Customers increasingly make assumptions on a company and its brands based on the online experience.

What we found was that more e-mails were being answered than previously -- 95% of all e-mails are answered from the travel industry, which is very high compared with other industries, where we typically see 75% answered. And last time, only about 91% were answered, so they're getting there. But the overall quality of e-mail responses has gone down a bit. We deemed about 68% of the e-mail responses were very helpful and relevant and addressed the question specifically, but that's gone down to just over 50%. Some companies have systems in place so they can answer questions well and they can answer them quickly, but what we've [generally] found is the quicker the response, the better the response.

It is interesting to see the growing correlation between the top performers in the CRI (customer respect index) to the top revenue performers.

It is interesting to see the growing correlation between the top performers in the CRI (customer respect index) to the top revenue performers,

Some of the companies did it tremendously well - they put very strong privacy policies into place. They never share your data, never do anything you don't tell them to do and allow people to opt in.

The general standard of privacy across the whole industry has actually increased slightly in terms of respect for the customer's privacy. Responsiveness continues to be major issue.