Guest post by Marcel Oudejans.

We’re living in the “Google world” where virtually any information you’re looking for can be found within seconds. We’ve become accustomed to instant meals, pizzas that get delivered “within 40 minutes or less” and up-to-the-second news. This desire for instant gratification is a marketing tactic that has almost been overused. Yet we all desire the privilege to get our needs met as soon as possible.

As consumers we would like to be served as quickly and efficiently as possible. The majority of people are patient and understanding when there are delays, even unforeseen circumstances. However, everyone has a point where they become disappointed and disillusioned when their expectations aren’t met.

Personally, I’m a pretty patient guy. I’ll wait a couple of days for an email reply or a telephone call – as long as you don’t forget that I’ve tried to make contact with you. Recently, I submitted an online support ‘ticket’ which asked how urgent my query was: It clearly showed the different levels of urgency and how fast they would be able to reply. What a great idea! I was able to indicate how long I would be willing to wait for an answer and the support team would be able to deal with more serious problems first.

But this is the type of good service I’m starting to expect. Like most people, I don’t mind waiting – just get back to me. Let me know what the status of my request is. Tell me if you’re experiencing difficulties, or something unforeseen has happened. When a customer starts to feel that he has to find out what the situation is, he starts to lose trust in the supplier. It takes a lot more effort to regain that trust and often this customer might be less willing to accept less than 100% satisfaction with the product or service, when he eventually gets it.

All it takes is a telephone call, email or sms to let a customer know that you appreciate the support – but it goes a long way towards creating a customer for life.

Marcel Oudejans is a Corporate Infotainer who is passionate about inspiring his audiences to deliver more “magic moments” to their customers in their customer service, sales & marketing. Marcel is the author of “The Serious Business Owner’s Guide To Creating Customers For Life” & provides more tricks, techniques & strategies on his blog, http://www.performmarketing.co.za