Independent customer service agency
STELLA Service claims to be the first completely independent customer service ratings agency for e-commerce. Released last week the two Bucknell graduates, John Ernsberger and Jordy Leiser wanted to help consumers make more informed online purchasing decisions and help companies learn more about their competition.
Customer Service Analysts have extensive usability testing standards including helpfulness of web site, ordering, returning, interacting with customer service representatives by phone, email and live chat. The objective customer service ratings include 300 unique customer service features which are weighted according to the particular significance to certain metrics. For instance, the company will weigh more importance on gift wrapping for a florist or a specialty gift shop than a department store selling coats. The collection of thousands of data points make this possible.
According to STELLAService, great online service is worth 17.3 billion dollars and all outstanding customer service could be valued at 268 billion dollars a year. Americans will spend 9.7% more this year for great customer service.
The survey polled 304 consumers from Greenfield Online, one of the oldest online survey panels, to examine spending and opinions. People were looking for value and the following three points were the most important:
- Speed of delivery
- Helpfulness of customer service personnel
- Ease of information on the company website
A rating system was set-up, much like a report card to reflect the quality of service and their ratings are the sum of all interactions of both ‘service and system’ components for each business, with service components emphasizing the human elements of a company’s interaction with customers and system components stressing the technological elements….mimics real conditions, environments and encounters experienced by online consumers.”
Their rating system briefly explained is as follows:
- 80 – 100| Elite | “customer obsessed” company
- 75-79 | Very Good | high quality with slight improvements needed
- 70-74 | Good | great service but not a lot of offerings or features
- 65-69 | Fair | adequate, but need for improvements
- 60-64 | Mediocre | weak services in key areas
- 0-60 | Poor | lack of dedication, willingness to provide service, warn consumers to stay away
STELLAService did identify the elite in customer service as those delivering “WOW” through service, friendliness, knowledge, fast, free shipping, return policies, and user-friendly sites who have made the customer their top priority. Standing out from the crowd were Zappos.com and Diapers.com. Other companies notably mentioned who treat customers like family and friends and provided exceptional service were Staples.com, LLBean.com and BlueNile.com.
photo credit: cote
