Have you ever called into a service provider and been told that the hold time is over 10 minutes even though the recording repeatedly tells you how important you are?

Have you ever sent an email to a service provider that somehow disappeared into the ether?

Have you ever been given a specific service time window and the guy shows up late? Or doesn’t show up at all?

Response time is one of 3 attributes of great customer service, and unfortunately it is an attribute that is sorely lacking in many IT companies and other service companies in South Florida.

When your company has an issue, need or concern - you expect your IT Company to be responsive.

Whether it’s via Email, the phone or in person, when you reach out for help, it needs to be there.

Yet, with the average response time for customer service to get back to a customer in US service industries is averaging more than 12 hours, while most customers expect response time to be less than 1 hour, according to SuperOffice.com. It stands to reason that that many South Florida companies could be doing more to reduce their response times as well.

Great customer service is:

• Responsive
• Accurate
• Efficient

Being responsive is number one for a reason.

“First reply time is more important than overall reply times because it’s an acknowledgment to the customer that their issue is being looked into.” - Jamie Edwards, COO and Co-founder of Kayako

What is concerning is that most service companies don’t see responsiveness as a priority.

The 2018 study of a 1,000 companies conducted by SuperOffice states that - 90% of companies do not acknowledge or inform the customer that an email has been received.

Cutting down response times and reacting to your clients with positive support and applicable data is the way to win client loyalty. Even if you cannot help them right away, letting them know you care and that you will be following up with them goes a long way. This simple action should be built in to your customer service systems and will make your customer feel important instead of feeling like an after thought.

I would seem that common sense is not very common when it comes to response time.

How is the response time with your current IT Company?

Are people sitting idle due to poor response times?

How long can you afford to be down?

Your response could be enlightening.