Don’T Call Us, We Will Call You: the Detrimental Effects of Prospective Memory Requirements on Service Response Time Evaluations and Behavior

We compare evaluations of faster and slower than expected service response times for users that self inquire about service status or receive automatic notification of it. We contend that a self inquiry system imposes a prospective memory requirement not present in an automatic system, that focuses attention on time, particularly when a service response is provided slower than expected. Consequently, response time evaluations and subsequent user cooperation with the service provider are particularly negative in this condition. A web based experiment confirmed these predictions and revealed that preoccupation with wait time mediates the detrimental effect on response time evaluation.

Citation:

Shai Danziger and Simone Moran (2007) ,"Don’T Call Us, We Will Call You: the Detrimental Effects of Prospective Memory Requirements on Service Response Time Evaluations and Behavior", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, eds. Stefania Borghini, Mary Ann McGrath, and Cele Otnes, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 406-407.