This article was taken from the January 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
The website for the United Parcel Service receives 32 million package-tracking requests per day.
That's more than two for every package they ship. Clearly, people hate waiting -- just think back to the last time you suppressed the urge to hit your computer while staring at an endlessly... loading... progress... bar.
Not surprisingly, companies have responded to our wait hate by speeding things up whenever possible: faster search, faster shipping, faster service. But speed can sometimes backfire: when we get what we want too quickly, we can feel that the company didn't really do that much for us -- leading us to question why we're paying so much for something that took so little time and effort.
A better way to cope with customers' demand to know what's taking so long is not to reduce their wait, but instead simply show them what is taking so long. Our research demonstrates that when people can see the effort expended on their behalf in the delivery of a service -- what we call operational transparency -- they not only mind waiting less, but actually value the service more.
We created a fictitious travel website and asked people to search for a flight from Boston to Los Angeles. Some people saw a typical progress bar, but others experienced operational transparency: the site revealed each airline as it searched it -- "Now searching delta.com... Now searching jetblue.com..." -- while creating a dynamic running tally of the most affordable flights.
Even though everyone then received the same list of flights and fares, those who experienced this transparency rated the service much more highly.
And when asked to choose between a site that delivered instant results or one that made them wait but showed its work, the majority of people chose the site that made them wait -- even when they had to wait for a full minute.
Have you ever waited forever for a meal to arrive, only to find that the food is cold and the chips soggy? Maybe they've been working hard in the kitchen, but in cases where the result is disappointing, our research shows that transparency can have the reverse effect: You did all that work and this is the best you can manage?
We created a dating website and asked people to search for prospective soul mates. We informed some people that we'd found very attractive results -- and showed them alluring photos of their future paramours -- but told others we'd only managed to find less comely (though equally compatible) options. Those in the latter group liked our service less the longer it worked for them.
Transparency is a built-in facet of many face-to-face service experiences. We watch as cashiers count our money at banks or scan our items at supermarkets, but in a digital economy customers are often separated from the people and processes that deliver value to them. Several companies are bucking this trend by bringing transparency online and acquainting customers with their operations.
Consider an innovation in the comparatively low-tech world of pizza: Domino's Pizza Tracker, used by 75 per cent of the company's online customers to monitor their dinner's progress from order to delivery. (You can even learn the names of each employee who preps, bakes and delivers your order.) AT&T relies on a clever use of audio to signal effort: when customers call the automated help line to recharge their calling cards, they hear the sound of fingers typing on a keyboard - triggering a vision of someone working on their behalf. Americans tired of waiting for the economic stimulus to kick in can visit recovery.gov to track exactly how the United States government is putting their tax dollars to work.
In short, people might not hate the wait as much as they think.
We can learn to love to wait, as long as we're shown all the wonderful things happening on our behalf while we do.
Ryan W Buell is an assistant professor at Harvard Business School. Michael I Norton is an associate professor at Harvard Business School and co-wrote the forthcoming book Happy Money:
The Science of Smarter Spending
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
