The measurement of delays by mystery shopping is a key metric. It’s a given that acknowledgement times, on hold times, and service times appear in virtually all mystery shopping reports. As C. Northcote Parkinson, author of the best seller, Parkinson’s Law, famously said, “delay is the deadliest form of denial.”
But does mystery shopping accurately measure delays? Well, yes and no.
Yes, in that a mystery shopper can measure a queue time, of say five minutes.
No, in that those same five minutes will be perceived differently by different customers.
A customer’s perception of time is affected by variables such as the culture of the customer, the nature of their activity at the time, gender, length of the queue, and even the frequency at which they queue. So it’s not the five minutes that counts, it’s how the customer feels about it. And it’s customer feelings that determine their loyalty. They may forget the words you used, but they never forget how you made them feel.
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You are so right with your final comments on perception of time versus actual time, Peter.
In his amazing book “Why We Buy. The Science of Shopping”.
Paco Underhill, founder of USA research company based Envirosell, provides some fascinating observations on how customers feel about waiting. These quotes back up your point:
“This is the single most important factor in customer satisfaction. If shoppers think the wait wasn’t too bad they feel as though they were treated capably and well. If the wait went on too long, they feel as though the service was poor and inept. Quite simply, a short wait enhances the entire shopping experience and a long one poisons it.”
“When people wait up to about a minute and a half, their sense of how much time has elapsed is fairly accurate. Anything over 90 or so seconds, however, and their sense of time distorts – if you ask how long they have been waiting, their honest answer can often be a very exaggerated one. If they’ve waited two minutes, they’ll say it’s been three or four…in the world of shopping taking care of a customer in two minutes is a success; doing it in three minutes is a failure.”