The Ifbyphone Retail Responsiveness Infographic

When consumers want answers, they want them now - but some brands make them wait far too long. Ifbyphone found that consumers are 59% more likely to buy and 73% more likely to recommend a brand when a call was answered in less than a minute.

Ifbyphone then studies STORES Magazine's top 100 retail brands to see how they stacked up. Three independent auditors called each of the 100 brands at a local number to determine average response time and compare by industry.

The top 10 most responsive brands included RadioShack, Wegmans, 7-Eleven, and Ace Hardware.

The average local store response time was 34 seconds, while the slowest responder took over 3 minutes and 30 seconds to answer.

Four industries clocked in under 20 seconds for average local response time: auto parts, restaurants, hardware, and office supplies. The study also showed over one full minute of difference in response time between the most and lease responsive industries.

On average, the fastest industry to reach a local representative was automotive at 9.5 seconds. The slowest industry to reach a local representative was housewares at 1 minute 10 seconds.