Can you spare the time to read about it? Time, that is. What’s the difference between thirty fidgety minutes in a crowded commute and the busy half hour leading up to an important deadline? In terms of minutes passed, none whatsoever. In terms of perceived time, it’s a world of difference: one passes at a snail’s pace, the other goes far too quickly. The approach we take to our customers’ time can mean the difference between a good and a bad customer experience.

We are more distractive than ever

Our ability to concentrate has diminished by 33% since the year 2000. When we arrived in the new millennium, we humans could manage to hold our concentration for twelve seconds before wandering off to something more fascinating. Now we’re down to eight seconds. It has reached the point with homo sapiens – and not least of all with the more digitally adept of us – that we are now more easily distracted than a goldfish, which can manage to hold its concentration for a whole nine seconds. The principal reason why goldfish appear to be more stable creatures than us humans is that smartphones are not especially widespread among their species.

Having said that, the human brain is capable of making 500 trillion connections per second, so perhaps we don't require that many seconds to pick and choose. That in itself shows how little time we frequently have to reach a potential customer.

We only need to look around us to see innumerable examples of how our concept of time has changed in recent years. Previously, the broadcaster NRK was the only – protracted – option in Norway. Now we can binge watch an entire season of a programme (in which the action also takes place at an unbelievably faster pace than before) on Netflix in the course of 24 hours

How time plays a part in brands:

Instant reward

In more and more business areas, the path to the point of purchase becomes ever shorter. Online comparison sites such as Momondo, Kelkoo and Kayak compare prices in a fraction of a second, removing a good deal of the more tedious work that used to go into making a decision. Today's shoppers are accustomed to getting what they want – regardless of what that is – the moment they want it. For better or worse. As soon as they walk into a shop they can expect to get decent price offers; when they are travelling, they can find somewhere to stay overnight at the click of a key; when they are out on the town, they can even use their mobile to find out if there are any potential sexual partners in the vicinity. The app to eliminate any STI they may acquire in the course of their purchase hasn’t appeared yet, but no doubt that’s just around the corner.

Pop-ups

For some companies there is value in having been in the game for more than 100 years: they have become one of those institutions you can rely on. The coffee brand Evergood echoes constancy in its very name. At the other end of the scale, we find pop-up shops that appear out of the blue in their trendy and surprising “now you see me, now you don’t” way.

The suppliers and the experts

Online food shops such as FreshDirect and MySupermarket deliver food straight to your door. You avoid spending time messing around in grocery stores hunting for goods, but you do have to mess around a bit online instead. Players like homechef.com and chefsplate.com have stretched themselves that little bit further, using experts to develop complete meals that you can put together in your own home with the selected ingredients. It’s a time saver and a sort of culinary Lego for grown ups. The time spent by experts making up the recipes guarantees that you don’t waste your time. The meal itself takes just as long to put together but somebody else has done the preparation for you.

When time is measured in the thousandths

Many companies make it possible for private individuals to buy and sell shares from their own computer, thereby opening up this “secret world” and making it accessible to all and sundry. Time is money, literally, when it comes to so-called HFT (high frequency trading) where transactions can take place in the space of milliseconds, or even microseconds. While this may not be the reality for many players, it does give a sense of a world where so much is happening at an increasingly faster pace. One result of this increased bustle in Norway is that someone in a bidding round can make an offer of 1 million pounds on a flat and give the competition only five minutes to outbid them. Survival of the fastest!?

A fitting customer experience

Adriano Capoferro brought the 7-Eleven chain to Norway, then went on to found Deli de Luca, and is currently the main man at Espresso House. He and his partners have a very specific approach to the length of time their guests should remain on their premises. Some sections of the shop are geared to a higher customer turnover and have harder chairs to that end. In other sections, they use furniture deliberately designed to achieve an average visit of around 45 minutes per person.

Flow

For our own part, Mission has developed a store layout for the Norwegian kiosk giant Narvesen that allows all of its customers – the busiest ones, the normal ones and the ones having the most time – to move around the shop in an optimal manner. The more relaxed customers can wend their way into the heart of the store and move around at a leisurely pace. On the other hand, customers at places like Oslo Airport with very little time on their hands can grab what they need and pay at a self-checkout, all without the need to involve store employees.

When the smartest of all take their time

Even though it seems that nearly everyone in the world wants to go fast, faster and faster still, there are others who are going in the opposite direction. One good example is Apple, which is currently redesigning its stores. Furniture, machines, and people are utilised in a way that encourages customers to spend more time there, so while the customers are just as quick-witted and quick on their keyboards as before, they are in less of a hurry to leave the shop.

You will find no trace of a “fetch-the-product, pay-for-it-quick, thank-you-very-much, next-customer-please” mentality in an Apple store. On the contrary, Apple aims to inspire and participate in its customers’ growth, stating in its credo:

“We are here to enrich lives. To help dreamers become doers, to help passion expand human potential, to do the best work of our lives.”

We would certainly call this the purpose , but Apple is clever at redefining things and making them its own. It simply wants to share its customers’ time and to be a part of their personal development.

People are different. Some love to follow the reindeer across the plains in real time – on the TV. Some buy robotic lawn mowers to avoid spending one second too many on the lawn. There are probably even some who buy robotic lawn mowers to spend more time following the reindeer on the plains or the passenger ship Hurtigruten on its slow journey from port to port.

There are things a business should take the time to do. For example, to find out why it exists. If you have defined what purpose you have, you do not have to spend too much time on everything that disrupts the flow. Hope you take the time to send an email or book an appointment for a chat .