Anderson, Brodowsky - 2008 - Waiting As A Satisfaction Driver

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A Cross-Cultural Study of
Waiting as a Satisfaction Driver
in Selected Service Encounters
a a
Beverlee B. Anderson & Glen Brodowsky
a
California State University San Marcos, San Marcos,
CA, 92096-0001, USA
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To cite this article: Beverlee B. Anderson & Glen Brodowsky (2001): A Cross-Cultural
Study of Waiting as a Satisfaction Driver in Selected Service Encounters, Journal of
East-West Business, 7:1, 11-36
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A Cross-Cultural Study of Waiting
as a Satisfaction Driver
in Selected Service Encounters
Beverlee B. Anderson
Glen Brodowsky
ABSTRACT. Waiting is a source of frustration for most time-pressed

consumers who often complain about waiting for services. While many
different aspects of waiting have been studied, the reported research
looks at waiting and its saliency in customer satisfaction across three cul-
tures in three different service-consuming situations. The results indicate
that waiting is a satisfaction driver. However, the dimension of waiting
that is salient tends to vary across cultures and situations. [Article copies
available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678.
E-mail address: <getinfo@haworthpressinc.com> Website: <http://www.
HaworthPress.com>  2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
KEYWORDS. Waiting, customer satisfaction, satisfaction drivers
INTRODUCTION
Success in the marketplace is measured by a firm’s ability to attract, satisfy,
and retain customers. The primary determinant of loyalty and retaining cus-
Beverlee B. Anderson is Professor of Business, California State University San

Marcos, San Marcos, CA 92096-0001 (E-mail: banderso@csusm.edu). Glen
Brodowsky is Assistant Professor of Marketing, California State University San
Marcos, San Marcos, CA 92096-0001 (E-mail: glenbrod@csusm.edu).
The Thai data used in this study were collected under the supervision of Wade Lan-
caster, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia. The Thai data
set was coded and created under the supervision of M. Venkatesan, University of
Rhode Island.
Partial support for this project was provided by the Faculty Development Fund of
the College of Business, and the Faculty Center at CSU San Marcos.
Journal of East-West Business, Vol. 7(1) 2001
 2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. 11
12 JOURNAL OF EAST-WEST BUSINESS
tomers is customer satisfaction. Satisfied customers also spread positive word-

of-mouth and help firms attract customers. Keeping customers satisfied is a
goal of most firms. These firms understand that so long as their customers con-
tinue to be satisfied, there is a greater likelihood that they will be retained.
A challenge for organizations is to understand the keys to customer satisfac-
tion. Managers need to understand the antecedents and consequences of satis-

faction by identifying the salient factors or satisfaction drivers in this process.
They also need to investigate how customers evaluate performance and how
performance is related to satisfaction. While much research into these issues
has been conducted in the industrialized west, these questions become more
pronounced as more and more firms enter the global market. For example, re-
searchers need to consider whether consumer satisfaction processes are con-
sistent across cultures or whether they differ. They need to investigate whether
expectations and performance evaluations vary across cultures and whether
there are differences in satisfaction and retention processes. Finally, research
needs to examine whether these processes and drivers vary across different
types of transactions.
Researchers have used a variety of approaches to study satisfaction pro-
cesses and have identified many different satisfaction drivers for different
types of products. One factor that has been considered salient, particularly for
services, is waiting time. Several studies have looked at waiting as a factor in
negative evaluations and of dissatisfaction with service providers (Bitner,
Booms, and Tetreault 1990, Bolton and Drew 1991, 1993, Cronin and Taylor
1992). However, while there has been limited study of waiting in different
countries (Levine 1997), the saliency of waiting in the satisfaction/retention
process has not been studied in a cross-cultural setting.
Waiting and tolerance for waiting are part of a culture’s social time system.
Previous research has found significant differences in social time systems
across cultures (Hall 1959, 1966, 1976, 1983, Levine 1997, Terpstra & David
1991, Anderson et al. 1994). Differences have been found in temporal pat-
terns; how people use their time; temporal orientations toward the past, present
or future; and temporal perceptions of how people think and feel about time.
For example, researchers have found that the definition of what it means to be
late differs considerably across cultures. Since social time systems influence
the way people within a culture think about and view time, it is reasonable to
expect to find cross-cultural differences in ways people respond to the need to
spend time waiting. In some cultures, people may be socialized to expect and
accept waiting as part of the natural order of time. In other environments, indi-
viduals may come to expect more immediate service and find waiting to be a
waste of time. To examine differences in how waiting time affects consumer
satisfaction with service encounters, then, data were collected in three coun-
Beverlee B. Anderson and Glen Brodowsky 13
tries characterized by different time systems. The social time systems of

American, Mexican, and Thai cultures are discussed in the following section.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. First is a discussion of
the elements of the social time systems of the three countries studied. This is
followed by descriptions of the study, data collection methods, and the sam-
ples used. Attention is then turned to the elements of the satisfaction model that
was developed. Each element is discussed separately and data analysis is dis-
cussed for each. Then, the comprehensive model is presented and tested. The
paper concludes with a discussion, conclusions, study limitations, and sug-
gested areas for further inquiry.
SOCIAL TIME SYSTEMS

