New Online Mystery Shopping Study Shows Sellers Are Out of their Depth

Corona has given e-commerce a new lease of life. However, Interconnection Consulting’s annual online mystery shopping test of the Austrian window market shows major shortcomings in online sales, which can also be attributed to staff being overtaxed.

The study examined the online customer service of 144 Austrian window manufacturers. Almost all manufacturers (96.7%) responded to online enquiries, but only after several interventions (reminder e-mail, telephone contact). Nevertheless, the percentage of manufacturers who responded after the first e-mail rose to more than 58%; in the previous year, this value was still below 50%.

Almost No Follow Up with Potential Customers

The percentage of window dealers who submitted an offer after the e-mail enquiry increased in comparison to last year, up to 61.1%, whereby in 2021 it was 55.3%. 27.7% of manufacturers do not send a quotation without a reason, the rest issued a rejection for a quotation due to the lack of personal contact. The bad news, however, is that only 5.4% of dealers who sent an offer followed up to see if there was still interest or if there was any ambiguity. A figure that deteriorated significantly compared to the previous year. “Follow-up is still not working at all,” sums up Vito Graziano, the author of the study. The overtaxed salespersons are often left alone by the companies, says Graziano. Attempts to upsell or cross-sell are also very rare. Only one in four retailers tries to increase sales through targeted upselling measures and one in six retailers uses the customer relationship to offer additional or complementary services.

Companies Quicker To Respond than in 2021

The golden rule of a response within 24 hours was only met by around one in three retailers. Nevertheless, the speed of response increased significantly compared to 2021. The average response time in 2022 was 2.8 days, a full day less than in the previous year. The average time to place an offer also fell from 7.4 to 6.7 days. Nevertheless, 14% of traders took more than ten days to make an offer. 59.1% of the traders surveyed responded to all three questions asked (assembly, warranty, delivery time).

02/03/2023

Copyright: Interconnection, Publication free of charge for coverage regarding the study and InterConnection Consulting.