This post is part of the “Marketing That Works” Ideas Contest, showcasing 20 of the most innovative marketing ideas from the blogosphere’s up and coming marketers. If you like the post, please show your support for the contestant by tweeting, liking, sharing, and commenting below!
We’ve all been there.
In a queue. Waiting.
You’re watching everyone else get served and asking yourself, why can’t they make this faster? Why can’t they put more staff on? Why is my time being wasted in this queue?
You might be surprised to learn that the time you spend waiting in that queue has been mathematically calculated.
That’s right.
That place where you’re waiting knows exactly how long you will spend on hold, or standing in line and they balance that time against customer satisfaction levels…
The Simple Truth About Customer Satisfaction
You might think that to maintain awesome levels of customer satisfaction you need to have outstanding products and services, diligent processes and reports and excellently trained staff who know when to make a decision that’s right for the customers.
Well, you do need those things but the truth about consistently good customer satisfaction is much simpler.
Customers are satisfied when you meet their expectations. They are really satisfied when you exceed their expectations but the simple truth behind happy customers is how well you set their expectations in the first place. Let me explain this marketing plan in more detail.
A Little Bit Of Little Goes A Long, Long Way
First up, let’s get the mathematics out of the way. Queuing theory is the study of queues. It sounds exciting doesn’t it? And you thought your job was boring. But in fact, queuing theory can tell us a lot of quite interesting information like fast your customers rock up to a queue, how long they have to wait and how quickly they are being served.
You can probably see that all these things are a pretty good indicator of how well your whole service delivery process is working.
In 1961 John Little realised that to reduce the length of a queue, you need to slow arrivals and you need to speed exits up. It sounds obvious doesn’t it? Little’s Law tells you how to reduce the size of your queue and it innovated a new way of thinking about the mechanisms of service delivery.
But what if you could make customers happy about being in the queue.
The Secret To Making Your Customers Queue Happily
Clearly it’s important to look for way to improve your service delivery process. While you’re doing that you can improve customer satisfaction levels by simply changing your customers’ perception of waiting.
Let them know how long they will have to wait.
Have you ever been on hold and heard the robot lady tell you that you are 5th in the queue and your waiting time is approximately 7minutes. Or the same voice telling you that the average waiting time right now is 17minutes. This is the information you use to decide to hang on or hang up – and thus your expectations are defined. When your call gets answered in 11minutes, you’re delighted!
Or you take a ticket and you see a big counter on the wall, calling the next number in the queue. You can see the progress being made and how quickly the numbers are changing, and from this you can work out how long you have to wait. There is no queue jumping either. It’s an orderly (if boring) wait for service.
Of course letting your customers know how long they can expect to wait will only work in your favour if the wait time is within their “acceptable wait” time for the value you offer.
Give your customers something to do while they are waiting.
This one is the secret gem of great customer satisfaction because it allows customers to become engaged in the process. And that helps them become connected to the outcome. They’re part of the results and that gives them a spot at the start of the tickertape parade that is their buying experience.
Regardless of whether you have a physical store, or you are online, never under-estimate the power of being part of the process in terms of customer satisfaction levels, even if it’s at a seemingly trivial level.
What it means in real life…
If you often have customers waiting in a physical location, look for ways to take any randomness out of the waiting process. Uncertainty causes anxiety, which leads all the way to angry customers!
Structure is the key. By adding some structure and surety to your customers wait time you will definitely boost your customer satisfaction levels.
- Acknowledge customers on arrival and let them know if there is a wait time
- Use a ticketing system that lets customer move around while maintaining their “spot”
- Take waiting customers past interesting (and distracting) displays
- Invite customers to participate in questionnaires or competitions while they wait
What it means online…
Even if you don’t have customers forming a literal queue, a virtual queue can quite easily form when you’re busy. Well done you if you’re busy but when you work online, it’s easy to miss the signals that your customers are getting annoyed…. Until they’ve gone to your competitor.
Transparency is the key. When you let your customers see that something is happening, you’re giving them the free set of steak knives of customer satisfaction.
