Paid search may generate sales leads, but a Harvard Business Review audit of 2,241 U.S. companies reveals most leads are short-lived because companies take too long to respond to consumer requests.
For example, measuring how long each company took to respond to a Web-generated lead, 24% took more than 24 hours, and 23% of the companies never responded at all.
Read the whole story at Harvard Business Review »
Anyone that has tried to contact a larger company already knows this. It would have been interesting to see the study include what it takes just to SEND a message to a company. In many cases the contact information is hidden and hard to find and may only provide one avenue by which you can contact a company. The norm is to not publish phone numbers or email addresses and only offer a contact form.
This is great if you want to treat customers like they are problems. Then they want to reach you it should be quick and easy because they determine what your company will be in the future.