Cre8tive Flow

Time is of the essence is a phrase often employed in legal agreements. What it means is that time counts: time is very important. That is an important concept that this series of articles will hammer home. The title for the series, Marketing Right Now, has two main messages in it. Marketing Right means doing it right. There are many ways in which you can get Internet Marketing wrong. Right Now points to the importance of this particular instance. You have it only for a brief instant and then it’s gone. Did you make good use of that instant?

Got The Time?

You may not have thought about it but the word time has very many different meanings. Just think of some of the ways you use it every day.

It is often said that the Inuit have very many different words for snow. That supposedly is because snow is such an important influence in their lives. By the same logic, we should really have many different words to describe the time concept. For reference, the following is a list of the key meanings of time, most of which will come up over and over again in the series:

This first article in this series will highlight one particular meaning, which is so often ignored by very many people. That particular meaning can be the key to enormous success. You will find that time in its various meanings will come up over and over again in the other articles in the series. In each article up front and center you will find the definition of time that is particularly important in that article. If you have some spare time, at the end of this article you will find a series of links to important resources on time. As you will see, time is a big subject and a lot has been written on the different aspects.

Time Is In The Mind Of The Perceiver

This is the particular concept of time which can be the key to success. What counts in marketing are the perceptions of the customer. Accordingly the measure of time we want to talk about here is time as perceived by the customer. We will consider factors involved in that perception and then discuss what you can do to make sure that perception is working in your favor as a marketer.

Your Call Is Important To Us

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In North American society, almost everyone will have the same reactions on hearing that phrase. It is sometimes followed by, “Please stay online to maintain your calling priority.” It probably means that we will be hanging on the line for some indeterminate amount of time. How long does that time seem? Undoubtedly it will be longer than the time as measured on a clock. Nevertheless we may accept the wait because our expectations are low, given so many other similar experiences.

Such waiting seems to be a very common occurrence in all kinds of different situations. It may be waiting in a bank lineup or in a doctor’s waiting room. It may be waiting until a parcel arrives through a carrier service. Or it may be waiting until a response comes to a request to some government office. In almost all cases, the waits seem far too long.

Why Do Waits Seem So Long?

There is a great deal of work done into why people’s perceptions of time differ from the time measured on the clock. When you are waiting for someone else to take an action, there are two main reasons why time drags:

• you are not sure whether the person will really take the action (you are not in control)
• you may have a certain expectation on the likely time to wait and it is taking longer than that, as you perceive it.

In some cases the wait may be of uncertain duration, since you have no feedback on what is happening or indeed, if anything is happening.

Many companies try to make sure that their call answering performance is at least no worse than anyone else. As Tom Peters said in his book, In Search Of Excellence, it is not a very motivating way to run a company.

Do Customers Really Care About Time?

Time is an important attribute within the total quality package that comes with a product or service. Indeed it is the most obvious factor where a defect can be spotted if there is a problem. A quality defect in manufacturing may be difficult to spot. It is very obvious if something does not arrive when promised.

In some ways you might think that customers seem to accept time defects more easily than quality defects. A quality defect is physical and therefore clear and unarguable. A time defect is intangible and often difficult to pin down. In some cases a supplier may deliberately delay service if a waiting customer makes too big a fuss. Such a situation often means that customers complain to their friends and warn them not to do business with a supplier, but the supplier never hears of their dissatisfaction.

Making Time Part Of Your USP, Your Unique Selling Proposition

You can decide to accept the general impression of time and just make sure that you are no worse than your competition. If you do so, you are ignoring an important factor that could help you stand way above the crowd. I once knew a Norwegian lawyer who was incredibly successful in working on deals in the North Sea gas field. His claim to fame was that he would always provide answers and written agreements within 24 hours. Since everyone knows that lawyers take forever, his reputation ensured that he prospered and became a very rich man.

In a similar way if you deliver the time aspects of your package or service in a way that meets or exceeds the real expectations of clients, your reputation will create a buzz that may even make you too busy. That does not mean high cost ways of creating better service delivery. It is a question of designing the workflow so that the customer knows what is going on at all times. Any customer wants to have their product or service as soon as is humanly possible. However if they receive detailed information on what is happening, their perception of any unfortunate time delay will be no longer than the real time delay. That is the secret. Stay in touch with your customer and keep them informed of progress.

Make Your Mantra - Time Is Job One

Guy Kawasaki has suggested Mantras are more useful in motivating your company team, than having a carefully crafted Mission statement. I think he’s exactly right. So make Time Is Job One your company mantra and just see how your customers help you to achieve the success you are looking for.

Postscript

A short video is available that discusses this particular approach to time as part of the product/service package. It is entitled, Time Is Job One (4 mins. 36 secs.), building on the notion of Ford’s approach to Quality with its slogan, Quality Is Job #1.

References On Time Perception

• Sense of time
• Disaster Responder’s Perception Of Time
• Temporal Perception Lab of the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Manchester
• Time is Critical

References On Other Aspects Of Time

• Forbes on Time
• The Nature of Time
• Everything Forever