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A Paradigm Shift in Real-time Response – From “nice to have” to “must have”

Published: July 22, 2011, 2:59 p.m.

Not too long ago marketers were given a grace period when responding to a prospect or customer. Depending on the nature of the inquiry the grace period could range from a few hours to 1-2 business days. The tools were still evolving, it was expensive to respond quickly and quite honestly, no one was expecting it. Not anymore.

If you’re looking for auto insurance, you can visit the GEICO website for a near-instant 15-minute quote. That’s still (far) better than many sites which ask for that same 15 minutes for you to complete a form and then inform you that an agent will call you. Who knows when. GEICO’s “15-minutes could save you 15 percent or more” promise speaks volumes compared to the “an agent will call” promise.

Today, consumers expect to get information in real-time because their actual buying cycle has become more compressed. Once they’re past the consideration threshold they want the actual buying process to be quick and painless.

Staying on the insurance theme, agents need quality leads to support their pipeline. That often means getting that lead delivered in real-time so he/she can respond in real-time. Leads that are a few days old are not nearly as valuable compared to leads that are an hour old.

Despite the ubiquity of Marketing Automation platforms and service providers and the low implementation costs some companies can’t or won’t restructure their operations to deliver a real time response. Unless these companies change their behavior, they risk being outpaced, outshined and outlived by their competition. Events are occurring in real-time on your website, blogs, etc. and the time to engage your market and connect with customers in real-time is now.

In this customer-centric world, the real-time response paradigm has shifted from “nice to have” to “must have.” It’s time to engage with the customer in real-time. The only question is, what’s this new “measure” of real-time? If you were to be contacted within 5 minutes, 30 minutes or 2 hours, would you consider that to be a real-time response?

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