The psychology of waiting!
Posted by Ajay Kelkar on Sat, Sep 05, 2009
Frank Capek has this very interesting take on something
that we end up doing everyday-waiting! In fact today “waiting” has become multi
channel-you wait in physical queues and you also wait on the IVR for the call
centre agent.
Here is what Frank says: It’s hard to overestimate the impact of
waiting on your customers’ experience. Across the research we’ve
conducted, some of the most dramatic customer defections occur because of bad
waiting experiences.You can help customers “lose wait” two ways: 1) reduce the
actual waiting time and 2) design a better waiting experience; one that is more
pleasurable or at least less frustrating.
Read Frank’s comments at:
http://customerinnovations.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/helping-customers-lose-wait/
Organized retail is India is growing rapidly and often in
the operations intensive world of retailing, executives just don’t get the time
to stop & think about the impact of simple innovations in their retail
stores. Carl Bialik writes this very interesting
piece in the Wall street journal and I
quote: “But
the primary goal often isn't a reduction in wait time. The simplest way to
reduce wait time is also the most expensive: adding more employees. And people
have inaccurate internal clocks, as research shows, so there's little benefit
in shortening the lines, the thinking goes.Instead, retailers are appealing to
consumers' sense of justice by ensuring no one is served after another customer
who arrives later. And, in the hierarchy of unpleasant activities, they're
seeking to elevate waiting above watching paint dry. Such measures can have a
big effect on perceptions of wait times, highlighting how in customer service,
psychology trumps the basic math of wait times.”
Check out Carl’s article at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125063608198641491.html
Also see this fascinating article on “The psychology of
waiting lines” by David Meister. He has made several very interesting
observations regarding customers’ perceptions of waiting
http://davidmaister.com/pdf/PsycholgyofWaitingLines751.pdf
I have the following take on this:
1. Apart
from the psychology there is also the mathematics of Queues . Are Retailers
looking at the numbers and actually plotting Cash tiller locations basis the
consumer purchase data and the throughput of bills per teller point. Maybe
analytics here will throw up some very interesting ideas for a Retailer to
experiment on.
2. Visual
merchandizing-both visual and sensory –can go a long way in impacting the
perception a consumer has about “wait times”. Are marketers doing enough in
this area?