OF THE THREE COUNTRIES EXAMINED
The United States, Mexico, and Thailand are three countries at different
stages of their histories and economic development. The United States, with a
history just over two centuries is among the most technologically advanced
economic leaders in the world. Its standard of living stands in sharp contrast to
its neighbor, Mexico, which is an emerging economy. Thailand emerged as a
growing manufacturing force in Asia during the 1980s and 1990s, and, despite
some setbacks in 1997, has a more stable economy than many of its Asian
neighbors. It is a kingdom with a history spanning more than 1,500 years.
Understanding the level of economic development of each country offers
some insight into its social time system. The relative prominence of natural
time or mechanical time in a social time system varies across cultures (Gronmo,
1989). In less industrialized or agrarian societies, social time systems are more
likely defined and influenced by nature’s patterns, or what is called natural
time. For example, weather and climate influence when certain activities, such
as harvesting and planting, take place. In less developed areas of the world
where electricity is less available, the rhythms of day and night also determine
when people engage in various activities. In more industrialized cultures, time
is defined according to humanly defined time segments and patterns or what is
called mechanical time. Nishimoto Ikuko (1999) says, “The more industrial-
ized a society, the more coordinated and rigid it seems to become.” It is not un-
likely, then, to expect that the extent to which people in a culture live according
to natural or mechanical time differ in their tolerance for waiting.
In their article, “Nonstop Acceleration,” Held and Nutzinger (1998) attrib-
ute accelerated lifestyles to changes brought about through industrialization.
The industrial and technological revolutions have enabled people to ignore the
rhythms of nature and to attain the “perpetual motion” of the nonstop society.
Innovations such as artificial lighting, machines that produce power and accel-
eration, central water supplies, and others have allowed societies to operate
24-hours a day, seven days a week throughout the year.
When comparing the social time systems of Mexico and the United States,
one of the best places to examine the stark differences between them is along
the U.S.-Mexican border. The border crossing in San Ysidro, California, sepa-
rating the Tijuana and San Diego metropolitan regions, is among the busiest in
the world. As Mexico defines itself in the modern era, those living near the
U.S.-Mexican border experience first hand the realities of moving between
two social time zones. Robert Levine (1997) related the experience of thou-
sands of Mexicans who live in Tijuana but commute daily to jobs on the Cali-
fornia side of the U.S.-Mexican border. One former commuter quoted in the
article, Vicente Lopez, explained that time he crossed the border, he felt like a
button was pushed inside him. “When entering the U.S. he would feel his
whole being switched to rapid clock-time mode: he would walk faster, drive
faster, talk faster, and meet deadlines. When returning home, his body would
relax and slow into event time the moment he saw the Mexican customs
agent.” He believes many Mexicans insist on keeping their homes on the Mex-
ican side of the border precisely because of its slower pace of life. “In Mexico,
we are inside the time. We don’t control time. We live with the time” (p. 190).
It is possible that the differences between Mexico and the U.S. may be
partly due to the non-stop nature of life in the U.S. In the U.S., factories, televi-
sion stations, and Internet servers operate around the clock. It is not unusual for
people to go grocery shopping at 3:00 a.m. after snacking at a 24-hour
drive-thru restaurant. In stark contrast, according to Ratniewski, (as cited in
Romero 1999) most work in Mexico is not 9 to 5. In the provinces, people are
used to certain routines that help them carry out their daily chores with time for
rest and socializing in between. Yet, Mexican citizens have more contact with
the non-stop, round the clock culture of the United States through the develop-
ment of new communications and transportation technologies, as well as
closer economic ties through regional trade agreements such as NAFTA.
The general Mexican perspective is that life throughout the industrialized
nation to the north seems faster paced than life in Mexico. They view “tiempo
americano” as a monochromic concept wherein time is thought of as linear and
separable, a resource that can be bought, sold, exchanged, or saved. Living in
“tiempo americano,” people take a scheduling approach to living life. Ameri-
cans want not only to schedule time, but also to organize and manage it. This
view is rather well integrated throughout U. S. culture to the point where many
of the individuals managing our firms and organizations see it as “the only nat-
ural and logical way of organizing life” (Hall, 1983, p. 49). Individuals who
have been socialized in one time system but who must function in the United
States another may selectively adopt aspects of “tiempo americano” to facili-
tate more effective interaction with Americans while maintaining their own
social time system for intercultural situations. Some of the pressures that Mex-
icans who commute over the border feel may be the result of trying to reconcile
the differences between social time systems. Some Mexicans, in certain situa-
tions, explicitly indicate which time system they are following when arranging
appointments, by specifying “hora ingles” as a technique for avoiding confu-
sion. Hall (1983) classifies Mexico as having a polychronic time system,

which involves doing several things at once, in contrast to America’s mono-
chronic system which is based on the Northern European system of doing one
thing at a time.
Mexican culture is a blending of European culture with the ancient indige-
nous cultures of the Maya and the Aztecs. Its proximity to the United States,
location in the western hemisphere, the strong influence of Spanish culture and
the Roman Catholic church, however, seem to define it as a western culture.
Thailand, in contrast, is located in Asia and is a distinctly eastern culture. It is
historically and ethnically linked to China, a thousands-year-old culture.
Those who have come to be known as Thai migrated to the region from
Yunnan province in the south of China. According to Diethelm Travel’s data-
base, Thais derive their sense of national identity from cultural, linguistic, and
religious factors rather than ethnic factors. Thailand, similar to Japan, appears
to have a blending of monochronic and polychronic systems. In the agricul-
tural regions polychronic time is prominent, whereas, monochronic time is
more likely to be found in the cities of Bangkok and Chiang Mai.
Little research on the role of time in consumer behavior has relied on sam-
ples gathered in Thailand (Anderson, Lancaster, and Venkatesan, 1997). How-
ever, much research has been done in China, which has had a great impact.
Since many aspects of Asian culture in general, and Thai culture in particular,
can trace their roots to China, findings about Chinese attitudes toward time
may suggest that similar patterns would be found in neighboring countries
such as Thailand. In a study comparing the portrayal of cultural values in the
United States and the People’s Republic of China, Cheng and Schweitzer
(1997) examined some time-related cultural constructs. Namely, the authors
looked for differences in time orientation between the two cultures. Spe-
cifically, the authors hypothesized that Chinese television advertisements
would reflect the more eastern value of tradition (past orientation) than Ameri-
can ones and American ads would reflect the more western value of modern-
ization (future orientation). Confirming one of their hypotheses, Cheng and
Schweitzer found tradition to be among the most dominant cultural values de-
picted in advertising suggesting a national pride in the culture’s long history.
However, modernity–or moving toward the future–was also a value expressed
more in Chinese than American television commercials. The authors explain
that valuing modernity does not contradict a reverence for tradition as moder-
nity does not imply abandoning traditional values in favor of western ones, but
a movement toward national improvement as mandated by the policies of the

