Presented at the 19th Eirass conference in Vienna on July 10th.

1. Waiting and Consumer Measures in
Interactive, Multi-Stage Services
Dennis von Bergh
Paul Ghijsen
Kees Gelderman
Presentation preparted for
EIRASS TU3.4 session
On Service Quality in Vienna
July 10th

3. Introduction
• Increasing importance of services
• Increasing value of time for customers
(Lovelock and Gummesson, 2004)
• Negative influence between waiting time
perception and service evaluation
• Few studies on waiting in multi-stage services
(Hensley & Sulek, 2007)
• Pre-process phase with service-entry wait
• In-process phase with in-service wait
• Post-process phaseLeclerc, 1988)
(Dubé-Rioux, Schmitt &
with service-exit wait

4. Research Objective
• Analyse the relative importance of customer
perceptions with the waits before, during and
following the service delivery in relation to
service quality, customer satisfaction and
customer loyalty.

5. Research Questions
• What is effect of wait perception affect
consumer measures before, during and
following the service?
• Which wait perception exerts the largest
relative influence?
• Does the effect of wait perception on
customer metrics differ between service
industries?
• What is the effect of waiting time satisfaction
on waiting time and consumer measures

6. Theoretical background 1/3
• Waiting time perception
• Service entry wait is predominant: “people want to get
started” (Maister, 1985; Davis & Maggard, 1990; Hwang & Lambert, 2005; Hensley &
Sulek, 2007)
• Objective, subjective, cognitive and affective aspects
Demoulin, 2007)
(Bielen &
• Hierarchical Service Quality Model
2001)
(Pollack, 2009; Brady & Cronin,
• Service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty
(Hayes, 2008; Söderlund, 2006)
• Service classification literature
• Interaction (Mills & Marguiles, 1980, 1986; O’Farrell & Moffatt, 1991)
• Processes (Schmenner, 2004)

7. Theoretical Background 2/3
• Service & Marguiles (1980),literatureMoffatt (1991)
classification
•Mills O’Farrell &
• Maintenance interactive services (MIS)
• Cosmetic, continuous employee/customer interaction
with focus on building trust/confidence to sustain
relationship
• Restaurants, banks, insurance
• Task interactive services (TIS)
• Concentrated employee/customer interaction with focus
on the task to be performed
• Job selection, advertising, engineering
• Personal interactive services (PIS)
• Focuses on the improvement of the client/customer's
direct intrinsic and intimate wellbeing
• Dentists, schools, professionals

8. Theoretical Background 3/5
• “Revised Service Process Matrix”
(Schmenner, 2004)

9. Theoretical Background 4/4
• Service evaluation literature:
• •consumer measures
Pollack (2009), Brady & Cronin (2001)
• Service quality
• Interaction quality
• Physical environment quality
• Outcome quality
• Hayes (2008), Söderlund (2006)
• Customer satisfaction
• Transaction perspective
• Service perspective
• Overall perspective
• Customer loyalty
• Word-of-mouth
• (re)purchase intentions

10. Theoretical Background 3/3
• “Hierarchical Service Quality Model” and the Consumer
Measures (Pollack, 2009; Brady & Cronin, 2001)

11. Adapted Conceptual Model
Basic Conceptual Model
Waiting time
satisfaction
Perceived service
Service quality
entry waiting time
Perceived in-service Customer
waiting time satisfaction
Perceived service Customer
exit waiting time loyalty
…waiting time satisfaction is a complete mediating variable in the perceived waiting
time and service satisfaction link … (Bielen and DeMoulin, 2007)

12. Methodology
• Selection service venues
• Maintentance-interactive services: 4 restaurants
• Task-interactive serv.: 1 job selection center 4 processes
• Personal-interactive serv.: 1 dental clinic 4 dental proc.
• 500 questionnaires per service venue
• Simple random sampling (p=.5)
Results overview
• 1027 respondents included (response rate 68,5%)
• 329 Mi (65.8%), 343 Ti (68,6%), 355 Pi (71%)
• Age: mean=33, sd=17, min=13, max=87
• 59% Male, 41% female

13. Results Basic model
Maintenance-interactive Task-interactive Personal interactive
restaurants job selection dental
* significant p<.05, ** significant p<.01 and *** significant p<.001

14. Results Adapted model

15. Results Adapted model

16. Results Adapted model

17. Results
Maintenance-interactive Task-interactive Personal
interactive
•
* significant p<.05, ** significant p<.01 and *** significant p<.001

18. Conclusions
• Findings nuance Maister’s (1985) proposition
• “People want to get started” (in Maintenance IS)
• “People want to get on with it” (in Personal IS)
• “People want to leave asap” (in Task IS)
• Two effect-routes of waiting time perception
• Central route with high involvement processing and
(largest) cognitive formulation of service quality
• Peripheral route with low involvement processing and
direct effect on customer satisfaction
“Elaboration Likelihood Model” (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986)

19. Conclusions
• Explanation may be suggested from:
• “StagesTheory” (Gottschalk & Solli-Saether, 2009)
• “Elaboration Likelihood Model” (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986)
• Conscious central route
• High involvement processing
• Cognitive responses
• Conscious formulation of service quality
• Direct effect of wait satisfaction on service quality
• Unconscious peripheral route
• Low involvement processing
• Customer makes less cognitive effort and
• Unconsciously formulation of service quality
• Direct effect of wait satisfaction on customer satisfaction

20. Limitations, implications and FR
• Limitations
• Customer demographics
• Objective waiting time aspects
• Emotional states of consumers (e.g. anxiety)
• Consciousness of the wait (awareness)
• Theoretical implications
• Service settings matter and mediation matters
• Managerial implications
• Influence relative importance of wait stages (in combination with type
of customer interaction)
• Further research
• Customers’ emotional states (e.g. anxiety)
• Customers’ degree of consciousness of a wait situation
• Manage expectations via Edutainment or playing games

21. Thank you
Questions or comments?