Whilst many might question the long-term benefits of having to ‘tweet’ every five minutes, the necessity of utilising technology and making your business mobile can no longer be dismissed.

The last 12 months has witnessed an increased demand for near-immediate replies to emails and ready access to suppliers at all times. Many bosses say that if they don’t get a reply within ten minutes they will, quite simply, take their business elsewhere.

The latest results of the annual Critical Response Time Index, by Vodafone reveals that for business leaders speed is of the essence when choosing a new business supplier. Whilst old relationships may have counted for something in the past, suppliers can no longer afford to rest on their laurels. Ultimately if a new supplier can respond faster than an existing relationship, they have a good chance of taking the business away from them.

So how quickly and in which way do you need to respond to a client’s enquiries to guarantee satisfaction and continued business? What now constitutes an acceptable level of customer service? How can you ensure that you never lose a potential opportunity to a competitor? And how can you save money on business costs without compromising the efficiency of the business itself? For high-level, expert answers to all these crucial questions and more, just log in to the show.

Sally Fenwick, Head of Small Business at Vodafone and Business Psychologist, Sue Firth will also be answering your personal questions live online, so don’t waste time – send yours in now.

H: Mark Rise, host
S: Sally Fenwick, Head of Small Business at Vodafone
Sue: Sue Firth, Business Psychologist

H: Hello and welcome to the Business Show, I\'m Mark Rise. Well whilst many question the long-term benefits of having to \'tweet\' every five minutes, the necessity of utilising technology and making your business mobile can no longer be dismissed. Speed is now of the essence when choosing a new business supplier, and the latest results of the Critical Response Time Index, by Vodafone reveals that the pace has certainly picked up over the last year. Well joining me to discuss this and more is Sally Fenwick, Head of Small Business at Vodafone and Sue Firth, Business Psychologist. Well welcome along to the program,

S: Hello

H: We do live in a very fast-paced society now – are we all just being too impatient Sue do you think?

Sue: Well I don\'t think that it\'s just telling us that we\'re being impatient, what it\'s pointing to is the fact that our methods of working are shifting and our expectations need to shift with that. Now in order for us to be able to take on board what this information means, we\'ve got to actually become aware that to still appeal to customers we need to feel that they are valued, that they feel heard and that they can trust us, so this is the reason why the response time is going down, because people are wanting to feel these factors quicker, and they want therefore a response from you that just reassures them, and to do so pretty quickly

H: So we\'re insecure in effect?

Sue: Well we\'re insecure for a reason, this is a tough economical time, things have shifted to some degree. The big lending institutions like banks which have become tried and trusted for so many years, have shifted their goalposts on us, so we are being squashed to some degree, and we\'re passing that on in some ways. We want to feel in control of our lives, we want to feel we\'ve got choices about where we go, so we are only passing on those same expectations when we are making contacts with organisations that they need to look after us, and if they\'re not looking after us we move on

H: Well we\'re live this afternoon so if you\'ve got any questions for our guests please do just fill in the little box on your screen and we\'ll try and tackle them over the course of the show. This is a really interesting topic because the survey actually showed that a year ago businesses – if they responded within ten minutes or so – within 30 minutes or so would be absolutely fine, and they would get the business. Now it\'s gone down to ten minutes Sally – this is outrageous isn\'t it?

S: Absolutely so the expectations, as Sue alluded to earlier are really changing, so I think technology has really helped people be able to respond quicker, and expectation is just going up and up and up, so yes from 30 minutes a year ago to ten minutes now, so that is a very quick response time for anyone in any sort of business

H: Is that the credit crunch, is that the recession hitting? We need to be working faster – is that what that is?

Sue: It\'s part of it -

S: It\'s part

Sue: Isn\'t it, yes – because things are getting tougher, what it\'s asking is that at least if you acknowledge somebody they\'re going to feel happier

H: So we\'re not talking about a complete response, we\'re talking about a – we\'ve got your email, you are important to us

Sue: I don\'t think it\'s practical, particularly not if you\'re a one-man band because there are people out there now who will be absolutely terrified -

