Time to Win

The 2022 Consumer Patience Study

By Jay Baer

Here’s how your customers really feel about waiting…

From the author of the study, Jay Baer:
One thing we've learned in COVID is that life is shorter than we thought.

Everybody has always said that “life is short.” But now we have crystal clear evidence of that, in a powerful way. This realization has brought about many significant changes in our culture.

People have decided that they don't want to wait anymore; they don’t want to do this job anymore; and they don't want to wait in this line anymore; they’re not going to spend this kind of time on hold. All the things that we're seeing, whether it's the great resignation or quiet quitting or people homeschooling their kids or all these other macro trends when you boil it down, it's all about time.

Why? Because time is the only inelastic resource. We all have the same amount of it to use as we wish every day. It’s the great equalizer. It's the only thing on the planet that we all share equally rich and poor, Americans and Venezuelans, educated, uneducated, grandfathers, grandsons. Everyone. We all have 1,440 minutes every day. That's it. It doesn't matter if you're Elon Musk or somebody living in a cardboard box, we all have 1,440 minutes and we've come to the conclusion that we should endeavor to use those minutes wisely. This is why I believe this research comes at the right time.”

Though consumer patience (and impatience) has been a trending issue for organizations large and small, this study confirmed it. Here are just a few of the key findings:

2/3 of customers say SPEED is as important as PRICE
More than anything else, customers hate having to contact a business 2 or more
times
Customers do not give business a “pandemic pass” for slowness
More than half of customers have hired the first business to respond, even if they
were more expensive
50% of customers are less likely to spend money if a business is slower than they
expect
Gen Z is most likely to feel “respected” when a brand responds quickly
Half of all customers will not wait more than 3 minutes in a store
Baby Boomers are the LEAST patient generation. Gen Z is the MOST patient
generation

In almost every business, there is a point in the customer journey that creates uncertainty and unease. Sometimes it's a lack of speed. Sometimes it's a lack of information.

Sometimes it's lack of empathy. When any of these things occur, the customer feels they are not being understood. That's frustrating to me as a strategist and as a consultant, because these are unforced errors. It’s suicide, not murder. Of all these issues that could affect the customer experience and relationship, time is the easiest to deal with successfully.

No customer should feel uncertain or uneasy. It’s frustrating for the customer and costly for the business. This study confirms the impact waiting has on the customer experience.The good news is it is completely fixable. And the time to start fixing it is now.

To learn more and download the report, please visit: TheTimetoWin.com

“The Pandemic forever changed the way people view time and how they choose to spend it.”

“The thing about speed is that
it's one of the only components
of the customer experience that
you can definitely do something
about.”