Evaluating Waiting Time in Branches and Queuing System Improvement

This paper reviews existing literature on customer waiting times in bank branches, focusing on the discrepancy between actual and perceived waiting times and the impact on customer satisfaction. It explores various theories, including distinction-assimilation theory, attribution theory, stress management, and social justice, to understand customer perceptions of waiting. The review highlights the importance of service process development in the banking sector to enhance customer satisfaction by reducing waiting times and improving the overall queuing experience. It also touches upon the psychological and emotional impact of waiting in queues, emphasizing the need for banks to optimize their service delivery to meet customer expectations and maintain a competitive edge.

Running head: RESEARCH METHOD
Evaluating waiting time in branches and improve the queuing system
Name of the Student:
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Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................2
Literature Review............................................................................................................................3
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
Actual and the Perceived waiting time........................................................................................3
Summary of the Literature...........................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................8
Future Work.................................................................................................................................9
Reference List................................................................................................................................10

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Abstract
This paper has been constructed in order to create an understanding and an idea about the
perspective of the customers in accordance to the waiting time that is seen in the banks and how
the development of the banking process would be helpful in the mitigation of the time of waiting
and the enhancement of the satisfaction level of the customers. The paper has therefore evaluated
and explained the real and the perceived actions of the customers in accordance to the waiting
time in the queue in the banks and thereby a proper assessment can be done with respect to the
developments that would be made with the help of which banking system can be improved.

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Literature Review
Introduction
The development of the banking system is possible with the help of the well provided
services to their customers. The customers are always looking to reduce their time that they
spend in the banks as it is seen that most of the time is spent in standing in the queue and
undertaking their own transactions. There are several scholars and researchers who have given
their opinion and suggestions in accordance to the development of the banking process and the
queuing system in the banks and the waiting time that is covered by the customers. This
literature review would therefore look to assess and explain these elements and thereby an
effective idea on this topic can be attained.
Actual and the Perceived waiting time
The reduction in the waiting time for the customers has been a vital topic in the aspects
like in the “management science”, “operational research” and the “functional management”. The
actual emphasis of the banking system has been the fall in the actual customer waiting time with
the help of the construction of several queuing related models and disciplines and thereafter
optimizing the operations of service queue.
An assessment was made in accordance to the issue related to waiting line from the
psychological point of view. It recommends that the experience related to customer service is
impacted not even by the “real time of waiting” but even by the “waiting time” that is perceived
in nature [1]. The relationship among the actual and the perceived time of waiting with the help
of various kinds of waiting lines in several service outlets that is inclusive of a departmental
store, supermarket and even a bank [2]. It was discovered that the customers look to overestimate

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the real time of waiting among the various kinds of lines. The personal features like the
frequency of making use of a service did not alter the perception of the services.
There have been arguments that the perception of the customers and their expectations
about the service related to activities that have an essential role to play in ascertaining the level
of customer satisfaction [3]. Every customer has certain kind of expectations about the
operational services. If one feels that the services have gone over the expectations then the
person would be a customer who is satisfied. Therefore, satisfaction of the customer can be
motivated and prejudiced by adjusting the prospects of the customers and their insights.
There have been several studies where it was explained that “real waiting time” and the
“perceived waiting time” has been able to increase the actual waiting time. The research has even
explained that the overall satisfaction has fallen as the perceived and the real waiting time has
increased [4]. A comparison of the customer perceived time of waiting and their influence on the
satisfaction under numerous banking atmosphere and the superiority of the server. The results
have been able to signify the fact that the customers look to overestimate the actual time of
waiting [5]. The results have been able to signify the fact that there has been a rise in the level of
customer satisfaction in relation to the perceived time of waiting and not the actual time of
waiting and perceived time of waiting influences satisfaction with the server and not the other
aspects related to the banking environment.
The waiting time that is in relation to the customer perceived aspect is influenced by
numerous factors within the service environment. A model have been created that gave out a
comprehensive service related variables that may have an influence on the customer perceived
time of waiting. It has been recommended that variables related to service environment can have

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an influence on the “waiting time” perception by either altering the insight of the customers
related to time or their mind-set towards the queue [6]. It was therefore projected that spatial
design, development of queuing and communal justice have been the variables that would have
an effect on the insight of the customers towards line. The variables that are associated to time
are inclusive of lighting, social interactions, music, colour, filled time and employee visibility.
The music that is played in certain banks and other service related to environment has been
discovered to have a positive impact on the emotional response of the customers in order to wait.
It was even discovered that the music that is played did not have any kind of impact on
the perceived duration of waiting among the customers and therefore it indicated a negative
correlation with customer satisfaction [7]. Many banks incorporated a news board and a clock in
the branches of the banks where the waiting line is generally created [8]. The outcome of this
revealed that neither of the two had any sort of impact on the perception of the customers in
relation to waiting even though customers looked to overestimate the time of waiting less when
there was a clock in the branch.
There are five theories that may be utilised to address why the alleged time of waiting
would be in any way variable from the real time of waiting. The distinction and the assimilation
theory recommend that when the people identify the discrepancy among the expectation and the
perception and this kind of discrepancies are generally magnified [9]. On the other hand, it is
seen that if individuals perceive with the fact that their expectations have been fulfilled, then any
sort of differences among the expectation and the perception are reduced. The incorporation of
this theory on the aspect of the waiting line has been that there can be regions of acceptance
within which the customers are kind of indifferent towards how long they would have to wait.

