June 2021 - RSI Concepts - Top IT Solution Provider Company in Dubai, UAE

June 29, 2021

List of 5 Prerequisites of Queuing System

A queuing system is a basic necessity these days. All of the businesses that are operating in Dubai or any other part of UAE are utilizing some kind of queuing system to manage their customers and visitors. Basically, the queuing system is used to streamline customer flow and to manage customer experience throughout the entire customer journey. Which makes it a very important business tool. The customer journey and customer happiness are crucial for success. If a brand has a strong base of happy and satisfied customers, it will gain a good reputation and a positive brand image. The happy and satisfied customers are also the most loyal customers. And customer loyalty plays a vital role in any business’s success. Loyal customers tend to do repeated business with the brand, which ensures steady growth. Another great advantage of happy and loyal customers is that they tend to promote the brand among their friends, family, and colleagues. This further improves the brand identity and portrays a very positive brand image. If a brand has a good reputation and a positive brand identity in the market it can gain more from less effort. Less marketing efforts tend to convert more leads if a brand has a very good brand identity and vice versa. That is why queuing systems are very important for a business.

The purpose of this blog is to aid our audience in making a queuing system decision. As in Dubai and all around the UAE there are so many different queuing system providers and a variety of different queue management system types are available, it could get confusing for most of the businesses while deciding the best queue management system and the best vendor for their project.

Here is a list of 5 prerequisites of the queuing system:

1. Define Objectives

Like any other IT project or any general initiative, the very first thing we do is that we define objectives and expected outcomes. Similarly, with a queuing system, we also have to define the objectives and expectations from the system. In the case of a queue management system, the desired results are improved customer experience throughout the customer journey and customer satisfaction. There must be some research done beforehand and some stats are important to understand. For example, the customer churn rate and customers who leave without getting serve are two major issues in Dubai and all around the UAE. The customer churn rate or the customer who never do business the second time is a big problem for business to sustain growth and the customers who signed up for the queue and then leave without getting served or without making a purchase are the even bigger problem and results in a variety of problems for a business. Several studies and surveys have shown that an average customer can wait up to a maximum of 13 to 14 minutes, wait time any longer than that could stress them out which results in a very bad customer experience.

In the above-mentioned scenario, the objective should be to reduce the customer churn rate and ensure all the customers reach the counter who signed up for the queue. Similarly, there are so many problems or scenarios a business could have faced in Dubai and all around the UAE. The objectives are defined to address a particular problem. There could be several objectives and any efficient solutions should be able to achieve several objectives. In the case of a queuing system, the primary objective is to improve the customer experience and employee performance to improve profitability. The secondary objective could be to collect vital business intelligence data to help businesses in making future decisions and policies. This is how objectives should be defined before acquiring any queuing system.

2. Understand How a Queuing System Works

Once the objectives are defined the next step is to fully understand how a queuing system works, and how it can be utilized to achieve those objectives. As modern-day’s queue management systems and queuing solutions have lots of advanced features which are very helpful. As we all know the general behavior of everyone not only in UAE but all around the world has been changed, people are more adoptive towards digital and electronics solutions. The customer behavior has been completely changed. The customer’s expectations from a brand are completely changed. The ways businesses were interacting with customers and visitors prior to the pandemic have been changed completely. The year 2020 was a huge change in service-based industries and the year 2021 is the year when businesses are trying to keep up with the changing trends and customers’ needs by implementing new strategies and solutions.

Here is a list of basic components of a queuing system:

Ticket Dispensing Kiosk Machine
Digital Signage to display queuing information and to play multimedia content
Counter Displays or Counter Plates
Audio Announcement System
Signs and stanchions to route the customer flow (mostly for large setup or stepped service delivery)

Here is a basic workflow or customer journey of a traditional queue management system or queuing system:

Step 1. Customers and visitors signed up for the queue usually using a ticket dispensing kiosk
Step 2. Customers and visitors wait in the queues or in the waiting areas
Step 3. The agents or servers do the customer calling and make announcements
Step 4. Customers and visitors arrived at the counter and get the service done
Step 5. Customers and visitors leave the premises (in some cases they are being asked to submit their feedback before leaving)

That was the traditional customer journey with a traditional queuing system.