communist regime. Further, the authors state that other countries that have
their roots in Confucian philosophy, such as Thailand or Taiwan tend to be
more traditional because they have not experienced some of the cultural and
political upheaval that China has in the past several decades.
While little has been written about the attitudes toward time among Thai
consumers, its long history and Confucianism roots suggest that Thais would
tend to be more tradition oriented than Americans. The cultural history of
Thailand is more than five times longer than the United States and only in re-
cent decades has it become a leading manufacturing power in Asia. Relative to
the lengths of their histories, the pace of change and development in the United
States seems much faster than in Thailand or Mexico. Thailand does not have
the same round-the-clock non-stop culture of the United States. It is logical to
expect, then, that when it comes to tolerance for waiting and the effects of
waiting on customer satisfaction, the American consumers would be expected
to react more negatively to waiting time than either Mexican or Thai consumers.
THE STUDY
The goal of this research was to gain a better understanding of how waiting
affects satisfaction for different types of services in different countries. Three
service providers were selected for study. These included grocery stores,
banks, and medical doctor’s offices. These services vary on a variety of dimen-
sions such as frequency of use, length of client-provider relationship, and
switching costs, which will be discussed in depth. The three countries selected
were the United States, Mexico, and Thailand.
A written survey questionnaire was used for data collection. This question-
naire was based on an instrument developed over a decade ago that has been
used in several studies of time-related behaviors (Anderson, Karns & Venkatesan
1988), There was also a Spanish version of the questionnaire, which had been
used in earlier studies. The Spanish version was used in Mexico, while the
original English version was used in both the U.S. and Thailand. English is one
of the three languages of Thailand and is widely spoken in Chiang Mai, the
second largest city in the country, and the area where the survey was adminis-
tered.
SAMPLE AND DATA COLLECTION
The U.S. data were collected using primarily a mail questionnaire. One
thousand households in North County San Diego County (California) were
mailed questionnaires using a purchased mail list. The responses received
from the mailing were supplemented by 20 surveys, which were administered

by members of a local university’s marketing research class. This yielded a us-
able sample size of 97 for the U.S.
The survey instrument used in Mexico had been previously translated into
Spanish using both forward (from English) and backward (from Spanish to
English) translations. The Mexico data were collected by students under the
supervision of an instructor at the University of Yucatán in Mérida, Mexico.
The surveys were administered in person. Each interviewer was trained by an
American faculty member and was assisted by a Mexican faculty member who
supervised the data collection. The Mexican sample was a judgement sample
that attempted to get approximately equal numbers of males and females and a
range of ages. The questionnaires were administered in a variety of locations,
such as at the local university, in the various parks, in homes and at some local
businesses. From a total collection of 124 questionnaires, 110 were deemed
usable responses.
The Thailand sample data were collected from 200 adults in the city of
Chiang Mai, a city located in the northern part of Thailand. The questionnaire,
which was identical to the one used in the United States, was administered by a
university faculty member and several graduate students. This questionnaire
was also administered at a variety of locations, such as the local university, in
homes, and in local gathering places. The Thai sample was a quota sample that
was designed to have approximately equal gender representation and include a
range of ages. There is currently no Thai translation of the questionnaire, so
only individuals who spoke and read English were included in the study, which
is noted in the limitations section.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SAMPLES
The U.S. sample was the oldest, in terms of average respondent age. The
age range for this sample was 18 to 80, with a median age of 36. The average
age of the U.S. population is higher than for the other two countries and the life
expectancy is approximately 76 years. The Thai sample ranged in age from 20
to 65, median 29, while the Mexican sample ranged from age 15 to 60 and had
a median of 27. When looking at the population figures, the populations of
both these countries are young. In Thailand the average life expectancy is the
shortest, 69 years, while in Mexico, life expectancy is slightly over 70 years. In
education the median education level was “some education beyond high
school” for all three countries. This is slightly above average for both Mexico
and the Thai populations as a whole. The U.S. sample had the largest number
of employed individuals (77%), compared with 63% of the Mexican sample
and 48% of the Thai sample. Males accounted for 55% of the Thai sample,
45% of the U.S. sample, and 40% of the Mexican sample. One additional char-
acteristic of the U.S. sample should be mentioned. Of the three countries, the
U.S. is by far the most ethnically diverse. In the geographic region where the
U.S. data were collected there is a very large Hispanic population. Therefore, it
was not surprising that 17% of the U.S. sample indicated a Hispanic heritage.
This is noted as a possible limitation of the study.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THREE SERVICES

IN THE COUNTRIES EXAMINED
The three services selected, banks, grocery stores, and medical doctors,
have different characteristics and are used differently by consumers in the
three countries studied. Consumers in the U.S. tend to go to the grocery store
about once a week. Both the median and mode responses for frequency of pa-
tronage are once per week for the U.S. sample. About 30% of the U.S. respon-
dents indicated that they go more frequently than once a week. In contrast the
respondents from both Mexico and Thailand make trips to the grocery store
more frequently. The median for Mexico was “more than once a week” while
the mode was “daily.” The Mexican custom of shopping daily for fresh pro-
duce and meat is well ingrained in the culture. While households are starting to
get larger refrigerators, buying in quantity and storing frozen foods have not as
yet become completely accepted in most Mexican households. In Thailand,
visits to the grocery store were reported to be less frequent than in Mexico.
Less than half of the Thai sample reported that they go to the grocery store
once a week or more frequently. These data show that there are definite differ-
ences in the pattern of grocery shopping among the three cultures.
There were also differences in banking transaction frequencies across the
three country samples. The Thai respondents indicated that they went to the
bank about once a month; “every 3-4 weeks” was the category that contained
both the median and mode. In contrast, in Mexico the respondents indicated
they went to the bank about twice as often. “Every 1-2 weeks” was the median
response of the Mexican sample. The banks in Mexico are currently under con-
trol of a government agency, the Instituto Para la Protección del Ahorro
Bancario. The banks were put under government control in 1994 after four
years of privatization. Most American respondents, however, said they went to
the bank about once a week.
The pattern of using medical services also varies among the cultures. Health
care is treated very differently in the U.S. compared with Mexico or Thailand.
In the U.S. preventive medicine and an emphasis on wellness makes the con-
suming of health care more pre-planned and non-emergency in nature. A large
percentage of the population makes appointments for visits to medical doctors,
as few medical practices will see patients without appointments. This consum-
ing pattern stands in sharp contrast to both Thailand and Mexico. In these
countries, people tend to visit medical doctors only when they are ill or injured.
Pre-scheduled visits are rare and it is not the custom to make appointments for
services of a medical doctor in either country.
The number of medical personnel per capita also varies among the three
countries. Thailand is reported to have 0.20 doctors per 1,000 population. The
total number of doctors in Thailand in 1992 was reported to have been 9,580;
however, over one-third (3,425) were located in Bangkok, the capital (Statisti-
cal Abstract of the World, 1994). In the northern provinces around Chiang
Mai, where this study was conducted, the number of doctors is substantially
smaller. However, as the major city in the northern provinces, medical services
are available to a much greater degree than in the outlying areas. According to
the Encyclopedia of the Third World (1992), slightly over half of the adminis-
trative districts in Thailand had no full-time doctors. In Mexico, the pattern of
health care is very different. There is a National Health Service and most indi-
viduals are insured through the social security system. Over 90% of all Mexi-
cans have access to medical services. There were reported to have been
130,000 physicians in Mexico in 1988. In 1993 there was one doctor per 615
inhabitants (Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, Vol. 3). The U.S. has the
most advanced health care system in the world and greatest pervasiveness of
medical services. The U.S. is reported to have 2.38 doctors per 1,000 popula-
tion. While the offering of medical services is not evenly distributed across the
U.S., in Southern California, where this study was conducted, medical services
are widely available. Both U.S. and Thai respondents indicated they see a med-
ical doctor about once a year. The Mexicans indicated they go to a medical
doctor “every 4-6 months,” which seems more frequent than people in the
other two countries.
SATISFACTION MODELS
Two general types of satisfaction measurement models were considered as

