Busy customers need more time

Written by Shirley Lichti for The Record, November 18, 2006

I was recently asked to speak to a group of young entrepreneurs about speed networking. Unfortunately, my schedule was jam-packed and didn’t allow me to accept the invitation.

Speed is of the essence these days. Everybody is busy, busy, busy. No one has time to spare. Heck, I was too busy to speak at the event.

From fast food and instant tans to real-time scheduling and just-in-time manufacturing, all indicators point to a society that is pressed for time.

Your customers are busy, too. And the fact that they are short of time has big implications in terms of when, how, or if they buy your products and services.

McDonalds tested transponders as a payment option at five Los Angeles area restaurants. The results were positive enough that it launched another test in Chicago and expanded the California test. The new payment option offered convenience to customers in a rush to get their fast food even faster.

Appliance manufacturers have gone high-tech to help consumers ensure dinner is piping hot when they get home from work. The TRIO company, for example, makes the Connect IO "intelligent" oven which keeps your dinner cold until you activate the cooking process remotely through your cell phone or web browser.

While technology offers solutions to our shortage of time, it's also responsible for speeding up our sense of time. In the office environment, fast response used to mean overnight couriers and returning phone calls within 24 hours. Not anymore.

Today, businesses want document access on demand and their employees use BlackBerrys to stay in touch with customers when they are out of the office. Having to wait a couple of hours for someone to get back to you feels like an eternity.

Consumers also want an instant response ranging from a reply to an email query, video-on-demand, or an online bank balance update that's available 24 hours a day.

When systems are slow, they are unhappy. According to Regis McKenna, author of the book Real Time, we live in the age of the never satisfied customer.

So what does this shortage of time mean for your business and your marketing efforts?

Time-constrained consumers look for convenience. Even simple tasks like going to the cleaners can be a time burner.

That’s why Newtex Cleaners, a family-owned dry cleaner with locations in Kitchener and Waterloo, offers a pick up and drop off service.

Newtex manager Michelle Krulicki says many of the people who use this time-saving service are older customers who find it difficult to get out. However, there is also demand from younger customers in offices.

It’s interesting to note that the pick up and delivery service is not new. Krulicki says the company started offering the service over 40 years ago as a convenience for housewives.

Concierge services have grown, fuelled by demand from time-starved customers who need help with errands, buying gifts and organizing parties.

Tina Plett, president of Cardinal Concierge in Waterloo (www.cardinalconcierge.com) says she does a lot of shopping for clients because “people don’t have the time to get to stores, find a parking spot, and stand in line waiting to pay.”

Plett will make multiple stops at a variety of grocery, specialty and liquor stores to save her customers time. Give her a key and she’ll also bring all the purchases into your home and put them away.

It's interesting that Plett's clients, most of whom are baby boomers, ask her to buy healthy, high quality food. They like to cook from scratch.

For those people with no time to cook, Kitchener Comfort Foods, a non-profit corporation (www.kitchenercomfortfoods.com) sells healthy and hearty foods from its store at the Kitchener Campus of Liaison College, a culinary chef school.

Irene Dutchak, the office manager, says there's a growing demand for good, old fashioned rib-sticking kind of food. Meals are prepared from scratch in small batches with no additives, then frozen. All customers have to do is heat and eat.

Dutchak says the no fuss, no muss aspect appeals to parents with children in extracurricular events, busy professionals and seniors who tell her, “It’s like being able to have a home cooked meal without having to cook it yourself.” Customers can email or fax orders so they are ready to be picked up or delivered.

With the holiday season just around the corner, your customers may be telling you there just aren’t enough hours in the day. What can you do to give them the gift of time?

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