Investigating the adoption of electronic customer service by Australian businesses

This study investigates electronic customer service, e‐service, by Australian organisations, replicating and building on Heuchan et al.’s study of relationships among organisational characteristics and e‐service. Compared to one year earlier, the study found more organisations with Web sites, shorter response times to customer e‐mails and higher response quality to customer e‐mails. Response rate and response quality, however, was virtually the same – poor. Australian organisations have e‐service tools such as Web sites and e‐mail, yet they face an assimilation gap delivering e‐service. Organisational diffusion of innovations provides a theoretical base for these results and future research. The paper gives manager insights into existing e‐service and ways to improve e‐service in their organisation.