Customer Satisfaction for Retailers Fell 4% in Last Quarter

CHICAGO, June 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Zendesk, the proven cloud-based help desk software provider, today delivered a preview of its Customer Satisfaction Index for the Retail industry at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition (booth 1333). The quarterly Customer Satisfaction Index demonstrates how the ability to connect with the 21st century customer continues to change and how rapid those changes can occur. The index draws from millions of customer satisfaction surveys drawn from a pool of 70 million consumers in 140 countries.

"Although full results will be available later this month, we thought the Internet Retailer Conference would be the perfect place to share a sneak peek at what's happening in the retail industry," said JD Peterson, Zendesk's Vice President of Product Marketing. "It is particularly interesting to see how customer satisfaction data has changed from the fourth quarter of 2011 to the first quarter of 2012 for a number of industries, including retail."

Overall, customer satisfaction in the retail industry decreased from 82% in Q4 2011 to 78% in Q1 2012. This is a surprise since the holidays are a busy time of year for retailers as well as a stressful time of year for consumers, while January through March are typically slower and calmer times for the retail industry. In addition, the retail industry performs 5 percentage points below the average for all industries.

"When we looked at the reasons why these numbers indicate what they do, we noticed that customer service inquires actually were 16% higher in the most recent quarter and the number of solutions resolved in one touch went down 12%," continued Peterson. "We have seen that when inquiries go up and the ability to resolve them the first time goes down, it can have a negative impact on customer satisfaction."

Zendesk also predicts another reason for the decrease may be that retail organizations increase temporary staff for the holiday season through December only This can prove to be a mistake, particularly in January when retailers are dealing with returns and the cashing-in of gift cards.

For more information on the Customer Satisfaction Index, go to www.zendesk.com/benchmarks. To learn more about Zendesk in the retail industry, go to www.zendesk.com/retail.

About Zendesk
Zendesk is the leading provider of proven, cloud-based help desk software. For growing organizations, Zendesk is the fastest way to enable great customer service. More than 15,000 Zendesk customers, including Adobe, Sony, OpenTable and Groupon, trust Zendesk with their most valuable assets: their customers, partners, and employees. Founded in 2007, Zendesk is funded by Charles River Ventures, Benchmark Capital and Matrix Partners. Learn more at www.zendesk.com.

SOURCE Zendesk

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