In this age of magical IT applications, one has to wonder why it is so difficult to schedule home service calls and deliveries. It's as if this part of the experience is frozen in time somewhere in the pre-computer age. [I wrote about this not long ago, here].
From the company side, I suspect scheduling software IS being used, but it's being used to optimize the distance and costs to the company, not to deliver a better customer experience.
TOA Technologies, a company in the scheduling tech business, just released a survey they have done on this issue.
- Nearly 1 of every 5 consumers (18%) have taken unpaid time off to wait for a service or delivery in their home in the first 6 months of 2009
- One third (32%) of consumers have taken a vacation day or sick • time to wait for the cable guy or some other service in their home in the first 6 months of 2009
- 18% have refused or cancelled a product/service because the • service/delivery person was late or didn’t show
- 29% have left their home in frustration (costing their service provider • more money in rescheduling, customer service and operations costs) because the cable guy or delivery person was late
Most customers blame the company for this problem -- another example of operating decisions that affect the brand.
And guess who thinks they are waiting more, and are more annoyed about it? Well that would be higher income households, no doubt your most valued / targeted customers.
It's a nice little study, and it just might help you make the case to revisit your organization's approach to in-home delivery and service calls.
Speaking as a customer, we're just begging you -- please, don't make us waste time this way.
Resources:
Here's the link to the PDF report on the study.
