Survey results: What consumers think about virtual waiting rooms

“We can’t make our customers wait.”

“People don’t want to queue online.”

“We need to sell as fast as possible.”

In our conversations with companies over the past 15 years, we’ve heard statements like these countless times.

It’s a natural response. Especially considering the long-held belief that speed is king in ecommerce.

But in our experience, and that of the thousands of companies we’ve worked with, these assumptions often fall apart when speed comes at the expense of a reliable online experience.

So to better understand consumers’ perspectives on online queuing, we surveyed 1,000+ consumers from across the globe. Here’s what they had to say:

• 87% prefer a short wait to a website that works than immediate access to a slow or buggy website
  
  
• 84% prefer an online queue with wait information to a website crash or error page
  
  
• Consumers are willing to wait in an online queue for an average of 53 minutes for a limited-inventory product they want

RELATED: Queue-it Customer Survey: Real Virtual Waiting Room Results From Real Customers

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The key finding of this survey is that consumers overwhelmingly prefer to wait for a reliable online experience than to get instant access to an unreliable online experience.

When we think about service experiences in the physical world, this makes complete sense:

• At a restaurant, you’d prefer to wait for good food than get bad food quickly
• At the doctor, you’d rather get an accurate diagnosis than a quick one
• When you’re streaming a movie, you’d rather have it take some time to load at the start than have the movie stopping and stuttering throughout

It’s the same with online experiences and transactions. In our survey, 87% of consumers said they’d prefer a short wait to a website that works than immediate access to a slow or buggy website. And 84% said they’d prefer an online queue with wait information to a website crash or error page.

While a virtual waiting room introduces a “wait” for consumers, the queuing mechanism prevents problems like website crashes and overselling—which are far more frustrating and damaging to consumer trust than a short wait.

When asked about these load-induced issues and what creates a good digital experience:

• 74% of consumers say a reliable website or app is key to driving their trust in a business
• 64% are less likely to trust a website after experiencing a crash
• 66% are less likely to trust a business after experiencing overselling

Slowing down traffic ensures a smoother online experience. Ensuring a smoother experience helps your customers achieve their goals more easily and efficiently.

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

That’s why, when we asked Queue-it customers how the virtual waiting room affects the experience they deliver to their customers:

• 85% say they sell through product more efficiently
• 84% say their customers’ online experience improved
• 81% say their site performance improved

“I think everyone was a little skeptical about the waiting room at first. But once they realized how good the experience was, we got an overwhelming amount of positive feedback. I wanted to print the comments out and make them my wallpaper, because it so rarely happens.”

Jut McDaniels, Registration Software Coordinator

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Consumers said they were willing to wait an average of 53 minutes in an online queue to purchase a limited-inventory product.

Again, this goes against the “milliseconds cost millions” mantra of website optimizers. But that’s because it’s not the length of the wait that matters, it’s the waiting experience you provide.

Consumers won’t look at a spinning wheel for 53 minutes to add a product to their cart. They won’t wait 53 minutes for a page to load. They won’t spend 53 minutes refreshing a crashed webpage.

In all these scenarios, customers don’t know how long they’ll need to wait, they don’t know what to do, they don’t even know if the website is working as it should.

Consumers are willing to wait almost an hour in an online queue because the queue experience delivers transparency, fairness, and communication. Queue-it’s virtual waiting room is designed around the tenets of queue psychology by:

• Showing the wait is finite by providing an estimated wait time
• Ensuring the wait is fair with first-in-first-out and randomization mechanisms
• Reducing stress with email notifications & the ability to queue across devices
• Explaining the reason for the wait with custom copy & real-time communication
• Occupying visitors’ time with engaging content & the ability to get notified when it’s their turn

It’s these aspects of a virtual waiting room that make the difference between frustrated visitors abandoning your site and excited visitors patiently waiting for their chance to buy.

That’s why 70% of consumers say their online waiting experience is improved with wait information such as estimated wait time and position in line.

But don’t just take it from us—this is what real visitors who’ve passed through Queue-it’s waiting rooms say time and time again.

“We got a lot of positive feedback and comments on our social media, email, and post-purchase survey. People saw and appreciated the difference compared to our previous drops and the effort we put into making sure this one went right."

John Palmer, Content Marketing Manager

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To show that people don't only prefer waiting rooms in a hypothetical survey context, we've gathered a collection of real tweets from real people who've passed through our customers' queues:

• "Knowing the wait time really helps reduce stress!"
• "It switched to a queue system and was super smooth 🥹❤️ Waited about 5 minutes and bought everything instantly, awesome!!"
• "If you wait a few minutes, it connects, and I could shop much more easily than usual"
• "If you wait your turn at the start, you can calmly and smoothly make your purchase"