But that model is costing E-retailers serious bucks. That means everything from responding to consumer E-mail within a few hours to offering individual contact with service representatives via instant messaging and Web chat. Online customer service is more mission critical than offline, since customers are just a click away from the competition. In the past, E-mail inquiries could languish for a few days.
Reps have access to information such as a customer's call history and past service complaints.
We want to be good on that first contact point.