However, these days, when customers are more concerned about their health and safety, and wellbeing, businesses had to offer them some alternative methods to ensure social distancing and other regulations in place to build the confidence of their customers and visitors. This suddenly boosts the popularity of Virtual Queuing methods and techniques.

Here is a basic workflow or customer journey of a virtual queue management system or virtual queuing system:

Step 1.Customers and visitors signed up for the queue remotely, without being present at the premises
Step 2. The customers and visitors can wait outside, or at home or in a nearby store or even in the parking lot, whatever and wherever is convenient for them
Step 3. The customer calling and announcements are made through both traditional and untraditional methods, such as via smartphone application, or a web page, or SMS or any other medium, usually multiple digital mediums are used to alert customers and visitors about their turn
Step 4.Customers and visitors arrived at the counter and get the service done, usually, there is literally no or very little wait time inside the branch is witnessed
Step 5. After getting the service done, the customers and visitors leave the brand, the customer feedback can be collected in both traditional and untraditional or digital ways too, such as via smartphone application surveys, or survey links, or emails, or SMS, or any other digital medium

The problem here is that most of the industries and businesses can easily adapt to the new modern-day virtual queuing but still there are many businesses that can’t. So, it is important that you understand how both queuing systems work. Then you can decide which system would be better for you as per your needs and objectives.

Furthermore, there are several other sub-sets or types of queue management systems that are available in the market. Some of them are general-purpose and some of them are purpose-builds for a specific industry. For example, the dedicated queue management system for the healthcare sector, or for the educational institutes, and so on. One of the best aspects of a queue management system or queuing system is that it can be customized as well. So, you can also choose features from various different types and merge them in a customized solution.

3. Understand your Environment

Once you established a basic understanding of queuing systems and their types the next step is to understand your environment where you will going to install a queue management system. Here are certain things that should be considered while analyzing your environment:

How many entrances are there?
How many counters are there?
What is the size of the waiting area?
What type of setup do you have? (Square/Rectangle, Round, or Irregular)
Do all customers and visitors in the waiting area face the same direction while sitting?
Is there any dedicated counter or VIP/Premium/Special counter?
Do you have any service which requires multiple counters? (Stepped Services)
In the case of stepped services, do all the counters are located in the same hall or your customers have to go to another hall or floor or something?

And things like that. This will not only help you identify the best queuing solution for you but this information will also help you to keep the cost at a minimum by acquiring only the needed components. For example, the facility size and type will decide how many ticker dispensing units and digital signage are required and what should be the quantity of the sound system to make the announcements, etc.

4. Plot your Environment in a Queuing System Scenario

Once you have a better understanding of your environment and the customer journey. The next step is to put yourself in the place of your customers and visitors. Imagine the queue management system installed in your premises or just simply mimic it. There are certain things that you should understand, for example:

How convenient it is to go through the customer journey?
How easier it is for the arriving customers and visitors to spot a ticket dispensing kiosk and how convenient it is to reach it even in case of rush hours when the facility is operating at its maximum capacity?
Check the waiting area and see which locations or spots are more visible to place digital signage at?
If you would be a customer or visitor and your ticket number is called, how convenient it is to find your assigned counter anywhere from the waiting area?
Do you need extra signs and directions to direct the customers and visitors to certain counters?
Check the entire customer journey for all services and for all types of customers and visitors, for example, how better the customer journey is for premium customers?
Check everything is in both the regular and busiest hours’ scenarios.

And certain such things will help you build up the most efficient customer journey. Plotting various different scenarios will be very helpful. This way you can improve the customer journey to utilize the maximum potential of your premises. This will also help you to purchase only the required equipment.

Read More: Queue Management Challenges 2021

5. Analyze Customer Journey Improvements

Once you have finished plotting a queuing system in your environment, then think from different users’ perspectives. Try to quantify how your queuing system could improve the customer journey. What benefits your customers can get from the new customer journey. Try to analyze each and every touchpoint and the complete user experience throughout the entire customer journey. This will help you further optimizing and improving the queuing system you are planning to avail. Think about what else can be included to further improve the customer journey? How various processes can be shortened? How the entire setup will improve your employees’ efficiency and productivity. Analyze the customer journey in various situations, such as peak hours, peak days, fewer customers, crowded, most popular services, and such things will help you analyze the system and how it can improve the customer journey by improving and automating various processes and steps of the service delivery.

