Between speed and customer service

The couple entered the very expensive and swanky dining room. “I’m sorry,” apologized the maitre d, “but there are no tables available at the moment. You will have to wait at least one hour.”

“One moment, my friend,” said the man, drawing himself up. “I happen to be George C. Campbell, the TV newscaster.”

“I’d like to accommodate you, Mr. Campbell, but there just isn’t a table available at the moment.”

“I bet if President Trump came in and asked for a table, there’d be one available right now.”

“Yes-s-s,” the other admitted, “I suppose there would be a table available for President Trump.”

“Good! I’ll take it. George isn’t coming!”

This is not a true story of course but no one wants to wait, and this is a fact. Today, speed is a given. And the most valuable currency in the 21st century is certainly not the US dollar, not the euro but time.

Vince Poscente in his book “The Age of Speed” says that the new standard is speed and it is a major factor in business. Poscente says: “There is new standard for fast, but also a big opportunity. People are desperate to save time-even 18 seconds makes a difference in the Age of Speed. A bank used its ability to cut average ATM transaction time from 42 seconds to 24 as a positioning strategy to appeal to the many speed seekers in its potential customer pool. The window displays using text-message shorthand, “Gt$Fstr,” to lure the fast and furious to its banks.”

I have experienced this first hand. I remember many years ago when I was starting out in my new career and I wanted to get me a second-hand SUV; the car loan will have to wait three days for approval. So I changed my mind. I switched to another unit with a faster car loan processing facility.

We don’t want to spend more than half an hour talking about car insurance or waiting for a quote. We can no longer afford to as our time is simply too valuable. We don’t just get and expect speed, we need it.

Given a choice between a smiling customer service and a non-personal speed case… Speed wins over service anytime because: get this, speed is service!!! This is the reason why smart phones respond to our need. Everything is instant. Everything is by demand. You make your clients and people wait and they leave you. Not only that; any web page or app that requires multi-clicks would be dismissed. Ease of usage and speed of use are game changers and can easily determine the rise of your business or the demise of it as well.

Why has time evolved into a commodity that is valuable? Consider this thought. Poscente says “More income and things have more at stake with time available.” What he means is that the more money you make, the more things you have. The more at stake with time and this is why it is no wonder the wealthy are more fearful of death.

According to Daniel Hamermesh, professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin, our progress, our success, has made our time increasingly valuable. With every passing year, our minutes become more precious and more costly. “Since 1955, the average American’s income after inflation has tripled… while life expectancy has gone up significantly. So the total amount of living we can afford has multiplied many folds, while the total amount of time we have to live has increased only slightly. Therefore, we have more at stake with each minute we spend. And that has left us with an increased need for speed. If we cannot add more hours to the day, and the number of years in a lifetime is increasing only slightly, we have to move faster if we are to do everything we want to-and can-do.

Think about two kids at a school fair. Both of them have an hour to see what they want to see and do what they want to do. One child has P50. He has enough money to do one thing, so he has an important choice to make. Should he go on his favorite ride or buy his favorite treat? Which will provide more pleasure, the ferris wheel or the ice cream cone? Regardless of what he chooses, half an hour is more than enough time to do what he can afford to do.

The second child has P200 but still only an hour to spend it. He wants an ice cream cone, a hot dog sandwich, a ride on the ferris wheel, and on the roller coaster. He can afford them, but is there enough time? He can’t spend too much time doing one thing, or he’ll give up the chance to do something else.

This is why speed today is so valuable. And if it is valuable to a little boy it sure is valuable to our customers as well.

What are they looking for? Better. Faster. Value for money. And when you can deliver all these, you’re in business. And you better do it fast! But let me qualify this. Speed without accuracy and quality will create bigger problems. Whereas you may have delivered something fast but if the result of the product or services offered perform poorly or break apart easily, then all it takes is a video post that would create a “tweetstorm” and speedily damage your reputation and credibility.

Doing business today is no longer easy. But the question I ask myself is “When was it easy anyway?” Hunter S. Thompson said: “Anything worth doing, is worth doing right.” And I certainly agree but we just have to do it fast.

(Attend the two exciting and productive days of leadership training with Francis Kong in his highly acclaimed Level Up Leadership seminar-workshop this April 2 and 3 at the Makati Diamond Residences across Greenbelt 1. For registration or inquiries contact April at +63928-559-1798 or register online at www.levelupleadership.ph)