Waiting at Verizon

Verizon Wireless's biggest customer service problem is their wait time. When I go in a store, I expect a good 30 - 60 minute wait until I am seen. Anything less than that is a moral victory.

Fixing Verizon's waiting problem wouldn't be too difficult either. There are two parts to the problem:

1) Perceived Wait Time - how long I feel like I waited
2) Actual Wait Time - how long I actually waited

Both of these parts matter.

Perceived Wait Time
With perceived wait time, ten minutes can feel like five minutes if I am entertained or ten minutes can feel like an hour if I am bored. This perception affects how frustrated I am with Verizon when I leave.

To decrease perceived wait time, all Verizon needs to do is be entertaining. Take a page of the doctor's office and give me some magazines to read. Bank of America took the doctor's office one step further and even installed a TV. These entertaining methods were proved by Bank of America to actually decreased perceived wait time.

Verizon Wireless may want to use it as an opportunity to show off their phones' data package. Put a phone next to me loaded with all the music I could I ever want to listen to. Show me how well the Internet works on your phone and let me surf the web while I am waiting. These phones need to be within reach of the sitting area because I don't want to stand for a half hour while I am waiting. Maybe while I wait, there is a guide to choosing a cell phone. That way, when I start talking to the salesman, I already have some understanding of what the latest technology is and means.

Actual Wait Time
Perception can only vary so much from reality. Long actual wait time means that I am going to put off going to the Verizon store as long as possible until I know I have the time to deal with it.

The best way for Verizon to deal with actual wait time would be to do as the restaurant industry does - let people call ahead. If I can call ahead of coming to the store and put myself on the waitlist, that means I spend less time waiting at the store. That's a good thing.

Also, once I get there and I am waiting, give me a pager. Maybe I want to be able to walk around to other shopping areas while I wait, and the store can page me when my phone is ready.

Neither of these ideas are particularly original - they just need to be applied to Verizon.

Change the Thinking
I think that Verizon needs to stop thinking of its customer service as a cost center and start thinking of it as a way to create a relationship with the customer. The one time that Verizon gets to put a human face on their company is when someone comes into the store with a problem. That is the most important time to show the value of the Verizon brand's customer service. Right now, they hire the minimum number of workers possible to cut costs, but that no doubt leads to a decrease in loyalty in their customers.

Yes, the Verizon network is always on and the coverage is great - but so is AT&T (AND AT&T has the iPhone!). The customer service will make the difference.