Session | ||
SC04 - SIG Service3: Managing queues in service systems
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Presentations | ||
The psychology of virtual queue: when waiting feels less like waiting 1Vanderbilt University; 2California State University, Stanislaus, United States of America; 3Vanderbilt University We use a text mining approach to extract waiting complaints from over 0.72 million online customer reviews of restaurants and conduct difference-in-differences regressions to estimate the impact of Virtual Queue (VQ). We find that VQ reduces customers' pre-process waiting complaints and does not lead to in-process waiting complaints increase. VQ also enhances customers' overall satisfaction. Service providers who face high substitutability or offer low-value service are benefited most from VQ. Fair scheduling of heterogeneous customer populations University of Southern California, United States of America When managing service systems, it is common to use priority rules based on some operational criteria. We consider the societal implications of such individual-focused priority policies, when individuals are members of broader population groups. We find that optimal service policies can lead to significant inequity across population groups. We propose policies that generate equitable outcomes across populations with little, or at times, even no additional system cost. |