I’m a very impatient person, and standing in a slow-moving line drives me crazy. So, I set out to understand the psychology behind my frustration. Show
In my quest, I happened to read a paper by David Maister, The Psychology of Waiting Lines (PDF). The piece is aimed at people who operate stores, restaurants, doctors’ offices, and other places where people fuss about being kept waiting. Of course, most of us are the ones standing in line, not the ones controlling the line. But I was fascinated by the insight this paper provided into my own psychology of waiting. Maister’s main point is that the actual time we’re waiting may have little to do with how long the wait feels. Here’s a list of eight factors that make waits seem longer. 1. Unoccupied time feels longer than occupied time. When you have something to distract yourself, time passes more quickly. Some hotels put mirrors by the elevators, because people like to look at themselves. 2. People want to get started. This is why restaurants give you a menu while you wait, and why the orthodontist puts my daughter in the examination room twenty-five minutes before her exam actually begins. 3. Anxiety makes waits seem longer. If you think you’ve chosen the slowest line at the drugstore, or you’re worried about getting a seat on the plane, the wait will seem longer. 4. Uncertain waits are longer than known, finite waits. People wait more calmly when they’re told, “The doctor will see you in thirty minutes” than when they’re told, “The doctor will see you soon.” Maister gives an amusing illustration of a phenomenon that I’d noticed in my own life: if I arrive someplace thirty minutes early, I wait with perfect patience, but three minutes after my appointment time passes, I start to feel annoyed. “Just how long am I going to have to wait?” I think. 5. Unexplained waits are longer than explained waits. We wait more patiently for the pizza guy when there’s a thunderstorm than when the sky is clear. 6. Unfair waits are longer than equitable waits. People want their waits to be fair. I get anxious, for instance, when I’m waiting on a crowded subway platform, when there’s no clear, fair way to determine who gets on the next car. The “FIFO” rule (first in, first out) is a great rule, when it works. But sometimes certain people need attention more urgently, or certain people are more valuable customers. Then it gets trickier. Often, when people are treated out of sequence, it’s helpful to have them be served elsewhere — e.g., people giving customer service by phone shouldn’t be in the same room as people giving service in person. 7. The more valuable the service, the longer the customer will wait. You’ll wait longer to talk to a doctor than to talk to a sales clerk. You’ll stand in line longer to buy an iPad than to buy a toothbrush. 8. Solo waits feel longer than group waits. The more people engage with each other, the less they notice the wait time. In fact, in some situations, waiting in line is part of the experience. During my book signings, I’ve been very gratified to have people tell me, “I had so much fun talking to the people in line!” Since I’ve read this paper, I’ve been far more patient about standing in line. I’m occupied (see #1) with thoughts analyzing my own experience of waiting in line! Also, it may not always be good for us to be able to distract ourselves with our cell phones, but it sure makes the DMV easier. Have you found any good ways to make waiting in line more pleasant? Share in our comments. If you’re thinking, “Hmmm, should I read Happier at Home?” here’s some information to help you decide. Short answer: Of course you should! The waiting line or queue management is a critical part of service industry. It deals with issue of treatment of customers in sense reduce wait time and improvement of service. Queue management deals with cases where the customer arrival is random; therefore, service rendered to them is also random. A service organization can reduce cost and thus improve profitability by efficient queue management. A cost is associated with customer waiting in line and there is cost associated with adding new counters to reduce service time. Queue management looks to address this trade off and offer solutions to management. Waiting Line ProblemsWaiting in line is common phenomena in daily life, for example, banks have customers in line to get service of teller, cars queue up for re-filling, workers line up to access machine to complete their job. Therefore, management needs to work on formulae, which will reduce wait time and create delighted customers without incurring an additional cost. Generally, queue management problems are trade off’s situation between cost of time spent in waiting v/s cost of additional capacity or machinery. Finite and Infinite PopulationIn a waiting line scenario, there are cases of finite population of customers and infinite population of customers.
However finite population model also considers a scenario where the customer after getting served will re-visit the service counter for re-service, leading to increase in finite population. Queuing SystemTo solve problems related to queue management it is important to understand characteristics of the queue. Some common queue situations are waiting in line for service in super-market or banks, waiting for results from computer and waiting in line for bus or commuter rail. General premise of queue theory is that there are limited resources for a given population of customers and addition of a new service line will increase the cost aspect to the business. A typical queue system has the following:
Service ConfigurationAnother aspect of waiting line management is the service configuration. There are four types of service configuration, and they are as follows:
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View All Articles  Authorship/Referencing - About the Author(s)The article is Written By “Prachi Juneja” and Reviewed By Management Study Guide Content Team. MSG Content Team comprises experienced Faculty Member, Professionals and Subject Matter Experts. We are a ISO 2001:2015 Certified Education Provider. To Know more, click on About Us. The use of this material is free for learning and education purpose. Please reference authorship of content used, including link(s) to ManagementStudyGuide.com and the content page url. What are the four main characteristics of waiting lines which determine the queuing model?What are the four main characteristics of waiting lines? Population source, number of servers (channels), arrival and service patterns, queue discipline (order of service).
What are the characteristics of line quizlet?What are the 3 characteristics of a line? Dimension, Quality, and Character.
Which statement best describes a typical guests perception of wait?Which statement best describes the typical guest's response to waiting? The more value the guest expects to receive from the service, the more patiently the guest will wait.
What are some of the ways service managers may be able to reduce waiting times through constraint management?what are some ways service managers may be able to reduce waiting times through constraint management?. shift demand off peak hours via customer incentives.. use temporary workers during peak demand times.. eliminate bottleneck through process improvement methods.. |
