Press release

32 Percent Of Americans Have Taken Time Off, 18 Percent Have Lost Wages Waiting For Service Appointments In 2009

New National Survey From TOA Technologies and Harris Interactive Finds High Consumer Cost of Waiting

CLEVELAND, OHIO — September 14, 2009 — Americans waiting at home endlessly for a service or delivery appointment has long been a customer service “elephant in the room.” But now a new survey brings the cost and frustration of waiting into the spotlight.

In June, TOA Technologies partnered with Harris Interactive to conduct a national consumer survey to measure the economic impact of long appointment wait windows on companies and consumers. The TOA Technologies 2009 Cost of Waiting Survey, which polled more than 2,000 Americans from around the country, found the following impact on consumers:

32% have taken a sick day or vacation day to wait at home for a service call or delivery in the first six months of 2009.
Almost 1 in 5 Americans lost wages by taking unpaid time off work to wait at home in the first six months of 2009.
29% have left their home in frustration because the service/delivery person was late.
82% wait on average at least 1 day per year in their homes for service calls or deliveries.

The survey results also indicate that companies suffer when their customers experience excessive wait times. According to the TOA Technologies 2009 Cost of Waiting Survey, companies lose revenue, reputation and customer retention because they leave customers waiting without knowing when the appointment will actually happen:

37% of consumers think long wait times occur because companies take advantage of the consumer who wants or needs the service.
18% of consumers have refused or cancelled a product/service because the service/delivery person was late or didn't show up at the promised time.
57% of consumers say the company providing the service is at fault if the delivery/service is late or doesn't show.

“With the re-emergence of great service from companies like Amazon, FedEx and Zappos, people are starting to expect better customer care. Long, multi-hour wait windows for service appointments in the home are not only unacceptable today, they’re unnecessary,” said Yuval Brisker, CEO of TOA. “It’s about time and money; companies who inconvenience their customers by forcing them to lose wages and vacation time by haplessly waiting at home for appointments without providing smaller wait windows and updated appointment status information are ignoring a key aspect of great customer service.”

TOA provides the world’s leading customer-focused mobile workforce management Software-as-a-Service solution. TOA software’s unique predictive algorithms efficiently plan, route and help manage appointments and proactive communications for thousands of technicians in some of the world’s largest field service companies. TOA helps service providers make the customer appointment experience an integral part of long term customer satisfaction. With TOA solutions, service providers can provide their consumer customers with accurate, predictive one-hour arrival windows and updates along the way, communicated according to the customer's preference, dramatically reducing wait times, inconvenience and related frustration. TOA was named Most Innovative CRM Vendor of the Year by Gartner, and was also awarded “Visionary” status in Gartner’s annual 2009 Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management for the third year in a row.

For a full report of the survey results, including additional graphics and demographic data, please view the TOA Harris Interactive Cost of Waiting Report.

Survey Methodology:
The TOA Technologies 2009 Cost of Waiting Survey was administered by Harris Interactive in June 2009. Harris conducted an online poll of 2,261 adults nationwide.

About TOA Technologies
TOA Technologies is the leader in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for customer-focused mobile workforce management. TOA’s solution is a complete system for better managing the mobile workforce providing advanced tools for planning, routing, dispatching, business intelligence and ground-breaking predictive customer communications. TOA’s system deploys quickly, provides Web-based flexibility and delivers unparalleled cost savings, immediate return on investment, increased productivity and a dramatically enhanced customer experience. Recently named a Visionary in Gartner’s annual 2009 Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management, TOA Technologies is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, with offices in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. For additional information please visit www.toatech.com.

Contacts:

TOA Technologies:
Kimberly Weber
Atomic PR
+1.415.593.1400
kimberly.weber@atomicpr.com

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