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London, UK, 1st June 2005
The average British queue lasts for less than four minutes, according to a new study which Research International took part in – making the UK one of the fastest countries in Europe for queueing.
The study, conducted by the MSPA (Mystery Shopping Providers Association) across Europe, looked at queues in 12 countries. Across the continent the average queue contains just over 3 customers and lasts for five minutes. The longest and slowest moving queues in Europe belong to Sweden and France. For the shortest queues, customers should go to Germany or Hungary, and the queues in Finland, Denmark and Britain are the fastest moving.
“Queueing is seen by many as a British pastime”, said Jane Edwards, head of Mystery Customer Research at Research International and Vice President of the MSPA, “But this research shows that we’ve lost our queueing crown to the French.”
The British are still relatively happy to queue, though, with only 16% of customers appearing dissatisfied, below the European average of 20%. Across Europe, post offices and train stations attract the longest queues, and bank queues are the slowest.
When customers do finally reach their destination, what’s the service like? 70% of British customers get a smile at the counter, and 79% get a greeting, but only 1 in 12 receive an apology for having to queue.
“The study shows that British firms have got better at dealing with queues,” said Jane Edwards, “But there’s a lot of work to do. In over half the queues we studied, customers thought something could be done to shorten the queue, but on only 1 in 6 occasions was action actually taken. The attitude seems to be that queues are a fact of life, and not the firm’s problem. But with 16% of customers unhappy with queues, this area is a ‘quick win’ as far as customer satisfaction is concerned. An apology for having to queue, for instance, can make all the difference.”? ? For further information please visit: ? http://www.research-int.com/??
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