This certainly also has to do with the value of the customer. If you are an insurance company the value of the customer may be measured in thousands of $$$. If

This certainly also has to do with the value of the customer. If you are an insurance company the value of the customer may be measured in thousands of $$$. If you are a lean e-commerce middleman the value you extract from ordinary end-customer might be some cents. Engaging with the customer in email conversation may cost tens of dollars. While customers may love email, some (many?) customer service people actually don't. The trouble I have heard couple of times is that with email you usually never manage to solve the issue in one pass. Customer fires off email with insufficient details. Your service center checks the case, asks for more details. Customer does not respond immediately. When the reply comes, the person who originally handled the cases is not at work or has forgotten the details. You can call up the customer - if the customer has provided you the number, but that has it's own challenges. Customer can't talk right now, you need to call back at certain time etc. In some cases it simply does not work out financially to provide personalized customer service. Too many customers are so cheap that they prefer to deal with your competitor who automates things.