A study by Ovum, commission by StellaService, has discovered found that customers are willing to pay a 10.7% premium on prices for ‘excellent’ online customer service!

It is an amazingly high price - and it is one that people generally don’t recognise.

It is something that can affect many firms, and its application is simple.  Take anything from selling equipment B2B to selling books to consumers.  If you can offer the product or service immediately then you will get buyers.   Certainly Amazon’s on line service that guarantees the book you order arrives the next day, without delivery charge, seems to be something of a success.

“It was quite a shock for us, actually, especially considering that so few companies meet the criteria for offering this level of service,” said the people who did the survey.   According to the survey, ‘excellent’ online customer support includes online tools, interfaces and content, easy to use return policies and a human operator if needed.  (And I would add to that, a human operator who speaks English in a way that I can understand).