A major reason is that companies generally view customer service as a cost of doing business. Customer service and support is what is going to define brands on the Internet. For example, if I walk into a store with a question, don't send me the answer in e-mail. If I e-mail you, don't write back to tell me to call. That seems to be one of the most common mistakes that companies make.
Companies also do a bad job at integrating their on-line service with their physical stores.
There are plenty of on-line customers who sometimes want to deal with a person, especially when they need to return an item. Despite the convenience of ordering on-line, it's often easier to drive to a local store to make a return than it is to pack up an item and take it to the post office. Yet, that possibility didn't occur to Wal-Mart Stores when it set up its shopping site on the Web. Most companies also miss an easy opportunity to give customers on-line access to the information that service reps have on account histories, pending transactions, billing information, and so forth. Although providing that information is reasonably straightforward, Chase Manhattan credit-card customers can't check their account activity over the Web even though they can do so by phone.