Proximity to Or Progress Toward Receiving a Telephone Service? an Experimental Investigation of Customer Reactions to Features of Telephone Auditory Messages

Using an experimental simulation we examined caller reactions to features of telephone auditory messages. Callers waiting on hold received information about their location in the queue (number of people ahead of them). Caller reactions measured were level of satisfaction and abandonment rate. The experimental design held the duration of the wait constant, and created two queue lengths (long and short) and two update frequencies (high and low). Results show that longer queues lead to more satisfaction but also to higher abandonment than shorter queues. The effects of queue length on satisfaction and persistence were explained through sense of progress and sense of proximity, respectively, of the people waiting. [to cite]

Hate the wait? How social inferences can cause customers who wait longer to buy more

Waiting is a mundane yet inevitable customer experience. Surprisingly, little research has analyzed the effects of waiting on subsequent customer behavior. The current research explores a counterintuitive effect of waiting times on behavior during a shopping trip: Longer waits, compared with shorter waits, can lead to a larger number of purchases despite generating more negative emotional reactions. Results of a field study and three lab experiments demonstrate this effect in the context of waiting for hedonic products. Consistent with a social-inference account, the experiments further show that the effect of waiting duration occurs when wait times are thought to depend on others’ preferences. This article explores the multifaceted effects of waiting duration on purchase behavior of hedonic products and sheds light on the social cognitions that underlie these effects