Practical Sales Training™ > How To Get Attention > While You Wait Service
What is it?
A while you wait service is when something useful is completed during a period the customer would otherwise be idle.
Instead of asking for extra time, attention, or effort, the work is done in the background while the customer is already waiting or occupied with something else. From their perspective, nothing additional was required.
The value comes from collapsing time, not adding features.
How does it work?
Waiting time feels wasted because it produces no visible progress. A while you wait service reframes that same time as productive, which immediately changes how the overall experience is judged.
Psychologically, this works because the customer doesn’t feel like they are paying with effort. There is no extra appointment, no extra step, and no extra decision. The service simply fits into time that already existed.
What matters is not how long the task takes, but when it takes place. When the work happens during otherwise dead time, it feels faster, easier, and more considerate, even if the actual duration hasn’t changed at all.
The brain rewards efficiency, especially when it feels like a bonus rather than a requirement.
How can you use it?
You use a while you wait service to make your offering feel easier to say yes to.
By completing work during existing downtime, you remove a common source of friction: the feeling that this will take more time than the customer wants to give. The decision becomes lighter because the cost in effort feels close to zero.
This is especially powerful for tasks customers know they should do but keep postponing. When the work happens while they wait anyway, delay no longer makes sense.
The key is relevance. The service must genuinely fit the waiting period and deliver something meaningful by the time it ends. When it does, the experience feels efficient, thoughtful, and well designed.
A while you wait service doesn’t just save time.
It changes how time is perceived.
And perceived effort is often what decides whether someone buys.
Example
This Timpsons offers shoe repair while you shop. (It’s located within a Tesco)
See also
