Top High-tech Firms Rank Poorly on Online Customer Privacy and Responsiveness, Says The Customer Respect Group

Top High-tech Firms Rank Poorly on Online Customer Privacy and Responsiveness, Says The Customer Respect Group

The Customer Respect Group - June 6, 2005

The Customer Respect Group released its second quarter 2005 Online Customer Respect Study on the largest high technology companies. The study found that 27 percent of all online inquiries were ignored, and only 20 percent received responses within one day that were considered helpful. Overall, HP and Xerox scored highest, garnering "excellent" ratings, while Toshiba and Siebel Systems scored lowest.

“We were pleased to see an overall increase in the industry’s CRI scores since the last report,” said Terry Golesworthy, president of The Customer Respect Group. “But we continue to be concerned that the high-tech industry, which we believe has the know-how to do even better, hasn’t yet found the will. The gap between firms at the top and the bottom -- especially in the area of Privacy and Responsiveness -- is increasing, which implies that while some companies see the commercial value in respecting the customer and investing accordingly, others are being left behind, which may negatively affect their brand and company reputations.”


Summary results

Two Web sites received “excellent” CRI scores (8.0 and above), including HP and Xerox. Across more than 1,000 Web sites measured in the last 12 months, just three percent qualify for this rating.

At the other end of the table, two Web sites were rated “poor,” (4.0 and below) including Toshiba and Siebel Systems.

Privacy

The Customer Respect Group sees an overall improvement in the category of Privacy, however most of this improvement can be attributed to significant improvements among the top ranked companies:

Some 10 firms now score “excellent” for Privacy, up from six in the last report. Leading the pack in Privacy are IBM, HP and Veritas.

At the bottom of the Privacy index was Siebel.

Despite the improvements in Privacy, scores and practices continue to be inconsistent.
The industry scored only about average compared with all other industries surveyed in the sharing data of personal data with third parties. Nearly one-third of firms are unclear or share data with third parties.