Chapter 2

Get the difference between consumers in canteen and consumers in fast food restaurants.
Get demographics, age gaps, priorities, etc.
Effects of Queues and Waiting Time to Customer Satisfaction
Researches have shown that waiting time is generally taken as a negative attribute for any
service industry. Customers who experience long waiting time feel dissatisfaction and are less
likely to repeat their business with the service provider (Goldman, 2015). Because of this, many
studies were made to further elaborate the effects of queues and waiting time to customer
satisfaction.
Lambert and Lee (2006), evaluated the effects of customers expected waiting time and
reasonable waiting time to customer satisfaction and overall service quality of a cafeteria.
Lambert and Lee (2006) found out that when actual waiting time is exceeds reasonable or
tolerable waiting time, customer satisfaction and overall service quality perception of customers
decreases. Similarly, Bhatti, Khan, Qureshi, & Zaman (2014) argue that service quality is usually
influenced by waiting time as 70% of their respondents were dissatisfied with the poor service
delivery of Student Affairs office in different Pakistani universities primarily caused by long
queues. Furthermore, although limited seating capacity was found out to be the primary reason of
students dissatisfaction towards Mapuas canteen renovation, it was emphasized that some of the
elements affecting student patronage besides food specific elements (taste, price, amount of
serving, & variety of choices) are process specific elements such as speed of service and
presence of queue (Celiz & Hildawa, 2014). The same factor is identified in the study of
Benefield, Jones, Mason, & Walton (2015) which argues that the top four selection criteria of
quick-service restaurant for college students are price, speed of service, location, and food
quality, in their respective order. Speed of service is an important factor for QSRs for them to
allow higher turnovers, thus allowing overall profits over a given period of time (Benefield,
Jones, Mason, & Walton, 2015). Adi & Dharmawitya (2011) agrees to this by arguing that a
competitive queuing time can attract more customers for fast food restaurants. On the other hand,
the interesting findings of Lu, Olivares, Musalem, & Schilkrut (2011) revealed that customers
focus on the length of queue or the number of customers in queue rather than the expected
waiting time of joining the queue as a factor of purchasing. Results indicate that longer line of
queue may cause sales to drop but only for a certain queue length (Lu, Olivares, Musalem, &
Schilkrut, 2011). Thus it is important for the management to be aware of the effects of queue
length in their sales. In contrast with the previous studies, Cronin Jr., Giebelhausen, & Robinson
(2011) theorized waiting time as a positive predictor of purchase intention and quality indicator
of a service. Three contexts of waiting time were evaluated. The first situation was when
customers do not have a well-defined attitude regarding service, they find waiting time as signal
of quality. The second situation is when customers are seeking for quality rather than
convenience, waiting time as a signal of quality may decrease the negative impact of the wait.

Lastly, the third scenario is when quality is compromised because of eliminating or reducing
waiting time. However, the study implies that waiting time is a good predictor of customer
satisfaction but only for those customers who seek quality than convenience in a service. In
relation to the different personality and perception of customers towards waiting time, KangNing, Lien-Ti, & Yu-Tse (2014) addressed the effects of money gain and loss on individually
perceived value as predicted by prospect theory in a time gain-and-loss context. It was concluded
in the study that customers preferred saving extra 2 minutes on one occasion, than saving 1
minute on two occasions and preferred extra 1 minute two times to waiting an extra 2 minutes in
one time. Thus, with the aspect of time, segregation is preferred by customers than integration
when losing small amounts of time. The study implies on different services to innovate by
creating a perception of short waiting periods for customers.
Effects of Dissatisfaction from A Services Quality
From the study of Lu, Olivares, Musalem, & Schilkrut, (2011), Measuring the Effect of
Queues on Customer Purchases there is a certain queue length in which customers will find
tolerable and will decide to pursue his or her purchase. It was determined that 0 to 9 customers in
queue has a small impact to the decision-making of customer on whether or not to pursue
purchase but an increase of 10 to 15 customers in queue could reduce the chances of pursuing the
purchase by approximately 30%. In the study of Ning et al., (2014), it is implied that service
providers must effort to provide customers with positive experiences to maintain customer
loyalty because customers who perceive greater loss not only leads to lower satisfaction but also
makes it hard for service provider to make up for the negative impact to the customer.
Measuring Queue Length and Waiting Time
Queuing Theory
Before anything else, to address problems that occur in a queuing system, parameters or
characteristics must be identified to serve as measurement on the improvement of the problem.
Queuing Theory is the common method of describing and analyzing a queuing system according
to Bhatti et al., (2014) and Adi & Dharmawirya (2011). However, Stanoeva (2014) suggested
video analytics as the most effective and accurate way to measure queue lines.
Ways to Address the Negative Effects of Queues and Waiting Time
There are many ways to reduce waiting time and queues in the service industry. However,
the true problem that waiting line entails is the trade-off between the cost of providing more
rapid service and the cost of waiting (Ateneo Online, 2003). The non-scientific way to reduce the
negative effects of waiting line in restaurants are by placing waiting chairs and giving discount
coupons to customers after waiting in line (Adi & Dharmawirya, 2011). On the other hand,
Goldman (2015) suggests that there are two ways to reduce waiting time by shortening the cycle