- Look for non-essential milestones you can bring forward to get the ball rolling
- Create a delivery schedule so your customers know when they’ll hear from you
- Break your service into smaller segments and get customer involvement at each stage
- Regularly get in touch and keep your customers in the loop
Improving Customer Service Is Only Half The Solution
While you might prefer to pull out your eyelashes than read about the mathematics of queuing theory, you should be looking for ways to shorten your queue and delight your customers with amazing, personal, diligent customer service.
After you’ve improved your service delivery to the best it can possibly be, you can sky rocket their customer satisfaction by accurately setting expectations and helping them define what “satisfied” means.
When you do that, your customers will be happy before you deliver a single thing.
Do you think you can rock your customers’ world?
Belinda is a professional marketing copywriter who confidently walks the line between writing effective copy and creating an engaging brand personality. You don’t have to choose between them! Visit Copywrite Matters for copywriting services and The Copy Detective for a weekly dose of copywriting, marketing and all things business.
{ 69 comments… read them below or add one }
Great Article!
Setting expectations is such an important part of good business. Too many people over promise and under deliver…
Instead just say, “You’re going to have to wait 3 minutes… Go get a cup of coffee and then we’ll get you a solution.”
Thanks,
Ryan H.
Belinda! Great stuff! When I started reading I thought this one going to be about that service-debacle copyblogger covered (omg, that was painful lol – http://www.copyblogger.com/paul-christoforo/
)
I’m pleased it was about queue theory, and it was extremely enlightening. There are many things I could apply from this.
I tend to focus on clarity, and see the deeper roots of any expression, and to me the deeper roots of this is a “focus on making the customers journey more joyful”.
If someone is focused on making the customers journey more joyful, they would basically HAVE to apply some queue theory eventually
So thank you, for helping me make my clients journey better, Belinda. You rock!
Hey Jason. Enlightening is fantastic feedback – thank you!
I love your idea about making the journey more *joyful* (doesn’t gamification follow this idea?) . Having been on many, many driving holidays as a child I always used to hear “the journey is just as important as the destination” (closely followed with “stop complaining”
Some customers will let the journey form their opinion of your service. Some will only care about the solution you leave them with. To make sure you capture the loyalty of both groups you should place your focus on both.
Keep bringing joy Jason!
My pleasure, and childhood wisdom is powerful
As for the two groups you outlined, I’d wager that if you were to take the ones who “only care about the solution” and put another solution in front of them with an understanbly more enjoyable journey… they WOULD join the first group
Just a hunch
Ryze up!
I actually think that the Copyblogger reference is related. If memory serves, that post suggests that most disputes can be easily resolved with kindness – or good manners. I resent waiting in a queue FAR less when I receive great customer service and attention (and even an apology for having to wait) once I’m at the teller. If you can mitigate the more frustrating (and often unavoidable) parts of doing business with a sunny disposition, exceptional products and services, and an acknowledgement of that frustration, I think you’re in good shape.
Agreed Ruth! Well said. Kindness helps so much
Thanks for the story (and acknowledgment) 
And for the record, I wasn’t saying it wasn’t related, I just meant I’d read the copyblogger thing, and the intro paragraph felt very similar , my pre-conceived notions were doing their thing lol.
Yep I absolutely agree Ruth. Good (and timely) manners can help take you the distance and that’s the potential simplicity behind this idea. You don’t have to have expensive ticketing systems. What every service delivery process needs is to keep your customers’ needs front and centre.
Thanks for commenting!
Great post Belinda! Although I don’t have an actual queue that people have to wait it, it did get me thinking about my biz & what I can do to give my customers a better experience when it comes to waiting on services or coaching.
I always contact everyone with a personal email after they purchase something & let them know when they can expect it, but I never considered giving them something to do while they wait. So my plan is to link them to awesome info on my blog that has to do with what they’re looking for from me so they can be reading on that until we have our coaching session or they get one of my programs. Thanks so much for the idea!
That’s a fantastic application Meagan. I have a similar “virtual” queue and might just pinch your ‘read these related blogs’ idea! By personalising the information you are pointing them to, so that it’s relevant to their scenario, you are also personalising your service which is a win-win!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
You’re welcome & pinch away!
Someone should have told to John Little that to reduce queues you just have to have more employers, or faster ones.