a basis for this research. The first type of model is the transaction model, which
is based on one transaction experience. The second model is the performance
model, which is based on the entire experience of the customer with the current
and other providers. Both models appear to have possible applicability when
investigating how waiting may be related to satisfaction. The models have sev-
eral aspects in common: expectation with regards to some set of satisfaction
drivers (determined through some process); performance evaluation for the set
of satisfaction drivers (based on objective and subjective assessments); a de-
termination of satisfaction/dissatisfaction; and a loyalty/retention outcome.
In addition to this basic framework, two additional factors were considered.

The first was time embeddedness. An activity or event is considered embedded
if it is bundled with other activities within a defined time frame. An example
would include stopping at a bank during a shopping trip or during an afternoon
of running several errands. The second factor is an individual characteristic,
namely, the extent to which individuals are bothered by waiting. Figure 1 pro-
vides a graphic overview of the basic dimensions of the theoretical framework
of the study.
The remainder of the paper examines individual components and linkages
within this framework to determine if and how the factors are related to satis-
faction.
EXPECTATIONS
Most researchers who study consumer satisfaction agree that expectations

play some role in the satisfaction process. However, the effect of expectations
is believed to vary across product and service applications. Whether to include
expectations in Customer Satisfaction Measurement (CSM) depends on the
strength of the expectations and the strength of the incoming performance in-
formation. The importance of expectations in services is considered to be more
ambiguous and debatable due to intangibility and subjectivity. However, time
is one quantifiable element of any service transaction. This study focuses on
consumer expectations of waiting time for a variety of services.
FIGURE 1. Proposed Satisfaction Model
Confirmation/Disconfirmation
(Reasonable–Perceived Wait Time)
Satisfaction
Waiting Annoyance
Embedded versus
Stand Alone Activity
There are several models that can be used to describe the nature of customer
expectations. The simplest model, the Cobweb Model (Johnson 1998), is ex-
amined in this study. The Cobweb model suggests that performance expecta-
tions for a given service encounter, denoted as Pet, are based on the observed
performance in the immediately preceding period, Pt 2 1. The cobweb model
would predict that consumer expectations of performance in the current ser-

vice encounter would equal the performance experienced during the immedi-
ately preceding service encounter. Using the cobweb model to predict the
expectation of waiting in a service encounter, then, the following hypothesis
will be tested.
H1 Those individuals who report waiting on their previous visits to ser-

vice providers will expect to wait to be served during their next en-
counters, (Pet = Pt 2 1)
To examine waiting using the Cobweb Expectation Model, data were col-
lected on respondent’s reports of whether they had to wait the last time they
visited each of the three service providers (Pt 2 1) and whether they expected to
wait on their next visits to that provider (Pet). Respondents were asked whether
they had waited for service on their most recent visits to banks, grocery stores,
and medical offices. The response categories were simple yes/no options.
More than 90% of the U.S. respondents said they waited for service the last
time they visited all three providers. In Mexico, over 90% of the respondents
indicated they had waited for service the last time they visited banks and medi-
cal doctors; however, fewer than 65% indicated they had waited for service at
grocery stores. The pattern in Thailand was similar to that found in Mexico.
However, substantially fewer respondents indicated they had waited at gro-
cery stores–fewer than 30%.
Respondents were also asked if they expected to wait the next time they vis-
ited a bank, grocery store, or medical doctor’s office. The cobweb model hy-
pothesis was tested using the crosstabs function in SPSS 9.0 for Windows.
Table 1 presents the results of these tests that show that, in all cases, the cob-
web model hypothesis was supported. The association was significant at the
.000 level for each of the three services in both the U.S. and Thailand, and in
Mexico, the hypothesis could not be rejected for banks and grocery stores at
the .000 level of significance, and at the .05 level for visits to medical doctors.
Therefore, the cobweb model appears to be a suitable model for predicting
customer expectations for waiting in these three service situations across cul-
tures.
In contrast to the previous-encounter-based cobweb model, a performance
model of expectations considers individual’s past experiences as well as infor-
mation they have acquired from other sources of information. The expecta-
TABLE 1. Association Between Previous and Expected Waiting Experiences:

Three Service Providers in Three Countries
Bank Grocery Store Medical Doctor

U.S. 18.65a 12.39 44.100
p < .000 p < .000 p < .000
Mexico 20.11 32.88 8.91

p < .000 p < .000 p < .012
Thailand 25.23 82.31 29.65

p < .000 p < .000 p < .000
a The Pearson Chi-Square value testing association between reported waiting during previous service encounter
and expected waiting on next encounter.
tions take the form of an overall image. These expectations are presumed to
anchor customers overall evaluation of satisfaction. Expectations in the per-
formance model, which are based on the totality of one’s experiences and other
information, are thought to form into what one sees as a “reasonable” wait for
the different service providers. Therefore, reasonable waiting times were be-
lieved to be an appropriate measure to use for expectation image.
Respondents were asked to indicate what they thought would be a “reason-
able” wait for service for each of the three service providers. The eight possible
response categories were as follows:
• Did not wait at all

