Once, salt was one of the most valuable commodities on earth. Usual supply and demand dynamics: plenty of need because of its preservation skills versus hard to find.
Over the centuries, it’s been a form of treasure, a trading currency, the cause of wars, a builder of empires and, in the case of Ghandi, a catalyst for protest. Today, it sits on a shelf in our supermarkets and we’re warned not to include too much of it in our diets. We don’t give it a second thought.
The modern equivalent of such a rarity is probably time.
Ask anyone how much free time they have these days. Most will tell you they don’t. They haven’t got time to do this or watch that or attend something else. They have so much to get through. And yet, according to Fast Company, Americans are spending more time on Facebook and Twitter than ever before: more than 2 hours a month on Twitter; more than four and a half hours on Facebook.
It’s fine. It’s enjoyable. It’s part of life.
And they’re not just talking for a minute here and there. The average user now visits Twitter 10 times per month for 13.1 minutes per session on average, and Facebook a little under 12 times a month for 23 minutes and 21 seconds per session. And it’s increasing …
Time may well be the new salt – but people will stay somewhere if you give them reasons to linger; reasons that seem more important to them than moving on. Somehow, people “find” the time.
Conversely, any time that feels like it could be better spent elsewhere is waiting time. And waiting time is like the stuff on the shelf – all too common, unprized and something we’re all telling ourselves we should have less of.
The genius of Starbucks’ “third place” was that it recognised that: people would rather spend time in a café than in a traffic jam. So Starbucks invited them to come in earlier and spend the extra time having coffee instead. Or drop in on the way home instead of heading straight for the crowded train.
Apps are going the same way – something fun to do, have or play with that make the less exciting moments more valuable.
It’s a challenge most of us could throw at our business models. The question is not how can we get our customers to spend more time with us? But rather – what can we offer them between the order and the delivery that feels less like waiting?
