92% of Web sites offer contact by e-mail option, only 41% acknowledge the e-mail

JupiterResearch found that of the 92% of Web sites offering email as a customer support option, only 41% acknowledge receipt of customers' messages with automated email responses. Retail companies remained relatively consistent with results of previous years and other industries, such as finance and travel, showed significant decreases in auto-acknowledgement response performance. Since 2000, the number of sites meeting a 24 hour threshold for email response continues to decrease. In fact, only 45% of sites resolved email inquiries within 24 hours. The most significant trend, however, is that 39% of sites took three days or longer to reply or did not respond at all. The number of these sites has grown 7% year over year from 2000 to 2005.