True cost of response time
Monday, March 15, 2010
9:53 AM
True cost of response time
Astonishing fact: if a customer is forced to wait more than 5 seconds or so for a search result, the sale is lost. 
So, if you're going to take more than 5 seconds to respond, don't even bother; respond to as many customers as you can in under 5 seconds. 
Tell the others "sorry". 
This is called an admission control strategy for marketplace searching. 