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Customer service warning for Xmas retailers
Online sales jump… but after-sales care struggling with demand?

By Julian Goldsmith

Published: Monday 03 December 2007

Retailers have been warned the increase in online sales over the Christmas period will lead to a flood of online and email complaints from customers.

Customer services departments will have to deal with a five-fold increase in the 10 days before Christmas compared to any other time of year, according to CRM application supplier numéro, which numbers Argos, Experian, JD Williams and Tesco among its customers.

A recent prediction from Apacs puts this year's Christmas spend in the UK at £5.6bn across December, an increase of 56 per cent on last year.

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However, numéro is predicting the rise in the take up of broadband has not been followed by a beefing up of logistics and customer contact centre resources, which will be tested over the festive period.

According to numéro, customers are leaving their online shopping to the last minute this year, because of the positive experiences they have had throughout the year.

numéro director, Mark Chamberlain, said in a statement: "Customers will email the contact centre to request an update on their order and when no update is forthcoming [because of the increased number of shoppers], they will continue to email until a resolution is given - increasing inbound complaints by as much as five-fold."

He added: "The distribution channel has risen to the consumer challenge. The next step is for similar experiences in service - and this is where many retailers are falling short of the mark."