Months before the hectic holiday shopping season, we decided to conduct an experiment to find out which online retailer does customer service e-mail best. We sent the same e-mail query to seven big-name retailers that sell a certain toy croquet set we were interested in buying and having shipped to a “nephew” who lives in Switzerland. We wanted to compare how well Amazon.com, Buy.com, Overstock.com. Sears, Toys R Us, Walmart, and Alex Toys answered the same customer question. We evaluated:

• Response time: How long did the customer wait for the e-mail reply?
• Tone: How friendly was the agent? Did the tone of the writing build rapport between the customer and the company
• First contact resolution: Did the agent answer the customer’s question completely?
• Clear writing: Is the writing concise, correct, and complete?
• Other sources of help: Did the answer include a phone number and links to the FAQs or knowledgebase?

Download this whitepaper and read the retailers’ e-mails and our comments on which companies provided excellent service and which ones disappointed a prospective customer. (15 pages, 269k PDF)