The Psychology of Waiting
Lines
By David H. Maister
Introduction
In one of a series of memorable
advertisements for which it has become
justly famous, Federal Express (theovernight package delivery service)noted that: "Waiting is frustrating,demoralizing, agonizing, aggravating,annoying,
time
consumingandincredibly expensive." (1)The truth of this assertion cannot bedenied: there can be few consumers ofservices in a modern society who havenot felt, at one time or another, each of
the emotions identified by Federal
Express' copywriters. What is more,each of us who can recall such
experiences can also attest to the factthat the waiting-line experience in a
service facility significantly affects ouroverall perceptions of the quality ofservice provided.
Once we are being served, ourtransaction with the service organization
may be efficient, courteous andcomplete: but the bitter taste of how longit took to get attention pollutes theoverall judgments that we make about
the quality of service
The mathematical theory of waiting lines(or queues) has received a great deal ofattention from academic researchers andtheir results and insights have beensuccessfully applied in a variety ofsettings. (2) However, most of this work
is concerned with the objective reality of
Copyright 2005 David H. Maister

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various 'queue management' techniques:for example, what the effects are upon
average waiting times of adding servers,
altering 'queue discipline' (the order inwhich customers are served), speeding
up serving times, and so on. What has
been relatively neglected, however, ismuch substantive discussion of theexperience of waiting.
As Levitt reminds us, "Products are
consumed, services are experienced."
Accordingly, if managers are to concern
themselves with how long theircustomers or clients wait in line forservice (as, indeed, they should), thenthey must pay attention not only to thereadily-measurable, objective, reality of
waiting times, but also how those waits
are experienced. It is a common
experience that a two minute wait canfeel like nothing at all, or can feel like'forever'. We must learn to influence
how the customer feels about a given
length of waiting time.
In this paper, I shall discuss thepsychology of waiting lines, examining
how waits are experienced and shallattempt to offer specific managerial
advice to service organizations about
how to improve this aspect of theirservice encounters. down in separate
components, so that practicing managers
can begin to think about the available
tools they can use to influence thecustomer's waiting experience.

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The Psychology of Waiting Lines

I also hope to identify testablepropositions offering the opportunity for
future research. The First and Second
Laws of Service. Before we discuss thelaws of waiting, it is necessary toconsider two general propositions about
service encounters and how these areexperienced.
The first of these is what I have come tocall "The First Law of Science is simple,
but powerful, and can be stated as astraightforward formula:
S = P - E.
In this formulation, 'S' stands forsatisfaction, 'P' for perception and 'E' for
expectation. If you expect a certain levelof service, and perceive the service
reviewed to be higher, you are a satisfied
client. If you perceive the same level as
before, but expected higher, you aredisappointed and, consequently, a
dissatisfied client.
The point, of course, is that both theperception and the expectation are
psychological phenomena. They are not
the reality. In a benevolent world, boththe perception and the expectation will
have some connection to reality, but they
are not reality. Accordingly, all service
managers must pay attention to three
things: what was actually done to or forthe client, what was perceived by theclient, and what the client expected.
Fortunately, all three can be managed.
Sasser (et al) provide good examples ofboth managing the perception and the
expectation of waiting times. For theformer, they offer the example of 'thewell-known hotel group that received
complaints from guests about excessive
waiting times for elevators. After ananalysis of how elevator service might
be improved, it was suggested thatmirrors be installed near where guests
Copyright 2005 David H. Maister

waited for elevators. The naturaltendency of people to check theirpersonal
appearance
substantiallyreduced complaints, although the actual
wait for the elevators was unchanged.
(5)
As an illustration of how expectations
can be explicitly managed, they note that"some restaurants follow the practice ofpromising guests a waiting time inexcess of the 'expected time'. If people
are willing to agree to wait this length oftime, they are quite pleased to be seatedearlier, thus starting the meal with amore positive feeling. (6)This last example deserves further
exploration. When I have discussed thisanecdote with a variety of serving
personnel, they always reaffirm its
wisdom. As one waiter pointed out tome: "If they sit down in a good mood,it's easy to keep them happy. If they sit
down disgruntled, it's almost impossible
to turn them around. They're looking tofind fault, to criticize."
As a result of these conversations, I offer
my 'Second Law of Service':
It's hard to plan catch-up ball.
The corollary to this law is the
proposition that there is a halo-effectcreated by the early stages of any service
encounter, and that if money, time andattention is to be spent in improving theperceived quality of service, then thelargest payback may well occur in theseearly stages.
Having established the importance of theinterplay between perceptions andexpectations, we shall turn to an
examination of the various tools
available to managers in influencing
these. In each of the sections that follow,
the title of the section should be

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The Psychology of Waiting Linesconsidered a proposition concerning thepsychology of waiting.

the waiting experience into the total
service experience).