I see your point and it’s interesting but if I don’t know if a customer needs and wants something else than a quick answer. I mean while letting him know how much time he has to wait for an answer is correct being entertained might just make him angry. That’s why those who provide an answer in minutes, at least online, are at the top of their business. Provided the answer received comes from someone who knows what he’s talking about.
WWhat do you think?
Ooh, that’s a great thought, hypnodude.
I think really knowing your customers/clients especially works hand-in-hand with this idea. One customer could have the patience of Job and be willing to have some fun throughout the process, but another customer might want it and want it *now*. You’d definitely have to pinpoint the type of customer you’re working with, and the kind of relationship you have with them, in order to really be successful with this.
Plus, I also agree that it’s important to establish where you stand right away and provide an answer from the get-go, first. Like you said Belinda, it’s about defining expectations.
Thanks Tanya. You’re right, actually on the net I don’t have customers but just readers anyway knowing your audience is surely the first thing to do and then act accordingly for a mutual satisfaction.
Belinda, what an awesome idea! Takes me back to waiting on the phone for tech support.
This is something I can really use, at the very least in my author/writer interactions. I’m always beta reading novel manuscripts for friends, but I’m also always doing a million things at once. I feel just awful during the times I keep them waiting in their “queue” for long periods of time, so I see now that it would be great for me to work on ideas to keep them engaged while I’m still working on it. Even lately I’ve done it on an unconscious level, giving a writer friend small updates on my thoughts while I work on the larger project as a whole.
I’m excited to look at this in different ways though, see how else and in what other areas business-wise I can apply this. Thanks for a super post! I really enjoyed it.
Great application Tanya.
I think that if a client has to chase me up then I’ve failed because I didn’t get them a clear roadmap or I’m not sticking to my roadmap. Just chatting to them about their project shows them that you’re doing something which is a bridge over the empty “what’s going on” void that leads to frustration.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I’d love to learn any new ways you find to apply the idea!
Hey hypnodude, Knowing your customers’ pain points is really important if you are going to deliver outstanding service.
In the scenario you detailed it sounds like time is a critical factor. If your customers need a quick answer you should do everything in your power to provide it. If you can’t then you’re already fighting an uphill battle and will have to work extra hard to keep your customers onside.
Allocating more resources isn’t always the most efficient solution (or possible) so having a plan to ensure your customers are still delighted, using the resources you have, can still lead you to a great outcome.
As you said, if a customer has to wait you should tell them straight away, and how long — so they can set their expectations. If he solution they get is exactly what they want then the wait won’t seem so important. If it’s not, then it will become a big part of their recollection. This is where you might include an offer or guarantee as part of your service delivery. If you don’t get an answer in X or you’re not satisfied, we’ll give you BLAH. This will help balance any feelings of frustration because you are actively demonstrating your commitment to achieving their outcome.
But time isn’t critical to every customer. Nor budget. I’ve had customers wait months for my services which means I have to understand what their primary concern is and make sure that’s what I’m also focused on. This kind of virtual queue is much like Meagan’s scenario, which is an opportunity to engage them in other areas of your service delivery while they wait.
Wow that was a long one. Let me know what you think.
You’re right Belinda, everything is correct. However some times lowering earnings a bit and allocating more resources can with time give much better results through a great customer service. A satisfied customer is always the best possible promotion. At least in the real world, it might be different on the net though.
Thanks for your answer.
You make an excellent point hypnodude – about potentially reducing profits to ensure your service delivery is all it needs to be. A satisfied customers *are* the best promotion and word of mouth marketing be a poooowerful beast.
Hi Belinda,
I have never put much thought into queue theory before but I guess it makes a lot of sense. But wait….does this mean there is some clever reason behind so many telephone queues using that annoying version of Greensleeves? lol
Thanks – Jay
Haha! Greensleeves, no but “your call will be answered in 3 minutes”, yes.
Hmmm unless they need to you to be a little bit INSANE by the time they answer in which case Greensleeves, yes!
This is a great article Belinda. As I get older (and I’m probably showing my age) I have become a stickler for customer service and this article reminds me of my most recent experiences receiving terrible customer service. I’ve had some pretty interesting real-life examples of customer service gone wrong over the last couple of months, most notably by telecommunication companies. Perhaps that won’t come as any surprise to anyone but in both cases, they should have been unavoidable.
