Tech websites don't have enough respect

High-technology companies deliver mixed results when it comes to treating online customers with respect, according to a study.

The Customer Respect Group, a research and consulting firm examined the websites of 61 top computer products and services companies. It ranked those sites according to a number of factors, including simplicity, privacy, transparency and responsiveness.

What it found, in results announced Monday, was that one-third of the companies don't respond to inquiries, and nearly one-third share personal data with third parties without getting permission from customers.

Hewlett-Packard had the best results of all the high-tech companies surveyed, with a score of 9.5 out of a possible 10. IBM and Xerox were tied for third, with a score of 9.0.

All but a handful of the companies in the study had privacy policies displayed on their websites, telling customers how their personal data would be used. Just less than half do not collect data or use collected data only for internal purposes, Customer Respect said, but 29 per cent share data without permission, and 12 per cent share data with affiliates or subsidiaries.

Nearly 90 per cent use cookie technology, but only 20 per cent provide full explanations about how to disable them, the group said.

Almost 93 per cent of companies had some sort of a system for providing a response to customers, but 32 per cent did not respond to any online inquiries. Forty-five per cent responded to all inquiries, and of that group, most did so within 48 hours. Just more than half of the companies use an automatic response system, and of those, 58 per cent followed up with a full response.

"High-tech firms need to wake up to the fact that sharing information without permission is bad for business," Roger Fairchild, president of Customer Respect, said in a statement. "Moreover, since, on average, users abandon 20 per cent of websites they visit due to an unsatisfactory experience, you have to wonder why more than half of high-tech firms aren't responding to questions directly posed to them. Clearly, being technologically savvy doesn't correlate directly to providing a high-quality website experience."

Among other high-tech companies in the top 20 were Lexmark International (8.8), Oracle (8.5), EDS (8.3), Microsoft (8.2), EarthLink (8.1), eBay (7.9) and Dell (7.9). The sector's average was 6.8.

Customer Respect said it based its results on interviews with a cross section of the adult internet population and a detailed analysis of more than 1,000 websites across different sectors.

Dinesh C. Sharma writes for CNET News.com