Gambling Sites Audited For Online Customer Service Reaction

An annual audit has made public important enhancements in online customer service offered by UK online gambling sites, eager to confine their share of the UK market, which is expected to rise by 30% and reach spending levels of £1.6 billion by year 2012.

By featuring tools such as online chat sessions, and developing accuracy and speed of responses, the 100 UK online gambling sites reviewed have improved their average score from 54% in 2006 to 61% in 2007, outperforming other UK market sectors as well as online sellers (51%) and broadband providers (54%).

The full report from Talisma with the results can be downloaded from www.talisma.com/onlinegambling.

Talisma made contact with 100 of the UK’s most popular online gambling sites to get answers for the following matters:

“Is there a minimum deposit or bet amount to open an account with you?”
“Can I opt for a certain currency to open my account in?”

The results were evaluated against a variety of online customer service decisive factors, and each online gambling site given a score out of 100. The assessment discovered that UK online gambling sites have improved online customer service levels in three main areas, compared to 2006:

• reaction - the percentage of emails answered to grew from 60% in 2006 to 74% in 2007, with the number of telephone calls answered within 10 seconds increasing from 84% to 90%
• new interactive channels – 42% of online gambling sites now offer online chat sessions, up by 12% from 30%. Also, in 2006 only 70% of requests for an online chat session were replied to, but in 2007 all sessions received timely attention by agents
• accurateness of information – an remarkable 100% of all online chat sessions and emails, and 98% of all telephone calls, that were given a response offered accurate and complete information.

Still, the 2007 audit did expose that UK online gambling sites weak spot is in certain areas of online customer service which can notably improve service effectiveness, increase customer confidence and help retention efforts. Weighted against 33% of the chats and 78% of the emails, only 8% of the phone calls answered were personalized.

A small number of online gambling sites revealed a combination of communication channels, with only 23% of telephone agents and 19% of chat agents able to follow preceding emails sent to the company by a client. On top, as many as 92% of the online gambling sites reviewed did not present a knowledge base to allow users to search without difficulty and access information online.

This can have an unplanned consequence on customer acquisition and retention rates, in addition to placing needless pressure on agents.

Online gambling sites need to develop a customer strategy aimed towards customer’s needs that supplies first-class, round the clock online customer support and allows agents to manage an increasing number of interactions across a growing number of communication channels.