Gift Giving Guy

Which online retailers delivered the best customer service for the 2008 holiday season? Market researcher ForeSee Results ranked the top U.S. online retailers, and Amazon.com and Netflix led the pack again. Both e-tailers tied for first with an 84 out of 100 score. Amazon.com garners best customer service among mass market e-sellers. L.L. Bean takes best apparel e-tailer, followed by Victoria’s Secret. Apple leads computer/electronics e-retailers with Newegg.com taking second place. See the top 37 e-tailers ranked by their customer satisfaction scores below.

Based on more than 9,000 respondents, the survey rates e-tailer customer satisfaction by these criteria:

• Merchandise — availability, variety, and appeal of products
• Functionality — the variety, availability, and usefulness of features that are on the web site
• Content — the accuracy, quality, and freshness of content
• Price — product price appropriateness and competitiveness

While these rankings are helpful, I find them limited in that ForeSee Results only measures customer service up to clicking the “Place Order” button. I also judge an e-tailer on shipping follow-through, condition of the product upon arrival and service after the sale.

For example, Zappos.com delivered my wife’s slippers for Christmas within 24 hours of my order. But when she opened the present, she found a cut in the leather trim of one slipper. I called Zappos.com for an exchange on their 24/7 toll-free phone number. I reached a person immediately. Unfortunately, the slippers were out of stock in her size. Still, Zappos.com estimated when the slippers would be available, e-mailed a UPS return label with free return shipping, then sent me a $20 coupon for my next purchase. Plus, I had 365 days from the purchase date to make this exchange. Now that’s customer service.

So Zappos.com is rightfully on the best customer service list. But I wonder if Zappos.com would rank higher if ForeSee Results evaluated the entire online shopping experience.