1 Master Thesis:
How can the waiting time experience of customers positively be managed?
Student: Mathilde Verbrugge Student number: 6162185
Supervisor: Prof. Drs. J.H.J.P. Tettero Second supervisor: Drs. Ing. A. C. J. Meulemans
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Abstract
The waiting time of a customer has an effect on the experienced service quality and
satisfaction. The objective waiting time is the actual, continuous and metric time before being served. The subjective waiting time is the experienced waiting time depending on
environmental and psychological factors. The aim of this study is to answer the following question: ‘how can the waiting time experience of customers positively be managed?’ Three service sectors (public transportation, health services and luxury hotels) have been studied through literature review, interviews and observations. From this empirical research can be concluded that in order to manage the waiting time experience positively, waiting time has to be seen as part of a bigger picture, consisting of: subjective waiting time, experience of environmental elements, objective of the customer, mood of the customer and the
communicated information. This is based on the Pyramid of Customer Needs (Van Hagen, 2014). The bottom of the pyramid are the functional constructs of a service (safety,
reliability, speed and ease) and should reach a certain level. Once that level is reached, the management can focus on the top of the pyramid, the emotional constructs of the service (comfort and experience), that has a greater contribution to the overall customer satisfaction. Each sector is on a different level concerning the recognition and application of waiting time experience management. The health services recognize that there is more to the service delivery than only delivering good care, but cannot translate that entirely to the management procedures and staff. In the public transportation sector there is sufficient knowledge, research, proof and managerial procedure to implement the waiting time experience
management, but is not yet integrated in the mind-set of the whole management and staff. For luxury hotels, that is the case. The experience is integrated in the daily procedures from the staff and management, which is a natural thing in the hotel business and should be in every service. The waiting time experience can be positively managed by letting people know that they are not forgotten, adjust the environment to the state of mind of the customer, and manage all sensatory elements in the waiting area.
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Index
Abstract ... 2 Index ... 3 1. Introduction ... 5 2. Literature Review ... 72a. Service Quality ... 7
2b. Waiting time marketing management ... 9
2c. Objective and subjective waiting time ... 12
2d. Experienced waiting time satisfaction ... 13
3. Waiting experience in different sectors ... 15
3b. Waiting experience in Public Transportation ... 15
3a. Waiting experience in Health Services ... 16
3c. Waiting experience in Hotels ... 17
3d. Blueprinting – The research basis ... 18
4. Research Design ... 20
4a. Case sampling ... 20
4b. Investigation Method ... 21
4c. Data analysis ... 23
4d. Design rigor ... 23
5. Blueprinting for waiting time experience ... 25
6a. Interview ... 26
6b. Observation ... 31
6c. Results ... 40
6d. Conclusion ... 42
7. Health Service Data ... 45
7a. Interview ... 45
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7c. Results ... 53
7d. Conclusion ... 55
8. Luxury Hotel Data ... 57
8a. Interview ... 57
8b. Observation ... 59
8c. Conclusion... 60
9. General Discussion ... 62
9a. Waiting time per sector ... 63
9b. Differences ... 65 9c. Limitations ... 66 9d. Conclusion ... 66 References ... 68 APPENDIX: Translations ... 71 APPENDIX: Blueprints ... 73 APPENDIX: Letters... 76
APPENDIX: Semi-structured Interviews Set-up ... 78
APPENDIX: Survey Health Services ... 81
APPENDIX: Interview Health Service ... 82
APPENDIX: Interview Luxury Hotel ... 85
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1. Introduction
Since the millennium, services are more and more studied from the customer’s perspective. Which is an effect of the customer experience generation that was initiated by Pine and Gilmore (1999). Based on this perspective, marketers are increasingly interested in the customer and how to satisfy them, rather than simply delivering a good or service. In this thesis the following definition of services will be used: “Services are intangible activities that perish relatively quickly and which, during interactive consumption, satisfy direct needs rather than the desire for material possession.“ (Vries Jr., Helsdingen, & Borchert, 2012, p. 13). The area of services marketing is where all other marketing forms overlap and result in change, adjustment and rethink of success factors (Vries Jr., Helsdingen, & Borchert, 2012).
In this marketing field, the interaction between customers and organizations is crucial and should be managed efficiently. Especially time is an important issue within services, as it is a nonrenewable resources within the perishability of services (Berry, Seiders, & Grewal, 2002). This study will focus on the role and effect of waiting time on the service quality satisfaction of the customers. Within the services marketing literature, there already have been researches concerning the waiting time in the past few years. But even in 2002, the waiting time literature was still too robust (Berry et al., 2002). Examples of waiting time literature are: adding psychophysics to waiting time research (Antonides, Verhoef, & van Aalst, 2002), the effect of waiting time satisfaction on overall satisfaction with the service and loyalty (Bielen & Demoulin, 2007), the effects of service waits in the multiple stages of a service on perceived service quality in restaurants (Hensley & Sulek, 2007), the phenomenon of estimation error (Whiting & Donthu, 2009), the effect of negative emotional responses to waiting at checkout on satisfaction (van Riel, Semeijn, Ribbink, & Bomert-Peters, 2012), and a framework that shows the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions (Choy, Lam, & Lee, 2012). And McGuire et al. (2010) show that having something to do during the wait, results in a more positive wait experience. But more important the current results need to be generalized for different waiting situations, like different service providers and waiting duration (van Riel et al., 2012).
From this literature can be concluded that the area of waiting time is very interesting and important for the satisfaction level of the consumers considering a service and
organization. The waiting time area needs to be case studied in more different service sectors, as it is necessary to further address the effective management of waiting time experience (Dawes & Rowley, 1996). Waiting provides the opportunity to develop negative and
6 uncertain thoughts (Friman, 2010). Productively managing the waiting time is therefore important for the company, as customers that are more satisfied, are overall more loyal and profitable (van Riel et al., 2012). Therefore it is interesting to investigate what the effect of waiting time is on the quality satisfaction of the customer and how that effect can be positively managed in different service sectors.
This study takes into consideration the waiting time experience of customers in several sectors and how to effectively manage those by answering the following research question: “How can the waiting time experience of customers positively be managed?” The aim of this thesis is to categorized waiting times (long/short, alternatives, lust/must) that can be concretized to the different sectors. Thus the effectiveness of the managed waiting time in the different sectors can be investigated. In order to categorize the waiting times, the waiting time problems need to be placed into the customer activity and experience cycle. Then the fail points of waiting time experience can be set out. It may even be possible to translate Maister’s waiting time experiences into those sectors.
