Waiting Time

Management
A Key Service MarketingOperations Interface Question

Queues: Everywhere!!
Examples

System

Bank
Telephone
Fast food
Airport

Queue
Account holders
Callers
Customers
Airplanes

Service
Transactions
Tech support
Food
Runways

Waiting Time Management

Importance of waiting time management

Operations- based initiatives to manage customers waiting time
Perceptions-based initiatives to manage waiting experiences

The Operations Approach

Objective:
Capacity planning, capacity utilization, scheduling, minimizing
waiting time
Actions:
Facilities design, designing queues
Selected Performance Criteria: Average utilization, average queue
length, average waiting time

The Perceptions Approach

Objective:
Control perception of time, anxiety, boredom, and anger
Actions:
Activity planning, information sharing
Performance Criterion: Customer satisfaction

The Base Case

If you have customers arriving at your facility a uniform rate of 2 per

hour, and one server takes exactly 30 minutes to serve one
customer, how many servers will you employ?
What will be the utilization of your facility?
What will be the average waiting time for your customers?

Real Systems
A simple waiting line model: single server, Poisson arrival, exponential
service time
Assumptions
Customer population is infinite
Waiting line has a single server
The arrival rate of customers is well approximated by a Poisson distribution
Service times follow an exponential distribution
Customers are served on a first-come-first-serve basis
Characteristics
= mean arrival rate, i.e., average number of arrivals per unit time
= mean service rate, i.e., average number of customers served per unit time
> 1; service rate > arrival rate.

Tradeoffs
Number of servers
Waiting time
Components of a waiting line system
Arrival process
Distribution of service times
Queue discipline: priority rule
Number of servers
Operating characteristics of a Waiting Line Model
Average number of customers in the system
Average time a customer spends in the system
Service facility utilization

Utilization factor
=

Idle time = 1-
Average number of customers in the system
L=

Average time a customer spends in the

system
1
W=

Relationship between queue length

and utilization
2
0

Mean
number
in queue

Utilization factor

A Waiting Time Model with multiple servers

Assumptions
Waiting line has two or more servers (s servers)
Arrival rate follows a Poisson process
Arrivals wait in a single queue and move to the first available server
Service times are exponential
Mean service rate is for each server
Characteristics
Utilization factor

Average number of customers in the system

L = W

Increasing service levels at a facility

If we want customers waiting times to reduce we can do one of three things:
increase the speed of the server,
adding another server at the same location that draws on the same waiting line
adding another server at a different physical location

Would these three actions result in similar gains?

Consider, for example, a case when = 8, = 10, i.e., / = 0.8.
Now let us double capacity using each of the three strategies mentioned above.
A summary of what happens to the system performance is given below.

Doubling Capacity

Parameter

Queue
length
Waiting
time (hr)
Total
time (hr)
(min)

Base
Case

Double Add
Add
Speed Server Facility

3.2

0.267

0.153

0.267

0.40

0.033

0.019

0.067

0.50
30

0.083
5.0

0.119
7.15

0.167
10.0

The effect of pooling facilities

The effect of pooling facilities
Typically, increasing the number of servers gives
disproportionate reductions in waiting times when is large.
For example if / = 0.9 then the average queue length is 8.1 customers.
If we add a second server, the average queue length
goes down to 0.23 customers.
Finally, if we add a third server, the queue length
goes down to 0.03 customers.

The Psychology of Waiting

Maisters eight propositions*
1)Unoccupied time feels longer than occupied time
2)Preprocess waits feel longer than in-process waits
3)Anxiety makes waits seem longer
4)Uncertain waits seem longer than known waits
5)Unexplained waits are longer than explained waits
6)Unfair waits are longer than equitable waits
7)The more valuable the service, the longer people will
wait
8)Solo wait feels longer than group waits
David H. Maister, The Psychology of Waiting in Lines, HBS note 9-684-064

Service Lines
Single Channel, Single
phase
Multiple channel, single phase

Single channel, multiple phase

Multiple channel, multiple phase

Selecting Service Line

Formats

Sojourn time is minimized with single-line-single-stage format.

When sojourn times are short, customers prefer single lines. When
sojourn times are longer, customers prefer multiple parallel lines.
Customers are averse to multi-staging.
If multi-staging is essential, its adverse effect can be reduced by
using open layouts or stage integrators.

Piyush Kumar and Maqbool Dada (2005), Incorporating the service perspective in service line
design.

Waiting Time Guarantees

Customer Satisfaction Model
Sat (T | T0) = -A(T0)exp[c(T0 - T) + c2(S2)],
T = Customers estimate of the waiting time
T0 = Customers prior expectation of the waiting time
S2= Variance in customers estimate of the waiting time
c = customers risk aversion parameter
*Piyush Kumar, Manohar U. Kalwani, and Maqbool Dada, The Impact of Waiting Time
Guarantees on Customers Waiting Experiences

Waiting Time Guarantees

Guarantees enhance satisfaction at the beginning of a wait

During a wait, satisfaction is generally higher in guaranteed waiting
environments
At the end of a wait guarantees have a favorable impact on
satisfaction if they are met and an unfavorable impact if they are
violated.

Managing Waiting Experiences

Never overlook the impact of managing customers perceptions

Determine what is an acceptable waiting time for your customers
Install distractions to entertain and physically involve your customers
Get customers out of line
Make people conscious of time only if they grossly overestimate it
Modify customer arrival behavior
Keep resources not serving customers out of sight
Segment customers by personality type

Karen L. Katz, Blaire M. Larson, and Richard C. Larson, Prescription for waiting in Line Blues:
Entertain, Enlighten, and Engage, Sloan Management Review,Winter, 1991.

Waiting Time Management

Decision Domains

Capacity: Overall and variability

Visibility: Observable or unobservable queues
Service Line Format: Default and flexibility
Threshold Enhancing Tools: Psychological
Assurance: Guarantees