They give you an email address. They ask you to write them. And they tell you, like Frasier Crane in the old Kelsey Grammer TV show, "I'm listening."

So how come you never hear back from them?

A new study shows that stores and businesses are trying to make it easier than ever for customers to reach them - but very often don't answer the very notes they so avidly encourage.

The research, out of a group in Australia, looked only at retailers Down Under but the implications can be applied to companies around the world, including Canada. And it may have a lesson they can all learn.

A consultancy firm known as Strike Sales Force sent out 460 email or postal letter requests to a wide range of different Oz businesses with 100 employees or more. All appeared to be genuine customer enquiries.

They gave them a week before totaling the results. In the end, nearly 60 per cent failed to respond in any way, even with a form letter. And those that did reply took at least a day and a half to get back to the writer.

At least half returned a standard form letter to the queries acknowledging the receipt of the missive - but failed to follow them up with a personal contact.

And fewer than seven per cent contacted a customer who claimed to be interested in purchasing a product. Those who did took three days before making that call.

Who fared the worst? Retailers and those in construction.

The researchers conclude the sounds of silence can be incredibly loud when it comes to fostering or ruining consumer loyalty.

"They (companies) want to say you can contact us but that doesn't mean that we will contact you," points out spokesman Darren Cox. "The companies are not only losing money in sales but they are also losing brand recognition when the e-mails are sent to a weird e-mail space no one really looks at."

Cox claims retailers are ignoring the communication at their own peril. "Considering the Internet has revolutionized most businesses and the amount that is spent on advertising and generating sales, it is sheer negligence for companies to ignore e-mail enquiries," he charges.

So why don't they get back to you? There are a lot of reasons.

Some of them have to do with the nature of email itself. "They get a lot of spam - 80 percent spam, 20 percent genuine queries," Cox admits.  "And no one sits and goes through everything."

The bottom line? It's about, well, the bottom line. The good companies will try and get you an answer. But with the potential of receiving thousands and thousands of emails every day, it would be almost impossible to respond to every single letter and still keep the place staffed and the doors open.

In the end, your best bet may still be something far less sophisticated than your Internet connection - talking to an actual human being on the phone. 

Most large companies have a corporate communications department or customer relations area that deal with consumer complaints, concerns and questions. The trick is to find the number where someone actually answers without voice mail.

Examining press releases from the firm you're interested in is sometimes the easiest way to track a number - and a warm body - down.

Calling those people is often the quickest route to getting action, provided you don't have to wait on hold forever while they tell you how much they appreciate your business.

But that, it turns out, may be a subject for an entirely different survey.