A Field Study Investigating the Effect of Waiting Time on Customer Satisfaction

Abstract A field study was conducted in two different supermarkets during busy and slow hours of operation and with slow and fast checkers to determine the effects of objective waiting time, perceived waiting time, and serve time on customer satisfaction with the server and the store. Although the results of the study support previous laboratory findings that customer satisfaction with the server increases with decreasing waiting times, there were also store-specific findings. For example, in one of the supermarkets, customers reported higher satisfaction with slower checkers than faster checkers, suggesting that longer waiting times sometimes result in more satisfied customers than shorter waiting times.