Just this week, I had lunch in a cafe and let’s just say this particular business owner clearly does not understand the concept of lifetime customer – and it was all over 50 cents. If I was the cafe owner I would have written off the 50 cents but in my mind this particular business owner is far more short-sighted that I am. It’s his loss because I now have a perception in my mind of how this business owner conducts and operates his business. It’s such a shame because it didn’t need to be this way.
Anyway this article is a great reminder for anyone working online or offline that service delivery is so important to ensure your customers/readers/followers etc receive te best possible customer service experience you can give them.
Thanks for sharing your experience Shae. It sounds painful!
Customer service has always been important but thanks to social media we can share poor customer service with more people than ever before. Some businesses still don’t have their head around that and they suffer for it. Online or offline, good service delivery is our basic expectation!
Great work Belinda! A few really good points, I sent it off to a client who I think will get some good tips from it.
Thanks for sharing it Chris. I hope they can pick out some nuggets to improve their service delivery.
Great post! I can see this applying to my emails. It can take a week or two to get back to people sometimes, I need an auto responder that lets them know that I am not ignoring them personally, I just have too many emails!
Thanks Serena. I’m glad you were able to pick out some useful points for your business.
I think an auto responder is a great idea! I’ve been on the receiving end of one telling me that the person I was trying to contact only checked their emails at 10am and 4pm. It made me realise that my timeline wasn’t necessarily everyone’s and made me much more patient.
Thanks for leaving a comment. Feel free to share this with your coaching network!
I don’t know if the auto responder is a good idea. I came across with one in the past and it looked a bit silly. It was a live chat auto responder, so you can imagine, how useful it was.
But for the automatic email responding is a good idea.
Yeah those live chat auto responders can be as annoying as hell!
When it comes to email responders, I love to put a bit of personality into it so the reader (who has taken the time to email me) doesn’t feel put off by the fact my computer is talking to them. I appreciate it when other people do the same, which links nicely to Cassie’s post!
Great article Belinda. I agree making people happy (whether business, marketing or relationships!) is all about setting expectations. If you can set the right expectation, and communicate effectively, you’re probably in the top 2% of customer service.
Tanya and I had a comment thread going yesterday about how to keep track of contacts. I think services like Hootsuite and Aweber help. The key is probably to automate as much as possible, but of course, we then have our “A” list contacts/clients and prospects that deserve more personalised attention.
My challenge is how to keep track of them. It’s when people fall through the cracks they end up waiting too long for a reply and then they justifiably feel your customer service and attention is bad.
At the moment I’m with Jason Fonceca in that I use Excel to track as much as possible. I’ve tried Zoho and Outlook but both seem too wieldy as CRM systems. I think Icontact is probably one of the best ways to manage your prospects but at $200pcm + it’s expensive and you’d need sufficient online income to warrant an investment of this magnitude.
Good luck in the competition!
Hey Cassie – thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I use CapsuleCRM to manage my contacts and I love it. It’s social media friendly, affordable (I think it’s even free up to 500 contacts), has a task manager and integrates with Google Apps. But I still need a structured service delivery process that guides me through the various stages and reminds me to do things like explain my creative process, notify clients of milestones and follow up with progress notifications.
As great as business support tools are, they are only as strong as your service delivery process (IMHO
.
Service delivery process priority duly noted, and couldn’t agree more!
Thanks for the CRM suggestion – I love anything that syncs with Google apps and social media so will check it out. It might be just what’s needed, and great to have it recommended by you.
Jeez I hope I didn’t sound like a school marm in my last comment. “Now remember everyone, you must have a process!”
I’d love to get your impression of Capsule once you have a look!
Tell it like it is girl!!
Thanks for the shout-out Cassie
I also liked your IContact suggestion, I’ve not tried it, but it sounds interesting 
Maybe I’ll design a Ryze Contacts system at the right time, with the right collaborators
Hey Jason, Belinda recommended CapsuleCRM which is free so I’m going to check that out. It syncs with Google Apps so is probably the one for me (without so much as a first date! LOL!).
