Waiting in a queue with strangers and acquaintances

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effect of social exchanges between customers that may occur in a queue, on the waiting experience's evaluation and its implication for the customer service management. Design/methodology/approach Extant literature on social exchanges between customers within consumption environment is reviewed pertaining to the interrelationships between customer‐to‐customer interactions, atmospherics' perception and waiting time evaluation. A conceptual model is built upon the reviewed literature illustrating the relationships between main concepts of the study. Findings The insights from this work suggest that making interactions between customers more enjoyable may reduce waiting time perception. In contrast, if the customer‐to‐customer interaction is perceived as negative, this may increase the waiting time evaluation. Research limitations/implications Albeit conceptual and exploratory in nature, this paper is intended as a beginning for further empirical validation of the effect of customer‐to‐customer interaction on the waiting experience. Originality/value Few studies have investigated explicitly the impact of customer‐to‐customer interactions on waiting time evaluation. This paper suggests that social exchanges that may occur in the queue may affect the customer's waiting experience.