• Less than 5 minutes
• 5-10 minutes
• 11-15 minutes
• 16-30 minutes
• 31-45 minutes
• 45 minutes to an hour
• Over an hour
The reasonable waiting times for the three services across all three countries
are shown in Table 2. In all three countries, respondent’s expectations of rea-
sonable waits at medical doctors were longer than reasonable wait expecta-
tions at grocery stores.
Mexican respondents expect a reasonable wait to be longer at banks, 5-10
minutes, compared to U.S. and Thai respondents, who thought a wait of less
than 5 minutes was most reasonable. It was also interesting to note that Thai’s
do not believe any wait is “reasonable” at grocery stores. Overall, in all three
countries, waits of “10 minutes or less” were the usual expectations. While no
statistical tests could be conducted to compare cross-cultural differences, it ap-
TABLE 2. Average “Reasonable” Wait Times for Selected Services in Three

Countries
Bank Grocery Store Medical Office

Median Mode Median Mode Median Mode
U.S. < 5 minutes < 5 minutes < 5 minutes < 5 minutes 5-10 minutes 5-10 minutes
Mexico 5-10 minutes 5-10 minutes < 5 minutes < 5 minutes 5-10 minutes 5-10 minutes
Thailand < 5 minutes < 5 minutes No wait No Wait 5-10 minutes 5-10 minutes
pears that the totality of experiences in dealing with each type of service pro-
vider differ across cultures. For example, American consumers expect to wait
at grocery stores while Thais do not expect to wait at all. The typical American
grocery shopper visits a supermarket and may shop once or twice a week for
large quantities of items. In contrast, Thais are more likely to shop in open-air
markets and do not wait at checkout counters.
CONFIRMATION/DISCONFIRMATION OF EXPECTATIONS
It is clear that consumers in all three countries form expectations about ser-
vice encounters based on previous experience. Certainly, they have expecta-
tions about how long they will have to wait, if at all, when visiting service
providers. Expectations play an important role in most transaction models.
Transaction models test satisfaction by comparing expectations to experience
to determine whether expectations are confirmed or disconfirmed. Confirma-
tion/ disconfirmation models assume that consumers will judge the perfor-
mance of a transaction or experience with respect to their expectations. If a
transaction falls below expectations, expectations are disconfirmed resulting
in customer dissatisfaction. Conversely, satisfaction results when transaction
performance equals or surpasses expectations. While there is some debate
about the specifics of the model (Anderson 1973), all agree that expectations
play a very important role.
Given the basic disconfirmation model, the aspects of performance and ex-
pectations examined in this study were:
Expectation = Assessment of a reasonable waiting time;

Performance = Perception of how long the wait was on the previous
visit to a service provider;
Satisfaction = Expressed satisfaction with current service provider.
The effect of waiting time on customer satisfaction is examined by comparing

expectations with performance and measuring satisfaction. Customers are sat-
isfied when expectations are confirmed, that is, when perceived waiting is
equal to or less than a reasonable waiting time. They are dissatisfied when ex-
pectations are disconfirmed or when perceived waiting time is longer than a
reasonable waiting time. Formally:
H2a Consumers are more likely to express satisfaction when perceived

waiting time is equal to or less than a reasonable waiting time.
H2b Consumers are more likely to express dissatisfaction when perceived

waiting time exceeds a reasonable waiting time.
To test the disconfirmation model, data were obtained for each of these
three factors for the three types of consumer transactions: grocery store shop-
ping, banking, and medical office visits in the three countries. The response
categories respondents used for estimating how long they waited the last time
they visited each of the three types of service providers were the same eight
categories used for obtaining information on expectations of reasonable wait-
ing times. While previous research (Hornik 1984) found that consumers tend
to overestimate waiting time when they are asked, the scaled responses are
treated as perceptions of how long they waited. The use of perceived wait time
is logically appealing, since it is consumer’s perceptions, rather than objec-
tively measured wait time, that will influence their satisfaction assessments.
To measure satisfaction, a four-point scale was used: “very satisfied,” “sat-
isfied,” dissatisfied," and “very dissatisfied.” The respondents were asked to
use this scale to indicate, overall, how satisfied they were with the bank, gro-
cery store, or medical office they currently use. In the analyses, however, the
“very dissatisfied” and “dissatisfied” categories were collapsed into one since
so few respondents indicated that they were very dissatisfied.
TESTING CONFIRMATION/DISCONFIRMATION
OF EXPECTATIONS
The difference between respondent’s stated “reasonable” waiting times and

their perceptions of how long they waited on their last visit to the service pro-
vider falls into three categories. The first category describes experiences
where respondents perceived that they waited longer than their indicated “rea-
sonable” time. For these individuals, performance was worse than expected.
The second category describes experiences of individuals who perceived that
they waited as long as they would reasonably expect. Their expectations were
met. The final category describes experiences of people who perceived that
they waited less time than they would reasonably expect. Their expectations
were exceeded. The first category indicates disconfirmation. The second and
third categories indicate that expectations were confirmed or exceeded.
The level of confirmation/disconfirmation was then compared to respon-
dent’s indicated level of satisfaction for that provider. For most of the situa-
tions and countries, the disconfirmation model cannot be rejected. Table 3
shows the results of statistical tests of the confirmation/disconfirmation model.
Satisfaction levels appear to be strongly associated with whether the respon-
dents perceived they waited longer, equal to or a shorter time than what they
had indicated as a reasonable waiting time.
The results show that in the U.S. the disconfirmation model cannot be re-
jected at the p < .05 level of significance. For each of the three services tested
there is a strong association between expectations confirmation/disconfir-
mation and satisfaction level. In Mexico, the association was significant at the
p < .05 level for both grocery stores and medical doctors, however, the associa-
tion was not statistically significant for banks. In Thailand, the disconfir-
mation model was rejected for banks (p < .787); however it could not be
rejected for grocery stores at the p < .10 level, nor for medical doctors at p <
.05. In general, the model appears to be supported for medical doctors, regard-
less of country. However, there are differences among the countries with re-
spect to banks and grocery stores.
EMBEDDED ACTIVITIES
The confirmation/disconfirmation model of expectations is a simple and

appealing model for measuring the effect of waiting on customer satisfaction.
However, other factors may moderate the relationship between waiting and
TABLE 3. Association Between Disconfirmed Expectations and Satisfaction:

