Simple Tricks To Reduce Customer’s Perceived Waiting Time [Updated]

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Most people dread the experience of having to wait in a long queue for a service, and some won’t even mind spending extra money if it guarantees instant service. The psychology behind waiting time says –

5 minutes spent on queue = 12 minutes perception.
The longer the wait, the double the perception of time spent

Check out these simple tricks you can implement to reduce customers’ perceived waiting time at your business.

#1. Distract the Customer

TV, background music, soothing scents and even direct engagement with the waiting Customers can get their minds off the queue and the length of time they’ve spent on it. 

You can also use LCD screens to display engaging information such as tips on how to use your products or adverts. These capture the customers’ attention and distracts them from the fact that they’re on a queue. 

#2. Address the Customers

If there is an anomaly for the delay/increase in transaction time, politely inform the Customers, thank them for their patience and give an estimate of how long it would take to resolve the issue. DO NOT allow the Customers to make assumptions

#3. Over-Estimate the Waiting

If you estimate waiting time to be 10 minutes, tell the Customers it would take 20minutes, yes the Customers won’t be happy hearing they’d have to wait that long, but they would feel better when it gets to their turn after 10mins, instead of the 20minutes they had anticipated.

#4. De-congest the queue

Have a personnel interact with Customers on the queue to find out what they want to do, you’d be surprised to find that some people have no business being on the queue (thereby increasing waiting time). Politely direct such Customers to the appropriate desk/office.

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#5. Use a Common Queue System

Avoiding using a queue structure that has multiple lines and several counters. Because the multiple queues will move at varying rates, some queues will be faster than others at different times.

Image: theconversation.com

According to research conducted by Ziv Carmon and behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman, the negative feeling associated with seeing another line move faster than yours is much stronger than a positive reaction from picking the best line. 

A single/common queue structure is an easy way to reduce this anxiety and ensure that customers are served on a first come, first served basis.

#6. Discourage Cutting/jumping Queues

This practice should be discouraged. Train staff on how to firmly or politely decline such acts/requests from Customers. This infuriates civilized Customers waiting in the queue, and prolongs perceived waiting time even further.

If the Customer is valuable enough he should be attended to specially and discreetly. Never give any Customer the impression that his needs are not important enough.

#7. Take Advantage of Mordern Technology

In addition to providing customers with TVs to watch and magazines to read, a new approach getting popular today is providing free Wi-Fi and making phone charging stations available waiting areas.

This not only reduce customers’ perceived wait time, it also increases the amount of time they spend in the store as they wait for their phones to charge or browse the internet. The increases their likelihood to spend more and gives the business more opportunity to cross-sell.

 

It is important for a business to eliminate queues as much as possible or implement these steps to reduce customer’s perceived waiting time on queues. A long and unpleasant wait can leave customers with a negative impression of your brand, cause them to leave the line or not enter it in the first place and discourage them from coming back entirely.

Kelechi Okeke
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