taking 12 popular and frequently visited and used websites, and looked about for their “contact us” link or form, and then submitted a question. They then timed how long it took for that site to get back to them with a personalized reply specific to their question. Sites like Amazon, Google, MSN, eBay, and Craigslist were all subject to the litmus test, and to say that the results were surprising is an understatement. The results weren’t particularly flattering, and reveal that getting real help and attention when shopping or doing business on the web is still a long ways away from calling over a salesperson in a brick-and-mortar store, and that companies have a long way to go before they can claim to have effective and responsive online customer service and support.

Regardless, the results are in, and now you know who you’re on your own with and who you’re not-especially when some sites, like Amazon, for example, go to great lengths to hide their customer service telephone number from shoppers, and do everything in their power to make you surf a FAQ or set of help pages before even being able to consider contacting them. I’ve been on both sides of this equation before-you want to give people the tools to help themselves, and you want the signal-to-noise of the questions that get through to be pretty high, but often that means treading carefully on the line between good customer service and good customer education, and to these companies’ credit, it’s not an easy line to walk.

Here’s the results.

[ http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121869,tk,dn072105X,00.asp ]