PERCEIVED CROWDING

One of the significant elements of spatial arrangement — perceived crowding, started receiving consideration because of its impact on individual behaviours in service settings (Hwang et al., 2012; Regoeczi, 2008). It is defined as “the maximum number of people who can use a site without causing an unacceptable change in the physical environment, the destination’s social, cultural, and economic fabric, or a decline in the quality of the experience gained by visitors” (Wall & Mathieson ,2006 , p.33) Perceived crowding is eminent for its social and spatial dimensions, influencing satisfaction in numerous ways (Gogoi, 2017). The spatial dimension focuses on a feeling of limited movement, and the social dimension refers to an individual having a restricted sense because of the presence of many people in an area. Crowding is an individual perception provoked by the surroundings or individual personality characteristics. It is measured through a shared meaning of consumers’ experience, personality dimensions, and response due to the experience acquired in that crowded area. Perceived crowding results when many people are present per unit of the offered space, and it mentions getting too much stimulus from social cues. The crowding effect increases when customers experience movement restrictions due to other people’s presence. Further, it also develops emotional state aggressiveness, and anxiety among customers, customer’s ability to detect the control is altered due to social, physical, and personal management factors.

Perceived crowding consists of two dimensions; spatial crowding and social crowding (Machleit, Kellaris, & Eroglu, 1994). Spatial crowding refers to spatial concentration, i.e., the area attainable by a person within particular surroundings. Social crowding assesses the communal density, i.e., individuals’ thickness in an area. Crowding is a negative assessment of these social, spatial, and human aspects (Cai et al., 2021; Yin, Cheng, Bi, & Ni, 2020). Problems connected with crowding rise when the existence of outsized people, and the usage of both physical and environmental resources exceeds the aptitude of the surroundings (Lee et al., 2003; Zehrer et al., 2016).

Brehm (1966) Theory of Psychological Reactance

As a theoretical approach to investigate the problem statement in this study, (Brehm, 1966) psychological reactance theory is used. This theory argues that individuals respond when they fear their liberty being endangered. To understand this construct, there are three central models of the reactance theory. The first model relates to the prime aspiration of a human being to have behavioural autonomy, i.e., a higher density of individuals in the vicinity will interrupt their ability to perform specific actions. The second model by Altman is related to an individual’s mental incapability of processing the intruding environment attributes. And lastly, the ecological model has also been used to elucidate social crowding. Literature has considered that these models can be incorporated under control perception. Therefore, it can be concluded from the above developed arguments that the effects of perceived crowding will be varied according to people and situations.

Researchers have operationalised the concept of crowding to be the physical crowdedness. Previous studies have associated crowding with individuals negative mental and emotional reactions because of the presence in a restricted area (Huang, Huang, & Wyer, 2018; Mehta, 2013). Reactance theory argues that every human has an urge to have absolute freedom. However, crowding in an organizational setup reduces human performance which may have been hindered by the physical attribute of the bank/franchise; its infrastructure and layout (Blut et al., 2020). An evaluation of customer satisfaction during service delivery can significantly be affected by one of the individual attributes of provision encounter, i.e., waiting time (Baier, Kühl, Schüritz, & Satzger, 2020), which is considerably increased when customers experience crowding effects. Brehm theory suggests that if behaviour related freedom is limited, it leads to psychic reactions and, ultimately, feeling of negligence affecting behaviour adversely. When perceived crowding is lower, customers will not experience stressed feelings because their surroundings are not dense. Such a service encounter will increase customer satisfaction (Song et al., 2017). But on the other hand, when perceived crowding is higher, an indirect relationship will exist between crowding and customer experience/satisfaction. In such scenarios, customers will experience restricted movement and will experience an inability to move about personal space and moderate privacy.

The interactive restriction perceptions on crowding are mainly devised from psychological reactance theory conceptualisation of personal space. This theory debates that restrictions in behaviour related liberty intensify psychological reactance, which refers to a state in which emotions of avoidance and negligence arise that ultimately result in actions of restoring the threatened autonomy. Psychological reactance theory argues that reactance is a stimulating motivational state. It initiates a notion among people to restore their freedom and considers crowding a state in which other people existence limits an individual range of behavioural selections.

Data Collection

For this study, a collective result of roundabout forty interviews were conducted in banking and telecom sectors of two cities — Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Research participants were walk in customers at both the banks and telecom franchises belonging to different fields of life, i.e., administrative employees, teachers, students, pensioners etc. The elementary criteria for the participants to be interviewed were that they must maintain a bank account in a crowded branch or frequent visits to a crowded franchise.