In this thesis, the existing literature will first be set out to have a good idea of how the quality of a service is evaluated by consumers. This will be narrowed down to the waiting time determinant that is part of the technical quality dimension. And then the different variables that have an effect on waiting time will be clarified in order to be able to set up a case study to investigate the waiting times. The waiting time satisfaction in different sectors will be studies through literature review and secondary data. The different services sectors will be health services, public transportation and hospitality services in the form of hotels. By means of case studies with observations, experiences and interviews with professionals there can be investigated how to positively manage the waiting experiences by setting out the failing points.
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2. Literature Review
In this research the subjective waiting time will be taken into account as a determinant of waiting time satisfaction, like Bielen & Demoulin (2007) did. Because the objective waiting time does not have a relevant relationship with the perceived measures of time and does scarcely influence the waiting reactions. Therefore the objective time is not considered as an antecedent of waiting time satisfaction, but of perceived waiting time. The foundation and adoption of this thesis lies in the research of Bielen & Demoulin (2007) that contributed to services marketing literature by stating that:
“(1) the relationship between service satisfaction and loyalty is influenced by waiting time satisfaction; and (2) the waiting time satisfaction is a key variable which depends on the perceived waiting time, the satisfaction with the information provided in case of delay and the satisfaction with the waiting environment.” (p. 13)
Knowing this, a service provider can investigate the key variables of their waiting time satisfaction in order to deliver a higher quality service that the consumer will appreciate more. There is also a need to know what customers do during the wait (McGuire et al., 2010). Before analyzing the service sectors and setting out the customer activity cycles, the route will be set out that leads from service quality to waiting time experience by explaining key concepts within services marketing.
2a. Service Quality
The perceived quality of a service determines the customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions of customers (Choy et al., 2012). And as the quality of a service can be managed by an organization, it is a great opportunity for organizations to effectively deliver the best service possible in terms of satisfaction and loyalty . The perceived quality is the difference between the expected and experienced quality of a service by a consumer. Service quality is also known as: “A measure of how well the service level delivered matches customer
expectations. Delivering quality service means conforming to customer expectations on a consistent basis.” (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1985, p. 42).
The service quality can also be determined as gap 5 within the original Service Quality Model for service design and delivery (Figure 1). The Gap Model is designed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985) through executive interviews and focus groups. It
8 summarizes the gaps between the organization’s perceptions and tasks concerning the service delivery process. In order to deliver high perceived quality, these gaps should be bridged.
Figure 1: Original Service Quality Model from (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985)
To understand what the relationship between waiting time and the service quality is, the experienced quality needs to be explained. The experienced quality is build up out of the technical and functional quality (Choy et al., 2012) (figure 2). Technical quality can be described as the what of a service, it is what actually is delivered to the customer, as well as evaluated after the completion of the service (Vries Jr. et al., 2012).Technical quality can be getting served on a plane or the entrance to a museum. The dimensions of technical quality are: waiting time, tangibles, and valence (Choy et al., 2012). Waiting time will be defined in the next section. Tangibles are the physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel
9 in the service. And valence is whether or not the service is concerned to be favorable by the customer.
Functional quality is the how, the way in which the service takes place (Vries Jr. et al., 2012). It is more subjective than the technical quality and is determined by the interaction and environment component. The interaction component is the nature of contact that takes place between the customer and personnel, whereas the environment component consist of
everything around the service encounter, such as the space where that delivery takes place. The more subjective quality depends on reliability, assurance, empathy and responsiveness. Reliability is the ability to deliver the promised service. Assurance is the ability of employees to inspire and gain confidence. Empathy is the attention and care given to customers. And responsiveness is the willingness of employees to help and deliver the service (Choy et al., 2012)
Figure 2: Derived from Choy et al. (2012) and De Vries Jr. et al. (2012)
2b. Waiting time marketing management
The foundation of waiting time experiences lies in the psychology. In The Psychology of Waiting Lines (Figure 3), Maister (Berry et al., 2002; Maister, 1984) already set the
definition of waiting time, which is the difference between the point where to customer starts to wait to where the service is completely received. A service is divided into three stages: preprocess, in-process, and postprocess (Berry et al., 2002);(Hensley & Sulek, 2007).
Customer Service Quality Perception Technical quality Waiting time Tangibles Valence Functional quality Reliability Assurance Empathy Responsiveness
10 Congruent with the stages, a service has three basic waiting types: the service-entry waits, the in-service waits, and the service-exit waits. During the preprocess, the service-entry wait takes place prior to the service delivery. The in-service wait occurs throughout the in-process stage. And logically, the service-exit waits take place during the postprocess stage.
During the 90’s there were a lot of researchers within the consumer behavior area that focused on time waiting for service delivery (Berry et al., 2002). During that time many scientific statements have been made, examined and confirmed, which is the foundation of nowadays service encounter marketing. Berry et al. (2002) summarize the most important findings of that decade. Beginning with the fact that waiting time is influenced by the objective and subjective time. The experienced waiting time has an effect on the consumers’ evaluation and satisfaction of the serviced and firm, such as negative feelings that are often triggered by waiting and result in a more negative evaluation. They also found that waiting time is influenced by: service, facility, and customer characteristics; perceived fairness of the wait; and information provided by the firm (Berry et al., 2002). There are three ways to shorten the experienced waiting time: (1) limit the wait, (2) provide the customer with the right information, and (3) create a pleasant waiting environment (van Hagen, 2011).
In the latter way, service environment elements can be managed in order to decrease the subjective waiting time (Baker & Cameron, 1996), because the service environment influences affect, directly and indirectly. The waiting time environment can be defined by three elements: ambient, design and social (Baker, 1986, in van Hagen, 2011). This is
consistent with Berry et al.'s (2002) more understandable elements of location, attractiveness, and distractions that occur during the waiting time.
Ambient elements consist of intangible background elements that directly encourage affective responses, like lighting, temperature, music volume, and tempo. These elements are most important to deliver an appropriate and comfortable environment for the customer (Baker & Cameron, 1996).This is simply considered as the location, thus where the service is delivered, also known as the physical environment of the service. Location contains the physical facilities that are designed to deliver the service in terms of building, parking lot, furniture, etc (Lovelock & Witz, 2008).
The design elements are the more visible and tangible elements in the environment, for example color, interior design, and furniture. These elements can be grouped into aesthetical and functional elements that attract more attention than ambient elements (van Hagen, 2011). A combination of color and temperatures can be used to manage the perceived waiting time. And furnishings can distract the customer, either positive or negative, and
11 deliver a comfortable environment (Baker & Cameron, 1996).In other words, the
attractiveness of the service.
Social elements are the personnel and customer in that are in the service setting (Baker & Cameron, 1996). Employees should be visible to and approachable for customers. Berry et al. (2002) take this element into a more consumer perspective. The environment can either be experienced as functional/utilitarian or pleasant/hedonic. And the activities that they do during the wait can either be purposeful or simply time filling (van Hagen, 2011).
