Social regard: a link between waiting for service and service outcomes

The purpose of this study is to investigate the intervening role that social regard plays in the customer wait situation. Social regard is defined as making the customer feel valued in the social interaction. An experimental study highlights how variables such as actual wait length, friendliness of the service encounter employee and an employee apology can interact to influence service outcomes in a cafe setting. Social regard was shown to be the dominant influence on repeat visitation and positive word of mouth and thus provides further explanatory power to the wait situation.