If you have queues, perhaps in your store, in your waiting room, or even in your theme park, then grab a digital sign and a program like Kitcast and start reducing perceived waiting times with your digital content. There are actually a few ways you can psychologically communicate with people using digital signs. Here is how it all works.
Pacifying People With a Wait Time
When you leave the house, your dog doesn’t know how long you are gone. You return, and for all your dog knows it has been ten minutes or two hours. The perception of time is very subjective. People having a good time in your waiting room, chatting and laughing with their friends, will perceive the time as going very fast. People starting at walls in a cold room will perceive time as going very slowly.
You can pacify the annoyed and frustrated instinct by outright telling people how long the wait will be. It is the reason why parents tell their kids how long a chore will take. It goes, “Clean your room.” Kid replies, “Aww, I will do it later.” Parent replies, “No, do it now, it will only take ten minutes.” You can pacify people by telling them how long the waiting time will be, and in some cases this will create a more efficient and pleasant experience. By setting expectations, the more easily irritable will be less prone to experience things negatively.
The Clock That Exaggerates
A classic, albeit exploitative trick, is to tell people that things will take longer than they will. That way, you can surprise them by being early and they have a positive experience. For example, if you have a queue clock that tells people the average waiting time, then notch up the expected wait times by 5% to 10%. People will be pleasantly surprised when they are called a little early.
This is even more effective if there is some sort of countdown that goes with the information. Sometimes, companies pull this trick by claiming more people are ahead of the customers than there actually are. That way, when the queue clears quicker than expected, people are pleasantly surprised.
Persuading People to Keep Shopping
Have you ever wondered why those big theme parks have digital signs that give you the average waiting time? Are they doing it to save you a 2 hour wait? Or, perhaps to manage your expectations so that you are not as irritable (as mentioned earlier in this article)? Why do theme parks have digital signs with average wait times for their more popular rides?
They do it to scare you off. When the queues are getting too big, they start displaying higher waiting time numbers to scare people off. They are trying to keep queues down to a more reasonable level, so they show off very high waiting times so that more people do not join the queue. Then, when the queues start to thin out, they lower the average waiting times on the digital signs and people start joining. It is all about queue management.
Draw People’s Attention As They Wait
Keep people entertained while they are waiting. This used to be a problem before the Smartphone. These days, people will just play on their phones. However, there are many circumstances where staring at a phone is tricky, especially if people are standing up for extended periods of time. That is why digital signs are used to entertain and distract people. Some concerts and waiting rooms have trailers, infomercials and info-tainment to inform, entertain and sell to the people watching. If people are having a good time watching the digital signs, then time seems to move faster and it takes longer for them to become grumpy with the wait times.