One of the customer dissatisfaction factors common to all services is excessive waiting times. I present two strategies to manage the service reducing this cause of dissatisfaction.
One of the customer dissatisfaction factors common to all services is excessive waiting times.
We are in the era of "I want it now." Everything has become immediate, and there is a lot of competition from fast services. Life is fast-paced, and the client is worth their time, demanding that those who provide the service do not waste their most precious resource.
The good news is that not all wait times weigh the same for the customer. Knowing this concept will allow you to properly manage service times.
The concept is that of "perceived control" by the customer. A client who perceives to be in control of the service will consider the time elapsed with much more benevolence than one who feels that the service is out of his control, or in the hands of another.
Let's take an example to illustrate it. It takes a customer 5 minutes to think and decide what dish to eat in a restaurant. This time goes unnoticed in relation to the same 5 minutes that the waiter takes to assign you a table (the latter can seem eternal).
So, this concept allows us to differentiate two types of different waiting times: times managed by the employee, and times managed by the client.
Clearly, we must pay more attention to the times managed by the employee (out of control for the client), since they are the ones that will generate the greatest dissatisfaction.
From here the two strategies are deduced:
Strategy 1: Transform "out of control" times into times managed by the client.
This strategy is achieved, for example, when a task is assigned to the client during a time out of control, a task that he perceives as valuable for receiving the service.
It could be, for example, completing a form that streamlines a later process. Or, provide information and preferences to personalize the service in your favor.
This can be done concurrently with the time it takes for an employee to perform any other part of the process that does not require customer participation, and would instead passively leave them waiting.
By placing the two tasks simultaneously, the client does not feel that time as out of control, since he is actively performing a valuable task.
Strategy 2: Limit "out of control" times and plan containment measures for when they exceed what is desired.
This strategy should be applied when the first is not possible. In case the client has to wait passively, this time must be limited to a standard that he himself must define.
How long is the waiting time that a client considers reasonable for a certain process? We must ask him. It is probably not the same for all clients.
A woman who waits with her husband for the turn of his prenatal ultrasound will have less trouble than an elderly man who must undergo an abdominal ultrasound, due to a condition that seriously affects him.
In these disparate cases, it is convenient to segment customers, and assign them to especially agile processes in the most urgent cases. The more personalized the times, the better.
So, the first thing is to limit the times to the standard set by the clients. Then, a contingency process must be implemented in the event that this standard time is exceeded.
This would be the case of offering clients who are waiting to be assigned a table, and have already exceeded the standard waiting time, a snack as housekeeping.
This attention prevents dissatisfaction from escalating, even when the client has not yet expressed any discomfort. It is about not giving the customer time to feel dissatisfied.
I hope these two strategies are helpful to you when analyzing and managing service times. I am sure they will help you avoid situations of dissatisfaction in your clients.
