Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

September 15, 2009

TOA, Harris Interactive Report Outlines High Cost of Waiting

By Brendan B. Read


Waiting for service or home delivery is not only a pain in the backside but it also costs employees money.

A new survey by TOA Technologies and Harris Interactive (News - Alert), the TOA Technologies 2009 Cost of Waiting Survey, reveals that:
 
--32 percent have taken a sick day or vacation day to wait at home for a service call or delivery in the first six months of 2009
 
--Almost 1 in 5 Americans lost wages by taking unpaid time off work to wait at home in the first six months of 2009
 
--29 percent have left their home in frustration because the service/delivery person was late
 
--82 percent wait on average at least 1 day per year in their homes for service calls or deliveries.
 
 The survey results also indicate that companies suffer when their customers experience excessive wait times. According to the survey, firms lose revenue, reputation and customer retention because they leave customers waiting without knowing when the appointment will actually happen:
 
--37 percent of consumers think long wait times occur because companies take advantage of the consumer who wants or needs the service
 
--18 percent have refused or cancelled a product/service because the service/delivery person was late or didn't show up at the promised time
 
--57 percent say the company providing the service is at fault if the delivery/service is late or doesn't show
 
The report reveals several interesting demographic and regional differences. For example men wait for cable more than women: 27 percent versus 20 percent. Households with incomes over $75,000 had generally waited more in 2009 (60 percent), for longer periods of time (73 percent 2 or more days) and had taken more paid-time off (39 percent) than the national average or any other income level.

People 55+ are more frustrated with customer service than those 18-34: 97 percent want improvements in service compared with 84 percent of the younger generation. Also 82 percent of older consumers want a call when the worker is on the way versus 57 percent for the younger ones.

Also Southern residents have waited more than residents in any other region -- 55 percent versus 51 percent Midwest -- and 44 percent in the West and Northeast. The national average is 49 percent.

“With the re-emergence of great service from companies like Amazon, FedEx and Zappos, people are starting to expect better customer care,” said Yuval Brisker, CEO of TOA. “Long, multi-hour wait windows for service appointments in the home are not only unacceptable today, they’re unnecessary. It’s about time and money; companies who inconvenience their customers by forcing them to lose wages and vacation time by haplessly waiting at home for appointments without providing smaller wait windows and updated appointment status information are ignoring a key aspect of great customer service.”

Brendan B. Read is TMCnet’s Senior Contributing Editor. To read more of Brendan’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Patrick Barnard


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