Customer Experience Podcast

It stinks to wait around for something as a customer.  Whether it’s in a waiting room or a hot sweaty line at a theme park, none of us are usually very excited about waiting around for something. However, it’s a fact of life that customers have accepted over time. 

It also stinks to know that your experience makes customers wait sometimes. You probably would rather that your customers didn’t have to wait around and could get down to business spending money with your organization. However, despite your diligent efforts, you still have some time where customers are waiting around. 

Instead of throwing your hands up in the air and accepting defeat, we have a few strategies that can help manage this bump in your experience’s road. Eight of them, in fact.

Now, to be fair, our tips come from David Meister’s article, “The Psychology of Waiting Lines.”  That said, this paper has excellent tips for you. 

In this episode, we talk about Meister’s eight areas and how you can emulate other organizations that have made the waiting experience a little less painful for their customers.

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 02:37   We explain that sometimes customers have to wait, but it doesn’t have to be terrible while they do, thanks to the paper by Meister that defines what makes waiting so terrible.
• 03:31  Distraction is key and helps with the problem of making your customers feel like their time is occupied with more than just waiting around for you.
• 07:23  We use the examples of customer behavior on airplanes to explain the Meister’s concept about how people want to get started waiting, even if it is only to wait in a new position afterward.  
• 10:49  We explain how Uber manages the third area, uncertain waits are longer than certain waits, well by letting you know the car is coming and when.
• 15:17. We talk about a related area of communication about waits pertaining to Meister’s area that unexplained waits feel longer than known waits and why kids don’t get it.
• 19:18. Unfair plays a big role in how waits feel; just ask anyone in a Disney line watching the fast pass ticket holders blow past them. 
• 27:17 We end on the 8^th area, which is that solo waits feel longer than group waits, because misery loves company, doesn’t it?

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