Maybe the whole community will pick it up
I just checked all the pricing and features (for CapsuleCRM) and the fancy integration comes with the Professional edition which is $12 p/month. But the free version has quite a bit of space and all the other functionality (like cases, opps, tasks, and the email dropbox).
PS I don’t earn a commission from these guys!
Thanks for this Belinda.
To me it’s pretty much always good to promote things you believe in with good intentions.
If you somehow manage to acquire income by doing so, more power to you.
Some people start judging as soon as *money* is ever involved.
Well, I prefer people to get paid for doing (and promoting) what they love. Keep doing your thing Belinda. You rock.
I’ll have to check CapsuleCRM out too, thanks Belinda for the recommendation! Even if doesn’t come with a commission for you. Ha.
Love this article. It does sound obvious and yet so many sites/shops/companies don’t do it!
Even as a writer I have to manage expectations:
- Scoping the project carefully so that I never have to up my quote
- Breaking the project into chunks so that the client never has to wait too long
- Giving the client clear instructions of what to do while they are waiting (gathering assets, reviewing content etc).
- Always slightly under promising on timings to that I can hopefully over deliver.
Great post Belinda, I agree with Jason, you rock!
I’m feeling the love guys!
Thanks for sharing your key points Kate. I think as freelancers we have to pay special attention to managing our client expectations. We don’t have a shop or fancy office (well I don’t anyway) and our credibility is built on our reputation. That reputation is created by the clients we leave behind us.
I wonder if online businesses do this better — because we rely so heavily on other ways to build a strong relationship with our clients.
Do bricks and mortar make businesses lazy? I’d love your thoughts….
That’s an interesting thought, Belinda! I really do think that online businesses and entrepreneurs have more of a mind for this because you’re right in that we rely so heavily on reputation, and new methods, to do a lot of the work for us. Not all bricks and mortar businesses are lazy of course, but I’m sure they have more of a tendency to lean in that direction. Especially in the area of new technologies that might not necessarily be their expertise, but could benefit their business – and their customers.
I agree Tanya. I would hate to make a blanket generalisation but I think there is a certain image/status/message that comes with a bricks and mortar business. Even if it’s a simple office. It lends itself to saying “I’ve done well enough to have this space so you can trust me” but it also says “Now you’re in my world you have to follow my process….”
I imagine it becomes harder to remain flexible to your market’s needs. I expect the ideas behind queuing theory would become even more important – as the service delivery process comes with more risk [higher overheads etc]. Hmmm *brain spinning off in new directions*
Belinda, you went way beyond, “Have good customer service” in this in-depth piece. You covered just enough queuing theory to be helpful without being boring.
I love it when a website gives me different ways to get help–phone, email, chat. And when I have to engage in back-and-forth email, I most like the firms that let me stick with one person. I’m really impressed with companies that follow up to make sure everything worked out; AWeber did that for me recently, and I was genuinely pleased.
We are all in the business of service, whether it’s hard goods, digital goods, or processes that we are selling.
Good luck in the contest!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Joel!
You allude to a important side effect of setting your customer expectations and that’s the feeling of safety. Fear and uncertainty are extremely powerful emotions that can quick destabilize your service delivery. On the other hand when your customers understand your process, know how long they might have wait or deal with the same person, they have a greater sense of surety and safety in your (seemingly more) capable hands. That’s definitely worth the effort.
Hmm it seems like your site ate my first comment (it was super long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I had written and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I too am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you have any tips for beginner blog writers? I’d definitely appreciate it.
Hey Lacey, sorry about that – this one got stuck in spam, too, but I’ve rescued it, and I’ll watch closely to make sure your comments don’t get lost in the future.
As for first-time blogging advice, have you download my book, Engagement from Scratch!? (for free?)
I will second this. Danny’s book, Engagement From Scratch is a WEALTH of information and can SKYROCKET almost any blog endeavour.
I highly recommend the chapter on Business Models — it changed my life
And I will third that! I’m finding Engagement From Scratch SO valuable. I got so excited, I had to stop right in the middle and write down all these new ideas flooding into my head…and only just now realized I still have more to read! It’s awesome, well worth the read.
