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A mechanism for reducing small‐business customer waiting‐line dissatisfaction
Author(s) -
Martin G. E.,
Grahn Joyce L.,
Pankoff Lyn D.,
Madeo Laurence A.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
managerial and decision economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.288
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1099-1468
pISSN - 0143-6570
DOI - 10.1002/mde.4090130410
Subject(s) - queue , computer science , cash , operations research , service (business) , customer service , value (mathematics) , business , microeconomics , character (mathematics) , operations management , marketing , economics , computer network , mathematics , finance , geometry , machine learning
This paper presents a technique whereby a small business (i.e. a one‐cash register operation) can reduce customer waiting‐line time dissatisfaction in the purchase stage of the consumer decision process. When the queue length reaches or exceeds critical value N * , another employee is temporarily transferred to the role of ‘server assistant’ to increase the effective service rate; when the queue length eventually decreases to a second critical value N * , the server assistant returns to primary duties. An optimal customer‐reneging decision model is utilized to model the reneging character of the queue. Simulation experiments confirm key hypotheses concerning the behaviour of the queue and compare the effectiveness of a computed ( N * , N * ) policy with that of alternatives.