Queueing management and improving customer experience: empirical evidence regarding enjoyable queues

Purpose The purpose of this study is that service sectors sectors create queues intentionally as a promotional strategy. Potential buyers might become actual customers after witnessing and joining queues. However, the effectiveness of company promotional activities involving queues remains unclear. Despite the innovativeness of this marketing strategy, few companies have adopted this approach, owing to the lack of research on how waiting influences customer behaviors toward waiting in queues. Design/methodology/approach Therefore, this study identifies four factors of customer willingness to stand in a queue using questionnaire survey: company promotional activities, improvement of waiting environment, company’ reactions to the queue and customers’ perceptions regarding waiting time. Findings This study identifies causal relationships among the aforementioned factors. The results of this investigation reveal that a company’s promotional activities significantly and indirectly reduce customers’ perceived waiting time by improving the waiting environment. Analytical results also show that a company’s queuing management can indirectly reduce customers’ perceived waiting time by improving the waiting environment. Originality/value Based on the analytical results concerning causal relationships, improving the waiting environment is critical to affecting positively customers’ perceptions regarding waiting time. Queuing management can indirectly reduce customers’ perceived waiting time by improving the waiting environment. A company’s promotional activities can indirectly reduce customers’ perceived waiting time by improving the waiting environment. Customers who enjoy both the waiting environment and the promotional activities experience much shorter perceived waiting time.