Congratulations, you have made it to another Friday. Last Friday, I talked about the strange things that queues are and how they test our patience, especially if somebody tries to jump the queue. I also promised you some Jedi mind tricks to shorten the length of waiting in a queue.
So without further ado, let me introduce you to David Maister. Until his retirement in 2009, David was a respected authority in the management of service firms with a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a doctorate from Harvard Business School. In 2006 he wrote a nice piece on the psychology of waiting in line, which I use as the template for my actions. Based on his advice, I recommend the following actions for people who are waiting in line and want to make the time pass faster:
Occupied time feels shorter than unoccupied time. If you want the wait to feel shorter you could read the news on your phone. But I prefer striking up conversations with people in the queue. It is fascinating what people you meet and how quickly the time passes if you have a nice chat.
People want to get started. While you wait, you might want to start shopping by mentally preparing how you walk through the store to get all the things you need. This way, you are mentally shopping while you wait, and the wait will feel shorter. And more importantly, you will get your shopping done faster and reduce the wait time for the people behind you in the queue. Pat yourself on the shoulder for being a community-minded person.
Try to find out how long the wait is. Even if the estimate from the people in the queue is widely off the mark, the mere fact that you now have a mental anchor for the wait time will reduce anxiety and make the wait feel shorter.
Wait with someone else. A shared wait is a shorter wait (at least it feels that way).
Meanwhile, be aware that when we wait in line for too long, we tend to become asocial again. A recent battery of tests by researchers from Georgetown University looked at how people adjust their shopping behaviour when they have to wait in a queue (both physical queues as well as online). I was glad to read that people who are in front of a queue and see the queue behind them hasten their activities in order to shorten the wait for others behind them. But if the same people had to first wait in the queue before being able to shop, they did not hasten their shop. Essentially, they behaved as if to say: I have waited a long time, so now it’s your time to wait, sucker.
On the other hand, if you happen to be in charge of a shop or a company that is overwhelmed by customer demand (be it online or physically), congratulations on your success. Here is what you can do to enhance the customer experience:
Make sure the wait is organised in a queue. Nothing increases anxiety more than a disorganised waiting area where nobody knows who is next and everybody suspects they are being cheated by others who jump the queue.
Have one queue at a time. Avoid the temptation to open up several queues in a store because it heightens anxiety with customers that they are in the slow queue. Instead have one long queue that opens up too many cashiers at the end.
Inform your customers about the wait time and if they have a scheduled appointment keep to the schedule. Customers will happily wait for half an hour if they know it is going to take that long (see above). This is particularly true if they have a fixed appointment. But once the appointment has arrived, they instantaneously become anxious when it is delayed because what has become a predictable wait has turned into an unpredictable one. If you want to lose customers, then missing appointments or being late is a good way to do it.
Great advice for a Friday here in the land of queues!!
Thanks for these tips! The second one is especially useful during this period. In terms of real-life examples, I think Disney has mastered the art of queue design. Managing expectations of the waiting time, while keeping people entertained during the whole queuing process.