We begin with one of the most familiar:

This suggests that the activity provided
to 'fill time' should (a) offer benefit inand of itself, and (b) be related, in someway, to the following service encounter.

Occupied Time Feels Shorter Than
Unoccupied Time.
As William James, the noted philosopher
observed: "Boredom results from being
attentive to the passage of time itself. (7)A more colloquial version might be 'A
watched pot never boils'. The truth of
this proposition has been discovered bymany service organizations. In various
restaurants, it is common practice tohand out menus for customers to peruse
while waiting in line. Apart fromshortening the perception of time, thispractice has the added benefit ofshortening the service time, sincecustomers will be ready to order once
they are seated, and will not tie up table
space making up their minds).
A similar tactic is to turn the waiting
area into a bar, which also adds torevenue as well as occupying time. Use
can be made of poster, reading material(or even shifting lights, rolling balls andother 'adult toys') to distract the waiter's
attention away from the passage of time.
'Theme' restaurants (such as Victoria
Station) which provide interesting
memorabilia to examine also areapplying the lesson of occupying waits
as part of the service.
In some situations, such as telephone
waits, it is difficult to "fill up" time in aconstructive way. The familiar 'Muzak'
played by some organizations when theirtelephone-answering agents are busy is,
to many people, an added annoyancerather than a benefit. In large part, this isbecause the activity (listening to music)
is totally unrelated to the service activity
to come (whereas, the use of menus andbars cited above successfully integrated
Copyright 2005 David H. Maister

The best example of this I everencountered in relation to telephone
waits was the story of the sports team
that, when lines were occupied, played
highlights of the previous week's game.
In one memorable incident, a caller wastransferred from the queue to thereceptionist, whereupon he screamed"Put me back, (so-and-so) is just about
to score!"
It should also be noted, however, that
there can be circumstances where aservice may choose to fill time with anunrelated activity. In certain medical ordental waiting rooms, there appears to bea conscious attempt to distract thepatient's attention from the upcoming
activity, perhaps on the grounds that toremind the patient of what is about tooccur might heighten fears and hence
make the wait more uncomfortable.
The wisdom of this I cannot attest to (Ihave read too many National Geographic
magazines). Even in this context, it ispossible to provide service-related
distractions. Many medical clinics
provide weighing machines and eye
charts, in the waiting room: I have evenseen patients merrily occupied with selftesting thermometers, breath-strength
equipment and the like.
People Want to Get Started.
One of the other virtues of handing out
menus, providing a drinks bar and othermethods of service-related time-fillers isthat they convey the sense the 'service
has started: we know that you are here'. I
would hypothesize that people waiting toPage 3 of 3

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The Psychology of Waiting Lines

make their first human contact with theservice organization are much more
impatient than those who have 'begun':in other words, preprocess waits areperceived as longer than in-process
waits.
Again, I appeal to common experience
to reflect the fact that one's 'anxiety'level is much higher while waiting to beserved than it is while being served, eventhough the latter wait may be longer.
There is a fear of 'being forgotten'. (Howmany times has the reader gone back to a
maitre d' to check that his or her name isstill on the list?).
Many restaurant owners instruct theirservice staff to pass by the table as soon
as the customers are seated to say "I'll bewith you as soon as I can, after I've
looked after that table over there". In
essence, the signal is being sent: 'We
have acknowledged your presence'.
One walk-in medical clinic that I studied
decided to introduce a triage system,
whereby all patients were first met by anurse who recorded the patient's nameand symptoms and decided whether or
not the patient could be treated by aregistered nurse practitioner or should beseen by a doctor. Even though theaddition of this step in the process had
no impact on the time it took to see a
medical service provider, surveys
showed that patients were pleased with
'reduced waiting times'. The point, ofcourse, was that they felt they had been'entered into' the system.
Anxiety Makes Waits Seem Longer
A large part of the concern that we feelto 'get started' is due as noted above, toanxiety. In the cases cited, the anxiety
was about whether or not one had beenforgotten. Anxiety can, however, comefrom other sources. Nearly everyone has
Copyright 2005 David H. Maister

