Okay, folks. For anyone jetting off to a Disney amusement park for a winter break and/or school vacation, expect to visit the happiest place on earth, but be prepared to queue up for the experience. No worries, though. Disney has the whole shuffle-along-like-sheep-thing covered.
According to a Tel Aviv University study, the key to keeping customers happy in line is to distract them so they won’t notice how long they’re standing there. In a new study published in NeuroQuantology, Prof. Dan Zakay says our perception of time is highly subjective and when people are waiting, for say, entry to Space Mountain, or in a supermarket checkout, they’re much more apt to walk away and spend their money elsewhere if they think they’ve wasted too much time.
But, Zakay found that people who had something to watch thought they were waiting about half the time than those who slogged through a line without any distraction. “Essentially people want to feel that their time is valuable and they’re not wasting it in line,” says Zakay.
The formal name for this is queue psychology, so when Snow White greets a line of visitors waiting for their turn at Pirates of the Caribbean, she’s not just being friendly — she’s a decoy. It’s genius! And those lines at the Disney parks are no ordinary, straight-arrow lines, either. They’re laid out in a back-and-forth pattern so that the next turn is never out of sight, giving you the impression that you’re making progress. Brilliant!
So businesses everywhere should borrow from that happy place of wishing stars and whistling while you work. Don’t keep your customers waiting. And if you have to, make sure you amuse them or otherwise distract them from the ticking clock. Because, after all, Disney knows how to put the magic in Magic Mountain — and in the line while waiting for it.
And Tonic notes that there’s another reason Disney amusement parks are the happiest places on earth and that’s because good deeds don’t go unnoticed there. Pre-register and be a volunteer for a day you’ll receive a free 1-day, 1-theme park ticket to the Disneyland Resort or Walt Disney World Resort, good until Dec. 15, 2010.
Photo by Raymond Brown via Flickr.