H: Yes

Sue: To think that they\'re going to lose an awful lot of business if they\'re not around within a ten minute window. This is not a practical thing for you to be able to do, and I think even large multi-nationals would want to say there\'s no way that I can respond in that kind of time. However if as a quick tip you get an auto-responder and using email for your benefit, and that auto-responder says in a really positive way, we acknowledge receipt of this, thank you, we will respond to you within x amount of time. If you\'re uncomfortable with how long that\'s got then at least point somebody in the direction of another person that they can approach, or another telephone number – people feel heard. And then they feel that they\'ve had a response and they feel more important to you

S: So if you\'re in the middle of a supply chain and you\'ve got, you know customers who are asking that of you, then you need to know that your enquiry, your message hasn\'t gone into a black hole, someone\'s acknowledging it. We know from numerous bits of research that communication and being kept informed about what\'s happening is one of the most critical things of, you know, how to actually run a business successfully

H: In the response survey, is this more business-to-business or is this individual consumers to business do you think?

S: This is business-to-business and skued at the small business end, so we\'re looking at how really technology, and it\'s another answer to your earlier question, it\'s technology advancements that I think have really set that bar a bit higher about how people can work more remotely, working from home etc. We have the technology and it\'s far more accessible now

H: Well let\'s talk about the technology just for a moment because you are the specialist in providing that. We\'re talking so much more than mobile email and little palm tops really, it\'s the fact that you can carry your emails with you

S: Absolutely so I coin the phrase, it\'s kind of email in your pocket, so even just 12 months, 18 months ago it was quite inaccessible for a customer to expect to get email on a handset for example that they would use to ring or text on. Now most handsets are actually email compatible and you can walk into a store or go into any other sales environment and get set-up pretty quickly with a business or a home email account in fact, so that\'s all out there for customers today. And of course it\'s not just email, it\'s internet access as well, and at the higher end you know access to the systems that run your business that you can look at remotely

H: Do you think that some people feel this really personally – and I think this is really the psychologist side of it – my dad has always said about mobile technology and mobile phones, it\'s there for when I want to contact people, not there for when they want to contact me

Sue: I know

H: I think businesses have to look at it separately don\'t they, but it\'s an interesting kind of personal response

Sue: You have to shift your mindset really, at one stage we used to run businesses from the point of view of having a shop that we used to close for an hour while we headed off for lunch

H: Exactly

Sue: We don\'t have that luxury any more

H: No

Sue: So that\'s the reason why I\'m smiling about what you\'re saying about your dad. You\'ve really got to try to just shift your mindset about it and recognise that because practices and the process of running a business has shifted, you need to go with it – jump on the bandwagon and if you feel overwhelmed by the technological advances and you don\'t know what to take on over anything else, go into a shop and start to ask. So be prepared to take on board that that will help your business become more productive and more effective

H: Well we have had a question in which specifically works to that. Steven has emailed us, thank you for your email Steven, \"when running a small business with multiple tasks to undertake at any one time, is there a case to prioritise emails? Is it ok to do that?\"

Sue: Yes. I would have said so. If you are a one-man band you\'ve got a finite amount of energy in any one day. It doesn\'t help you to feel this now heightened awareness that I\'ve got to get this tension in my system and respond to everything. All that will do is make you completely panic and I\'ll end up putting on my stress hat as a psychologist and specialist in stress if I end up advising you on that – you must prioritise who and how you\'re going to respond. You know your business well, you know your clients. You need to react to those critical issues that are at the top of your pile and then get to the bottom as best you can. However, if you\'ve at least got a responder that says thank you I acknowledge your request, they will feel heard

H: Should that always have a phone number on do we think so that you can contact a real, living, breathing human being?

S: I think it\'s horses for courses, so I think you have to use all the different communication mediums we\'ve got at our disposal, so you know face-to-face, a phone conversation or an email, use it where it\'s appropriate. So I think sometimes the answer\'s yes, if it\'s very urgent that\'s appropriate, pick up the phone and make a call. If not sometimes a response via email is just as acceptable

H: And I guess it depends what they\'re asking as well

Sue: It does. If they\'re actually wanting information there is no alternative than for you to be able to respond to that at some stage, and voice-to-voice which is a polite expression for meaning if not face-to-face, is the vital link that they want. A virtual PA for example when you\'ve got a really small business would at least support you to some degree, be able to take messages and / or information or requests -

H: If some people don\'t know what that is, a virtual PA is what?