had the experience of choosing a line at
the supermarket or airport, and stoodthere worrying that he had, indeed,chosen the wrong line. As one stands
there trying to decide whether to move,the anxiety level increases and the wait
becomes intolerable. This situation iscovered by what is known as Erma
Bombeck's Law:
"The other line always moves faster".
Is there anyone who has not had theexperience of choosing a line at thesupermarket or airport, and stood there
worrying that we had, indeed, chosen thewrong line? On a recent (open-seating)Eastern Airlines shuttle fight, my fellow
passengers formed an agitated queue atthe boarding gate long before the flight
was due to depart, leading the attendant
to announce: "Don't worry, folks, theplane's a big one; you'll all get on."The change in atmosphere in the waiting
lounge was remarkable. Similar effort todeal with customer anxiety can be seen
when
airlines
makeon-board
announcements that connecting flights
are being held for a delayed flight, whenmovie theater managers walk down theline reassuring patrons they will get in,or when customer service agents in
airport lobbies reassure waiting patrons
that they are indeed waiting in thecorrect line and have sufficient time tocatch their flight.
One of the poorest examples I know ofmanning anxiety is when I am on
standby for a flight, and the agent takes
my ticket. Now I am anxious not only
about whether I will get on the flight, butalso about whether I will get my ticket
back. I have been asked to give up
control of the situation. At least if I had
my ticket I could change my mind and
go to another airline. The prescription
for managers resulting form thisPage 4 of 4

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The Psychology of Waiting Lines

discussion is: ask yourself whatcustomers might be worrying abut(rationally or irrationally), and find ways
to remove the worry.
Uncertain Waits Are Longer thanKnown, Finite Waits
The most profound source of anxiety in
waiting is how long the wait will be. For
example, if a patient in a waiting room istold that the doctor will be delayed thirty
minutes, he experiences an initial
annoyance but then relaxes into an
acceptance of the inevitability of thewait. However, if the patient is told thedoctor will be free soon, he spends thewhole time in a state of nervous
anticipation, unable to settle down,
afraid to depart and come back. The
patient's expectations are being managed
poorly. Likewise, the pilot who
repeatedly announces "only a few more
minutes” adds insult to injury when thewait goes on and on. Not only are thecustomers being force d to wait, but they
are not being dealt with honestly.
A good example of the role ofuncertainty in the waiting experience isprovidedbythe"appointment
syndrome." Clients who arrive early for
an appointment will sit contentedly until
the scheduled time, even if this is asignificant amount of time in an absolutesense (say, thirty minutes). However,once the appointment time is passed,
even a short wait of, say, ten minutes,
grows increasingly annoying. The wait
until the appointed time is finite; waiting
beyond the point has no knowable limit.
Appointment systems are, in practice,troublesome queue-management tools.
They suffer form the problem that somecustomers may make appointments
without showing up (a problem endemic
to airlines, hotels, dentists, and haircutters) and also from the fact that it is
Copyright 2005 David H. Maister

often difficult to decide how far apart toschedule appointments. If they are too
far apart, the server is left idle waiting
for the next appointment. If they are too
close together, appointments begin torun behind and, since they cumulate,tend to make the server further andfurther behind.
This is a particularly acute problem
because a customer with an appointment
has been given a specific expectation
about waiting times, and a failure todeliver on this premise makes the wait
seem longer than if no appointment had
been made. This does not mean thatappointment systems should never be
used. They are, after all, a way of giving
the customer a finite expectation. Itshould be recognized, however, that an
appointment defines an expectation thatmust be met.
Unexplained Waits Are Longer than
Explained Waits
On a cold and snowy morning, when I
telephone for a taxi, I begin with the
expectation that my wait will be longer
than on a clear, summer day.
Accordingly, I wait with a great deal
more patience because I understand thecauses for the delay. Similarly, if a
doctor's receptionist informs me that an
emergency has taken place, I can waitwith greater equanimity that if I do notknow what is going on. Airline pilots
understand this principle well; on-board
announcements are filled with references
to tardy baggage handlers, fog overlanding strips, safety checks, and airtraffic controllers' clearance instructions.
The explanation given may or may not
exculpate the service provider, but is it
better than no explanation at all.
Most serving personnel are repeatedly
asked about the circumstances in waiting
situations. The lack of an explanation isPage 5 of 5

