TOA Technologies’ “Cost of Waiting” Survey Uncovers €1.33 Billion Economic Impact
of Waiting for In-Home Services
Annual Report Reveals Frustrated Consumers and Millions in Lost Business Revenues
as Wait Times for In-Home Services Increase and Service Ratings Drop
MUNICH, GERMANY - November 3, 2011 - TOA Technologies, the only on -demand provider of enterprise class mobile workforce management and customer experience management software solutions, has released its third annual “Cost of Waiting” report, evaluating the economic impact of waiting for in-home services among consumers and businesses. The report found that 49% of German adults have waited at least 2.7 times per year for utilities, cable/satellite TV, Internet, retail home deliveries and other services in the past 12 months. On average, they waited six hours per appointment at a considerable cost. Based on respondent-reported values for their time, for 5.5 million of the German workforce the annual Cost of Waiting adds up to a staggering €1.33 billion in lost wages.
“It’s clear from this year’s ’Cost of Waiting’ survey that customer service needs to be a top priority for businesses in the current climate, not only because it can negatively affect a company’s performance but because poor service regarding wait times has financial penalties for a company’s own customers. Waiting has a huge potential impact on both individual customers and the economy as a whole. Broadband, cable, satellite, retail and utility companies can actually help consumers save lost earnings at a time when so many people are looking for ways to conserve every dollar,” said Yuval Brisker, co-founder and CEO of TOA Technologies. “All they need to do is respect the consumers’ time by reducing the ’wait window’, keeping their promises and arriving on time, sending the right person to do the job the first time and communicating effectively throughout the process using every available means. These companies can positively impact people’s lives by offering more flexible scheduling, more guaranteed appointment times and more advanced technology coordination tools to assure on-time arrival. With TOA’s flagship solution, ETAdirect, we have revolutionized field service management by focusing on helping our customers narrow their wait windows through time-based predictive analytics using sophisticated performance pattern recognition. A tool such as ETAdirect provides many further efficiencies in improved customer service and ends up not only pleasing customers who carry that message to the world via social media, but also returns the investment with massive benefits through an intelligent, strategic reduction of operational costs.”
TOA’s 2011 “Cost of Waiting” Survey establishes a direct economic impact to customers who are forced to wait long hours for appointments and highlights that they spend a lot more than what is on their bill:
Another important finding showed that customer satisfaction almost halves from 62% when on time to 32% when service or delivery companies are just 15 minutes late:
Businesses of all kinds are given limited opportunity to transform negative customer perception into customer satisfaction and retention, and the survey has uncovered that customer loyalty depends more heavily on good customer service than ever. Of the 50% of respondents who switched service providers in the past 12 months, the majority did so because of poor customer service.
TOA’s ETAdirect provides a complete platform to manage the mobile workforce. It focuses on improving customer service by delivering easy to use mobility and management applications that enable service providers to get the right technician, with the right essential skill set and level to appointments within a narrow, guaranteed service window.
For a full report of the survey results, including detailed findings from the UK, US, Germany and Brazil, and TOA’s 2011 “Cost of Waiting” media kit, please visit: http://toatech.com/costofwaiting.
About TOA’s Annual Cost of Waiting Survey:
IBOPE Zogby, on behalf of TOA Technologies, interviewed 1,026 US adults, who said they had waited for at least one service or delivery appointment in the preceding 12 months. The interviews were conducted online, between September 9th and September 15th, 2011 and included a sampling of IBOPE Zogby International’s online panel, which is representative of the adult population of the US. The full dataset for the US has also been statistically weighted according to the most current census data for region, age, gender and education to more accurately reflect the population. The margin of error is ±3.2 percentage points. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding. TOA conducted its first “Cost of Waiting” Survey in 2009.
About TOA Technologies
TOA Technologies is the leading provider of on -demand mobile workforce management applications for large and medium-sized enterprises. ETAdirect, TOA's patented platform, improves customer service while dramatically reducing operational costs and delivering immediate return on investment. As the industry’s only complete on -demand solution using predictive, time-based analytics, ETAdirect reduces customer wait times while increasing field workforce efficiency. TOA's system deploys quickly, is highly configurable and is easily integrated with existing CRM solutions. Named Best of Breed and Visionary solution in Gartner’s 2010 Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management, TOA Technologies is headquartered in the United States and has offices in Europe and Latin America. For additional information please visit www.toatech.com or follow us on Twitter @toatech.
*The results of this study are based strictly on a BOPE Zogby opinion survey. The survey results are not intended to reflect, nor do they reflect, the specific service levels of any company. No inference should be drawn about the customer service experiences of customers mentioned in coverage of the survey prior to deploying the TOA Technologies solution.
