Shifting Customer Expectations
Paul Du Toit, a well-known public speaker and Director of Congruence, talks about shifting our perceptions of customer experience.
When I attended boarding school in the early 70’s I’d painstakingly write a weekly letter to my parents, typically 3 pages long with my news. Five days later my letter would be delivered in Cape Town, 1,000 miles away. I could expect a response within 2 weeks, if I was lucky.
In the mid 90’s communication changed forever with the arrival of mobile phones. Before long, email volumes increased and with it our expectations for a faster response. In between letters and emails, there were telex’s and faxes. Both came and went. Text messaging arrived in 1998 – all you needed was data and mobile on hand.
QUALITY
In key areas, like communication and quality, life has changed at an accelerated pace. Customer expectations have changed with them – drastically but not unreasonably. How easy is it for your customer to instantly and easily take action on your offering?
One thing is certain: It’s all become a lot quicker. If it takes more than 2 clicks it might not be worth the trouble.
Here’s a reasonable response time guide:
- Email: 4-5 hours
- SMS: 1-4 hours
- WhatsApp: 20 seconds to 20 minutes
- SnapChat: 5-20 seconds
- Any Phone: 3-5 rings
- Voice mail message:
- WhatsApp/Facebook voice memo or Messenger: within 12 hours
The lesson for business is simple: Quality is now a given. Those companies that make it quick and easy for customers to do business with them, will attract and retain more customers. And more importantly will become more profitable.
The old smile and deliver, is now “quick response time, make the buying experience seamless and friendly, even if it’s auto response” – in that order. Customers have plenty of options. Now is the time to streamline your response times, ease of doing business, online seamlessness and overall customer experience.
With a strong Customer Success Programme in place, your business has an awesome opportunity to increase both its value and its profit. Register for the CEW2018 where you can still enjoy Early Bird Specials