All managers have had to tell people to wait. It's a matter of timing and resources. But waiting can make employees angry; it can cause process to grow inefficient. The trick becomes managing the waiting itself.
When waiting is inevitable, research shows that the goal should be to optimize the experience for both customers and employees. This enhances customer satisfaction and reduces employee stress and turnover.
Consider the following situation. People boarded an airplane scheduled to go from San Francisco to Chicago, but the departure was delayed as airline technicians worked in the back. Airport employees announced that the plane's rear toilets were not working, but that the plane would leave as soon as they were fixed. Then the crew said the plane might leave without the toilets operating. The airline sent people text messages every 20 minutes updating the departure time. After an hour, the captain explained that he'd decided the plane shouldn't fly with only one operating toilet. Instead, people aboard would disembark and leave on another plane. The passengers were for the most part calm and understanding. Several were pleased to hear from the captain himself and to understand his reasoning.
The terminal itself, however, was a different matter. Passengers bombarded the gate agents with questions, but the agents had no information. One announced a gate change using the correct flight number but the incorrect destination. After a passenger corrected her, she explained she'd just been called in and wasn't clear what the issue was. Passengers fretted over missed appointments and airline connections, but the gate agents were even more stressed. At one point an agent made an announcement so confusing passengers interrupted her. They asked sensible, reasonable questions, but the flustered agent said if they didn't stop, she'd call the police. Someone asked another question, and she picked up the phone, then evidently thought better of it and left.
Why did the gate attendant behave this way? Because she had no information, no appropriate feedback, and no understanding of the problem's underlying causes. She felt more stressed than the customers. She'd had to endure complaints, even though she had no part in creating the situation and not enough information to help solve it. People get frustrated when they lack control and understanding.
The lesson from this? Everyone needs informed, intelligent feedback: both staff and customers. A little information can go a long way. Contrast the two experiences. On the plane, the passengers knew the causes of the delay and learned about the attempts to fix the problem. They also understood the reasoning behind the decision to switch aircrafts. But in the terminal, no one knew what was going on, or what would happen to people with tight connections or important appointments. When people feel subjected to arbitrary unintelligible actions and a lack of service, they feel anxious, frustrated and -- finally -- angry.
No manager wants angry employees or customers, so it becomes an issue of managing these potential negative emotions. For instance, at amusement parks, staff members dressed as cartoon characters engage people in line. This reduces unfilled time, transforming waiting into entertainment. Sometimes the employees tell the back story for the experience the customers are about to undergo or describe the company's history and operations. Visitors find this directly relevant to the event, so they don't see this time as waiting.
This tactic can extend to companies as well. Suppose, while waiting for baggage after a flight, passengers could view television monitors that display the baggage's progress from the airplane cargo hold to the waiting carts and transport to the terminal and final placement on belts. The same thing applies to more traditional organizations. Customers are very interested in the backstage operations of many companies. Why not use that to your advantage and engage people as they wait?
Coffeehouses do this by letting customers watch baristas make their drinks. And this principle works even without a physical presence. Domino Pizza Inc.'s Web site lets people trace their order's progress, including the names of the cook and delivery person, along with the expected arrival time.
In general, you want to manage expectations. As people see what is happening and believe it to be reasonable, their experiences improve. Advance reservations minimize the trauma of waiting, but only if those without reservations also perceive the process as equitable, knowing that they too could have made a reservation. Assigning customers numbers as they arrive and then calling them in sequence, especially if the current active number is displayed, also feels fair.
Regardless of your industry, make clear to the people waiting the reasons they're waiting and provide them with feedback about their status. You want to make sure everyone knows what is happening and why.
This article is adapted from “Designing Waits That Work,” by Donald A. Norman, which appeared in the Summer 2009 issue of MIT Sloan Management Review. The complete article is available at http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/.