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The Psychology of Waiting Lines

one of the prime factors adding to acustomer's uncertainty about the lengthof the wait. However, knowing thelength of the wait is not the only reason
a customer wants an explanation. As theFederal Express advertisement points
out, waiting is also demoralizing.
Waiting in ignorance creates a feeling of
powerlessness, which frequently resultsin visible irritation and rudeness on thepart of customers as they harass serving
personnel in an attempt to reclaim theirstatus as paying clients. In turn, thisbehavior makes it difficult for theserving personnel to maintain theirequanimity. For example, on asignificantly delayed flight, one cabin
attendant was force to announce to thepassengers: "Please pay us the courtesyof being polite to us so that we canreciprocate in kind."
Naturally, justifiable explanations willtend to soothe the waiting customer
more than unjustifiable explanations. A
subtle illustration of this is provided by
the practice of many fast food chains
which instruct serving personnel to taketheir rest breaks out of sight of waiting
customers. The sight of what seems to beavailable serving personnel sitting idle
while customers wait, is a source of
irritation.
Even if such personnel are, in fact,occupied (for example, a bank teller who
is not serving customers but catching up
on paperwork), the sight of serving
personnel not actually serving customers
is "unexplained." In the customers' eyes,
he or she is waiting longer thannecessary. The explanation that the"idle" personnel are taking a break or
performing other tasks is frequently lessthan acceptable.

Copyright 2005 David H. Maister

Unfair Waits Are
Equitable Waits

Longerthan

As Sasser, Olsen, and Wycoff (1979)
note, one of the most frequent irritants
mentioned by customers at restaurants isthe prior seating of those who havearrived later. They observe: "The feelingthat somebody has successfully 'cut infront' of you causes even the mostpatient customer to become furious.
Great care to be equitable is vital" (1979,89)
In many waiting situations, there is novisible order to the waiting line. In
situations such as waiting for a subway
train, the level of anxiety demonstrated
is high, and the group waiting is less aqueue than a mob. Instead of being able
to relax, each individual remains in astate of nervousness about whether theirpriority in the line is being preserved. As
already noted, agitated waits seemlonger than relaxed waits. It is for thisreason that many service facilities have asystem of taking a number, whereby
each customer is issued a number andserved in strict numerical order. In somefacilities, the number currently being
served is prominently displayed so that
customers can estimate the expectedwaiting times.
Such systems can work well in queuing
situations where "first in, first out"
(FIFO) is the appropriate rule for queue
discipline. However, in many situations
customers may be ranked in order ofimportance, and priorities allocated thatway. A good example is a walk-in
medical facility which will frequently
break the FIFO rule to handle emergency
cases. Also familiar is the example of therestaurant that has a finite supply of twoperson, four-person, and large tables,and seats customers by matching the sizeof the party to the size of the table. A

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final example is the use of expresscheckout lanes in supermarkets, whereby
customers with only a few items aredealt with a special server.
All of these cases represent departures
form the FIFO system. In some, thepriority rules are accepted by thecustomers as equitable and observed-for
example, the supermarket express
checkout. In other illustrations, such as
the restaurant with varying sizes oftables, the priority rule that seatscustomers by the size of party is lessaccepted by the customers, andfrequently resented. The rule may serve
the restaurant, but the customer has aharder time seeing the equity benefit.
Similarly, special service facilities forimportant customers may or may not be
accepted as equitable. For this reason,
many service facilities physicallyseparate premium servers (for example,
first-class airline check-in counters)
form the sight of regular customers sot
hat the latter will not resent the special
service rendered.
A slightly different example of theequity problem in queue management isprovided by the serving person who is
responsible not only for dealing withcustomers present in the serving facility,
but also for answering the telephone.
How many of us have not had theexperience of waiting while a
receptionist answers the telephones, andconsequently felt a resentment that somedistant customer was receiving a higher
priority than we who have made theeffort to come to the service facility?
The example can be extended to thosepeople who answer their telephone while
you are in their office. by answering thephone, they are giving you a lesser
priority than the random caller.