I am not surprised about this Danny Iny EFS love-fest. It is simply pure quality, accessible to anyone with a PC.
Great article Belinda, with some terrific insights. I would just say that there is another lens that can be brought to bare on this subject that might help to tie it all together. That is Queuing as a barometer of how well your organisation delivers your marketing plan.
Let’s be clear, by marketing plan I mean everything that it takes put your product or service into the hands of your target consumer. Your whole organisation from operations and finance to marketing and administration should be aligned to the promises you make in the brands you deliver through the products you put in the market. Activities that involve queuing are where the rubber hits the road where brand promise is turned into operational capability.
Consider, you sell tools. they’re great tools but they have a failure rate like everything else, yet you’ve done some amazeballs market research and found that this is the single biggest factor in decisions to buy by your target market. Accordingly you make the brand promise that no one will have more than 1 hour of down time through tool failure if they use your tools. That same market research has allowed you to put your return centres within 1 hour of the average + 2.5 st deviations from your target market. Sadly, last week you shipped a bad batch of tools to one location that sold like hot cakes but were defective leading to many returns at the same centre at the same time. So when you applied your erlang formulas to staffing the customer service centre did you take into account what promises had to be kept and how they were likely to be broken given your organisation’s structure and capability?
Queuing is an opportunity to turn belief in the brand promises into the truth of the delivery of those promises.
Again – love the article, well though out piece.
Thanks for leaving such a well thought out response Simon.
I love your line explaining that “Activities that involve queuing are where the rubber hits the road where brand promise is turned into operational capability.”
You are so right! Your business is absolutely judged on your performance at the client end of your marketing process, and those judgements impact your entire brand.
Great example too. It goes to show how much science there is behind process mechanism [in whatever form they take] and how you can use those numbers to work out things like the viability of your brand promises.
Thanks for commenting!
Something to think about! Thx!
Great article. Sometimes it’s the simple things that are often overlooked!
My personal opinion about queues is that as long as I can see some sort of progression, I can be understanding and tolerant of a long queue. It is very dependent on the service/product i’m queuing for though. Medicare for example; I don’t really want to be there, but I want some money back, so i’ll wait, staring patiently at the ticket number up on the screen and constantly rechecking my ticket. It’s not really a nice atmosphere either…..government department, sick people, noisy kids with runny noses…get me out of here!!!!
On the other hand, waiting for my morning coffee when the coffee shop is busy, is very different. I REALLY want my coffee, and most mornings I’d probably crawl over broken glass to get to that fresh espresso goodness!! You can also see that the shop is full of people, and you can see the barista busting out coffee after coffee like a well oiled machine, so you know that you’ll be served soon, and that your coffee isn’t too far away after that.
One thing I really like about where I get my coffee, is that they have an SMS ordering system. I can send my order over while I’m still at my desk at work, and then by the time I walk over the road, my coffee is waiting for me (or at least I’ve managed to jump the big queue of people lining up to place an order, which in itself is almost as satisfying as the coffee!)!
McDonalds is a good example of customer expectation and satisfaction when it comes to queues and waiting. Back in the day, there was rarely a wait on anything, as they had burgers lined up under the heat lamps ready to roll. But now everything is ‘made to order’ (at least everything is ‘assembled to order’ anyway) and there is a wait associated with it. People managed to adjust to the wait, because they were getting a better quality product (or at least the illusion of one) by waiting for it to be made (assembled).
Very busy McDonald ‘restaurants’ (such as Milton, near Suncorp Statium) have employed an ‘order while you queue’ system, where employees will approach you while you’re queuing to be served at the counter and take your order with a mobile device and give you a ticket number. Then all you need to do is get to the counter and pay for your order. Usually by this time your order is nearly ready. They’ve made queuing an efficient process!
Another example I find excellent (and it’s kind of still a queue), is after i’ve made a purchase online, you get the standard email of “thanks for your order”, but it’s really good when the online store has a logistics system that keeps you in the loop every step of the way: “your payment has been processed”, “your order is being picked”, “your order has been dispatched, here’s your tracking number”. There’s nothing worse than placing an order and sitting around for 2 weeks wondering if it’s on it’s way or if there’s been some sort of delay.
