The business of waiting

As I write, we’re waiting to find out who will form government in Australia and all we can do is wait anxiously, or irritably for the result.
How does waiting affect our customers?
If you thought “They don’t like it”, you’re right. Here are some tips:

Occupied time is shorter
William James observed: “Boredom results from being attentive to the passage of time itself.” If you have a restaurant, giving customers menus while they wait shortens the perceived waiting time. It also shortens service time, with customers ready to order as soon as they’re seated. It also says: ‘service has started: we know you’re here’. Anxiety levels are higher while waiting to be served than while being served.
Telephone waits are more difficult. ‘Muzak’ increases anxiety. In part, this is because the activity is unrelated to the need. The activity should offer a benefit and be related in some way to the reason for waiting. If you have customers waiting, your recorded message should relate to your service or be genuinely interesting to the customer.
Yet music can be good. A serious bit of research into anxiety and waiting found that anxiety while waiting for surgery can be significantly reduced when patients listen to their own choice of music. This also improved post-operative recovery .

Anxiety makes waits longer
Erma Bombeck’s Law:
“The other line always moves faster”
Trying to decide whether to move to the other line makes you more anxious and the wait seems longer.

Uncertain waits are longer
The biggest source of anxiety is not knowing how long a wait will be. The pilot who repeatedly announces “only a few more minutes” insults us when the wait goes on and on. Not only are we forced to wait, we’re not being dealt with honestly. Unexplained waits add even more tension.
Then there’s “appointment syndrome.” Clients arriving early for an appointment sit contentedly until the scheduled time, but when it passes, they grow increasingly annoyed. An appointment time is a service expectation.

Unfair waits are longer
Sasser, Olsen, and Wycoff (1979) note that one of the most frequent irritants mentioned by restaurant customers is priority seating for those who arrived later. “The feeling that somebody has successfully ‘cut in front’ of you causes even the most patient customer to become furious.” (1979, 89)

The more valuable the service, the longer we will wait
We accept a longer waiting time for haute cuisine than fast food. In universities, if the teacher is delayed, “You wait ten minutes for an assistant professor, fifteen for an associate professor, and twenty for a full professor.”
Also, waiting to leave when there is no more value to be received is aggravating. Waits at hotel checkouts feel longer than check-in waits.

Solo waits feel longer than group waits
It’s remarkable to observe waiting lines where individuals wait next to each other without interacting until a delay is announced. Then they turn to each other to express exasperation, wonder collectively what is happening, and console each other.
Sometimes a sense of community develops and the line turns into an encounter in its own right; the waiting is part of the fun and part of the service. Whatever you can do to promote the sense of group waiting will tend to increase the tolerance.

Conclusion
You can have a significant impact on your customers’ satisfaction with waiting by thinking about these psychological factors and creating imaginative solutions.
Adapted from Maister, D The Psychology of Waiting Lines http://davidmaister.com/articles/5/52/ 1985 and
Arslan S, et al, Effect of music on preoperative anxiety in men undergoing urogenital surgery oral paper at the Turkish Surgical and Operating Room Nursing Congress: With International Participation, 4 8 September 2007, Gaziantep, Turkey.