When to announce the queueing information for bounded rationality customers: a discrete-event–based simulation model

Abstract

In queueing systems where queues are invisible, it is critical for companies to make decisions about the timing of announcing the anticipated delay to customers. In this paper, a simulation model is built to simulate an invisible queueing system, and several queueing scenarios are considered, including different system congestion and different company goals, to explore the impact of different announcement timings. In the modeling of customer behavior, we argue that it is difficult for companies to announce perfectly accurate delay and rarely have customers fully trust the announcement, so the quantal-response model is included to model customers’ probabilistic choice behavior due to the bounded rationality. Meanwhile, we consider customer heterogeneity, assign customers different initial patience and, as an extension, also assume that patience will be updated. We perform simulation experiments and analyze the experimental data to dissect the underlying reasons, and then give sound management suggestions. The experiments show that the optimal announcement timing is different for different scenarios, which shows that in practical decisions, companies should adopt different announcement strategies for different scenarios. What’s more, in some scenarios, delayed announcement at specific time is better than on-arrival announcement, which suggests that when we judge the value of announcement, we should add the definite word of specific timing to the announcement. The breakthrough point of this paper is to consider customers’ bounded rationality and the dynamic patience; meanwhile, it fills the gap of announcement timing research and explores the value of additional announcements after the initial announcement.