One stat stood out more than any other:

It makes total sense. We’ve all had the experience of trying to book a plumber, find a designer, or chase a supplier—only to be met with silence. The first company to reply feels easier, more professional, more capable. That perception becomes reality.
If you respond quickly, you become the obvious choice.

Here’s another figure that’s hard to ignore:

1 in 4 customers would pay up to 50% more just to avoid waiting..

This isn’t just for flights or fancy services. It applies to almost every industry—consulting, B2B services, trades, healthcare, even manufacturing. People are busy. Time is precious. Reducing friction is a value-add.
Which means there’s often room to introduce a “Fast Track” or premium tier, where clients pay more to be prioritised. The key is offering this clearly and confidently—not apologising for it.

Let’s be clear: “being fast” doesn’t mean rushing your work or compromising quality. It means engineering responsiveness. into how your business operates.
That might include:

✅ Reducing the time between initial enquiry and first response
✅ Streamlining onboarding or sales journeys
✅ Removing internal bottlenecks (handoffs, approvals, unclear next steps)
✅ Building quicker ways for customers to get what they need without chasing

Speed also signals confidence and control. It makes clients feel like they’re in safe hands.

One of the most important insights I took away is how AI is about to shift customer expectations even further.

As AI tools become more widely adopted, clients will expect:


✅ Instant answers
✅ Seamless experiences
✅Personalisation without needing to ask

This means the baseline for "acceptable" response time is about to rise—again. If your business is slow to adapt, it won’t be able to hide behind quality or price for long. You’ll simply look out of date.

And because AI is becoming available to everyone, you won’t gain long-term advantage by having better tools. The real advantage will be how you use the time AI gives back to you.

Which brings me to this...

Let’s say AI or systems automation saves your business 25% of your time.
You now have a choice:

✅ Cut costs and increase margin?
✅ Reinvest time in better service and higher pricing?
✅ Enter new markets?
✅ Accelerate development?
✅ Free up the founder’s time?

That decision will define the next few years of your business. AI is giving you time back. The question is: what are you going to do with it?

The biggest thing that slows down most businesses? The business itself.
It’s not that your product takes 10 days. It’s the internal ping-pong:


✅ Waiting on approvals
✅ Handovers between departments
✅ “We’ve always done it this way” mindsets

If you want to deliver faster externally, you need to remove friction internally.

It’s worth asking:
✅ Where are the bottlenecks?
✅ What tasks add no value but eat up time?
✅ How can we streamline without cutting corners?

One useful measure:

The lower that percentage, the more opportunity you have to improve speed without sacrificing quality.

Speed is a Temporary Advantage – Use it Now

Here’s the catch: the window to win on speed is temporary. Once your competitors catch up, the advantage disappears. And the gap closes fast.

You can either adapt now and lead, or adapt later and follow.

It’s a choice. But it’s also a strategic fork in the road. If you're one of the few companies that truly respects people’s time, it becomes part of your brand identity.
You’re seen as easier, more capable, and worth sticking with.

One Final Insight: Complaints = Opportunity

One last takeaway: when someone complains, they’re giving you a second chance. But most people don’t bother. They just walk away.

For every 1 complaint, 19 customers had the same issue but said nothing.
So: