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Consumer Perception and Evaluation of Waiting Time: A Field Experiment
Author(s) -
Antonides Gerrit,
Verhoef Peter C.,
van Aalst Marcel
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of consumer psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.433
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1532-7663
pISSN - 1057-7408
DOI - 10.1207/s15327663jcp1203_02
Subject(s) - perception , time perception , psychology , queueing theory , service (business) , statistics , marketing , business , mathematics , neuroscience
We varied telephone waiting times for a commercial service in 2 different experiments. In the 1st experiment, the telephone rate was either 0 or fixed at Dfl 1 (approximately $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 2nd experiment, the waiting times were filled in different ways: with music, queuing information, and information about expected waiting time. Information about the expected waiting time significantly reduced the overestimation of waiting time, although it increased the negative effect of perceived waiting time on wait evaluations.