Research published by ContactBabel, the UK contact centre industry analysts, reveals that email interactions there now account for 10.2% of all customer-to-business communications, with 86% of contact centres now accepting customer e-communications.

The retail & distribution sector leads the way, with 17.1% of interactions being through email. The TMT (telecoms, media and technology) business sector is second, with 15.9%. Perhaps due to the confidential nature of most customer enquiries, the finance sector is by far the least likely to use email communications, with only 2.0% of interactions being through email.

The report's author, Steve Morrell, commented: "Email response handling times have shown a slight improvement on 2009, with the proportion answered within one hour going from 10% to 12%, and those answered the same working day going from 35% to 44%. However, taking longer than one day to answer an email runs the risk of the customer losing patience, leading them either to phone the contact centre - with the attendant extra cost to the business - or worse, go to another company entirely.

"It is very concerning that the retail & distribution sector has the greatest proportion of respondents taking longer than 24 hours to answer an email (48%), perhaps as a result of the higher-than-average volumes that the sector receives. Many of these emails will be sales-related, and the poor performance is exacerbated by the relatively low levels of investment in email systems in many retailers.

"Before the Christmas shopping season gets into gear, retailers should be considering their own email performance and dealing with it before it costs them dearly in lost sales. Retailers should look at investing in an up-to-date email management system, or with outsourcers keen to handle clients' email, could look to ask a third-party to handle this channel for them.

"Another alternative - one used by an increasing number of US retailers - is to offer a 'text chat' box to assist customers in the last phases of a purchase on the Internet. Many potential customers have questions at this time that can prevent them from going ahead with the purchase - for example, around the exact product specification or delivery times - and having the ability to clarify a point immediately with an online agent can be the difference between winning or losing a sale."

The full report is available free of charge from the ContactBabel website.