Sampling Technique

Initial participants of the study were asked to engage additional participants from their surroundings. This technique is an exact copy of the (Patton, 2002) snowball sampling technique. A preference-based approach lets customers respond more openly. The first few participants had strong community terms; this helped recruit more participants: time, day, and venue per interviewee availability. The telephonic or face-to-face conversation was carried out.

Data Collection Instrument

An interview guideline was created and was first used during the current research. Forty open-ended semi-structured interviews were conducted with customers of banks and telecom franchises. The face-to-face interview method helps a researcher gain as much information as possible (Comi, Bischof, & Eppler, 2014). A brief introductory session was given, a voluntary contribution was ensured, and the comfort level of the interviewee was prioritised. Participants also had the right to withdraw interview or pass any question if they felt uncomfortable answering it. Moreover, the respondents were assured of the confidentiality of their responses. Interviews were conducted in English and Urdu language contingent upon the understanding of the research participant. Later, Urdu to English language translation expert was contracted to facilitate the translation of interviews of participants who responded in the Urdu language.

Table 1 displays the demographics of the study participants. Few respondents permitted recording of their conversation too. Mobile audios were later transferred to a personal computer system for record and evaluation purposes. Total participants in qualitative research should not be specified; rather, the focus should be on their rich and thoughtful responses (Myers, 2019). During the interview, a saturation point may be reached when a subject no longer contributes valuable information. The average interview time was between twenty and fifty minutes. All interviews (in person and over the phone) were transcribed word for word, resulting in 87 A4 text sheets with a total of 19,860 words.

Effect of perceived crowding on customer behaviour

Analysis of the study revealed that crowding could influence customer behaviour, affecting them emotionally and psychologically. Emotionally, it was found that crowded situations frustrated customers, irritated, and hyper whereas, psychologically, they became impatient, felt pressured, and stressed. When inquired about the consequence of crowds on sentiments, one respondent replied;

“I am one of those individuals who resent crowds […] I feel stressed in the presence of crowds.”

Another participant revealed strong disgust for crowds;

“Normally, I despise crowds, but you have to be patient because this is your job at that time.”

Intolerance was noticed to be a huge issue among customers. Everyone in the crowded situation wanted their work to be done at once to eliminate the crowds. One interviewee said;

“Definitely, in crowds, an individual becomes tense and feels pressurised and keeps thinking when this crowded situation will end and he/she will get rid of this.”

Few customers considered waiting in a queue to be a wastage of time. One participant responded;

“I become anxious in the presence of crowds and due to the wait which I had to do as it was very time consuming”

Working or job doing customers described their feelings as “exhausted” plus “frustrated”;

“I visited the branch after my office hours, was already exhausted but due to the presence of crowds, I felt more frustrated.”

Another factor that negatively influenced customers while their presence in a crowded area was hot weather which when combined with crowds affected them significantly. One participant enlightened;

“It was a very pressurising experience for me and I felt as to how my time was getting wasted.”

Another replied;

“In the presence of crowds, I also became impatient because everyone present there wanted his work done as earliest as possible.”

Even though all participants explained crowds affect their emotions negatively, one response was comparatively unique. When questioned about the influence of crowds, behavior-wise, he/she replied;

“No, nothing. Crowds don’t affect me at all when I think about the frontline employees providing services in the same crowded situation. They are also a human and they are bound to provide services from 9 am-5 pm.”

Elements that helped customers in coping with Perceived Crowding

One of the findings of this study showed that waiting for their turn in crowds negatively affected customer sentiments. But a few factors helped in tolerating and waiting in crowds. They include necessitation, additional acquaintance, availability of magazines, the suitable temperature of bank/franchise, completing a bank related task, and the existence of other people. One interviewee responded crowds are manageable for him/her because of the presence of an associate. He/she answered;

“During my visits to the bank, my friend is always accompanying me, so the waiting time in crowds is usually spent while conversing.”

At both franchises and banks, due bill dates were relatively crowded. And one factor that was the reason for customers to tolerate crowds was to avoid paying the extra charges.

One participant explained;

“It is sometimes the last day to submit a bill, so instead of moving bank to bank, I consider tolerating the crowd. If the electricity bill is ten to twelve thousand dollars, and the overdue fee is one and a half thousand dollars, I merely consider tolerating the mob.”

A few respondents highlighted that the presence of other people in crowds also assisted in bearing crowds. A participant replied;

“Other people are also present, they are waiting as well, so we shouldn’t expect to be dealt first.”

Visiting the bank for task completion assisted in tolerating the crowd;

“You will meet a crowd if you are in a bank to receive your new cheque book or to resolve an issue with your ATM card. It’s a necessity because there’s no other option.”