Another thing to consider here is that how the queuing system is impacting your staff and agents. Definitely, any automation or solution is basically designed to improve the efficiency of the employee who is operating it, so does the queuing system too. The queuing system significantly reduces the workload of the agents and staff and improves their efficiency. More agents can serve more customers in a single shift. As most of the processes are either fully automated or semi-automated so the agents/servers can easily focus entirely on the customers. This enables them to improve the service quality as well. Which further improves the customer journey and customer experience.

Conclusion

Here in Dubai and all across the UAE, almost every business is utilizing one way or another to streamline their daily customer flow. The market is very competitive, if you fail to maintain a certain standard of customer experience and customer journey you will soon going to lose valuable customers. The queuing systems are an excellent tool to control, manage and improve customer experience throughout the entire customer journey. The queue management systems not only improve customer journey but they also aid staff and employee in improving their efficiency and work quality. The queuing system streamlines the customer flow, manages various aspects of the customer journey automatically, reduces the wait time, and speeds up the service delivery processes. This means less work for employees and agents/servers. The agents/servers can focus more on serving customers which significantly improves the customer experience. Happy customers always remain loyal to their brands and provide a strong foundation where a business can stand to make the next move up.

However, when it comes to choosing a good queuing system for your business there are so many options available. Especially in Dubai, UAE there are tons of different types of queue management systems, and a lot many vendors are also available to choose from. That is why it is critically important to be prepared before acquiring any queuing system. The purpose of listing 5 prerequisites of the queuing system was to help our audience and customers to choose the best option for them. If you follow these 5 key points, you can easily find a suitable and cost-effective queuing solution that can help you to generate more business over time. It is always better to consult a professional for such projects. RSI Concepts is a leading queuing system provider in Dubai, UAE with hundreds of satisfied customers. Feel free to reach out if you need any help with your next queuing system project or any customer satisfaction solutions. You can contact us through our Contact Us page or simply leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: Revamp of E-Services Portal Development for Khorfakkan Municipality by RSI Concepts

June 21, 2021

Revamp of E-Services Portal Development for Khorfakkan Municipality by RSI Concepts

The Khorfakan City Municipality is the most important and most innovative government entity in the city, leading way for technological innovation and superior customer services. Since the day of its inception in the year 1970, the Khorfakan City Municipality or Khorfakan Municipality is eagerly working in transforming the lifestyle of the residents and also preserving nature and the environment. This is the reason the Khorfakan city and its natural beauty attract millions of people not only from the UAE but from all around the world. Especially the friendly environment, superior public services, and excellent infrastructures attract families and tourists to spend a great time in a beautiful natural environment. The Khorfakan municipality is also responsible for maintaining the environment by offering sustainable energy solutions and long-term planning. The department is continuously growing and making a healthy contribution to the progress of the emirate.

The Khorfakan City Municipality always leads the way in innovative and convenient solutions for their customers and the residents of the city. This is the reason the Khorfakan City Municipality is offering a variety of digital services through its digital E-Service Portal and the website. As the digital platforms are continuously evolving and in order to keep everything up-to-date such platforms require regular updates and upgrades. In order to upgrade their customer experience and customer journey, the Khorfakan City Municipality has recently decided to enhance their customer experience and customer journey by upgrading their website and e-service portals. RSI Concepts was selected among many others, and the project was delivered as per the schedule. The website and the new portal has been released last Thursday.

The new website designed by RSI Concepts is built to enhance various aspects of online user interaction. The User Interface is designed to make the navigation easy and simpler. The website is far better in handling users from different devices and platforms, such as the responsiveness or mobile-friendliness is significantly enhanced with the help of cutting-edge technology and the latest programming tools. The web design itself is built as per modern trends. The entire user experience and user journey have been transformed to make the complex information structure more user-friendly. The E-Services Portal has been updated, the user experience and the entire services are completely revamped to ensure a superior user experience.

