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Waiting Line Management

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Waiting time influence on the satisfaction-loyalty relationship in services
Fre´de´ric Bielen
HEC Ecole de Gestion, Universite´ de Lie` ge, Lie`ge,
Belgium and Ecole de Sante´ Publique, Universite´ Catholique de Louvain,
Louvain, Belgium, and
Nathalie Demoulin
IESEG School of Management, Catholic University of Lille, Lille, France
Abstract
Purpose – Delay is an important issue for service providers. Indeed, previous studies have widely shown the negative effect of waiting time on consumer service satisfaction. However, being satisfied with the service seems to be insufficient for customers to remain loyal. Creating customer loyalty is even more crucial than just satisfying them. The paper aims to investigate how customers …show more content…

Conceptual background
Waiting time
Service perishability gives rise to many problems for service providers and these intensify when service demand fluctuates. To tackle this major problem, firms adopt strategies to match capacity and demand (Bateson and Hoffman, 1999; Lovelock and
Lapert, 1999; Zeithaml and Bitner, 2002). One of the first strategies adopted is to flex capacity to meet demand. During periods of peak demand, the organization expands its capacity by adding new resources such as people, facilities and equipment. Second, companies may try to smooth demand. Companies can motivate consumers by making their offer more attractive during low demand periods. Companies may also choose to use reservation in order to spread the demand evenly. However, even with booking, service providers experience difficulties in minimizing delay in service delivery. When demand and capacity cannot be aligned, waiting line strategies can still be found.
Among waiting line strategies, we find making wait more fun or tolerable, differentiating waiting customers and choosing an appropriate waiting line configuration (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2002). Despite the implementation of all these strategies, when customer waiting time is too long, companies may indeed make consumers dissatisfied. Service providers may even miss one

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