A whopping 86% of people polled admitted to walking out of a retail store frustrated with having waited too long for service.

This same Martitz Research survey found that 67% told others about their negative experience and 50% reported that they had posted something online about their negative experience.

What are these store managers thinking? Apparently, not about the following

• The lost sales opportunity, especially in a slowing economy.

• The wasted advertising and marketing costs to get the customers in the store, before they walked out.
• The high likelihood of lost future sales to those customers.
• The loss of potential sales to unknown customers who are influenced by negative word-of-mouth.

Obviously businesses cannot staff-up to handle unexpected increases in business. However, according to this study, even a little consideration for the customer's experience can pay big dividends.

• 87% of the people said they would increase their wait time if they felt compassion or apologies were offered.

• 67% would wait longer if they were updated on their status.
• 74% would stick around longer if they got a smile.

These results are about wait time in stores but there are much broader implications. As a society at large, people are experiencing a great deal of time stress and this pushes them out of their psychological comfort zone. As a consequence, it takes less to trigger behaviors that negatively impact businesses.

Don't just eliminate the frustration, aim elicit a little positive emotion. Remember, 74% would stick around longer for a smile.