Social media to play increasing role in e-commerce, Hermes UK reveals

Hermes UK expects social media and web chat to become increasingly important for e-commercecustomer service of online and catalogue retailers, the company’s latest survey of its key retail

According to the report’s key findings, two in five of the respondents believe that webchat willbecome an integral part of customer communication, with Twitter (21%) and Facebook (15%) alsoplaying a greater role.

Almost half of the respondents (42%) believe that speed of response or inability to contactcustomer service contributes the most to dissatisfaction among customers. “These new communicationchannels may provide an effective means enhancing the customer experience,” Hermes stressed.

The study further revealed that parcel tracking and proof of delivery were named as the two homedelivery innovations that contributed the most to improving customer service in recent years,according to 35% and 20% of the respondents respectively. SMS reminders and alerts were left behindwith only 13% considering them as a major contributor to customer satisfaction.

Dawn Redman, Head of Customer Service at Hermes UK, commented: “Enhancing the customerexperience is a key driver for all online and catalogue retailers, so we are working closely withour customers to identify and take advantage of the latest innovations within the marketplace.Enabling greater access to customer service in the most effective way will enhance the homedelivery process, achieve high levels of consumer satisfaction and ultimately creates brandvalue.”