Copyright 2005 David H. Maister

The main point to be stressed here is thatthe customer's sense of equity is notalways obvious, and needs to be
explicitly managed. Whatever priority
rules apply, the service provider must
make vigorous efforts to ensure thatthese rules match with the customer's
sense of equity, either by adjusting therules or by actively convincing the clientthat the rules are indeed appropriate.
The More Valuable the Service, theLonger the Customer Will Wait
The example of the supermarket
express-checkout counter reminds usthat our tolerance for waiting depends
upon the perceived value of that for
which we wait. Special checkout
counters were originally provided
because customers with only a few items
felt resentful at having to wait a longtime for what was seen as a simple
transaction. Customers with a full cart ofgroceries were much more inclined totolerate lines.
Airlines, too, have discovered thisprinciple and provided separate lines for
those with simple transactions (such as
seat
selection),
medium-difficultytransactions (baggage check-in), andcomplex transactions (ticket purchase or
modification). Specialization by task
does not necessarily reduce theaggregate amount of waiting in thesystem; however, it serves well toallocate the waiting among the customer
base.
That perceived value affects tolerance or
waits can be demonstrated by ourcommon experience in restaurants-wewill accept a much longer waiting time
at a haute cuisine facility than at a
"greasy spoon." In universities, there isan old rule of thumb that if the teacher isdelayed, "You wait ten minutes for an
assistant professor, fifteen minutes for an

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The Psychology of Waiting Linesassociate professor, and twenty minutes
for a full professor." This illustrates well
the principle that tolerance for waits
depends upon perceived value ofservice-perhaps with the emphasis on theperception.
It follows from this principle that
waiting for something of little value canbe intolerable. This is amply illustrated
by the eagerness with which airline
passengers leap to their seats when the
airplane reaches the gate, even though
they know that it will take time to unload
all the passengers ahead of them, andthat they may well have to wait for theirbaggage to arrive at the claim area. The
same passenger who sat patiently forsome hours during the flight suddenly
exhibits an intolerance for an extra
minute or two to disembark, and a furyat an extra few minutes for delayedbaggage.
The point is that the service (the flight)
is over, and waiting to get out when
there is no more value to be received isaggravating. A similar syndrome isexhibited at hotel checkout counters. Just
as preprocess waits are felt to be longer
than in-process waits of the same time
duration, so are post process waits;these, in fact, feel longest of all.
Solo Waits Feel Longer than GroupWaits
One of the remarkable syndromes toobserve in waiting lines is to see
individuals sitting or standing next toeach other without talking or otherwiseinteracting until an announcement of adelay is made. Then the individuals
suddenly turn to each other to express
their exasperation, wonder collectively
what is happening, and console eachother. What this illustrates is that there issome form of comfort in group waiting
rather than waiting alone.
Copyright 2005 David H. Maister

This syndrome is evidently in effect inamusement parks such as Disneyland, orin some waiting lines to buy concert
tickets when a sense of group
community develops and the line turns
into almost a service encounter in its
own right; the waiting is part of the fun
and part of the service. Whatever service
organizations can do to promote thesense of group waiting rather thanisolating each individual, will tend toincrease the tolerance for waiting time
Conclusion
The propositions presented here are by
no means meant to be an exhaustive listof all the psychological considerations
involved in managing customers'
acceptance of waiting time. Not
discussed, for example, is theimportance of explicit apologies andapologetic tones in preserving thecustomer's sense of valued-client status.
Similarly unmentioned are cultural andclass difference in tolerance for waiting.
It is said of the English, for example,
that if they see a line they will join it. I
hope, however, that the managerial
reader will have gained a greaterappreciation both for the psychologicalcomplexity of queues, and for the factthat the psychological experience of
waiting can be managed.
The propositions given here can beresearched not only by academics fortheir general applicability, but also by
managers for application in specificservice situations. The main point of thischapter is that the waiting experience iscontext specific. By learning to researchand understand the psychologicalcontext of their own waiting lines,
managers can have a significant impact
upon their customers' satisfaction withthe service encounter.

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Notes
1. Fortune, 28 July 1980, p. 10
2. A notable exception is the brief
discussion given in Sasser, Olsen, andWyckoff (1979). A good summary of thework of psychologists in this area isprovided by Doob (1960).

References
Buffa,
E.S.
(1983),
ModernProduction/Operations
Management.
New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Doob, L.W. (1960), Patterning of Time.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University
Press.
Sasser, W.E., J. Olsen, and D.D.
Wyckoff (1979), Management ofService Operations: Text, Cases andReadings. New York: Allyn and Bacon.
This article is from THE SERVICEENCOUNTER edited by John a Czepiel,Michael R. Solomon and Carol
Suprenant, © 1985 by D.C. Heath andCompany, Lexington Books.

David Maister is the author of Managing
the Professional Service Firm (1993),
True Professionalism (1997), The
Trusted Advisor (2000) (coauthor),
Practice What You Preach (2001) andFirst Among Equals (2002) (coauthor.)
Prior to launching his (solo but global)
consulting practice in 1985, he served asa professor at the Harvard Business
School.
TEL:
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