Assurance
In an e-mail context, assurance can best be considered as the quality of response. In the
survey reported by Chaffey and Edgar (2000), of 180 responses received, 91 per cent deliv-
ered a personalised human response, with 9 per cent delivering an automated response
which did not address the individual enquiry; 40 per cent of responses answered or
referred to all three questions, with 10 per cent answering two questions and 22 per cent
one. Overall, 38 per cent did not answer any of the specific questions posed!
A further assurance concern of e-commerce web sites is the privacy and security of
customer information (see Chapter 3). A company that adheres to the UK Internet
Shopping Is Safe (ISIS) (www.imrg.org/isis) or TRUSTe principles (www.truste.org) will
provide better assurance than one that does not. Smith and Chaffey (2005) suggest that
the following actions can be used to achieve assurance in an e-commerce site:1 provide clear and effective privacy statements;
2 follow privacy and consumer protection guidelines in all local markets;
3 make security of customer data a priority;
4 use independent certification bodies;
5 emphasise the excellence of service quality in all communications.Empathy
Although it might be considered that empathy requires personal human contact, it can
still be achieved, to an extent, through e-mail. Chaffey and Edgar (2000) report that of
the responses received, 91 per cent delivered a personalised human response, with 29
per cent passing on the enquiry within their organisation. Of these 53, 23 further
responses were received within the 28-day period; 30 (or 57 per cent) of passed-on
queries were not responded to further.
Provision of personalisation facilities is also an indication of the empathy provided by
the web site, but more research is needed as to customers’ perception of the value of web
pages that are dynamically created to meet a customer’s information needs.
An alternative framework for considering how service quality can be delivered
through e-commerce is to consider how the site provides customer service at the differ-
ent stages of the buying decision discussed in Chapter 2 in the section on online buyer
behaviour. Thus, quality service is not only dependent on how well the purchase itself is
facilitated, but also on how easy it is for customers to select products, and on after-sales
service, including fulfilment quality. The Epson UK site (www.epson.co.uk) illustrates
how the site can be used to help in all stages of the buying process. Interactive tools are
available to help users select a particular printer, and diagnose and solve faults, and tech-
nical brochures can be downloaded. Feedback is solicited on how well these services
meet customers’ needs.
It can be suggested that for managers wishing to apply a framework such as
SERVQUAL in an e-commerce context there are three stages appropriate to managing
the process:1 Understanding expectations. Customer expectations for the e-commerce environment
in a particular market sector must be understood. The SERVQUAL framework can be
used with market research and benchmarking of other sites to understand require-
ments such as responsiveness and empathy. Scenarios can also be used to identify the
customer expectations of using services on a site.CHAPTER 7· DELIVERING THE ONLINE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCEINMA_C07.QXD 17/5/06 4:23 pm Page 338