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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
 ·AT&T Yahoo
·AT&T DSL Service
 ·Cox HSI
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| reply to Jehu
Re: yep
Everybody hates waiting in line and on hold... Plus their perceptions time / reality get whacked quickly when waiting in line.
If a person waits in line 30 seconds, they act like it's 5 minutes. If they wait 5 minutes, they act like it's half an hour, and if it's half an hour, why they've been standing in line ALL DAY.
People often receive excellent superfast customer service and yet think they got really bad poor service because they had to wait as little as 45 seconds to 2 minutes to get served.
--
"Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!) | |
BosstonesOwn
join:2002-12-15
Everett, MA
clubs:
·Comcast
| said by KrK  :
Everybody hates waiting in line and on hold... Plus their perceptions time / reality get whacked quickly when waiting in line.
If a person waits in line 30 seconds, they act like it's 5 minutes. If they wait 5 minutes, they act like it's half an hour, and if it's half an hour, why they've been standing in line ALL DAY.
People often receive excellent superfast customer service and yet think they got really bad poor service because they had to wait as little as 45 seconds to 2 minutes to get served.
I think it's more related to the falsehood that time = money myself. that was spread on every one since the 50's probably even earlier.
--
"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!" | |
Davros866
join:2001-07-23
Houston, TX
| Falsehood? For me time = money bigtime! On any given day I am usually working for a client, or between clients. The faster I get to the next one, the more I can cram in, and the more $$$.
Maybe you're one of those salaried corporate slaves who barely gets motivated enough to send out 2 memos a day? | |
KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | ... and then there's those people that think THEIR time is way more valuable then everyone else's, and so it's OK if everybody else waits, but they are one of the "important" people and so deserve to get served NOW, ahead of everyone else.... | |
calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| reply to KrK
said by KrK :
People often receive excellent superfast customer service and yet think they got really bad poor service because they had to wait as little as 45 seconds to 2 minutes to get served.
Well, if they didn't like their 45 second to 2 minute wait, they are likely to go to a different provider if they can. Now if you don't care about whether you lose customers, you're either a monopoly or stupid.
And this isn't about arguing if it's "right" that a customer doesn't want to wait in line, any more than whether it's right that customers prefer brightly lit grocery stores to dimly lit ones. It's just a matter of recognizing what will keep the customers coming in and providing it.
The sooner that business people get it through their head that it's important to serves the customer's wants, rather than try to hammer the customer into what the vendor thinks a good customer should look like, the sooner they become successful.
To summarize: You want to make we wait 45 to 120 seconds, you can--but you can't make me like it or come back to your business ever again.
Calvoiper
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VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! | |
BosstonesOwn
join:2002-12-15
Everett, MA
clubs:
·Comcast
| reply to KrK
said by KrK :
... and then there's those people that think THEIR time is way more valuable then everyone else's, and so it's OK if everybody else waits, but they are one of the "important" people and so deserve to get served NOW, ahead of everyone else....
Exactly my point KrK.
Davros866 If your time is money then why bother sleeping why not just run around for life no sleep no food?
Problem is people don't realize there is more in this country then just them. Until this happens the country is going to continually sink to the ranks of a 3rd world country.
Time may be money for people, but they need to also realize running around like a chicken with your head cut off wears you thin. Is it worth getting an ulster or a heart attack to make that extra $100 at the end of the week? No wait uncle same gets their hands on that so let me rephrase, Is it worth it for that extra $58 a week.
I also do consulting and many server and pc repairs. I am not killing myself speeding down a highway for $58 more a week. I am also not going to put myself in a hospital and lose all my pay for a month or 2 either.
Being from the south where they usually have the laid back view of life knowing that they don't have to speed around to get stuff done should show ya Davros866. Personally I like the slow paced life down there sure as hell beats killing yourself for short money and at the end of a month having nothing to show for it but a headache / ulster / heart attack.
--
"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!" | |
KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
·AT&T Yahoo
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| reply to calvoiper
said by calvoiper :
Well, if they didn't like their 45 second to 2 minute wait, they are likely to go to a different provider if they can. Now if you don't care about whether you lose customers, you're either a monopoly or stupid.
