Want to appeal to new consumers? Speed of service is key
It’s no longer just a sports metaphor that if you’re fast, you’ll win. With so much choice available to consumers in every possible category out there, the need for speed in the business world has never been m ore vital for finding success.
It’s a common fact that we all hate waiting – it’s just born in us. Whether it’s because you’re at the end of a long queue at the post office or tapping your fingers impatiently after ordering a pizza online, Tom Petty certainly hit the nail on the head when he wrote that waiting is the hardest part. However, imagine your surprise and gratitude when that epic queue dies down within mere minutes and that pizza arrives much faster than you expected. How likely are you to give positive feedback and use the same services again? Answer: incredibly likely.
With this culture of “faster is better” currently ruling the world, it really should come as no surprise that Amazon Prime memberships have grown to 90 million in the US alone. Sure, the free movies and music on Prime help a little bit, but we all know why people are signing up for Amazon’s premium service in droves: same-day or next-day delivery. And to think that Amazon was already a tough competitor for millions of businesses out there, it just got even harder when consumers can have their products delivered in record time.
However, it’s not just in retail that the idea of “faster = better”, but in industries where you might not have even considered the element of rapid transactions: aviation. True, you may well think that ‘airlines’ and ‘being fast’ are things that go hand in hand, but according to new company JetApp, not fast enough. The business is focusing solely on the private jet industry – an industry once thought of as unobtainable other than for the rich and famous. But, with the ability of booking charter flights online within a few clicks – the type of expediency demanded by consumers these days – the service brings accessibility to a previously exclusive service.
Of course, appealing to consumers by way of being fast also extends to customer service. If a business doesn’t respond to a question in a timely manner, guess what? That person will find a business that does. In the age of Twitter and customer service, this is the equivalent of a 100-metre sprint: it always helps to win when you’re lightning fast. Perfectly aware that this has become an important point for businesses to shout about, Twitter accounts can publicly reveal their response time and availability hours on their profiles – this is a race that businesses can never stop running. This is the nature of the world we live in: consumers want answers and results, and they certainly don’t want to wait. But if you have the stamina to keep up, you’ll find yourself a leader of the pack.
