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Predictable FluctuationSometimes it is nearly impossible to shift customer
demand because of factors beyond the customers’ and organizations’ control.
• Business travelers in the U.S. most often conduct business between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday. Airlines and hotels that cater to businesspeople can do little to change their demand cycle.
• A service’s demand cycle can be more flexible in other cases: restaurants
Smoothing demand means shifting patronage to times when a service's productive capacity is underused and deflecting or discouraging patronage when it is oversubscribed.
• Single Queue: fairness of waiting time is ensured in that the first come, first-served rule applies to everyone; the system can also reduce the average time customers spend overall.
Differentiate waiting customers: not all customers need to wait the same length of time for the service. EX: Express checkout lanes for customers purchasing 10 items or less
Make waiting fun, or at least tolerable: it is not the actual time waiting that impacts customer satisfaction - it is how customers feel about the wait and their perceptions of it.
Unoccupied Time Feels Longer Than Occupied Time
Give customers menus to look at while waiting in the restaurant; reading material in the dentist’s office; music over the phone
• Preprocess Waits Feel Longer Than In-Process WaitsIf wait time is occupied with activities that relate to the upcoming service, customers may perceive that the service has already started and they are no longer actually waiting.Filling out medical information while waiting to see a physician; watching a videotape of the upcoming service event can educate the customer and reduce the perception of waiting
• Uncertain Waits are Longer than Known, Finite WaitsAnxiety is heightened when customers do not know how long they have to wait.
Appointment Syndrome: customers who arrive early for an appointment will wait patiently until the scheduled time, even if they arrive very early. However once the expected appointment has passed, customers grow increasingly anxious.
• Unfair Waits Are Longer Than Equitable WaitsWhen customers perceive that they are waiting while others who arrived after them have already been served, the apparent wait will make the wait seem even longer.
May occur when there is no apparent waiting in the waiting area and many customers are trying to be served.
• The More Valuable the Service, the Longer the Customer Will Wait
15 minute wait: Lawyer vs. Convenience StoreFull cart of groceries vs. Few itemsExpensive restaurant vs. Fast Food
• Solo Waits Feel Longer Than Group WaitsPeople are more accepting of a longer wait in a group because of distractions provided by other members of the group.