BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
SATISFACTION NOT GUARANTEED
Response times affect customer experience, business reputation By Christine Stewart-Fitzgerald
W
hat are the key elements of creating a positive or negative customer experience? Often, businesses think doing a good job, with acceptable workmanship, at a fair price are the driving factors. But recent surveys have found that communication, or lack thereof, is one of the top reasons for dissatisfied customers. Even if getting back to customers, a business might still be losing them because of poor response times. Consumers’ definition of an acceptable response time often differs from that of a business. For many local companies, 24 hours has been considered sufficient. However, this general standard was created more than 10 years ago before the rise of social media and instant messaging. So, it should come as no surprise that today’s consumer expects a response even sooner than one business day. Instead, they want their questions answered within minutes, not hours. Planning to e-mail or call back during the next business day or a slow period during the present one just won’t cut it anymore. To keep up on providing prompt customer feedback, team members must be trained and advised to take the necessary steps to cut down response times for all types of customers — prospective and current, happy and unhappy — and to prioritize those queries that require immediate attention. When it comes to leads and prospective customers, response time is even more crucial given the race against competitor companies to win new business. The name of the game is speed to lead. According to the Harvard Business Review, 78 per cent of new business goes to the quickest responder. Companies that reply first have the opportunity to edu-
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\\ Summer 2022
