Thursday, April 14, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

HURRY UP AND WAIT: The Bottom Line

There actually is a science behind the line in which you're trapped

Standing in line at the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles isn't as annoying as it used to be, thanks to the lobby management system board, above, that sorts customers by transaction type. Photos by Ralph Fountain. Dave Buelna, a supervisor at the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, checks out the computer system that oversees the DMV's Q-Matic lobby management system. Some customers at the DMV can avoid long lines by using self-serve kiosks for routine transactions.

Next time you're standing in a too-long line, feeling the seconds of your life irrevocably slip away, take at least some consolation in this bizarre fact.

Odds are, somebody somewhere actually gave some serious thought to that line in which you're trapped.

That's because lines are serious business, not only for those doomed to stand in them, but for businesses whose fortunes depend on getting you into -- and keeping you from leaving -- them.

It all begins with a branch of mathematics called queuing theory, "queue" being a British/pretentious American word for "line."

Basically, queuing theory deals with how to move things from here to there most effectively. It helps phone companies route calls, amusement parks get you on and off roller coasters quickly, airports get passengers through security checkpoints and restaurants minimize the chance that time-strapped lunchtime patrons will flee.

The often subtle art of line management speaks to our desire to waste no more time standing in lines than we absolutely have to. Toward that end, says Gillian Naylor, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Americans have come to prize our time more ardently than ever before.

Beyond that, Naylor adds, we're becoming increasingly vocal in dealing with companies that we perceive are wasting our time.

"I think it's almost like, `We are the customer. They should respect us and respect our time' " she explains.

Obviously, one way a business can reduce the time its customers stand in line is by doing whatever it takes to actually speed up service.

Take the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles. Please.

It's OK. Kevin Malone, the DMV's Las Vegas public information officer, knows all too well that agencies such as his long have served as the universal punch line/example/archetype for agonizingly long, painfully slow lines.

But Malone says Nevada's DMV no longer qualifies for that dubious role. Here, he says, the DMV over the past several years has adopted a variety of measures that have cut customers' waiting-in-line time significantly.

One is the Q-Matic "lobby management system" that organizes patrons by both number and type of transaction. Now, Malone said, "if you're just getting a registration renewal, which is very quick, you're waiting behind other registration renewal customers," and not customers who are at the DMV for more time-consuming transactions.

Also, Malone said, a 1999 reorganization combined the DMV's driver's license and registration divisions. That means new residents no longer have to stand in two lines -- one to get a license, the other to register a car -- and that employees are cross-trained to handle pretty much any transaction.

In addition, Malone said, "we now have 100-percent window coverage. Every window is open all the time, so even when a technician goes out on break, there's someone there to take their place."

Finally, the DMV has added several customer service alternatives -- among them, an Internet-based renewal system and quick-serve kiosks in DMV offices -- that negate the need for many customers to stand in line at all.

Thanks to the measures, Malone says, "we've been getting a lot of compliments over the last six months to a year. A lot of people come in and are pleasantly surprised. They expected to have to wait two hours or more and, now, they're in and out in 20 minutes."

But if a company can't do much else to minimize how long customers have to stand in a line, they at least can do a few things to make you think you're not standing in line as long as you are.

A company can, for example, distract you.

Dave McMahon, a marketing professor at Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business, notes that customers who listen to music or who are presented with alluring scents to sample can have their minds taken off of a long wait.

A classic line-distraction technique is placing mirrors around such areas as elevator lobbies. Now, instead of obsessing about how long the elevator is taking, McMahon says, "you can primp and see how you look or look around and kind of check each other out."

The fiendishly clever strategy, McMahon says, is to "get you to focus on something other than the wait."

Keong Leong, chairman of the department of management at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, says amusement parks often use strolling entertainers to distract patrons who are stuck in long ride lines.

Or, at busy attractions, he continues, "they break up the entertainment by moving you into a little video clip, and then move you into another video clip before you actually get into the actual show."

At McCarran International Airport, travelers waiting at security checkpoints can pass their time in line watching humorous videos that are not only entertaining but also convey information about security procedures.

Elaine Sanchez, the airport's public affairs manager, said the system, introduced in October, has been successful on both fronts.

"What's interesting is, we have seen people who have waited 20 or 30 minutes and, because they watch those vignettes, they don't even realize the time," she says.

Leong said another classic line-management strategy is for businesses to break up one long wait into two or more smaller waits.

In a doctor's office, for example, "first you wait outside, then they move you into a room," he says. "But when you move into a room, you still wait."

McMahon says this ties in with the notion that every customer has in his or her mind both a ticking clock and a pre-determined idea of how long he or she is willing to wait in line.

If the wait turns out to be shorter than that time, the customer is happy and the business, in effect, gains points, McMahon says. Conversely, if the wait is longer, the customer is irritated and the business loses points.

So, when a patient moves from the general waiting room into an examining room, "you tend to start the clock all over again," he says. "They've just bought five or 10 minutes before you start the clock over again."

Other general principles of line-management strategy, according to Naylor, is that unexplained waits seem longer than explained waits and indefinite waits seem longer than defined waits.

Disneyland does "a good job" with the latter, she notes, "with those `one hour from this point' kinds of signs."

Even the configuration of the line itself can irritate or calm waiting customers. For example, McMahon says, if a long line is unavoidable, it's generally best for a business to use a "curving, snakelike line."

"If it snakes back and forth, you don't feel you're as far from your end destination," he explains, "whereas if it's a straight line, you go, `Oh my god, I'm like 65 feet from the register.' "

Also entering into the equations are notions of fairness or, McMahon says, "equity theory."

Essentially, we're generally willing to wait a bit longer in a line if we perceive that it's a fair one. So, Leong says, a single line that leads to multiple endpoints -- think of a tellers' line at a bank -- generally is perceived by customers to be "the fairest approach."

That's because such a line works on a strict first come-first served basis -- customers will be served by the next teller strictly in the order in which they've lined up. In contrast, a line such as that at a supermarket makes it possible that a latecomer will be served first simply because he or she has chosen what turns out to be a faster line.

In fact, it's equity theory that make the most maddening breaches of line etiquette -- cutting in line and using the supermarket's 10-items-or-less line with more than 10 items -- so universally reviled.

Naylor says she often asks students if they've ever confronted another person while standing in line. Nine times out of 10, she says, students who say they have have done so "because someone cut in front of them, or they had too many items in their (shopping) cart."