The sooner that business people get it through their head that it's important to serves the customer's wants, rather than try to hammer the customer into what the vendor thinks a good customer should look like, the sooner they become successful.
To summarize: You want to make we wait 45 to 120 seconds, you can--but you can't make me like it or come back to your business ever again.
The point is Calvoiper, is that often people's perceptions and demands are unrealistic, even impossible.... so even when they are delivered *awesome* service, they only notice the negative. There's little else that can be done..... If they want to go somewhere else, they can, but unless that place is also perfect, the service there will actually be worse... they will wait even longer... and so they will come back to you.
Basically, you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please everyone all of the time, and the more impatient and rude that person is, the less likely they are to be pleased about anything, even perfection.
--
"Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!) | |
calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| The point is, HALG, that you have a monopoly view of customer service and I have one reflecting the competitive side of business.
Many "impossible" things have happened because customers wanted it--we don't have to have our autos "lubricated" every 1000 miles like they used to in the 1930's. Long life rechargeable batteries without "recharge memory" problems for cell phones were, not long ago, "impossible" or "way too expensive". Now they are common.
The successful company will try to satisfy the customer, no matter how "hard" it seems. The failing dinosaur of a company will argue incessantly that the customer has "unrealistic expectations." If the dinosaur is big and powerful enough, it may survive long enough to eventually adopt the innovations made by the smaller player, or it may not.
This is not to say that every idea from some marketing MBA is a good one. (I recall stories of a marketing guy at ATT telling the newly-acquired NCR engineers that a new laptop needed an "off" light, even though that would eventually drain valuable battery juice. The difference is that this stupid idea wasn't at all important to customers.)
One reason that monopolists so resent new competitors is that the competitors are willing to take risks and innovate when the monopolist would rather just sit in the chair and tell the customer how "unrealistic" or "plain stupid" is. It's very hard to do that when the guy down the street is actually focusing on meeting the customer's wants.
And yes, I have some first hand experience in this area, having worked a difficult "post dial delay" problem in the days before SS7--with focus, we achieved what our engineers had said was "impossible" and only the result of "unrealistic" expectations on the part of our customers.
Calvoiper
--
VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! | |
KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
·AT&T Yahoo
·AT&T DSL Service
·Cox HSI
·AT&T Southwest
| You're still missing the point. Most competitive companies (not the monopoly ones) still try to meet the customer's expectations, and still try to deliver the absolute best.
However, it's not a case of "impossible" as much as it is a case of economic costs. As you are aware when in a competitive environment, price is a factor (often, the #1 factor.)
Let me illustrate with an example: A corner store has 2 employees to serve customers. Most of the day, this generates little or no wait times for customers, but at peak periods, or during rush periods, lines may form that are swiftly worked through-- but it's possible that customers may have to wait in line 45 seconds to 2 minutes to get through the process.
Now, there IS a solution: The store could add a 3rd register, and hire on another employee. This would improve wait times. However, the costs of hiring the third person would cut into the profit to such an extent as to require a 30% increase on prices to cover, but in a competitive environment, such prices would simply kill the business totally. Not increasing prices would make the store survive, but the owner would now make so little that he could close the shop and work for someone else and make a lot more money and a lot less headaches.
So what do you think is going to happen? The third person will not be hired, and the status quo will continue.
It's more then just trying to meet everyone's demands. You have to weigh the economic costs of pleasing everyone vs the small amount of business you might lose.
It's always a compromise... and that compromise usually comes down to "you can please most people most of the time, but not everyone all of the time."
And trust me, that IS what sucessful companies do.
--
"Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!) | |
calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| Yes, there will be compromises.
But I hope your corner store would consider hiring someone part time to handle the expected peak period rush--and if they don't, then the store in the next block probably will.
If neither corner store is able to meet the customer expectations, they both risk being run out of business by an operator with a different business model which keeps the customers happier--which is exactly what happened to traditional "corner stores" in much of America as supermarkets opened. Their surviving offspring are more "convenience stores" than the true grocers they used to be.
The original discussion appeared to relate to waiting times for telephone assistance. If you're running big call centers, keeping wait times to the absolute minimum should be a priority (unless you want to discourage calls, which is a whole 'nother can of worms....)
Calvoiper
--
VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! | |
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