How Should Time Estimates Be Structured to Increase Customer Satisfaction?

This article investigates how the format of time estimates—point estimates versus range estimates—affects customer satisfaction in inherently uncertain contexts such as food delivery and GPS navigation. Across eight preregistered experiments involving over 5,300 participants, the research consistently finds that customers report higher satisfaction when time estimates are communicated as ranges rather than single point estimates, provided the ranges are not excessively wide. The preference for ranges is attributed to customers’ expectations of greater variability in outcomes, which reduces the perception that actual times violate their expectations. These findings hold across different domains, time durations, and outcome distributions, and are supported by an incentive-compatible study where participants preferred models providing range estimates. The research suggests that companies can enhance customer satisfaction by transparently communicating uncertainty through reasonably informative range estimates rather than precise point estimates.