Simple things make the experience more satisfying and will ensure return business!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Ben, and your examples. They are queuing theory in action! You make a great point about how much patient you are willing to be weighing up with the value you see in the end goal. You really love your coffee!
The government agency are undoubtedly aware that their system chokes up and isn’t enormously pleasant to be in, which is why the ticketing system is crucial for them, so you can measure your progress (and be more patient).
The coffee SMS ordering is very smart. You’re effectively queuing at your desk but you certainly don’t feel like it. This also has the benefit of showing the people waiting in the traditional queue that they can access a short cut next time, which kind of says “Hey, do you wanna be in this VIP club over here? You can!” There are loads of awesome subconscious messages being sent out.
And finally, the tracking mechanisms is pure genius. I can actually watch my packages travel the world! Customer service reps are never bothered with the tedious questions of “where’s my package? When will it be delivered?” and you know what? It’s kind of exciting to watch the progression. Maybe that’s just me?
Thanks again for sharing these examples. As you highlighted, they completely transform your experience as a customer so for any business, it’s worth pondering ways you can work on making that queue time more productive and/or enjoyable.
A very well put together posting, the content had me reading about being distracted during waiting times which is in itself a boring subject, however, I had completed the article before I was aware how much I read.
It was as if the writer really was following Little’s Law in copy write terms.
hehe the secret work of subheadings! Thanks for leaving such positive feedback Clare.
A great post Belinda but it had me thinking when was the last time I actually had to queue. It was probably a mere 5mins in the PO prior to Christmas so not really even enough to get me agitated. So much of what I require is organised online these days and hubby does the grocery shop, so no queues in the supermarket for me!
Ah you are lucky to have a queue-less life!
I know you own and run an extremely successful (and therefore busy) virtual assistant agency. I’d love to know how you handle your own service queues? Do clients ever have to wait for your services or does that go against your whole business value proposition?
don’tcha just hate queues! Almost as much as my hate for banks. Although the wait at my bank is nolonger the mind numbingly brutal chore it once was. My bank now has comfortable seating, a tv on and the time seams to pass quickly. You have time to stop, rest your feet and enjoy the air conditioning, whilst checking out whats happening on facebook! Great post Belinda.
Thanks for leaving a comment Louisa with such a lovely example of queuing theory in action! You are right – who likes waiting? Smart banks are totally onto this and you touched on a really important way they changed your perception — you aren’t queueing, you’re enjoying a rest stop.
And this can be applied to other industries. Not just ones with nice aircon
Making the waiting time productive (in addition to keeping customers informed at every turn) can really help make this shift in perspective.
Thanks again!
Belinda – I like the part about delighting the customer before you’ve delivered anything. I think that’s an important point that a lot of people forget. Thanks for the great post!
Thanks Tom! I firmly believe that your customer service experience begins well before you even talk to a customer, which is why good marketing is so important to your bottom line. From the very first contact point you have to help set the right expectations so everything that follows builds on that great first impression.
Good luck in the comp!
Great article Belinda. I can use this information on my websites and, since I just got back from a homeowner’s Board-related meeting, I thought about the different customers we have here in our community and how we can institute your tips in relating to them as well. Great job. I’m sharing with my tribe(s)!
Thanks Carol. I am glad it was so timely for you. And thank you for sharing it with your tribes!
Customer service can also be measurably improved as customer service reps are trained and trusted to deal with customer concerns at all levels. In other words, when a customer makes contact with the rep, is the rep appropriately equipped to define, address, and solve the customer’s problem, or will they be limited in what there are “allowed” to say or do (at their level in the chain)? How often are we told (during our own customer service encounters), “I will have to send this up the chain to perhaps eventually remedy the situation?” Let us, as CEO’s, empower our support personnel for the sake of prompt and efficient customer satisfaction. “Good” and “fine” are not good enough; we must strive for “magical” and “delightful” customer service encounters and experiences. This approach will notably increase brand equity.
Great point Tony. Would just add that empowering your staff in this way leads to greater employee satisfaction, retention and productivity, effectively seeding a virtuous cycle that accelerates the gains in brand equity.
{ 4 trackbacks }