Therefore the last important element that influences the perception of the waiting time is the distractions that arrive during the wait, such as television screens, magazines and information availability.
The individual characteristics of the consumer are for example the expectations that the consumer has, as well as the willingness to accept a waiting time and the sense of time urgency (Berry et al., 2002). The perceived fairness is concerning the controllability of the time, whether or not the company is perceived to deliver a fair time delay (Berry et al., 2002).
As every customer experiences waits differently, they should be profiled and can be segmented into: urgency of the job, duration of the service transaction, premium service based on a premium price, and importance of the customer (Lovelock, 2008). With that knowledge, an organization is able to recognize waiting time experiences in order to minimize the stress and unpleasantness of a wait.
Figure 3: Maister’s Psychology of Waiting Lines “Maister's Psychology of Waiting Lines:
• Unoccupied time feels longer than occupied time. • Solo waits feel longer than group waits.
• Physically uncomfortable waits feel longer than comfortable waits.
• Pre- and postprocess waits feel longer than in-process waits. • Unfair waits are longer than equitable waits.
• Unfamiliar waits seem longer than familiar ones. • Uncertain waits are longer than known, finite waits. • Unexplained waits are longer than explained waits.
12 2c. Objective and subjective waiting time
The consumers’ evaluation of the quality of being usable is influenced by the objective and subjective waiting time of the service (Berry et al., 2002). Where Pruyn & Smidts (1998) state that the subjective time can be divided into the cognitive and affective aspect. Disputing, Bielen and Demoulin (2007) add the cognitive and affective aspect as an independent aspect of the waiting time, rather than as a part of the subjective waiting time. Whether consumers will accept waiting time cannot be determined by clocks and psychological factors only. The time that a customer has to wait prior to utilizing the service, is a time expenditure investment that the customer needs to be willing to make. When a customer waiting time is too long, they may become dissatisfied (Bielen & Demoulin, 2007). This consequently might result in losing the consumer.
The objective waiting time is the actual, continuous and metric, time before a customer gets served. The objective waiting time does not depend on a person, but is for everyone the same and can be measured with a stopwatch. The introduction of the timetable for the train stations, around 1910, has forced the implementation of a national time. Ever since, every clock in every station has been synchronized, which enhanced the planning and traveling of train users (van Hagen, 2011), but also for other services.
Increasing speed to deliver service is not the only way to satisfy customers (van Hagen, 2011). When objective waiting time cannot be shortened, organization should investigate the decrease subjective waiting time of the service in order to increase the
perceived quality. The subjective waiting time is the perceived waiting time for the customer, based on perceptions and influenced by psychological factors (Berry et al., 2002; Bielen & Demoulin, 2007). Psychologically, how you are perceiving time depends on the task that you are doing. To what extent we perceive waiting time long or short, also depends on consumer characteristics, how much attention we pay to the time, how we deal with uncertainties and loss of control, whether or not we accept the wait, and how we experience the environment (van Hagen, 2011).
The consumers’ evaluation of the waiting time is the cognitive aspect. The waiting time can be evaluated as acceptable, reasonable, tolerable, short, long and so on. And finally, the affective aspect encapsulates emotional responses to the required waiting time, for example happiness, surprise, stress, and frustration. The affective appraisal is composed of valence – unpleasantness/ pleasantness – and arousal – deactivation/activation (Friman, 2010).
13 The cognitive and affective aspects consist of the appraisal of the wait (Bielen & Demoulin, 2007). The perception of objective and subjective time makes consumer asses time investments in both cognitive and affective judgments, whether or not considered as independent factors, that affect each other reciprocally (Berry et al., 2002). It is important for an organization that the time invested in a service is in accordance with the time a consumer expected to invest, as the conformation of expectation and actual waiting time largely determines waiting time satisfaction.
2d. Experienced waiting time satisfaction
Waiting time satisfaction depends on the perceived waiting time, the satisfaction with
information that is communicated in case of delays, and the satisfaction with the environment the consumer spends the waiting time in. To optimize waiting time satisfaction, time
investments should thus be in accordance with the consumer expectations, to meet the subjective waiting time perception (Bielen & Demoulin, 2007).
Multiple researchers confirmed the direct effect of the subjective waiting time experience on the overall satisfaction. By decreasing the perceived waiting duration, the service satisfaction and customer loyalty are increased, as waiting time satisfaction is
positively related to them (Bielen & Demoulin, 2007). The effect on the overall satisfaction is depending on the negative emotional response to the wait, as well as the store image,
comprising the employees, the sold products/services and the store layout (Van Riel, 2012). The negative emotional response is an element of the affective aspect of the subjective waiting time.
Van Riel (2012) found that the more people understand that the wait is controlled by the provider, or in other words experience attribution to the store, the more negative the wait is experienced. Another determinant that has influence on the response of the wait is
distraction. When consumer perceive their time as purposeful or when their attention is distracted from the wait, then they will feel less bored and frustrated. Therefore they experience a less negative response.
The last, and for this thesis most important, determinant of Van Riel (2012) is the perceived wait duration, thus the subjective waiting time. Perceived waiting duration implies that the judgment is subjective. The customer satisfaction with waiting is determined by the difference between the perception and expectation of the waiting experience (Maister, 1984). The subjective waiting duration directly depends on the social injustice and value of the
14 service (Van Riel, 2012). If there is a lack of social justice, like fairness, then the waiting time is perceived longer. And when the service is valued higher, such as a honeymoon hotel suite, rather than a shared room in a hostel, then the wait is perceived shorter. Van Riel (2012) did find an effect of waiting area attractiveness on the perceived waiting time, but this does not affect the negative response to the wait. This means that a spacious and clean
waiting area reduces the perceived waiting time, but has no effect whatsoever on the response to the wait, and thus on the overall satisfaction.
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3. Waiting experience in different sectors
In order to find a structural line in the experience of waiting time, different sectors will be analyzed. Three sectors of a different service nature have been chosen because of the different roles of the consumer, as well as the organization. Each sector has the same cycle. Consisting of Reservation, Accessibility (location and parking space), Building (clean, spacious, attractive, good atmosphere), Accreditation (member of federation), Feelings (welcomed, at home, relax, safe) and Facilities (toilet, bathroom).
3b. Waiting experience in Public Transportation
Even though 1.1 million train travels in public transportation are made every day in The Netherlands (NS, 2010), there have been little study concerning this service. This is very interesting, as at a train station, every traveler experiences a certain waiting time. And in multiple cases, it concerns a different waiting time that is evaluated by the travelers’
characteristics and intentions. The waiting appraisal in public is fairly important as a negative waiting experience causes less satisfaction concerning the service (Friman, 2010). The
problem of train waiting time experience is that public transport services want the travelers to forget time. But they need to stay alert in order to catch their train (van Hagen, 2011). So the time and speed at train stations are essential, but the train still leaves at a predetermined time. Another important element on train stations is the crowding, which negatively correlates with pleasure and affects satisfaction and service behavior (van Hagen, 2011).