Sue: Well a virtual PA is somebody who quite literally is like you or me if we had a different job title, sitting in our own home or office, but we – via the internet and phone – have contact with any number of individuals who would use our service as a facilitator so we can -

H: Like a personal call centre

Sue: It is a personal call centre -

H: Excellent

Sue: So basically if I was to phone into a company and you were the individual I was approaching and you weren\'t available, it gets forwarded to a response by a person, and that person can be living in Nova Scotia for all we know, because it\'s really not relevant, and they will pick up and say \"Sue Firth\" and then they will take a message on my behalf

H: Excellent. Well I hope that answers Lucy\'s question, because Lucy was asking about auto-response emails – also had a question in from Samantha, and this is really where we go how many hours in a day are there, how many days in a week are there? How do you deal with emails at weekends and outside conventional working hours? Is it still right to be responsive? Do we have to still respond within that ten minutes that we\'re talking about?

Sue: I think people can get very uptight about this if we\'re not careful and I think they can end up almost overworking, which actually erodes their work / life balance, and that\'s quite an important thing to have asked, so thank you very much for that. I think it\'s the point about being aware – if the response is quite a quick one, remember that an acknowledgement is better than nothing. If what they\'re looking for is a full-scale report and / or response, then obviously you\'re not going to want to be doing that during the weekend, so buy yourself the time to respond more appropriately by at least connecting with that individual, but don\'t feel honour-bound to give them the full answer if you know it\'s going to be a meaty response that\'s needed

S: And I think you have to be really careful about how you use expectations as well, so if you do that for a few weekends on the trot

Sue: Yes

S: You are going to send out a message that that is your modus operand and that\'s the way in which people are going to expect to work with you. So I think Sue\'s absolutely spot on, it\'s about acknowledging it, but again it\'s horses for courses

H: Do we not think that there\'s a danger there though Sally – I mean you personally were talking about email in your pocket. When it\'s in your pocket it\'s desperately tempting to reply – you\'ve got a new client there, of course it\'s going to be tempting to reply to them

S: Absolutely and I think you have to assert some self-discipline to actually determine when it\'s appropriate and when it\'s not appropriate because some people might actually think that a late night email response is actually inappropriate, so I think you have to use your judgement in the scenarios that present themselves to you to work out when that is right and when that\'s wrong. We advocate really – the tools that we have to give people that freedom and un-tether them really from a fixed environment, but you actually work – they work for you rather than against you, so you have to work out a way of managing that in-flow and that out-flow that works for you and your business

H: Is this because we live in a text environment – a tweet environment that we were talking about – so that when you send a text message to someone, if you\'re waiting more than ten minutes, and this is just personal, not in business even, you\'re kind of going did they get it? Why aren\'t they responding? And that\'s feeding back to us, not in a good way particularly

Sue: Well this is why this is actually quite a big subject really. It\'s almost opening up even more information here. Business has gone global, so you may be getting an enquiry from the US which is on a whole different time zone from your own, now they don\'t necessarily know what time your – you are – or whether they\'re interrupting your evening meal with your two kids. So some sort of an acknowledgement is what we\'re talking about, and that – the psychology of that can only be of benefit to you as the individual they are approaching. And they\'re more likely to give you their business if they feel that you have gone to the trouble to do that. But I repeat you don\'t need to come up with the whole goods in that instant, inside of that ten minutes. What the research and the statistics are showing though is that people like choice and they like to f eel that if you don\'t at least acknowledge or say something positive, they could possibly take their business somewhere else

S: Yes

H: And this is the repercussion isn\'t it, that the survey has come out with that actually if you don\'t give that satisfactory response, people are taking their business elsewhere?

S: Absolutely and we also know that it can cost you money if you don\'t respond within a certain timescale, that it is an expectation that has been set. We coin the phrase work smarter, so for us it\'s not about necessarily working harder, or working longer hours, but it\'s having that discipline that – and negotiating almost with the technology to say how can this work best for me ? So – and it – organisations, small businesses in particular, say run by also mums, you can use a bit of free time between sort of 6-8 in the morning before the kind of school run kicks in, to actually tackle a few emails and look at a couple of documents, rather than actually being pressurised to do that in the normal 9 to 5 day which to be honest is dissipating fast

H: Of course and if there are small businesses watching who are going hang on, is there a top tip, I think we have actually identified that over the course of the last 15 minutes – it\'s not about a full-blown response at all, it\'s about something. It\'s about getting back to – and that can be auto-responded. Can we just go through the various, again the different types that are available?

