The results are in: 60,000 online shoppers cast their customer service votes

[January 29th 2001]

In the midst of a disappointing season for retailers, PlanetFeedback.com found consumers complaining about some unlikely companies as well as some old favorites.

Its post-holiday look at the retailers that receive the most feedback through PlanetFeedback's service shows significant increases in the levels of complaints sent to companies with otherwise sterling reputations. PlanetFeedback analyzed more than 60,000 letters sent through its letter-writing utility between Thanksgiving and New Year's and found both volume and complaints rose during the holiday period.

Retailers like Amazon.com, Target, and eToys, which normally receive far fewer complaints than their competitors, saw dramatic increases in the percentage of complaints over the holiday period. Amazon.com's percentage of complaint letters jumped 45%, while the complaint ratio for the retail industry as a whole jumped only 8%. Likewise, Target complaints increased 23% (to 37%) and eToys complaints more than doubled (15% to 32%) .

Nordstrom, which consistently receives one of the best ratings from PlanetFeedback users, saw its complaints decrease by 9% over the holidays. Toys R Us and Best Buy saw no change while Wal-Mart, which receives more letters from PlanetFeedback users than any other company, saw a slight 4% increase in complaints.

"On top of lower-than-expected sales, many stores apparently disappointed customers, who complained about poor customer service, unhelpful staff, low product quality and, for e-commerce sites, difficulty getting packages sent on time," said Pete Blackshaw, founder and CEO of Cincinnati-based PlanetFeedback.com.

The good news: even with the increase in complaints, the feedback to many of these retailers is still more positive than negative, with complaints making up less than half of all the letters they receive. Of the 10 retailers analyzed, only Best Buy, Kmart and Sears consistently receive more complaints than compliments. The feedback to Amazon, Target and eToys was only about one-third complaints, even during the difficult holiday season.

"For companies like Target, Amazon and eToys, this spike in complaints seems to be a temporary thing, and they have very loyal customers who continue to think highly of them," Blackshaw said.

Complaint/Total Feedback Ratios in the Retail sector

Change in complaint ratios from the pre-holiday to holiday season, compared to industry averages for the same period. Ranked from most to least improvement in complaint ratio over the Holiday period.

    Company  Pre-holiday Holiday    % change

    Nordstrom    33%       30%          -9
    Best Buy     66%       66%           0
    Toys R Us    34%       34%           0
    Wal-Mart     48%       50%          +4
    Kmart        66%       70%          +6
    INDUSTRY     49%       53%          +8
    Sears        62%       68%         +10
    Target       30%       37%         +23
    Amazon.com   22%       32%         +45
    JCPenney     35%       53%         +51
    eToys        15%       32%        +113

    Top Feedback Categories for the Retail Sector
    1. Customer Service
    2. Staff Attitude
    3. Quality

    

Links
PlanetFeedback.com		http://www.PlanetFeedback.com