In-process waiting times create less negative emotions than pre-process waiting times in public transportation, because the in-process waiting scenarios are overall more positive (Friman, 2010). Because positive waiting scenarios will elicit make customers feel more pleased, glad and calm.
The pre-process wait is thus most bothersome. This stage consist of the pre-schedule wait and delay that the traveler experiences before entering the actual service, train in this case (van Hagen, 2011). The more negatively experienced pre-process wait could be explained by the amount of uncertainty that is created during the pre-process. Another explanation for this might be that people feel more positive because they have entered the service system that has already started, which makes the wait feel less longer. This is also an explanation why pre-process experiences can be positive as well, because people will already feel like they are experiencing the service while they are waiting in line to enter the train. A
16 traveler can also experience the wait more positive when one is occupied and has spent time well (Friman, 2010).
In this research the exact waiting time will contain the in between entering the train and entering the train station.
3a. Waiting experience in Health Services
Patients experience waits. This can be during an initial appointment, an emergency visit, a pre-arranged appointment or in between the doctor and consultant (Barlow, 2002). The experienced waiting time, information delivery, and expressed quality have an effect on the overall service satisfaction of the patient in the emergency department. While the objective waiting time does not affect the overall satisfaction, it is more seen as an outcome variable of the service delivery and resource capacity (Thompson, Yarnold, Williams, & Adams, 1996). Thus it is more important to decrease the subjective waiting time in the emergency
department, rather than decreasing the actual waiting time. The important of waiting time is strengthened by Holden and Smart (1999, in Nairn, Whotton, Marshal, Roberts, & Swann, 2004), as waiting times are the single most important factor in determining the overall satisfaction. Thereby, fewer patients leave without treatment when the waiting times were managed more efficient (Fernandes et al., 1997; Spaite et al., 2002, in Naim et al., 2004). Decreasing the subjective waiting time can be done by providing the patient with information, explain the procedures and tests and answering their questions. It is also
important to deliver quality services through professionalism and competence of the caring in order to express the desirable attitudes and behaviors. Patients are more affected by the caring aspect of the service than by the technical quality of the service. Concluding, managing the perceptions and expectations of patients concerning the waiting time, providing them with information and delivering professional care can still cause high patient satisfaction. Even when the actual waiting time cannot be decreased (Thompson et al., 1996).
In the Dutch medical sector there is already some attention for this specific topic. For example in Het Oogziekenhuis in Rotterdam. They did a trial with a so called ‘poliregisseur’, who was assigned as a host, comparable to a hotel concierge. His task is to reduce the time spent in the waiting room and comfort the patients by transforming the lost waiting time into green waiting time, in which the patient is its own master of the time (Medisch Contact - Weekblad van de KNMG, 2014). According to Van Hagen (2014) the green waiting time is
17 the time that you are able to fill in as you want. The time where you have all the freedom and are not in control of the service or the wait.
The general director of the KNMG (National Federation of Doctors) Fred Raasveldt (Medisch Contact, 2014) understands the importance of knowing what goes on during the patient contact in other organizations. He is fascinated by the communication towards patients and queues. He would like to see signs in the waiting room that tell the patient how much the doctor is behind schedule, just like in the signs you see at amusement parks.
Because at an amusement park you can wait 1,5 hour with your children, while 5 minutes in a hospital can already be too long. Raasveldt acknowledges the importance of information provision and overview during the wait. He raise questions about the management of expectations: why is the waiting room called a waiting room? And how can someone who enters the room after you can be helped earlier?
In this service area the exact waiting time will be at several stages in the service experience: in between making of the appointment and the appointment, in between entering the hospital and entering the treatment room and in between the treatment and the referral.
3c. Waiting experience in Hotels
The goal of luxury hotels is to make the guests’ stay as pleasant as possible. In the hotel industry time plays an interesting role, as the service is never delivered continuously. How long a guest stays and when he/she wants to use a certain service differs. Therefore it is important to plan the services and times accordingly to the type of customer (Lovelock, 2008). Every possible failing point should be erased and every opportunity to improve the stay should be grasped. Some hotels already decrease the subjective waiting time by placing distractions in waiting areas. Like big mirrors near elevators (Baker & Cameron, 1996).
A luxury hotel is a full-service hotel with special facilities for leisure travelers and business travelers with an average rate over $125 a night. The biggest brands and chains in this industry are Marriot International with for instance Renaissance and Ritz-Carlton, and Starwood Hotels and Resorts with Sheraton and Westin (Lovelock, 2008).
At Starwood Hotels & Resorts they use online surveys and reviews to calculate the Guest Experience Index to identify strengths and weaknesses experienced by the guests. In the survey, guests can give their opinion about the visit and stay, and the overall service and processes. Marriot uses the Guest Satisfaction Survey (Levy, Duan & Boo, 2013). These surveys are used and incorporated in operational management decisions. Starwood also has
18 service centers around the world, to cover all time zones, one-stop customer service, for worldwide hotel reservation, enrolment and redemption of loyalty program, and general customer service. You only need to call a toll-free number, or go to the website (Lovelock, p. 133).
3d. Blueprinting – The research basis
To visualize the waiting experience from a customer’s point of view the technique of service blueprints will be implemented for each sector. A blueprint is an detailed examination and visual definition of the service delivery process and therefore aids the service improvement by showing potential fail points (Vries Jr. et al., 2012);(Lovelock, 2008) . This will document all touch-points and back-office actions that create the customers experience. By displaying the line of visibility, that distinguishes the front- and back-stage processes, and the fail points, a blueprint allows a manager to improve quality (Vries Jr. et al., 2012). Reducing fail points is important to tackle points in the service cycle that are sensitive to irregularities. Service blueprinting facilitates the integration of different departments within an organization by explaining the interactions and relationships between customer interaction, service processes and employees activities to better understand the experience (Lovelock, 2008).
A typical service blueprint consists out of five components: physical evidence, customer actions, visible contact employee actions, invisible contact employee actions, and support processes (Bitner, Ostrom, & Morgan, 2008). . The first component is the physical evidence, which comprises tangibles that are exhibited in the service area that can influence the experienced quality, such as the interior. The customer actions are the foundation of the blueprinting and chronologically displayed. The next component is the visible contact employee actions, these are the front-office actions with face-to-face interaction. The next level crosses the line of visibility in the process, onto the back-office actions. Where the invisible actions are pre-conditions for the success in the visible service delivery, like telephone contact with customers. Then the line of actions will be bridged for the support processes. These are individually carried out and needed to established before delivering the service (Figure 4) is a blueprint of a donation experience developed to assist the better managing of donor exchange of non-profit organizations (Polonsky, 2006). It shows the benefits of blueprinting for creating a better understanding of the experience. This blueprint shows the complexity and different steps of blueprinting.
