You've got mail! ... Hello, anyone home?! Here is an unsurprising piece of research from Silicon.com. They have found that a whopping 45% of online retailers in the UK actually IGNORE customer feedback/queries received via email. Only a pitiful 47% of those who bother to check their inboxes provide anything more than cursory replies. No surprise I have to admit that my own experience matches these results. Some time ago, I had the opportunity to compare the email customer service procedures of Ireland's top 3 mobile communications providers. To each of these companies I sent the following email: “I have a 12 year old daughter. I wish to get her a new phone and put her on a network. Which of your phones and plans would suit best? Regards” (Note, I only pretended to have a daughter for the purposes of research!) The email was sent on a Sunday afternoon at 1pm. +24 hours The fastest response was received within 24 hours (quite acceptable) and the information provided was very good. So top marks there! +72 hours From the next company, I received an automated reply to say I would get a full answer within 1 day. Unfortunately, they did not quite hit the mark. I eventually received a reply after 3 days (although they did apologise of the delay). However, the reply itself was not great. It mainly consisted of a cut-n-paste of some web pages with no particular focus on my question. +3 months and counting I am still awaiting a response from the third company. I guess that nobody really is home! Read my suggested guidelines for how to monitor website feedback effectively.