Three Service Providers in Three Countries

U.S. 12.52 12.75 12.00
p < .014 p < .013 p < .017
Mexico 6.78 17.79 15.64

p < .148 p < .001 p < .004
Thailand 1.72 8.24 12.02

p < .787 p < .083 p < .017
a The Pearson Chi-Square value testing association between disconfirmed expectations and satisfaction.
satisfaction. One such factor that may affect the salience of waiting as a satis-
faction driver is whether the activity is embedded among other activities, or is
a stand-alone activity. Many consumers like to group activities, embedding an
activity among a group of other activities. For example, some consumers may
plan to stop at a bank on their way to or from work, or they may plan to group
several activities together during a set time period, such as a lunch hour. For
people who embed some activities within a larger set of activities, spending
more time waiting for one service transaction could seem disruptive and an-
noying. This could lead to lower satisfaction. For example, if a person plans to
stop at a bank to withdraw money and then shop for groceries during a lunch
hour, a long wait at the bank would significantly cut into shopping time. This
person may be more bothered and dissatisfied with the bank than if he or she
did not expect to complete other tasks during the same time period. Table 4 il-
lustrates the degree to which visits to the three service providers are embedded
among consumers in each of the three countries.
There appears to be significant cross-country variability in the degree of
time embeddedness of the three activities. For example, Americans are more
likely to embed banking and grocery shopping with other activities than their
Mexican or Thai counterparts. The pressure to get several errands accom-
plished in a given period of time may contribute to Americans’ reputation for
impatience when faced with long waits.
WAITING ANNOYANCE
The second additional factor in the satisfaction model (Figure 1) was a mea-
sure of the extent of customer annoyance with waiting. It is reasonable to as-
sume that few if any customers would enjoy waiting in line at a bank or grocery
store, or in a doctor’s waiting room. Nonetheless, some consumers may be less
annoyed than others when asked to wait for service. Some people take waiting
in stride, while others, in the extreme case, may choose to switch providers if
TABLE 4. Service Usage as a Time Embedded Activity Across Countries
U.S. Mexico Thailand

Embedded Alone Embedded Alone Embedded Alone
Activity Activity Activity
Bank 85% 15% 54% 46% 23% 77%
Grocery 75% 25% 31% 69% 63% 37%
M.D. 17% 83% 7% 93% 15% 85%

they are sufficiently annoyed by long waits. Table 5 illustrates the expressed
degree of annoyance of respondents from each country about waiting at each
of the three types of service providers examined.
In spite of their reputation for impatience, more (36%) of American respon-
dents were not bothered by waiting at banks, compared with only 18.75% and
14.84% of Mexican and Thai respondents, respectively. Similarly, only 57%

of American respondents expressed at least some annoyance with waiting at
grocery stores, compared with more than 74% of Mexican respondents and
more than 72% of Thai respondents. Over 80% of respondents from each of the
three countries expressed at least some annoyance with waiting at medical of-
fices. The pattern for being bothered for medical doctors is interesting in that
approximately the same percentage of respondents from each country indi-
cated that they were “not bothered” by waiting at a doctor’s office. However,
those who were most bothered were the Mexicans, with over half of the re-
spondents saying they were “very bothered.” The pattern in Thailand is very
consistent with the pattern in the U.S.
TESTING THE SATISFACTION AND PERFORMANCE MODELS
In the preceding sections, the elements in the satisfaction model introduced

in Figure 1 were introduced, described, and tested separately. This section
presents the results of testing the entire satisfaction model. This was accom-
plished using the regression function in SPSS 9.0. The model was tested sepa-
rately for each of the nine service-country combinations examined and the
results are presented in Table 6.
In each case, the dependent variable was satisfaction with the current ser-
vice provider. Independent variables were entered in two blocks. In the first
block, confirmation/disconfirmation of waiting expectations and waiting an-
noyance for the particular service (grocery store, bank, or medical office) were
entered simultaneously. In the second block, time embeddedness of the activ-
ity was entered. Thus, time embeddedness was treated as a moderator variable
(as depicted in Figure 1) that was expected to influence the degree to which in-
dividuals were bothered by waiting. As discussed in an earlier section, it was
thought that individuals would be more annoyed by waiting for an activity
grouped among other activities as excessive waiting that would interfere with
the schedule of a slate of activities.
In Table 6, two models are presented for each country-service combination.
The first illustrates regression results for the un-moderated model (where
embeddedness is excluded) and the second for the moderated model with
embeddedness included. The results show that embeddedness significantly af-
fects satisfaction for Mexican respondents visiting medical offices. The R2
28
TABLE 5. Degree of Expressed Waiting Annoyance
Bank Medical Doctor Grocery Store

Not Somewhat Very Not Somewhat Very Not Somewhat Very
Bothered Bothered Bothered Bothered Bothered Bothered Bothered Bothered Bothered
U.S. 36.96a 47.83 15.22 42.55 50.00 7.45 19.78 50.55 29.67
Mexico 18.75 41.25 40.00 25.93 44.44 29.63 17.59 31.48 50.93
Thailand 14.84 64.84 20.33 27.17 58.15 14.67 18.23 53.59 28.18
a Figures reported are percent of respondents who expressed annoyance when required to wait.
TABLE 6. Satisfaction Model Moderated Regression Results
U.S. Mexico Thailand

