Consumer Perception and Evaluation of Waiting Time

Telephone waiting times for a commercial service were varied in two different experiments. In the first experiment, the telephone rate was either zero or fixed at Dfl.1.- (approx. $0.40) per minute. Consumer perceptions of waiting times could be described best by a psychophysical power function. Furthermore, wait evaluations were mainly influenced by the difference between the consumers' acceptable and perceived waiting times. The negative effect of perceived waiting time on wait evaluations was increased by the monetary costs of waiting. In the second experiment, the waiting times were filled in different ways: music, queue information, and information about expected waiting time. Information about the expected waiting time significantly reduced the consumer's overestimation of waiting time, whereas information about wait duration and queue increased the negative effect of perceived waiting time on wait evaluations.