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‘Human’ online customer service

Written on: Sep 3, 2009
Author: DM Confidential |
: Share; ‘Human’ online customer service

DM CONFIDENTIAL — Though “human” is not typically a word associated with online purchases, a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive for IMshopping seems to indicate that maybe it should be.

According to the August survey, 77 percent of U.S. Internet users who have made an online purchase in the past six months said they would be interested in receiving help from an actual person before buying certain items online.

Fifty-six percent of respondents said they would like live help before making a real estate purchase online, while 54 percent said they would like help from a human before making automobile purchases online.

Half of the respondents (51 percent) said they would like live help before making an insurance purchase online, 42 percent said the same about a personal computer purchase online, 39 percent said the same about computer hardware/software purchases, 35 percent said the same for home appliance purchases and 31 percent said the same for mobile phone purchases.

A rather large chunk of respondents, or 82 percent of them, said they have not received live help when making online purchases in the past, and 52 percent of this group said this lack of human help has negatively affected their purchase decisions.

A separate survey conducted by Bold Software found that live chat is somehow correlated with how frequently online shoppers make purchases.

The survey, from March, found that 12 percent of U.S. online buyers who have used live chat made several online purchases per week, compared to 8 percent of those who have never chatted live.

Twenty-eight percent of U.S. online buyers who have chatted made online purchases once or twice per week, compared to 14 percent of those who have not chatted.

This means that 40 percent of U.S. online buyers who have used live chat make online purchases at least once a week, compared to 22 percent of those who have not.

The survey also found that attitudes toward live chat among U.S. online buyers were more positive for those that used live chat more frequently.

The Harris Interactive and IMshopping survey found that 74 percent of U.S. adult Internet users made online purchases in the past six months. The most popular products purchased online were those that were less likely to need live human help, including clothing (44 percent), books (38 percent), music (28 percent), health and beauty products (28 percent), and travel-related items (28 percent).

Nearly 70 percent of U.S. Internet users ages 14 and older will be online buyers in 2009, according to eMarketer’s estimate. This figure will rise to 74.2 percent in 2013, according to the company.

Courtesy of DM Confidential editor

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