Customers

Technology is great and has done so much for us as a society and when it comes to operating a business. It has fostered within us, however a sense that everything should happen immediately and that responses should be available to us 24/7, particularly when we are acting as a customer. Research shows that technology is making us more impatient in general but this is never more so than when we are parting with our hard-earned money. We’ll take a look at 5 ways we have become impatient as customers; it might help when it comes to running your business in a way that delights your customers.

1. We hate being kept on hold

We hate being on hold. It’s a waste of our time and the hold music is normally incredibly infuriating. Research shows that the average person is only willing to be on hold for 2 minutes at the most and 13% of people asked were never OK with having to hold the line. Leaving customers on hold could make your customer more difficult to please once they do get to speak to you or at worst it could cause your customer to abandon their call, potentially costing you in terms of sales and customer satisfaction.

2. We expect immediate responses to our emails

When your customers send emails or messages vis social media, they really are not willing to wait too long for a response. We really do live in a 24/7 culture and customers expect quick responses to their questions at all times of the day. Consider using live chat so that your customers can get the quick responses that they desire.

3. We are not willing to wait for packages

We are in the days when the big players in business can take orders from customers and have them delivered the very next day. This has all led to us being unwilling to accept delays when it comes to us receiving our goods. Make sure that you can offer next day delivery so that you don’t disappoint your customers.

4. We hate websites that won’t load

We are all used to spending time online and we all know exactly how to navigate our way around a website to find the information that we need. We expect to be able to do just that every time we head to a website. We will not spend time waiting for a website to load or navigating our way through a complicated website trying to find what we need. We will simply move on somewhere else, finding what we need from your competitors.

5. We want to be able to contact a company in the way we want

We all have our favourite methods of communication. Some of us prefer to speak to a person on the phone whilst others prefer chatting online while sitting at our desk. Most of us hate it when we can’t reach out to a company in the way that we prefer. Make sure that you offer multiple ways for your customers to reach you to ensure that they don’t move on somewhere else.