A number of empirical studies have concluded that a customer’s attribution of the cause of a delay significantly affects its emotional consequences (see Taylor, 1994; Tom and Lucey, 1995). According to these investigations, customers are more unsatisfied with longer than expected waits caused by difficulties that the store could have remedied (e.g. inefficient checkout personnel, understaffing, failure to provide express checkouts) than with delays due to external factors such as random variations in store crowding, till breakdowns, the time of day (some periods are inevitably busier than others) or the presence of customers with large amounts of shopping. This was especially true if little effort on the part of the service provider was needed to improve the situation and/or the problem creating the delay was a regular occurrence. It appeared, therefore, that the reasons for a long queue were major determinants of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction, not just the delay’s duration. The Psychology of Combining Queues Combining queues have proven not to be a good technique for managing queues in grocery stores and supermarkets. Studies have shown that even though combining queues have been successful in some service organizations, these techniques have proven to have negative results in grocery stores. Among the factors that cause delays of customers who are in line at the checkout counter in grocery stores is management’s attempt to combine queues. Contrary to common calculations, there are reasons for believing that combining queues, especially queues of customers in checkout lines in grocery stores, may at times be counterproductive. Rothkopf and Rech (1987) in their seminar had one participant citing the practice of combini... ... middle of paper ... ...e service more valuable and were willing to pay much more for it when they found out there were more people behind the positions that were held for them. There exists a universal human tendency to learn about ones self through comparison with others (Gilbert, Price and Allan, 1995). Customers in checkout lines tend to compare their position in line with those of other customers. However, seeing people behind is somewhat a comfort since ―there are people worse off than me‖, therefore making the experience less painful. The study outlined three sets of factors (queue factors, personal factors, and situational factors) that might shape the extent of social comparisons, each of which is tested. Hkust and Hkust (2002) expressed that limited research studies have been conducted to determine how service waits can be controlled. To control the time customers’ wait in line,
Some of the bottleneck foremen come up with methods of streamlining their processes to increase throughput at their stations. And for a time, things seem to be improving and inventories are slowly shrinking and more backlog orders are being filled. Then Stacey reveals a proble...
after being seated, and the time to get the order after it was placed. Several
The social comparison theory has been studied for years and defined as the philosophy that people need to turn to others for assurance of their own opinions and actions. In other words, people base their personal worth on how they compare to peers around them. This theory can support why it is human nature to be envious of others based on what they have. Individuals need to evaluate themselves in almost every aspect of life, including wealth, relationship status, and intelligence. These are some areas where most people their evaluations to determine how successful their life is at the current moment. In “A Theory of Social Processes” by Leon Festinger, he collects data based on this theory and presents certain hypotheses that can be supported through different experiments. Not only has it been shown in experiments, but also in everyday life. In a televised series, “That’s 70s Show” the main character, Eric Forman, has gone through a situation where he displayed the social comparison theory. Lastly, in personal experiences I have a friend that has encountered a cheating problem in his relationship that caused him to rethink about what he will do based on the consensus of his peers.
First, when shopping, a big factor that will impact a customer 's experience is the customer service. Whether it’s from a simple “hello”, or an employee going out
Zeithaml, V., Parasuraman, A., & Berry, L. (1990). Delivering quality service: balancing customer perceptions and expectations. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster.
Social comparison and positive distinctiveness. Our social identity contributes to our self-image so we look for positive social identities to keep a high self-esteem. Comparing in groups and out groups allows us to enhance superiority of a group. The Social identity theory explains that the in group will discriminate against the out group to en...
The cafeteria serves about one hundred and fifty residents of Cambridge Hall and approximately one hundred residents from Nottingham Hall. The cafeteria serves hot foods, salads, snacks, sandwiches, and beverages. The data has given me information on the percentage of customers that preferred a hot meal (interactive and precooked) to snacks, the ratio of customers that prefer precooked hot meals over an interactive hot meal, line formation, service times at the different stations, arrival times and the location of the different stations. I also learned that the peak hours of operations are from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and that the cafeteria has two cash registers available but only one is being utilized during the peak hours. If customers decide on a hot meal there is a 2 to 1 ratio that customers will purchase a precooked meal over an interactive meal. Through an informal customer survey, reasonable waiting times were established for the precooked line (5 minutes), the interactive line (10 minutes), and the cashier payment line (1minute).
the speed of the service. Employees usually take only one order at a time. They
Before OTISLINE were installed the service personnel were dispatched from local offices. With no interaction between the different offices, OTIS had a minimal level of communication throughout the entire cooperation regarding the service area. Due to this the knowledge sharing was very poor and each local office handled each service request single handed, minimizing the efficiency. Further, the communication throughout the organization was also very poor, where service problems never reached the senior management until they had become critical situations. All together this had a negative impact on the service time causing the customers unnecessary waiting time.
Solution-2 It uses queuing theory and was generally considered as Unit process. In this approach appointments are scheduled at fixed regular intervals, and length of interval is decision variable and service times are a random variable. Cost based optimizations are used to reduce waiting costs and most of the waiting times in this method are direct waiting
Customer satisfaction is the overriding factor for the successful operation. Sales of the supermarket can grow when it makes its customers satisfied with the goods or services by best policy to fit customers’ requirement. So, it can be told that customer satisfaction is followed by customer revisiting or repurchasing. They can also tell their acquaintances about products or services as good. Customer satisfaction and sales might be linked directly, companies have to check the factors periodically such as quality, schedule, layout, inventory and so on to lift customer satisfaction because even small factors that employees didn’t recognize can affect consumer satisfaction enormously.
We expect that an increase in social size, which results in a greater number of people to impress, and an increase in tendency for people to engage in impression management (Argo et al., 2005), will translate into larger self-image hedonic purchases. Additionally, we expect that social strength, which allows for different levels of social interaction between individuals will have a stronger impact on performance utilitarian purchases.
Chase, R. and Apte, U. (2007). A history of research in service operations: What's the big idea?.Journal of Operations Management, 25(2), pp.375--386.
When entering a restaurant, I usually expect to leave full, satisfied, and wanting to come back again. I believe that many people expect the same thing. The way people react to service can be very different from person to person. Depending on the way the customers are feeling, or the way that the server is feeling can be a big factor for the way service comes across. Service is an important part of everyone’s lives because majority of the jobs that people preform are service related. Poor service is an unfortunate part of life that everyone comes across. The way that I react to the poor service I receive is important and can change in the blink of an eye. Whether I react in an outspoken way, by getting loud and voicing my opinion. Or if I react in a quiet or apologetic way, it can affect my server, and the people around me, and myself.
Consumers are concerned not only about a product breaking down but also about the time before service is restored, the timeliness with which service appointments are kept, the nature of dealings with service personnel, and the frequency with which service calls or repairs fail to correct outstanding problems. In those cases where problems are not immediately resolved and complaints are filed, a company’s complaint-handling procedures are also likely to affect customers’ ultimate evaluation of product and service quality.