In a new national survey conducted by Great Clips Salons, a salon network with more than 3,100 salons throughout the United States and Canada, employing nearly 30,000 stylists, found that – wait for it…

People hate to wait.

The survey of 316 people aged 30-55 concluded that customers define a “reasonable wait time” at a retail business to be 5 – 10 minutes or less. In fact, 76% of them said a wait longer than 5 – 10 minutes is “unreasonable.”

What does it have to do with multi-channel retail?

In the same survey, 87 percent of respondents said they would use a technology that kept them from waiting in line if it saved them 15 minutes of waiting and two out of three respondents said they would use online check-in or download an app that saved their place in line at a retail business.

So the question becomes, how can retailers use technology to keep their customers engaged while waiting, instead of getting frustrated and leaving?

Great Clips conducted this survey because they recently introduced a time-saving online check-in which allows customers to check in from their desktops or smart phones, and has trimmed haircut wait times from about 15 minutes to five minutes.

What can you do at your organization to reduce wait times and integrate other channels to enhance your customers’ in-store experience?