L.L. Bean Inc., J. Crew Group Inc. and Apple Inc. provided the best overall customer service during the holiday season, according to Stella Benchmarks, a quarterly ranking of customer service performance from StellaService Inc.
L.L. Bean, No. 32 in the Internet Retailer 2014 Top 500 Guide, ranked No. 9 for phone support, No. 4 for e-mail support and No. 11 for live chat support. It ranked No. 5 in shipping—as measured by total days to delivery, package quality and other attributes. It also ranked No. 5 in how it handles product returns. L.L. Bean consistently ranked among the top customer service providers during all of 2014 as well, StellaService says.
By customer service channel, the following Top 500-ranked e-retailers placed first in StellaService’s benchmark, which tracked 124 retailers’ performance from Nov. 1-Jan. 31.
- Phone: Bodybuilding.com, a unit of Liberty Interactive Corp., No. 6 in the Top 500 Guide, connected customers to a live agent in an average of 28 seconds.
- E-mail: IHerb Inc., No. 214 in the Top 500, responded to email customer service inquires in less than two hours on average.
- Live chat: IHerb connected customers to a customer service agent in an average of six seconds.
- Shipping: Apple Inc., No. 2 in the Top 500, had an average delivery speed of 2.5 days.
- Returns: Net-a-Porter Group LLC, No. 102 in the Top 500, processed refunds to customers who returned products in less than a week.