Grocery Bank Medical Grocery Bank Medical Grocery Bank Medical
Confirmation/ 20.18 20.16 20.08 20.08 20.12 20.12 0.06 2.06 20.11 20.10 20.05 2.06 0.03 0.03 20.02 20.03 0.06 .009
Disconfirmation .05 .05 ns ns .01 .01 ns ns .05 .05 .05 .05 ns ns ns ns ns ns
Waiting 20.14 20.14 20.43 2.43 2.17 20.17 20.28 20.28 20.17 20.16 20.10 20.10 20.15 20.14 20.26 20.02 20.31 20.31
Annoyance ns ns .001 .001 .10 .10 .001 .001 .10 .10 ns ns .001 .001 .001 .001 .001 .001
(Moderator) 0.22 20.09 .26 2.09 20.15 2.098 20.07 20.11 20.11
.10 ns ns ns ns .001 ns ns ns
R2 0.13 0.16 0.27 0.27 0.16 0.18 0.13 0.13 0.17 0.18 0.08 0.23 0.06 0.07 0.09 0.09 0.15 0.15
Adjusted R2 0.11 0.13 0.25 0.25 0.14 0.15 0.11 0.11 0.14 0.15 0.06 0.20 0.05 0.07 0.08 0.08 0.14 0.14
29
value of the moderated model is almost three times higher than for the un-mod-
erated model (.23 versus .08). The sign of embeddedness is negative, which in-
dicates that when a medical visit is embedded among other activities, Mexican
respondents are more likely to be dissatisfied by waiting than if the doctor visit
were a stand alone activity. While embeddedness significantly affects satisfac-
tion, it does not appear to act as a moderator of waiting annoyance. In fact,

waiting annoyance remains non-significant for the unmoderated and moder-
ated models of this service-country combination. It appears, then, that in this
case, time embeddedness directly affects satisfaction with medical doctors
among Mexican respondents. Time embeddedness was a marginally signifi-
cant satisfaction driver (p < .10) for American respondents visiting grocery
stores.
Waiting annoyance was the most consistently significant driver of service
satisfaction. It was significant for seven of the nine country-service combina-
tions (all but grocery stores in the U.S. and medical offices in Mexico). Where
significant, the coefficient of waiting annoyance was negative. This indicates
that the more annoyed individuals were by waiting for a particular service, the
less likely they would be satisfied with that service.
Among the Thai respondents, waiting annoyance was the only significant
independent variable influencing satisfaction. The confirmation/disconfirma-
tion of waiting expectations appear to play no significant role in driving the
satisfaction or dissatisfaction of Thai consumers with any of the three service
providers. It should be noted that the R2 values for the Thai sample were con-
sistently low (.06, .09, and .15) for grocery stores, banks, and medical offices,
respectively. It appears, then, that traditional models of expectations, such as
the confirmation model, may not be appropriate for examining satisfaction in
this setting. With such low explanatory power, it appears that other satisfaction
drivers, not included in this study, affect Thai consumer’s satisfaction with
services more strongly than does waiting.
The confirmation/disconfirmation of expectations seem to play a stronger
role in service satisfaction among the respondents in the two western coun-
tries, the U.S. and Mexico. In each country, confirmation/disconfirmation of
waiting expectations have significant effects on customer satisfaction with ser-
vice providers. In both countries, the effect is significant for medical officers.
When they perceive that they must wait longer than is reasonably expected for
medical office visits, American and Mexican respondents are more dissatis-
fied with their current medical providers. This is shown by the negative-
signed, significant coefficients for confirmation/disconfirmation of waiting
expectations for doctor’s offices. Confirmation/disconfirmation effects were
found for grocery stores, but not banks, in the United States and banks, but not
grocery stores, in Mexico.
SATISFACTION OUTCOMES
From a managerial standpoint, loyalty and retention are desirable outcomes

associated with higher levels of satisfaction. In this research, a slightly differ-
ent approach was used to seek information about customer loyalty. Rather than
asking respondents to predict if they would stay loyal, respondents were asked
if they had ever switched service providers because they were kept waiting too
long. Variation in the propensity to switch due to waiting-induced dissatisfac-
tion was expected because of differences in the nature of the three types of ser-
vices examined. Specifically, the costs of switching grocery stores may be
significantly lower than the costs of switching banks or medical doctors.
Switching costs for changing grocery stores mainly revolve around learning
the location of items, perhaps learning new brands, and becoming acquainted
with the policies and personnel of the store. The switching costs for banks are
presumed to be substantially higher. Moving money from one financial institu-
tion to another can be time consuming, costly, and difficult. Switching dentists
and medical doctors may be either a high or low cost proposition, depending
on the duration and strength of the association. If one has built up a strong rela-
tionship over a period of time, the cost of switching may be perceived as high;
however, if one sees a different physician or dentist almost every time one vis-
its the provider, then the costs of switching may be perceived as relatively low.
To test the potential loss of customers due to unreasonable wait times,
chi-squared tests of the association between annoyance with waiting at each
type of service provider and reported switching behavior were performed on
data from each country. The results are presented in Tables 7A and 7B.
Chi-squared tests showed a significant relationship p < .05 for six of the
nine country-service combinations and a seventh combination was significant
at p < .10. Among American respondents, waiting annoyance and switching
behavior was significant for banks and grocery stores, but not medical doctors.
In Thailand, there were significant (p < .05) relationships between annoyance
and switching for all three types of services. In Mexico, the only significant as-
sociation (p < .05) between annoyance and switching was for grocery stores,
with a marginally significant (p < .057) for doctors.
CONCLUSIONS AND LIMITATION
Clearly, most people find waiting annoying. When given the choice be-
tween immediate service and waiting, most rational consumers would choose
the former. Nonetheless, most people are forced to wait for services. This is a
universal truism. However, with the advent of Internet banking, improved
healthcare, and alternative distribution of goods and services around the clock,
marketers have found that reducing waiting can be used to position themselves
32
TABLE 7A. Switching Behavior of Individuals Bothered by Waiting: Three Service Providers in Three Countries

Not Somewhat Very Not Somewhat Very Not Somewhat Very
Bothered Bothered Bothered Bothered Bothered Bothered Bothered Bothered Bothered
Switch No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes
U.S. 28a 6 36 8 6 8 35 5 28 19 3 4 15 3 42 4 21 6
Mexico 8 7 18 15 14 18 24 4 35 13 11 21 18 1 26 8 37 18
Thailand 20 7 102 16 32 5 41 9 86 21 23 4 30 3 78 19 37 14
a Figures reported are percent of respondents who reported they had switched service providers because of being kept waiting.
TABLE 7B. Association Between Waiting Annoyance and Switching Service

