Email may not be the best way to correspond with other businesses – that, is if you want a quick response.
Of 150 leading Australian organisations, 34 per cent did not respond to an email enquiry – a 9 per cent increase on a year ago.
This slackening in response times was drawn out by a recent survey by publicly listed company, Global Business IT Solutions.
Of those organisations that did respond, only 21 per cent did so within twenty-four hours. This compares poorly with the 45 per cent that responded within twenty-four hours last year.
Globals electronic business division general manager Steve Holohan said industry sectors surveyed included finance services, retail, utilities, mortgage, insurance, employment, share trading, classified advertising and travel.
“It is becoming increasingly obvious that many organisations haven’t got their act together as the volume of email grows,” Mr Holohan said.
“They are panicking about how to handle this volume. It could be argued that many are only paying lip service to customer relationship management,” Mr Holohan said.
The survey found telecommunications, automobile, airline and freight companies were the most lax in responding to emails.
Responses from finance, retail, employment and share trading companies were quicker while travel and classified ad companies surveyed all responded within twenty-four hours.
Mr Holohan said the survey also pointed to several guidelines for the use of email.
These included not expecting a quick response if email was sent after 4:00pm on a Friday or over the weekend.
He said firms should not expect a proper response if an organisation used an auto-acknowledge facility.
“Equally interesting is that 13 per cent of organisations surveyed didn’t answer the enquiry but responded with a suggestion that the person generating the email call them,” he said.