19 Figure 4: Blueprint for Donation Experience (Polonsky, 2006)
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4. Research Design
This study takes into consideration the waiting time experience of customers in several sectors and how to effectively manage those. It will answer the following research question: “How can the waiting time experience of customers positively be managed?” A real-life research method will be used, namely a case study. A case study is defined as: “a research strategy which involves the investigation of a particular contemporary topic within its real-life context, using multiple sources of evidence” (Saunders & Lewis, 2012, p. 117). An advantage of the use of a case study is that the researcher is able to answer why something is occurring during an activity within a certain context. It examines contemporary events, rather than behaviors that can be manipulated (Yin, 2009). This particular technique will allow the use of a variety of methods, from observations to interviews. A disadvantage of case studies is that some say that a case is not a valid foundation for scientific literature. In this study a number of cases will descriptively and exploratory be examined to look for structural and behavioral improvements in order to create a comprehensive picture of time problems. The aim of this study is to set out the fail points of waiting time experience in services in order to look for structural improvements that managers can implement to positively affect the waiting time experience of the customer.
Three cases will carefully be collected, both from the literature and common opinion. The theoretical framework state clear conditions of the waiting time experience in different sectors. In this study the multiple holistic cases are the sectors in which a waiting experience may take place. The waiting experience is considered as the unit of analysis. In a descriptive manner, blueprints of the customer waiting experience will indicate the problem areas of the waiting.
In an exploratory manner a market research will be set out to assess the perceived waiting time experience of the consumers in different sectors.
4a. Case sampling
The cases are selected within the broad area of services in terms of purposeful sampling. The sectors are selected because of their importance to user and society in everyday life: public transportation, health services and hospitality services. Waiting is differently experienced in every service. To create a clear picture of the services and their differences in waiting time, even though the sectors have a different service objective. Based on literature the following
21 sectors have been chosen: public transportation, health services and hospitality services. These sectors have different customers, as well as different waiting times. Therefore it is interesting to investigate which time elements take place in those services. Services such as call centers and amusement park have been rejected because of the missing link in replication logic.
Access to the subjects will be gained via the managers or researcher of the waiting time area. In health services this will be the manager of the First General Practitioners Aid in a peripheral hospital in The Netherlands. The hospitality access will be a luxury hotel from a chain that has the sufficient background information. And via researcher Hagen, we will be able to access earlier respondents and the National Railway service. The letter through which the spokespeople were approached can be found in the appendix.
The subjects will be everyday users of the services, which will be characterized during the observation. It is already clear that there are three ways to shorten the experienced waiting time: (1) limit the wait, (2) provide the customer with the right information, and (3) create a pleasant waiting environment (van Hagen, 2011). In this case study the latter is most important. Therefore it is needed to clarify which elements are influencing the waiting time to further investigate the blueprint and service process of waiting time. The elements that are taken into consideration for this research are: actual waiting time, experienced waiting time, location, attractiveness and distractions.
4b. Investigation Method
This is a multiple case design that scrutinizes different facets of the waiting time experience problems. By investigating multiple sectors individually it will be able to draw cross-case conclusions to subsequently modify theory and develop managerial implications (Yin, 2009). Because this study will be partly descriptive and exploratory, the problem will be understand better so that organizations can use the outcomes to more effectively manage the waiting time experience of their consumers.
The descriptive part will be an experiential documentary analysis to create blueprints and customer activity cycles that will help to interpret the experience of customers and the time elements that should be focused on by the service providers. Through interviews with spokespersons and customer evaluation documents (Figure 6) and schemes, the failing points and critical time elements can be explicated. The idea is derived from Tseng, Qinhai and Su (1999) that developed the service operations improvement model by systematically
22 investigating how customers behave, what the touch points are and what the customer
journey is (Figure 5).This will individually be done for every sector.
Figure 5:Service operations improvement.
The exploratory part will consist of an observation study and questionnaire for every sector, based on Barlow’s (2002) hospital queuing research method. By observing subjects, and thus consumers, it is possible to map their real-life behavior and experience. In the medical health sector an observation will be combined with small quantitative interviews with the subjects, enough data will be collected to further analyze the issue of perceived waiting time
experience.
In every sector information of the customers will be collected through observations by recording the same data:
• Sex (F/M)
• Accompanied or alone
• Pre-process: Actual waiting time since they walked into the waiting room = arrival time – appointment
• In process: Overall actual (waiting) time in service = arrival time – departure time
• General observations of waiting time area, atmosphere and available time fillers/ distractions
By asking the customer one or two simple questions, depending on trust and cooperation of the organization, the following data is also collected:
• Age
• First or repeat visit
• Subjective waiting time at departure • Waiting time experience
• Satisfaction level concerning service quality • Attractiveness of waiting area – color and sent
23 Figure 6: Observation survey
To substantiate the perceived experience research, spokespersons in the sectors will primarily be interviewed to investigate managerial behavior and what they are already doing to
influence the waiting experience. These semi-structured interviews will be recorded and transcribed and cover the waiting time from the organization’s perspective. The specific observation aspects that will be taken into consideration are from a personal customer perspective, namely:
• Actual waiting time
• Perceived waiting time (post service) • Location
• Attractiveness
• Available distractions
In the public transportation services there will be no customer contact, as that will influence the way people experience their waiting time. It will influence their cognition, rather than their affect. The observation will consist out of following the anonymous travelers to understand what they are doing with their time on the train station.
It will not be possible to execute an observation in the luxury hotel, as it will influence the guests’ experience too much. The management does not give permission.
4c. Data analysis
Framework data analysis is based on the perceived waiting time of the consumer, compared to their actual waiting time. This will show the experienced waiting time for a particular sector. Then per sector every waiting time component of each sector will be set out against the other sectors. To finally compare and analyze how relevant each component within the waiting time is for the experienced waiting time. This will make it possible to scrutinize which failing points can be improved to manage a better experience.
4d. Design rigor
Throughout the study, data triangulation will be maintained by using documentary analysis, observation and interviews with key informants. This convergence of evidence in every case will secure the construct validity. By using the same logic pattern in each holistic case study
24 to explore the waiting time, the procedural reliability is confirmed. The fact that there is a replication logic in the multiple case studies the external validity is approved. In other words, this case study design can be transferred to other services. A case study protocol will be developed to create an overview of the case study project, field procedures, the case study questions and a guide for the case study report (Yin, 2009). This will ensure the reliability of the research and help us to keep detailed track of the whole process.
The strength of this study is that it compares different sectors, which has not been done before. But because of the differences, there may arise problems in validity, as the research method might need to be adjusted for every sector.