Provider

U.S. 10.02a 10.76 2.65
p < .007 p < .005 p < .266
Mexico 0.84 19.75 5.738

p < .657 p < .000 p < .057
Thailand 141.55 99.113 4.251

p < .000 p < .000 p < .041
a The Pearson Chi-Square value testing association between reported waiting annoyance and having switched ser-
vice provider because of being kept waiting.
as better service providers. The degrees to which these improvements have oc-
curred are clearly associated with economic development. Time is also a cul-
tural construct. Many ancient cultures have witnessed technology-induced
changes in their cultural time systems after thousands of years of history. The
U.S., in contrast, is among the younger of the world’s nations and has experi-
enced enormous change over its short history.
This study has shown that waiting does, indeed, affect consumers’ satisfac-
tion with service providers. The statistical models used show significant ef-
fects of waiting. However, waiting is only one of many possible satisfaction
drivers. Many other satisfaction drivers have been excluded from these analy-
ses so that waiting could be the central focus. Waiting time as a satisfaction
driver has received scant attention in the marketing literature. These results
suggest that including waiting as one of a list of potential drivers may indeed
provide a clearer picture of the consumer satisfaction process.
It should be noted that the analysis herein did not provide for tests of statisti-
cal differences across countries or services. Rather, as one of the first cross-
cultural studies of waiting and service satisfaction, the goal was to identify po-
tential areas where meaningful differences may be found. Several traditional
marketing models that have been developed using mostly American data were
used to test samples gathered in other countries. One of the more interesting
findings was that the expectations-based confirmation/disconfirmation model
played no significant role in determining the satisfaction levels of Thai con-
sumers. This may be a function of the types of services considered, or it may
suggest that western-based models of rational consumer behavior may not be
as universal as previously assumed. This opens up many avenues for develop-
ing newer models that are better suited to non-western cultures.
That differences across the three countries and three service categories were
found is interesting, but does not provide a generalizable model of the role of
waiting in service transactions. Differences in frequency of service visits or
length of provider-customer relationships may indeed explain the differences

in the results. However, specific data on these and other factors were not avail-
able for these analyses and should be included in further studies.
This study had several other limitations, which must be mentioned. First as
a cross-sectional survey, which was conducted at one point in time, respon-
dents were asked to both reflect on their experiences in the past and project
their expectations into the future. Ideally, satisfaction should be examined over
time in a longitudinal study. Tracking customer’s experiences from the form-
ing of expectations through satisfaction to the development of loyalty and
staying with the same provider, would give better insights into the process.
The sample also poses some limitations. The small sample sizes did not
permit using more sophisticated confirming tests. Also, the Southern Cali-
fornia sample, with a large number of Hispanic respondents may not be rep-
resentative of the U.S. as a whole, and may minimize the differences between
the U.S. and Mexico, since most of the Hispanic respondents are likely to
have Mexican heritage. In the Thai sample, the respondents were limited to
those who read English. By choosing a northern city, it was hoped that the re-
spondents might be more representative of the country as a whole; however,
the choice of Chiang Mai and the use of the English version of the question-
naire remain as limitations of the study. Neither the Mexican nor the Thai
samples were probability samples and thus tend to limit the generalizability
of the findings. There were also no measures of perceived costs of switching
providers. When asking respondents about whether they had switched ser-
vice providers, more insight could have been gained if information on
switching costs had been obtained.
Within the limitations of the study, the findings suggest that this is an area
that is worthy of more study. In addition to studying different services and dif-
ferent countries, there are other dimensions of waiting that may be worthy of
investigation.
REFERENCES
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Anderson, Brodowsky - 2008 - Waiting As A Satisfaction Driver

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ABSTRACT. Waiting is a source of frustration for most time-pressed

KEYWORDS. Waiting, customer satisfaction, satisfaction drivers

Beverlee B. Anderson is Professor of Business, California State University San

tomers is customer satisfaction. Satisfied customers also spread positive word-

tion. Managers need to understand the antecedents and consequences of satis-

tries characterized by different time systems. The social time systems of

SOCIAL TIME SYSTEMS

sion. Hall (1983) classifies Mexico as having a polychronic time system,

a movement toward national improvement as mandated by the policies of the

SAMPLE AND DATA COLLECTION

from the mailing were supplemented by 20 surveys, which were administered

This is noted as a possible limitation of the study.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THREE SERVICES

Two general types of satisfaction measurement models were considered as

In addition to this basic framework, two additional factors were considered.

Most researchers who study consumer satisfaction agree that expectations

FIGURE 1. Proposed Satisfaction Model

would predict that consumer expectations of performance in the current ser-

H1 Those individuals who report waiting on their previous visits to ser-

TABLE 1. Association Between Previous and Expected Waiting Experiences:

Bank Grocery Store Medical Doctor

Mexico 20.11 32.88 8.91

Thailand 25.23 82.31 29.65

• Did not wait at all

TABLE 2. Average “Reasonable” Wait Times for Selected Services in Three

Bank Grocery Store Medical Office

Expectation = Assessment of a reasonable waiting time;

The effect of waiting time on customer satisfaction is examined by comparing

reasonable waiting time. Formally:

H2a Consumers are more likely to express satisfaction when perceived

H2b Consumers are more likely to express dissatisfaction when perceived

The difference between respondent’s stated “reasonable” waiting times and

The confirmation/disconfirmation model of expectations is a simple and

TABLE 3. Association Between Disconfirmed Expectations and Satisfaction:

Bank Grocery Store Medical Doctor

Mexico 6.78 17.79 15.64

Thailand 1.72 8.24 12.02

TABLE 4. Service Usage as a Time Embedded Activity Across Countries

U.S. Mexico Thailand

Bank 85% 15% 54% 46% 23% 77%

Grocery 75% 25% 31% 69% 63% 37%

M.D. 17% 83% 7% 93% 15% 85%

14.84% of Mexican and Thai respondents, respectively. Similarly, only 57%

TESTING THE SATISFACTION AND PERFORMANCE MODELS

In the preceding sections, the elements in the satisfaction model introduced

Bank Medical Doctor Grocery Store

TABLE 6. Satisfaction Model Moderated Regression Results

U.S. Mexico Thailand

tion, it does not appear to act as a moderator of waiting annoyance. In fact,

From a managerial standpoint, loyalty and retention are desirable outcomes

CONCLUSIONS AND LIMITATION

Bank Grocery Store Medical Doctor

TABLE 7B. Association Between Waiting Annoyance and Switching Service

Bank Grocery Store Medical Doctor

Mexico 0.84 19.75 5.738