COMPANIES ARE STEALING TIME FROM CUSTOMERS

On average, we'll spend five years of our life waiting in lines. Customer loyalty expert and author Nick Wreden outlines strategies to reduce wait times and strengthen brands.

(PRWEB) August, 2003 -- Every day, companies rob us of our precious asset -- time. They make us wait on hold. They make us wait in lines. They make us wait in waiting rooms. By the time we die, according to the book On An Average Day, we will have wasted five years of our life waiting in lines.

According to customer loyalty expert and author Nick Wreden, all that waiting hurts brands in numerous ways. The longer the wait, the lower the perceived quality. Waiting results in unhappy front-line employees who must bear the burden of customer frustration. Frustrated customers defect to the competition. And every moment spent in lines means less time shopping and spending money.

Typically, companies deal with lengthening lines by exhorting employees to "work faster." Paradoxically, however, this tactic does little except create longer lines. Hurried workers make mistakes, which take time to correct and only increase customer frustration. Customers sense when someone is trying to help, and when someone is trying to get rid of them. And using any resource at or near full capacity guarantees that any breakdown ripples into greater delays or bottlenecks elsewhere.

"What are you waiting for? By minimizing and managing wait time today, you can improve service and elevate your brand - without spending much money," notes Wreden, author of FusionBranding: How to Forge Your Brand for the Future.

Wreden offers strategies to help companies brand more effectively by minimizing the effect of waiting.

First, allocate resources more efficiently. A variety of formulas, which look at arrivals, queues and servers, can help you balance customer service personnel and handle normal demand. These formulas can help you decide whether one or multiple lines is best, how best to handle peak demand, how tasks should be divided among personnel and service prioritization.

Eliminate congestion. Look for processes that can be eliminated or combined. Cross-train employees so they can pinch-hit for one another.

Another tip is to look at the line as part of the service process, not just preliminary to it. Handling issues while customers are in line can address customer worries and shorten transaction times. For example, restaurants who hand out menus to those in line not only occupy customers but speed ordering times once seated.

Keep customers informed. Let them know the expected wait time, and the reason for any delays. Most important, address the most critical issue of all: "Am I in the right line?" Air France, for example, puts an information desk at the beginning of its lines.

Third, incorporate the waiting time into the experience. Disney is a master at this. Service personnel wear costumes appropriate to the ride, and relevant entertainment is provided to those waiting.

Next, use technology to free customers from the tyranny of lines. Restaurants give pagers to customers, who immediately head for the bar. Recognizing that patrons were spending up to 25% of their visit in lines, Disney introduced FastPass. Just insert your regular admission ticket into special turnstiles, and you'll get a window of time for a return. Meanwhile, you're free to enjoy other rides -- or more shopping. The payoff is not only happier customers but more revenue.     

Manage the perceptions of waiting to make customers think the wait is shorter than it is. Wreden outlines what he calls the Six Commandments of Waiting. These include: The more valuable the service, the more waiting is acceptable; pre-process time feels longer than processing time (which is why clinics try to get you into a room to wait); unoccupied time feels longer than occupied time; unexplained waits are worse than explained waits; and anxiety makes the wait feel even longer.

Finally, make the ability to avoid lines a value-add. Part of the privilege of first class is no waiting. Busch Gardens and SeaWorld offer tours from $130 to $3,000 that let "VIPs" ride first without waiting. With minimal cost of service, such differentiation can be very profitable.

Wreden is principal of the customer loyalty consulting firm FusionBrand and the author of FusionBranding: How To Forge Your Brand For The Future (0-9717442-0-3), which CRM magazine called "required reading." The book is available at Amazon.com or major booksellers. http://www.fusionbrand.com Contact Wreden at info@fusionbrand.com.