Investigating optimum length of physical queues at business and its impact on customers to join such queues

Queue is regarded as the central aspect of service organisations. Effective queue management in businesses has a high impact on customer behaviour and service operations. Understanding the behaviour of people when they look at the length of the physical queue is vital for the managers of service organisations on how to keep the queue at the optimum length to attract customers. It also helps the operations managers to determine the number of servers and staff in each period by minimising costs and making more profit. This thesis empirically investigates the impact of physical queue on the customer and the optimum length of the physical queue in service organisations to send a positive signal for customers to join the queue. In doing so, this research aims to understand the effect of queue on service variables and the optimum length of the queue in restaurants.