Monday, April 9, 2007
Companies Heeding Gripes About Long Lines
Koeppen: Survey Says
We Wait On Lines More Than Two Days A Year!
CBS News
NEW YORK, (CBS) If good things indeed
come to those who wait, perhaps we're all in for some good fortune: A new study
finds we spend two full days a year just waiting in lines.
That's two
days, as in 48 hours!
But The Early Show consumer correspondent Susan
Koeppen says companies are taking notice of what the survey shows is growing
frustration over such waiting. And she offered some tips on what anyone can do
to cut the amount of time they spend waiting in lines.
One thing she
doesn't recommend is cutting into them. As an experiment, Koeppen took a hidden
camera along as she did that in several spots in New York, and got decidedly icy
reactions.
She also chatted with several New Yorkers who made it clear
why "wait" rhymes with "hate!" They expressed varying degrees of dislike for
waiting in line.
Where do people despise standing in line the
most?
The survey ranked the most frustrating waits:
No. 5: Fast food
restaurants and delis.
No. 4: Airports.
No. 3: Hospitals and doctor's
clinics.
No. 2: Retail stores.
And No. 1: The DMV!
MIT
professor Richard Larson is a leading "queue expert" who's been studying lines
for some 35 years.
He pointed out to Koeppen that frustration with
waiting can sometimes even turn violent. Last summer, a Georgia woman tried to
run over customers with her car after they cut in front of her at a McDonald's.
And when someone got in front of a woman at a Wisconsin supermarket, she tried
to cut off the person's nose with a pocket knife!
He's even coined a term
for when someone cuts us off in line, or the line next to us seems to be moving
faster, and we get angry about it.
"I call it queue rage," he told
Koeppen. "It's like road rage. You feel like you've been victimized and
somebody's the perpetrator and you're the victim."
But Larson says
companies are paying attention to how long you stand in line, and spending
billions to cut the wait and make it more enjoyable.
For example, kiosks
at a health clinic outside Pittsburgh let patients check in with a few taps of a
screen. They've cut wait times by 80 percent.
And if you want to bypass
long security lines at the airport, for $100 a year, you can get a "Clear" card.
Available at a handful of United States airports, the system reads your
fingerprint, scans your iris, and enables you to fly right through
security.
Larson says Disney is the master of making waiting in line
magical.
At its theme parks, standing in line is part of the attraction
for many.
"Disney properties, I believe, are the experts in the
psychology of waiting in line," Larson observes. "Their idea is, as soon as you
join the line, you may be waiting 45 minutes before you actually sit on the
ride, but you actually start the experience while you're in the line, because of
all the distractions and entertainment around you."
Koeppen noted that
hallway elevator doors cropped up in the '50s in New York City, in response to
people complaining about waiting for elevators. When mirrors were put up, the
complaints stopped: They gave people something to do while they waited, such as
fixing their hair or straightening their ties.
Koeppen also shared
pointers to help save yourself from being stuck in lines in some places too
long:
Book the first appointment of the day at doctors'
offices
Avoid the post office first thing in the morning, during the last
hour of the day, and during lunch
Shop after 9 p.m.: Only four percent of
people say they shop that late.
Click or paste the link to view the
video:
Reducing Queue Anxiety
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2662691n