25
5. Blueprinting for waiting time experience
This section of the thesis is the foundation of the research. Through blueprinting the customer actions, visible contact employee actions, invisible contact employee actions, support
processes and physical evidence will be outlined. But before setting out the blueprint, it is important to think of the touch-points of the service. These touch-points are the key activities that should be clear before defining the linkages between the front- and back-stage activities (Lovelock, 2008). The points can be invisible (online, on paper, telephone) and face-to-face (Table 1).
General Practitioner Aid Train Luxury Hotel
Check available aid Check schedule Check available hotels First call for aid to assistant Arrival at station – check-in Make reservation Arrival at reception/ assistant Wait at platform Arrival in lobby Pick-up for treatment Enter train Check-in at reception
Anamnesis by GP Travel in train Walk to room with Bellboy
Treatment by GP Ticket verification Specific needs ordered from room
Optional referral to Pharmacy/ Specialist
Arrival destination – check-out
Arrival of specific needs Make new appointment or
checkout
Use of restaurant, bar, swimming pool, etc. Breakfast in restaurant Check-out at reception Pick-up by taxi
Table 1: Touchpoints
Based on literature and experience, a blueprint of each sector has been made (see Appendix). The blueprints are mostly focused on processes above the line of visibility, thus the physical evidence and customer actions. The stars on the blueprints are the waiting time encounters, and consequently the moments where the waiting time experience can be improved.
26
6. Public Transportation Data
6a. Interview
The interview with Mark van Hagen (Figure 7) has been used as an important addition to the literature review. His knowledge and contribution to the area of customer waiting time experience can be used as a foundation and proof of the effectiveness of sensatory and waiting time management. There has been continued building on the acquired knowledge from Van Hagen (2014) in the interviews in the other two sectors. Therefore the translated interview is included completely in this section, complementary to the literature review.
Sense of time
People don’t have a sense for time. We are awful time estimators. Cognitively, we know when something lasts long or short. But the waiting time experience is determined
affectively. Time is an abstract concept and we need all our 5 senses to perceive events which form the basis of our cognitive estimation of time. 95% of our perception takes place in the unconscious, through the sensitive influences of events.
Comfortzone
Customers are simple and predictable. Once you know how they behave, you can predict with a 95% what they will do when the NS applies something. That prediction depends on the context, what kind of customer and environment.
When an experience stays within the comfort zone, called zone of tolerance in figure X, people are unconsciously indifferent about the service, because there is nothing notable. But as soon as someone gets out of their comfort zone, things start to strike and are
experience consciously. And once you become self-conscious and aware of time, you are stuck in a uncomfortable situation in the present; the so-called extended now where you monitor the time and then it seems to go slower (Van Hagen, 2011). The comfort zone depends on the context and the environment in which the service takes place. In trains this can be translated to using different kinds of coupes, like the silence and social coupe. And in train stations you can find transfer and stay areas. Transfer areas need to stay quiet, free and without stimuli. While stay and shopping areas should be full of stimuli like color, smell and music. There can be shops in a transfer area, like the hallway at Amsterdam Central. As long as they are not in the runway and are neutral from the outside. Within the shops, which are
27 stay areas, there can be (branded) stimuli, because they do not distract when you are running for a train.
Stimuli in public transportation
The NS (Dutch Railways) does a lot research on the effect different stimuli in trains and train stations. Until now it has been easier to do this kind of research in trains, for example on light color, light intensity and their effect on customer evaluation. As a Senior Market Research of the NS, Mark van Hagen talks to project managers of train stations and station renovations to consult where to take which measures. There are not yet dynamic and automatized plans, as Van Hagen suggested in 2011, but with the current IT knowledge innovations this will happen in the future. Then it will be possible to dim and brighten up the lights depending on the mood of the travelers and the movement on the stations.
It is advanced that during the projects, insights are already incorporated. For example the new Central station in Rotterdam, where they use red nature stone, rather than depressive grey walls and flooring. The current researches and insights will be the basis of the future.
Constructs of experience
Mark van Hagen developed an instrument to measure the station experience of travelers in stations. This experience monitor measures both functional and emotional things, as well as the sensitive perception. Via different constructs of experience, it is possible to find out what customers really think through regression analysis.
28 Those constructs are different, but at the same time coherent: ambience/experience, comfort, safety, cleanliness, and functionality. This can also be displayed in a pyramid, see figure X.
The base of the pyramid consist of dissatisfiers where customers want to have a sense of control. While in the top of the pyramid people want to enjoy the experience. Before people can enjoy the service, the dissatisfiers need to be fulfilled. Especially in train stations, where people only spend 7 minutes on average, people want to have a sense of control at every moment. Therefore NS places timetable screens in the shops, which allows the travelers to quicker move to the top of the pyramid.
From the experience monitor the NS has learned that the components of experience and comfort have the largest contribution to the overall evaluation of the customer. Safety and functionality only account for 20% of that evaluation. And that while most managers focus on those functional constructs. As long as the functional constructs reach a certain, standard, level, the emotional constructs mainly determine the level of evaluation. But for example during a strike of the cleaners, the expected level of cleanliness is not reached. At moments like that the impact of the functional constructs on the overall evaluation of the customers increases.
Managing the managers
By using the experience monitor, the NS is able to direct the managers by showing the effectiveness of the emotional constructs. But the focus on the top of the pyramid is fairly
29 new for project managers. For years and years they have been focusing on the functional constructs and suddenly they need to put all their effort into a soft strategy.
The only way for NS to make sure that managers pick up the new development is by setting targets. Managers deserve bonuses, or not, when they reach their target. That is one of the steps to help managers with the transition. Because it is very nice that the station is clean, but that is not where you will be held accountable for. People judge on the atmospheric experience that they had. Another step is showing the managers how to focus on the emotional components and how the mechanisms work. Because they will only be able to implement the technique once they are aware of how it works. Subsequently, NS should help them to stay focused and punish them if they don’t and reward them if they do.
The NS also uses an evidenced-based design, where team interchange their ideas and outcomes based on observations. Before and after the implementation of a new operation the evaluation of the customer is measured. Which shows the improvement of the new operation and that effects it has. Then you can clearly set off the investment against the increase of positive evaluations. That balance is enough to convince managers that the new operations work, as the outcomes are measurably clear.
For example the renovation and restyling of the old NS carriages with poison green leather benches. A lot of attention was paid to the interior of the train, which took up 5% of the renovation costs. That small investment share has had an enormous impact on the grade that people gave for the trains, which increased by two points. Of course the largest part of the investment went into the functionality components of the train, like the wheels and motor. But what the customer does not perceive, does not exist.