The website is more in-line and supportive of the objectives and policies of the Khorfakan City Municipality. The entire media section has been upgraded to improve communication and enable the user to easily access and reach the content they are looking for. The website and the E-Service Portal are now more convenient for Tenders and Biddings, along with customer/citizen complaints and suggestion modules. The overall Website and E-Service Portal is designed to reflect the brand and its ambitions. As these days the smartphone users have already surpassed the traditional desktop or laptop users, both the Website and the E-Service Portal are focused more on smartphone user experience. It is much easier to access online services and portals from smartphones than before. The Website and the E-Services Portal will surely go to help the Khorfakan City Municipality to achieve its goals.

Here are the remarks of our Project Manager, Mr. Shehzad Asghar who was in charge of the project execution and timely delivery:

“Designing and developing a website hosting data and information on such a large scale was not an easy task. Fortunately, our experience in designing and developing websites and e-services portals for government entities has paid off. We are also very thankful to the highly professional and very cooperative team at Khorfakan City Municipality who helped us in achieving the desired results as well as the timely project execution. We will look forward to having more future collaborations with Khorfakan City Municipality.”

At RSI Concepts we always focus on the objectives of our customers and such projects which have a very large scale impact on society are very important for us. Building a website and E-Services Portal for Khorfakan City Municipality which is meant to be utilized for thousands of residents and tourists was a great honor for us. We will look forward to more such opportunities that not only will help us improve our skills and experience but also let us a chance to be able to help the community.

Check out this: Queue System at Sharjah Children Reading Festival – كيو سيستم لمهرجان الشارقة القرائي للطفل

June 21, 2021June 21, 2021

Importance of Queue Management Software in 2021

The year 2021 is bringing us completely changed trends and new innovative ideas to counter those unprecedented changes in the trends and customers’ behavior. The queue management software is also getting modernized to meet the present day’s needs. Customer happiness is extremely important for a business. If your customers are not happy, no matter how great your products are or how competitive your prices are, eventually you will going to lose it. It is crucial that your customers remain happy and loyal to your brand. Customer happiness is the only indicator that shows everything is in place, it really doesn’t matter how hard you worked around the operational details, or IT infrastructure or training for the employees, or marketing or whatsoever. If your customer is not happy, nothing will pay off. This is what the business has realized in Dubai and all around the UAE and in the past few years business, enterprises, banks, the retail sector, healthcare, and all other industries are investing heavily in customer happiness solutions and systems.

The queue management software is one of the most important components of customer happiness solutions. Basically, the queue management software provides great control and helps in managing customer experience throughout the entire customer journey. With the new features and latest advancements in queue management software and technology a more personalized and digitalized experience is easily possible. In the year 2021 everyone is hoping to get a bit more contact-less and digitalized experience from their brands. That is why the queue management system’s software has to be improved to meet the demands and trends of 2021.

The queue management system hardware is usually the same as all available queuing solutions in Dubai, UAE. However, the software of each vendor is different and that is where you can distinguish them. Here are some reasons why queue management software is critically important when making a decision of installing a queuing solution:

Queue Management Software Help Improving Brand Identity by Improving Customer Experience and Customer Journey

The most important factor that contributes to customer happiness is the wait time. If your customers will have to wait for a long time to get their service done, they will get repelled or they will start seeking other options. The wait time is the single most negative factor that can completely ruin a business and its reputation. Reputation and brand image are everything, if a brand has a positive reputation and a great brand identity, it will not only help it to score more leads, but it will also help the brand to improve customer loyalty and customer retention. Which is the basic necessity for growth. The positive brand identity also attracts more customers and visitors. It is also very helpful in improving conversion rates for the other marketing efforts.

Automatic customer flow management and queue management significantly reduce the wait time. It automates the process hence there is no human intervention, which prevents a lot many complaints and problems that businesses have to deal with without a queue management system. The queue management software is also capable of automatically handling the customer journey, it can effectively direct the customers to their designated counters, for example, there are multiple services and for each service, there are designated counters, the customers or visitors might get confused and try to join the queue which has the least number of people in it, however, with a queue management software when a customer opts for the queue the system automatically assign them the queue as per their required service.

The same is also applicable in complex scenarios such as in the case of stepped service delivery, where a full-service delivery is done through multiple counters. The queue management software is also capable of identifying the priority customers and lead them to the priority counters for example the premium customers, or VIP customers, or customers with special needs, etc. All can be automatically directed to their designated counters. The queue management software also automatically manages the customer flow by directing the next customer to the vacant counters. Other features such as counter forwarding or routing customers to the counters who are completely vacant also save a lot of time and improve customer experience.

