Entendiendo la evaluación de la espera desde la psicología del consumidor: Efectos de las expectativas y los llenadores de tiempo

One of the most important factors affecting user satisfaction with a service is the evaluation of waiting time, understood as the difference between perception and expectation. Such evaluation has immediate effects on customer’s satisfaction with the service of a given company. This study evaluated the effects generated by two types of time-fillers and the anchoring and adjustment heuristic in the evaluation of customer’s waiting time for a low-cost service. Results indicate that users’ waiting time expectations have significant effects on the perception of such time — mediated by the anchoring and adjustment heuristic — while time-fillers had no noticeable effects upon the perception or evaluation of time. In conclusion, it is suggested for companies operating in environments of self-service to consider incorporating different alternatives in the design of their service environments based on the generation of appropriate user satisfaction expectations, as a first step, and to a lesser extent consider other alternatives based on decreasing the perceived time.