To managers, it may look like a soft strategy, but there is rock-solid proof of the positive outcomes. Not only in stations, but also in other urban areas like central squares. Time and time again it shows that more than half of the customer evaluation depends on atmosphere/ambience and comfort. It just takes a lot of time to convince the managers, with their rusty behavior and habits. But once they crossed the line of understanding, they can do a lot of fun stuff.
Development of stimuli
The brainwork happens at the headquarters of the NS, as Mark van Hagen and his colleagues have the only knowledge of waiting time experience. To develop the ideas, several other parties are needed.
30 One of those parties is Fleetshield. They produce different types of foil with images, smell absorption or light absorption. The foil can be used for many kind of purposes. NS uses them to cover the outsides of the trains, create more atmosphere in areas and prevent graffiti spraying. The foil is very effective for the evaluation of customers. And cost-efficient as well. It is for example much cheaper to apply a foil to a wall, to prevent people from spraying graffiti, than removing the graffiti 4 times a year for €20.000 in total.
NS uses examples like this one to show managers that an increase in customer evaluation has a positive correlation with the turnover.
Elements of waiting time experience: attractiveness, location and distraction
You cannot tell which of these three elements is most important for evaluating the waiting time experience, as it depends on the context. In a transfer area, speed and ease are most important. Because you are orienting in time and space and need that sense of control. And in a stay area, comfort and experience are most important.
Different elements of waiting time
In waiting time there is a distinction between red, green and lost waiting time. In the red time you are busy with the process in the service of the provider. You are cognitively doing certain tasks, like buying a card for the NS or walking to the platform. In the green time you are free to fill in the time as you want. And the lost waiting time is the true waiting time, where you are not able to do anything.
The objective of these waiting times is to transform the red and lost waiting time to green. How you do that, depends on the context. NS decreased the red waiting time by introducing the OV chip card.
Challenge in managing experiences
The biggest challenge is to foresee the managers of the knowledge, because it is a natural tendency to invest in dissatisfiers. But dissatisfiers are moneyburners, a commodity trap where the same trick happens that doesn’t make people happy. Dissatisfiers never get a higher grade than a 7, because it is a core business. And the Dutch are high-demanding people, they criticize everything and are very direct. On the one hand this makes them very spoiled, because companies want to fulfill their needs. But on the other hand this ensures that the quality level in the Netherlands is as high as it is. The new core business here is to deliver
31 a pleasant travel experience, while in Japan (best railway company in the world) the focus is still completely on the dissatisfiers management.
Palette of service time
There is a spectrum for the time that people stay in a specific service that goes from a short period on one end to a long period on the other end. In transportation service this goes from a cruise ship to a plane to a high-speed train to a normal train to a metro to a region bus to a normal bus to an elevator. The longer the service lasts, the more important the top of the pyramid becomes. It is much more important on a cruise ship to meet the different ambience requirements and needs (music, pool, bar, etc.) than an elevator, which mainly needs to be functional with as little distractions and stimuli as possible. And of course the amount of stimuli for an elevator depends on the context as well. In a train station the elevator should be nothing but functional, while at a W Hotel the music, light and design of the elevator should be in line with the whole hotel experience.
Figure 7: Interview with Mark van Hagen.
From the interview, the following word cloud is conducted:
6b. Observation
The interview gives a good impression of the procedures and methods of the NS in a more broad view on their customer satisfaction management. To understand where they focus their
32 attention on concerning waiting time and how their customers behave, an observation was performed. This observation will create a better picture of how the customers make use of the service and what they do during their wait. Without influencing their cognition. To increase the degree of unconscious, affective and real-time data, there has been chosen to perform a non-contact observation to obtain data in the public transportation sector. This means that not all chosen observation aspects can be taken into account. There will not be information to study the subjective waiting time. But, the information that will be collected concerning actual waiting time, location, attractiveness and available distraction can be regarded as more viable.
Data and method
The data collection took place on Tuesday the 15th of July at Amsterdam Zuid station (Figure 8 & 9). The station is located in the modest business district in the south of Amsterdam, close to the motorway. From this station it is possible to easily travel to Schiphol, Utrecht and Amersfoort. All standard facilities are available, for example a service point for travelers that need assistance, a lift to go to the platform and assistance for less abled people. The station offers a variety of shops and restaurants, like AKO, ETOS, Kiosk, Julia’s and Rituals (NS, 2014). In the station there is an access to the GVB metro. This means that not everyone that enters the station has the objective to get on a train.
On each side of the station there is one main entrance, Mahler and Zuidplein. The entranced are connected through a tunnel, in which the station is located.The Mahler entrance connects the traveler to a variety of offices and parking spaces for bikes. And Zuidplein also leads to the tram and taxi’s. There is also a direct entrance to the platforms at the
Parnassusweg, but that one was not useful for this observation. The NS employees all have different tasks, they either assist travelers, clean the station or work in the train. The vendors did not came out of there shops. And a special GVB metro employee on site, to instruct travelers about the diversion.
An approval letter was received from the NS to carry out the observation, in case people were suspicious or needed evidence for the authenticity of the research. None of the passengers, nor did employees ask the observer anything. Which is quite alarming; no one noticed the observer that was walking around in the same station for 4 hours.
33 Figure 8: Amsterdam Zuid, Mahler entrance.
Sample
The observation started at 9 o’clock in the morning, after the biggest peak hour in the
morning in order to a sample of “normal” travelers and not just people who go to their work. In total 16 travelers were observed, from which only 10 were useful for the main observation concerning waiting time (N=10). Of those 10, there is an equality concerning the entrance that was taken to enter the station. The remaining six people did not enter the station with the aim of getting on a train. Three of them entered the GVB metro in order to travel somewhere with another public transport. The other three used the station as a gate to go from one side of the business district to the other side. For them the station functions as a tunnel to go under the railway and motorway.
Figure 9: Shops at Amsterdam Zuid
Observations
The observations of the 16 travelers are shown below. The data was recorded by simply writing down each travelers whereabouts on a small paper. There was no filming or
voice-34 recording to keep the observer as low-profile as possible, nor was there any form of contact with the travelers.