S: Yes I mean that\'s as simple as setting that up on your own email server, so as soon as you get an email in it just triggers an immediate response back to the other sender to set expectations about service level, when you\'ll get back to them, or are you out of the office etc etc. So that\'s one way. Another way is around voicemail, so voicemail greeting, a lot of people don\'t personalise those – it\'s such a simple thing to do, gives the caller a real comfort factor – they\'ve called the right person, and you can also say if I\'m not available to respond to you today or within the next couple of hours then you can contact someone else, so it\'s making sure that you don\'t lose that potential business contact or deal, just because you haven\'t personalised your voicemail. And then of course you kind of go on and up the spectrum, so we talked about email in your pocket – mobile broadband now is far more accessible than it was you know even a year ago

H: Exactly, you see so many people – trains and everywhere

S: Plug and play – plug and play devices, you know most people use laptops now, they\'re accessible

H: And WiFi – in public places as well

Sue: Yes. So shift your expectations about it just a little bit. Rather than seeing this stuff as an inconvenience, rather than seeing it as invading your privacy and no I am not advocating that you take your Blackberry or similar device on holiday and have it on 24 / 7 – no. it\'s about being appropriate, so it\'s about having a certain amount of support and it\'s about utilising that support, whether that be in this sense a technological form of support or another person, so that you can offset against you being allowed and available and going on holiday, but equally that your business stays up and running, and that\'s what people are doing when they\'re on trains on in downtime in an airport, that\'s what they\'re doing, they\'re checking what\'s going on in their businesses

S: And that\'s about choice and it\'s about control which is everything that\'s being borne out in the survey that we\'re talking about today

H: So although it\'s a really dynamic headline, the fact that unless you get back to people within ten minutes – we don\'t need to panic

Sue: No, no. This isn\'t meant to mean that we\'re scare-mongering and that you\'re now terrified that you\'re going to potentially lose £20,000 worth of business. The implications are there for you to read into that, and it is very obvious that if you were to make that kind of mistake then you could potentially lose business, but actually that\'s not rocket science, these things you\'ve been doing anyway, will have been looking after your clients, so all we\'re adding is for you just to tweak just a little bit more of the way you\'re working, and for example like your dad, don\'t put your head in the sand and ignore the technology that\'s in your favour

H: One final question that\'s come in from Emma Harvey, she says \"is there any evidence to suggest that a response to an email with a phone call is in fact better than simply emailing back?\" Is there any actual evidence there or is it again horses for courses on this?

Sue: It\'s very much horses for courses, really, at least I would add the psychology of that before you might add the technology of that. It\'s very much horses for courses – you know your client base because you know the culture or type of organisation that you\'re working within, so you know whether people would prefer to receive something by one form or another. Email is still perceived as a somewhat cold medium by some people because you can\'t be very personal, or particularly humorous in it – it would put some people off and it would invite others. So it has to be a generic form. The advantage of being able to pick up the phone is an obvious one. They get your personality, they get a feel for you, they get to feel what your business is about. But don\'t be afraid to utilise all mediums in a different way to a different degree, depending on the form of response that you\'re wanting

S: Yes I would endorse that, it\'s about a balance. It\'s about not hiding behind the technology, you\'ve still got to front your business and have a face to your business and a face-to-face meeting or conversation is the only way that you can really do that. So it\'s about understanding what\'s appropriate. If you have got a large tender document or a Pdf of a brochure, then clearly an email is by far and away the best medium to use. So again I think you just need to choose the way in which you communicate and use a balance of all the things that are available to you

H: And just very quickly before we end – a year ago mobile working on laptops probably wasn\'t in the big domain – where are we going to be in a year? Five years\' time do you think?

S: Well I think it will become completely ubiquitous, so I think the notion of having a wire attached to something in order to be able to communicate, whether it\'s on a phone or a computer or whatever will just become really quite ridiculous, so that\'s the definite direction which we\'re moving, and we\'re seeing that kind of month in month out. The amount of consumers and businesses that are now taking up mobile working because of all the benefits is blowing us away

H: Ladies thank you very much indeed, that\'s Sally Fenwick and Sue Firth. For more information about what we\'ve been talking about today please do go to the website, it\'s www.vodafone.co.uk and thanks for tuning into the Business Show, I hope you\'ll join us again soon