time of a service. It may be from the point of arrival to exiting or from the point when the
customer is serviced to the end of service. Work analysis, Management Science, and Operations
Research are typically used in addressing such case to improve the efficiency and customer
satisfaction of the service provided (Lambert & Lee, 2006). Meanwhile, Lu, Olivares, Musalem,
& Schilkrut (2011) suggest two queuing options applicable to the subject of their study (deli
store). First is the pooled system in which there will be multiple servers serving one queue
(M/M/c). The second option is the split system (M/M/1) in which there will be multiple servers
per queue. The authors argued that in the situation of the subject of their study (deli store),
pooled system generates shorter waiting time compared to the split system. However, since the
deciding factor of customer buying decision is dependent on the length of queue, the split system
appeared to be a better choice for customers based on the comparison of revenue generated by
the two queuing systems. Thus, the choice of appropriate queuing system to be implemented
depends on the personality and past experiences of customers.

Another way to address the negative impact of queues based on consumer study is to give
customers a clear and conservative information that will enable customers to estimate their
waiting time (Stanoeva, 2015).
Mobile Commerce and Technology Impact on Services
Meanwhile in other countries, the utilization of technology and mobile devices has
greatly impacted the queuing system of several services in various industries. Innovative mobile
applications and websites were created as solution to eliminate the need to wait in-line in order to
get services.
An example is Qless which is a mobile application that enhances queuing experience by
allowing customers to enter a virtual queue from smartphones, tablets, and kiosks and receiving
SMS about the status of the customers queue; eliminating the need of customers to wait in line.
Another ordering mobile app is the Tapingo. Unlike Qless which is a more flexible mobile

solution to various services, Tapingo is a mobile application designed for college students food
ordering system. It allows students to order food from on-campus restaurants anytime and
anywhere via smartphones for an efficient, queue-free ordering experience. Tapingo is able to
solve problems such as scalability for handling orders at peak times, queuing to minimize lines,
and robust database services to manage inventory (Amazon Web Services, 2015).
In a recent article, Bakker (2015) reported that mobile commerce is starting to infiltrate
the QSR industry because of its positive impacts on customer satisfaction and revenue. Taco Bell
is one of the first to implement an order-ahead mobile application which enabled customers to
pre-order and claim their orders without the need to wait in-line. As a result, Taco Bells
application increased orders 20% higher than the usual in-store order. QSRs in the U.S. are now
adopting the new ordering system to stay in the competition because of the effects of order-ahead
mobile application.

Aside from QSRs, Joshi, Shidankar, & Tanpure (2013) eliminated the limitations and
deficiencies of personal digital assistants (PDA) which are known as personal computers
designed to automate food ordering processes in restaurants today. The researchers designed and
developed a wireless food ordering system using android devices as replacement for PDAs
which can perform the same function but can provide real-time customer feedback. Customers
are generally attracted to services wherein they are able to use their smartphones (Joshi et al.,
2013). Joshi et al., (2013) combined wireless technology and Android Mobile OS to automate
food ordering process, minimized the flaws of conventional ordering system, and implemented
the real-time feedback between restaurant owner and customer about their order status. It was
shown that the newly developed system outweighed the other former ordering systems (PDA and
manual ordering system). The new android ordering system allowed remote access by allowing

customers to place order anytime and anywhere. Moreover, it provided better UI and information
were processed as fast as the multi-touchable ordering system.
In the Philippines, food-ordering mobile applications are also being created for the
purposes of efficiency and eliminating the need for long queues. Caamic, Garcia, Magdosa, &
Olay (2014) aimed in their study, The Online Ordering System and 2D Cake Customization for
NIJI Desserts with Mobile Application for Android, to develop the current business manual
operation of ordering and customization of cakes in NIJI Desserts. Caamic et al., (2014) created
a website and mobile application of the shop for the purpose of increasing the efficiency of
ordering process of cakes by eliminating the manual ordering process which takes a lot of time
and inevitable sometimes result to incorrect cake design due to human error. Balmores, Esguerra,
& Mercado (2014) also created a mobile application for a restaurant for the purpose of providing
easy interaction between customer and restaurant. The developed online ordering system allows
customer to place order through online transactions. It increased customer satisfaction and
loyalty by providing speed and convenience. Moreover, it increased the order volume, eliminated
the need to hire more staff on the restaurant counter, and eliminate money handling thru online
payment.