Small-to-midsize companies are not responding to customer email as they should - even less so than enterprise-level firms - according to a study cited by Internet Retailer. The study determined that 51 percent of SMBs don't respond to customer emails at all, versus 41 percent of larger enterprises surveyed last year. Moreover, 70 percent of the smaller companies failed to respond to emails within 24 hours, compared with 61 percent of enterprises.

The Benchmark Portal study sponsored by CRM technology provider eGain Communications focused on companies with revenues of $10-250 million. Those companies were rated on response quality as well: 70 percent responded with inaccurate or incomplete answers. However, smaller companies outperformed enterprises, 83 percent of which last year responded with inaccurate information.

Retailers surveyed were among the least responsive, as a group, of among all surveyed industries: 60 percent didn't send any response to customer emails, second only to the 72 percent of financial services companies that did not resond; and 70 percent of retailers' responses were inaccurate or incomplete.