A study of Customers’ Evaluations of Queues found that 45% of customers think it is “very irritating” to stand in line.

Are you part of this statistic? Well, the good news for you is that the queuing theory can contribute to defeating this issue.

In queuing theory, or the branch of mathematics that studies how lines form and how they function exists some behaviors that customers practice such as jockeying, balking, and reneging. Below you will find an explanation of those three as well as its own way to reduce them.

Jockeying:

Occurs when a customer sees another lane moving quicker than his own, and rationalizes that it’s faster to jump ship and try his luck on the next lane. It is a line-jumping behavior.

How to overcome this behavior? By implementing a serpentine line where the law of first come, first serve is in full force, even though for many customers it appears to be moving too slow.

Balking:

When customers look at a waiting line and decide it’s not worth their time to queue up and wait.

How to overcome this behavior? Here are two suggested ways:

1. Display the wait time: to anchor a customer’s patience.
2. Sign-in to wait in line: trading physical lines for a virtual queuing system by allowing customers to reserve their spot in line.

Reneging:

It’s when a customer has joined the line but decides he doesn’t want to wait. Given that customers don’t want to waste their time, how can this situation be fixed?:

1. Entertain the customers: keeping them distracted from waiting.
2. Collect customer analytics: to discover how sales representatives are to communicate with customers. Thus, relaxed customers who receive a service they need are less likely to balk, renege, or jockey on lines.