Ex-post customer reference effects of lead-time quotation in an online waiting experiment

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 2027. Vol. 94. Article 105064.

Pavlov V., Mogre R., Olsen T.

Retailers and service providers routinely quote waits for deliveries, collections, appointments, and digital support. These quotes shape expected durations and customers’ ex-post evaluations. We examine how realized waits and deviations from quoted waits affect overall satisfaction, satisfaction with waiting time, and satisfaction with quote accuracy. In a randomized online waiting experiment, U.S. MTurk workers received a quoted wait, experienced a realized wait, and then reported satisfaction; primary analyses use participants who confirmed completion and completed the measures. Longer realized waits reduced satisfaction, and later-than-quoted completion robustly lowered the framed, transaction-level overall-satisfaction item. Deviations in either direction reduced satisfaction with quote accuracy, whereas earlier-than-quoted completion neither reliably improved nor reliably harmed overall satisfaction. The findings show that quote accuracy is a distinct evaluative dimension and that early and late completion have asymmetric consequences for customer evaluations. For managers, the results support avoiding lateness, improving quote accuracy, and updating customers when completion times change, especially in short digitally mediated waits where customers use quoted times to plan their attention.

Keywords: customer satisfaction, Service design, experimental design, Lead-time quotation, Customer waiting, Quote accuracy, Ex-post reference effects, Waiting-time estimates, Filler activities