Traveler 1
Man, properly dressed with green travel/sportsbag, alone 9.06 Enters at Zuidplein and Starbucks
9.07 Orders at Starbucks
9.08 Leaves Starbucks with a Coffee to go 9.09 Leaves Station at Mahler
Traveler 2
Woman with blue handbag, alone 9.12 Enters at Mahler
9.13 Gets Ov-chipcard out of her jacket while walking through the hallway Picks up a free Metro newspaper
Checks in with Off-Peak card 9.14 Arrives at platform
Reads and browses through Metro 9.18 Train arrives
Lets other people get off first 9.19 Gets in train as second
Takes a seat in the lower department 9.20 Intercity leaves towards The Hague Central
Traveler 3
Woman with pink handbag, alone 9.22 Enters at Zuidplein
9.24 Leaves at Mahler
Traveler 4
Asian, business tourist, alone 9.24 Checks information screen Enters at Mahler
35 Gets paper out of bag
Tries to check in with paper at two different gates
Goes to information desk with paper, which is the printed ticket 9.27 Walks through open gate
9.28 Arrives at platform Looks at phone and paper
Walks to bench to get things (tablet and agenda) out of his bag Calls
Walks to other side of platform while calling where there are no people Starts rumbling around in bag, while calling, in a calm manner
9.34 Intercity to Schiphol arrives
Does not look up, but quickly puts everything back in his bag and enters train, while calling
Traveler 5
Woman with long beige raincoat 9.36 Enters station at Zuidplein
Immediately walks to platform, Ov-chipcard is in her phone case 9.38 Arrives at platform
Active on smart phone
9.39 Sprinter to Hoofddorp arrives
Does not look up, keeps focusing on the phone Enters train
9.40 Doors close too early Doors can still be opened 9.41 Train leaves
Woman is still looking at her phone while sitting next to the door
Traveler 6 Two older men
10.59 Enter at Zuidplein
Make a quick stop at the Ov-chipcard holder machine to top it up 11.01 Check in
36 One of the men gets himself a free Metro newspaper
11.02 Arrive at platform Keep on talking a lot
Walk to a bench, a bit further on the platform to talk and sit relaxly 11.07 Do not get on the first arriving train
11.08 Get up to walk towards the Intercity heading to Groningen 11.09 Get in train
Traveler 7
Woman in yellow jacket 10.13 Enters at Mahler Walks with a high pace 10.14 Arrives at platform Immediately enters train
10.16 Train leaves as Intercity to Schiphol
Traveler 8
Man with rug sack
10.17 Enters at Zuidplein
Wants to check in at NS, changes his mind and walks towards GVB Metro 10.18 Checks in at GVB
Traveler 9
Woman with red shoes 10.19 Enters at Zuidplein
Walks in rush towards check in gate Puts on her reading glasses to check in 10.20 Arrives at platform
Immediately gets into Intercity towards Schiphol
Traveler 10
37 10.30 Pops up his Ov-chipcard at the first machine available at Mahler
10.31 Walks into Ah to Go and buys a baguette 10.31 Leaves station
Traveler 11
Lady with white cardigan 10.32 Enters at Mahler 10.33 Arrives at platform
Looks at both the information screens and trains 10.34 Decides to get into the Sprinter towards Hilversum
Traveler 12
Woman with backpack 10.36 Enters at Zuidplein
10.37 Walks into Kiosk to buy something and talk to employees 10.40 Leaves Kiosk and enters GVB Metro
Traveler 13
Man with brown bag
10.47 Hurried enters at Zuidplein 10.48 Walks into Kiosk to get a coffee Leaves Kiosk
10.49 Walks last bit of the elevator, because you can hear train arriving Arrives at platform
10.50 Immediately walks into Intercity towards The Hague Central
Traveler 14
Woman with tidy grey hair 10.52 Enters at Mahler
Glances at the information screen
Walks through hallway while looking on phone and watch
Calls someone to say that she is waiting at the service desk and starts waiting 10.53 Walks around
38 Blows her nose
Walks alongside GVB Metro
Looks at newspaper outside the AKO Walks back to service desk
Takes and reads Etos magazine
Looks and listens at NS employee helping someone to buy a ticket Puts back Etos magazine
Walks back and forth
Walks all to way to the Zuidplein
Walks back and stays at service desk to wait
11.19 Meets person for whom she was waiting and they walk to the GVB Metro
Traveler 15
Woman with white jacket 11.27 Enters at Zuidplein 11.29 Walks into Broodzaak
11.30 Leaves Broodzaak with sandwich and takes a napkin Checks in
11.31 Arrives at platform and stands in between people in the middle Keeps looking at phone, does not look around
11.37 Intercity towards Nijmegen arrives
Without getting distracted from phone walks into train
Traveler 16 Woman with heels
11.41 Enters at Mahler and goes into HEMA 11.42 Leaves HEMA
Walks towards train while eating sandwich
11.43 Arrives at platform 1 and 2, turns around to go down again Goes up to platform 3 and 4
Keeps eating and looks at departure board Gets a phone and puts it back
39 11.49 Gets into Intercity towards The Hague Central
Beside the observed travelers, it is also important to report the location and environment of the station, as well as the attractiveness and the available distractions. Amsterdam Zuid is a station that fits the NS brand; you can find the NS colors, logos, ticket machines and information signs. As well as typical station shops and restaurants. The NS combines their old information board, with new digitalized ones (Figure 10).
Figure 10: Different forms of information provision at Amsterdam Zuid.
The station is not showy colored. The main colors of the station and platforms are white and grey, which blends in with the offices that it is surrounded by. The classic NS blue and yellow are clearly visible throughout the station, as well as shops branded colors. Most of the colors are permanent, except for the advertisements in some parts of the station. At the moment of the observation there were several campaigns shown on posters, like the The Brick exhibition. But there are also less striking and attention-grabbing colors in the station hall, that most likely influence the traveler unconsciously. In the Zuidplein hallway on each side you find photo with large pixels that seems to be a green meadow with black/grey/white cows and a blue sky (figure 11).
There were no unusual sounds in the station. You could here: bleeping of people checking in, people talking, people walking, trains arriving, trains leaving, announcements through the speakers and more bleeping in the shops.
40 Another observation that should be mentioned is the fact that the analog clock and the time on the digital information screens were not synchronized. And as staying in a station comes down to minutes this might be quite a crucial and confusing element for the travelers. The NS tries to increase the green waiting time by giving the traveler as much information as possible (Van Hagen, 2014). One way by which they do that is placing timetables in the shops and restaurants. But in Amsterdam Zuid there is not such a timetable in most of the shops.
On the platform there are different forms of distraction present. While standing on the platform, the traveler has a good overview of the motorway. Watching cars and trucks go by might have a soothing effect on the people waiting. The plants on the platform give it a more natural tone to the platform. Recently, tv screens have been placed. These screens display news items, as well as trivial “did you know?” information about the railways, as well as The Netherlands. The information boards with timetables and maps provide not only important information, but is also a distraction for people that want to read anything. Other forms on the platform of distractions are the vending machines, a device for wheelchairs, fellow travelers. And then there are the distractions that travelers chose to use: their mobile phone, station shops, station restaurant or a free newspaper.
Figure 11: A grey and a colored hallway at Amsterdam Zuid.
6c. Results
The data from the observations have been quantified and put into SPSS to analyze (Figure 12, Table 2 and Appendix). As there was not contact with the travelers, there are no demographic data. The mean time that travelers spend at the station is 6 minutes (N=16). From all the
