DOI:10.6129/CJP.201809_60(3).0003
Chinese Journal of Psychology 2018, Vol.60, No.3, 191-215

RESEARCH REPORT Decision on Queue—A Study of Cognitive and Brainwave Responses

Chih-Chin Liang（Department of Business Administration, National Formosa University）；Fang-Yu Kuo（Department of Business Administration, National Formosa University）

Abstract

Queuing phenomena are common in service industries. For a service company, the willingness of customers to queue for a service implies the potential revenue. However, how to retain waiting customers or increase customer willingness to queue is an unanswered question. Generally, front desk clerks provide customers with information about the waiting time to help customers decide whether to queue. A clerk can provide the pure situation of waiting or the waiting time to customers. The pure situation of waiting is just related to the fact of queue, but not the waiting time. Brainwaves caused by a stimulus are a vital signal because they can represent customer response to the information of queue. Restated, brainwave changes reflect the different responses between the information of waiting time and information of pure waiting situation. Therefore, this study performed a brainwave experiment to compare between the information of waiting time and pure waiting situation. This study also surveyed customers to find their willingness to queue. The analytical results show that of providing information of waiting time is more useful than provide information of pure waiting situation. From the analysis of brainwave patterns, we can see the differences between the stimuli of pure waiting situation and waiting time statistically.

Keywords: queuing phenomenon, waiting time, brainwave