The top online customer service provider is…

A retailer noted for consistently strong online customer service has received top ranking once again.



For the second consecutive quarter, L.L Bean is the top-ranked company in Stella Benchmarks from StellaService. During the third quarter of fiscal 2015, L.L .Bean ranked within the top 10 for four of five service areas in Stella Benchmarks, including phone (No. 5), email (No. 3), chat (No. 7) and returns (No. 4). In shipping, L.L. Bean ranked outside the top 25.



L.L. Bean’s phone and email speeds are consistently quick. Stella Service analysts reached live agents in less 30 seconds by phone and received email responses in just more than an hour.



Comparatively, only 10% of companies in the apparel /accessories category connect callers to agents in less than 30 seconds and 31% of companies take more than two minutes. In email, 40% of the category required more than 12 hours to reply.



L.L. Bean also performed well in returns, which many retailers tend to overlook. StellaService analysts' refunds processed in just six days, and consistently included adhesive prepaid labels.



Looking at the top performers in each of the five individual customer contact channels ranked by StellaService, Net-A-Porter was No. 1 in phone, iHerb was No. 1 in email and chat, Best Buy was No. 1 in shipping, and Burberry is No. 1 in returns.