The queue management software also comes with an in-built announcement system and digital signage. This module enables audio-visual announcements and customer calls. Along with that it also helps to improve the customer waiting time experience as well by playing multimedia and engaging content on the digital signage. A queue management software is an excellent tool to improve customer experience and customer journey in the year 2021 when the entire market trends are changed and businesses are facing new challenges day by day. Improved customer experience results in a very positive brand image and brand identity which help businesses in customer retention and increase customer loyalty which is a basic necessity for growth and profitability.

Virtual Queuing Improves Customer Experience

The year 2021 is the year of going contactless and digital. Virtual queuing is a very effective feature of queue management software. It allows both, the digitalized experience and the contactless features as well. Virtual queuing is gaining popularity these days. There are certain reasons for that, one of the biggest advantages of virtual queuing is that the queue management software enables the visitors to sign-up remotely. Or we can put it this way that the customers and visitors are able to sign-up for the physical queue without even being physically present at the branch. There are multiple mediums that are used to allow remote sign-up for virtual queuing. For example, the customers and visitors can sign-up remotely via the website, customer portals, smartphone applications, phone calls, email, or SMS.

The remote sign-up not only facilitates the customers but also helps the staff and administration. Customer flow management becomes easier as there are not too many people in the waiting room. The social distancing measures are easy to implement. Businesses and organizations can easily control the number of active queues to limit the number of customers and visitors inside the branch to prevent crowd forming and other related problems. Virtual queuing significantly improves the customer experience and customer journey as well. As the customer is not required to physically stand in the lines or stay in the waiting areas, so the service delivery is quicker comparing to traditional queuing methods.

Smartphone Applications to Increase Customer Engagements

These days in Dubai and all across the UAE the smartphone applications are very popular. In the past few years, smartphones have gotten very smart and powerful too. Customers love personalized experience and business too, as personalized experience increases customer engagements and improves customer satisfaction. The UAE is the most modernized nation in the MENA region and also in Asia. The government’s policies and initiatives to promote digitalization played an important role in the market trend. There are tons of government services that are just a few taps on your smartphone screen away. The general public is very adoptive and friendly towards smartphone applications. This immediately caught the attention of the marketers and businesses immediately start offering smartphone-based interactions and services to improve customer happiness and satisfaction.

The smartphone application linked to the queue management system enables the business and organizations to offer a great customer experience. The smartphone apps with queue management software allow the user to enjoy simpler and easier virtual queuing. The smartphone apps also provide a direct communication channel to provide an even more improved and personalized experience. The users can also avail themselves of so many services using smartphone applications, such as virtual queuing, customer feedback, complaints, appointments, etc. Smartphone applications when integrated with a queue management system software can do wonders in terms of customer experience and customer happiness.

Online Appointment Module to Improve Customer Journey

The modern-day queue management system software comes with an integrated online appointment booking module too. The appointment booking module is linked with multiple internal systems to build the customer experience. For example, the customer portals are linked with the online appointment booking modules, the online booking portal can be provided within the customer portals as well as on the website via a dedicated page or link. Usually, the appointment booking module is offered as a stand-alone tool via a website link, to allow the customers and visitors to book an appointment without logging in to their respective portals. In Dubai, UAE mostly we used open links, that don’t require login or sign in, instead, the visitors or customers can fill in basic information to book an appointment. Whether signed in or not both methods are equally effective.

Another great advantage of the online appointment booking module is that it provides all the details and information that are required by a customer or visitor to book an appointment, for example, the busiest days, hours, or least busy hours or days, etc. The appointment booking module of queue management software also provides real-time queuing information and data from several branches. It can also suggest the best option which ensures the quickest service delivery and so on and so forth. The queue management software with an appointment booking module is very helpful in maintaining social distancing and customer flow to further improve the customer journey.