Accessibility to magazines also helped customers to tolerable the crowd and wait;

“Magazines are available at the branch I visit, so in case of a crowd, I start reading them.”

The pleasant temperature of that bank/franchise also assisted in waiting for their respective turns.

“It was very hot that day; however, I was able to tolerate the crowd due to Air Conditioning there.”

Another customer while highlighting factors that helped in tolerating crowds answered;

“Tolerance, I believe, is a product of its own creation. For example, I believe tolerance comes from within when you are in a crowded environment and know there is nothing you can do. I normally leave the bank after completing my work, even if there are crowds, since I believe that if I have taken time out of my hectic schedule to come to the bank, I should only leave once the work for which I came is completed.”

Frontline Service Employees Behavior

Customers also observed that during a crowded situation in banks and telecom franchises, the behaviour of frontline service employees was also different. All the interviewees referred to the behavior of frontline service employees negatively changed in crowds. Various codes allocated under this theme consist of lazy or slow behavior of employees, behavior based on deposits, gender discernment in a crowded situation, careless behavior of employees, deficiency of proper services, and employees’ sluggish working speed.

Few interviewees responded that frontline service employees’ behavior in crowds was dependent on their account deposits. Their behavior was good if a customer had a large amount in their bank account and bad with those having fewer deposits. One participant responded;

“Even in crowds employee behavior was nice, but that might be for the reason that I have a huge balance in my account.”

One of the study participants categorised frontline service employee behavior to be “Bad” and replied;

“Staff behavior was very bad in that crowded situation. The way they were dealing with customers was bad.”

Another one further included;

“One thing which I disliked most in crowds was that the employee didn’t know how to solve my query.”

Discrimination based on gender in crowds affected various customers negatively. Customers also categorised frontline service employees to be “sluggish”;

“People are required to go to a bank. Employee services are not always good in crowds [...] they don’t always work swiftly or are too occupied conversing with each other, and their demeanor is lethargic.”

Respondents also discussed the deficiency of proper banking services in the presence of crowds and how it negatively affected them.

Customers suggestions for crowds management

Customers commented on initiatives that could be taken to reduce crowds and make the customer experience a good one. Various codes allocated in this theme consist of proper frontline service employees’ training, education, and awareness among people, advancement in technology, availability of a functional system, provision of doorstep services, proper sitting arrangement and infrastructure, and increased staff.

One of the customer suggestions for reducing crowds meaningfully was to spread awareness among the general public. Due to low literacy and being a developing country, individuals lack basic mobile banking knowledge and visit banks for tasks that can be easily performed online. The same scenario was found to be in the telecom sector too. One customer further added that online banking could also assist in creating awareness amongst people. He/she responded;

“There is a need to literate people regarding mobile banking. Because once people will understand it and start using it, crowds will be significantly reduced.”

Even if a customer had a little query in crowds, they had to wait. One participant reflected;

“In crowded banks/franchises one employee must be assigned a responsibility to guide every walk-in customer regarding their query.”

Interviews also revealed that improvement in technology, both in franchises and the banking system, will assist in reducing crowds. One of the respondents reflected on the accessibility of deposit machines and how they could be helpful.

“My job entails dealing with deposits most of the time. And since there is no idea of cash deposit machines in this country and only ATMs are available, I believe cash deposit machines should be provided.”

Many customers also highlighted the infrastructure issue that needs to be addressed too. One reason for crowds to be unmanageable is due to the availability of more people than space, in that bank branch. One customer responded;

“Space issues in crowds must be solved. If I had some authority, then I would like to set furniture in a way that space availability could be enhanced.”

Participants also recommended that crowded branches staff be properly trained. They should be trained related with customers dealing in crowds without getting panicked. One customer added;

“Employees should be groomed and must be trained regularly.”

Another suggestion was to increase staff in a crowded bank or franchise to deal with a large number of customers. One participant added;

“Staff number in a dense branch must be increased. This will help in dealing with a large number of clients at once.”

A research participant put forward that the classification of customers would assist in managing and eventually reducing crowds. Also, the number of cash counters in a crowded branch must be increased. One candidate responded;

“Cash counters should be raised, and the cheque and cash departments, as well as the pay order and demand draught departments, should be separated, according to one interviewee because most banks handle all of these transactions on a single counter. Instead, only one window should be used [...] I recently returned from the United States, where I visited TD Bank, and the best part is that their banking services are now available online, so I think cash deposit machines should be available. Also, crowds could be reduced through awareness, education, and removing fear of IT among people.”

The Figure 2 depicts different themes and their subsequent codes falling under the construct of perceived crowding.