74% of retail customers prefer in-store customer service

Forrester Research found that 74% of customers used retailer's in-store customer-service department, compared with 40% using the phone, 16% using e-mail, 5% using regular mail, and 3% using a live chat. 71% said they were satisfied with in-store customer service. That compares with 55% for phone customer service, 44% for e-mail, 43% for live chat, and 40% for regular mail. Among those encountering problems with customer service, 5% said the information on the web site was inaccurate, 3% said the store didn't have access to the information they saw on the web site, and 3% said the call-center representative didn't have access to the information they saw on the web site.