...UK Retailers and Consumers to benefit from new solution that monitors customer satisfaction and service when buying online...

London – 20th January 2010 - eKomi, Europe’s leading provider of independent customer service and satisfaction feedback software, has today announced its official launch into the UK market.  Building upon the success that the company already enjoys in Europe, eKomi is launching in the UK to help retailers and consumers gain more trust, satisfaction, value and revenue from the online shopping experience.  eKomi already supports UK retailers such as Powerhouse Fitness and mypure.co.uk.

The eKomi solution works by emailing customers who have purchased from a retailer’s website to ask them for feedback on their shopping experience with the retailer with just three questions:

What star rating would you give this retailer?
Comments about the service
Would you buy from this retailer again?

Five star responses are automatically posted to the eKomi application on the retailer’s website, which is customisable to match the look and feel of the site.  Every response with less than five stars is individually managed by eKomi’s customer service team to ensure, for example, that the lower review was not as a result of the customer providing inaccurate information, therefore helping the retailer to ‘problem solve’.  eKomi will even provide mediation if necessary.   If, after five days, the retailer has not succeeded in improving the customer’s view of the company then the review is posted to the eKomi application on the retailer’s website.  The most important three benefits to the retailer of using eKomi’s feedback solution are increased visitor and customer trust, enhanced customer loyalty through improved relationships, and the ability to react swiftly to the information that customers provide.

Speaking about its use of eKomi, Simon Golding, founder of UK natural cosmetics e-retailer mypure.co.uk, said; “Customer satisfaction is a critical element to get right when selling online.  Since using eKomi we have seen a 12% increase in our conversion rate which we attribute to first time customers being re-assured by the feedback they are reading from the eKomi application on our website.  Another unexpected benefit has been in our knowledge that we are providing excellent customer service.  Prior to the feedback system from eKomi, we rarely heard from customers about their level of satisfaction with our service, now we are hearing from them at the rate of 10-15 a day, and they all seem to be thrilled with mypure, this not only makes us feel very proud but is helping increase our sales and turnover as well.”

David Smith, Director of Operations at IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group) the industry body for global e-retail, said; “With the growth of the online retail marketplace it is now essential for retailers to communicate directly with their customers to ascertain what they’re getting right, and, more importantly, what they’re not.  Offering customers the facility to contribute genuine feedback on their experiences with a retailer, which other customers and prospects can view, not only keeps the conversation close at hand and away from the viral social network arena, but enables retailers to react swiftly to put any problems right, and therefore turn a negative experience into a positive. “

Marcus Ross, COO of eKomi, said; “We are delighted to be officially launching in the UK at the beginning of 2010.  The UK is the most challenging and competitive retail market in Europe and we have already seen the benefits our solutions can bring to retailers here.  We look forward to helping many other UK retail businesses benefit from improving customer trust levels, providing excellent customer service and satisfaction, and in turn, helping UK consumers enjoy a more rewarding and meaningful online shopping experience.”