Personal recommendation has always the best form of advertising for most companies but the explosion of social media sites means ‘word of mouth’ marketing is now more important than ever.

Around 53 per cent of adults now carry out more transactions online than ever before as a result of the economic climate but 77 per cent of them claim to have experienced online problems in the process.

As a result, according to Harris Interactive who carried out the 2009 Survey of Online Consumer Behaviour, 46 per cent of online buyers abandoned a transaction entirely or switched to an off-line competitor resulting in potential lose of £11.2bn in online retail revenue.

In addition, 13 per cent of disgruntled shoppers broadcast their complaints on social media sites and blogs rather than directly to the companies involved.

Unfortunately these figures mean that instead of complaining direct if there is a problem people are increasingly likely to broadcast their dissatisfaction to a global audience.

One minor glitch can now have a long-lasting negative impact on a company’s reputation. Customer care has to be more proactive than reactive in the modern world.

A single negative comment about a product or service can influence up to 75 per cent of people about who they choose to do business with.

E-commerce is here to stay and the explosion in social networking sites means that customer care has never been so important.