Is self-serve the answer to the six minute queue dilemma?

British retailers have been given another reminder of the importance of good queue management, with research showing that consumers will only wait in line for up to six minutes.

A survey of 1,344 people has revealed that the average shopper will wait for no longer than 5 minutes and 54 seconds before throwing in the towel and leaving the store without buying the goods they intended to purchase.

Another alarming stat for retailers is that more than 50 per cent of those questioned said they had never returned to a store where they had been made to wait in a long queue.

Of course, many retailers see self-service tills as the answer to this ever decreasing queue tolerance, but do consumers agree? Here at Tensator, we’re currently conducting a survey of our own to find out what shoppers really think of the self-serve experience. If you have a spare two minutes, you can share your views and take the survey by clicking here.