Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

It depends on how badly they want what they're looking for and how much better your service/product is from the competition. 1 business day would ideal.

For all things real estate-based, either the same day or the next business day.

Have you ever had a problem with an Amazon.com transaction and requested to speak with a live agent? As soon as you click "Call me now" the phone rings. Not 5 minutes, not 3 minutes, not one minute, not even 5 seconds. NOW.

The result is that Amazon has high loyalty among a large audience. They provide WOW! service.

So how fast would cause YOUR target audience to say you provide WOW! service? I'd say anything longer than an hour would be too long. Target should probably be less than 15 minutes.

If a customer is online and has to wait longer than it takes to click the back button and select another option, it's probably too late ... except if the next guy is even slower than you are in responding.

This could be a situation where the first responder wins more often than not. How badly do you want to win?

As a customer: I want it as fast as possible especially if it is a phone call. If it is an email, I can wait for about 12 hours. 24 hours if I am in love with the business. Anything more than that sets off red flags in my mind.

As a business owner: I know it's not possible for everyone to offer the level of service that Amazon.com can provide due to staff/budget constraints so I aim for 12 hours for emails. For phone calls, I try to get them as fast as possible.

As a customer I can not wait more than one day. More than this I will be upset

We try to respond within the hour 7 days a week, other industries the next business day is acceptable. Personally if I don't hear from a company within 2 business days I figure they aren't interested in my business.