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On the other hand, the outer region, it is seen that the customers may have the feeling that they
have put off way longer than the real time.
There have been assessments in which the college learners were asked to make use of
online registration process with the delay in the system. Under one scenario, the learners were
informed about the duration of the postponement of the information. The outcome revealed that
the delay information did not alter the “perceived waiting time” of the students however; the
students had a feeling that they had more control over the wait [10]. The attained of the data
related to the delay even reduced the level of dissatisfaction in accordance to the delay among
the students. When the delay started to increase the information related to the delay became less
efficient as the students started to become much more concerned in relation to the loss of time
that took place because of the delay.
The theory of attribution debates that the individuals want to know the factors and the
motives for any kind of programs that are undesirable. So in case the customers understand and
know why they have been waiting, they look to admit the wait. In a similar way, the customers
are looking forward to bear longer for the waits in case the service is vital and significant for
them. There are significant amount of researches that have differentiated the service delay into
two sorts and they are correctional and procedural [11]. The delays that are procedural in nature
are a section of the general service activities and therefore would not threaten the completion of
the service. For instance, consumers have to wait as there are other consumers in the line who are
in front of them. “Correctional delays” refer to the programs that are unusual that may prevent
the consumers to attain their service related goals. It was discovered that more away a procedural
delay take place from the aim addresses the service and the perceived time of waiting of the

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customers. Conversely, the closeness of the correctional delays from the aim determines the
perceived waiting time of the customers.
Other studies have evaluated the impact of the attractiveness of the goal and the
detachment from the goal on the awareness of the waiting time. The research even discovered
that the customers who considered the goal as a key aspect in relation to the detachment from the
aim to be smaller than the distance that is anticipated by those consumers who did not consider
the aim to be significant [12]. The customers with the lower level of goal and goal orientation
have undermined the time that it undertake in order to attain the target when distant from the
target and to overestimate it when they are near.
The theory of “stress management” recommends that individuals who are under the
emotional or any kind of physical stress look to feel that any sort of waiting duration to be higher
than normal. There have been numerous researches that have included stress and their level to be
the potential mediator factor among the customer satisfaction and perceived time of waiting [13].
Conversely, its effect on the “perceived time of waiting” has not been a decisive one. Finally, as
the line for the purpose of waiting is looked upon as a communal process, social injustice may
have impact on the perception of the customers for the waiting purpose. Communal injustice in
the process of waiting can be addressed as any sort of violation of the “first out” and the “first
in” rule. A consumer tends to skip within the line when they get to receive the service before the
ones who have arrived before them. These skips in the queue are generally regarded as unfair
and this causes resentment between the other customers who are waiting in the queue [14]. Till
the time that this has been addressed and has been justified, the customers are likely to generate a
feeling that their wait has been extended unnecessarily by the violation of the rules that have
been addressed earlier.

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Summary of the Literature
The literature review in relation to this topic has addressed and has highlighted several
aspects with the help of which an idea has been obtained in relation to what the customers have
in mind with the queue and the waiting line. There are several theories and attributes that are
related to this topic and this has indicated that waiting in the queue has emotional as well as
psychological impacts as well and therefore development in the service of process of the banking
sector is essential in order to provide better services and satisfy the customers in a proper
manner. The results even explain the fact that there has been reduction in the waiting time
increases customer satisfaction and therefore development of the banking process is essential in
the current and the future course of time.
Conclusion
The paper has explained that the waiting time that is seen in the banking process is a
significant issue as the satisfaction of the customers leads to the development operational
activities of the bank. The theories related to this topic has been explained in order to have an
idea about how the customer feel actually and in a perceived manner. The assessments that have
been done determines the fact that “waiting time” has an influence on the level of consumer
satisfaction and it is seen that development of new and improved plans and policies and
incorporation of several tools and techniques would be helpful in reducing the queue in the banks
and thereby the waiting time. The assessment even addresses the fact that when the customer
have knowledge about the time they would have to wait then their extent of frustration reduces.

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Future Work
The topic that has been taken into consideration has distinct scope for future research
because of the fact that with the advent of time there would be development of several plans and
policies and therefore the banks can incorporate the same in order to improve their banking
process. Hence, future work on this topic would determine how the activities of the banks have
improved and a comparison with the current paper would be helpful in ascertaining the
improvements that have been made.

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