Customer Feedback and Surveys Help Understanding Customer’s Needs

The year 2021 has completely different challenges and required a completely new approach to meet the demand and expectations of the customers. Another remarkable feature of a queue management system software is the ability to understand customer’s needs, demands, expectations, and ongoing market trends via customer feedback and survey module. These days in Dubai and all around the UAE most of the queue management systems provide in-built customer survey and feedback modules. The purpose of this module is to understand how customers and visitors are perceiving your brand’s efforts to improve their experience and journey. The customer feedback and survey module can provide direct feedback from the customers and visitors.

There are several ways to utilize this module, the best method is on-sight customer feedback and surveys and online or follow-up surveys. Usually business has placed touch screens or tablets and kiosk to collect customer feedback, as the queue management software is already linked to the internal information center so identifying the customer who is submitting feedback is very easy, the system can map the information of the customer who has been served on the counter along with their ticket number and then it also identifies the service and compile the feedback report. Such information is vital for a business to make future policies and strategies and to take vital actions to improve customer experience and customer journey, it also provides businesses a direct measurement of the efficiency of their current strategy and business practices. Such business intelligence is very helpful in keeping up with the needs, expectations, and demands of your customers to improve customer happiness and loyalty.

Increase Employee Performance and Profitability

A queue management software is very helpful in improving employee’s performance and overall productivity which results in greater profitability and improved resource management. Without a queue management system, most of the employee’s efforts are wasted on managing the customers and visitors manually, but with a queue management system and software, all tasks are managed automatically. The employees don’t have to worry about the queues or managing crowd or any such problem. The customers will not go to have many complaints as they will know that the queue is managed by an automatic system and the system treats everyone equally.

Now when all those time-consuming tasks will be managed by intelligent queue management software, the employees will have less stress, they will be happy and satisfied, they will be able to serve more customers in a single shift and their performance will increase automatically. Another great advantage of queue management software is that it has the capability to fully automate or partially automate various customer journey steps and processes which also reduces the workload of the employees. The automation allows the employees to focus more on their primary tasks which improve the service quality as well.

When various business processes and customer journeys will be automatic then the businesses will require very little human resources to manage the operations. The dedicated employee dashboard or agent interface will boost the employee performance as well, which means fewer agents/servers will be required to manage the same number of customers and visitors, so the businesses can either serve more customers in a day or can reduce the number of staff if the number of customers or visitors remains same, in both cases the cost is reduced and the profit is increased. A queue management system software is also very effective in improving customer retention, employee performance, and overall profitability.

Reporting, Integration with Other Systems and Centralized Management

A queue management software is critically important for growth as it provides a great source of very vital business intelligence. The business intelligence includes direct customer feedbacks, KPIs or key performance indicators, system usage stats, and various other information. This information is stored in the queue management software database, which is being processed by the in-built analytical engine and then compiled up in actionable reports which are available for the management. All the data is captured and updated in real-time and is processed immediately. This boosts the performance of the system as well. The reporting module and business intelligence data are very important for businesses to understand the customer’s behavior, employee’s performance, the effectiveness of their methods and policies, and much more. This data also helps businesses to make strategies for the future and do improvements in their methodologies, processes, and the quality of the service.

The queue management software is also very important as it can act as a bridge between multiple business and enterprise solutions and tools. It can easily be linked with various other data pools via secure web services or APIs. This system integration enables businesses to easily share data and information between various systems and it also makes the administration very simpler and easier. Another very important feature of the queue management software is centralized management or remote management, which enables the head office to manage all connected branches remotely from the head office. The head office can have full access to everything and they can also assign local, regional, or branch managers to provide them limited access to the branch or branches and areas under their supervision. This is a great feature for the corporate management to easily manage and monitor their entire operation from the head office.

Conclusion

A queue management software is critically important for a business in 2021 that is operating in Dubai or any other region of UAE. As we all know the year 2020 has completely transformed the landscape of the service-based industries so businesses and organizations are anxiously seeking ways to improve their customer experience and customer journey. The customer experience and customer journey help businesses to improve customer loyalty and customer retention. Which results in a good brand reputation and a positive brand image. The brand identity helps businesses to attract more customers and visitors, and it is also very helpful in increasing the conversion rates of all the marketing activities. A queue management software is at the foundation of all this, in fact, it is the foundation. Your entire future depends on how you are treating your customers today. A queue management software is the only tool that can help you improving your customer’s experience and the customer journey to improve customer happiness and customer satisfaction.

The queue management software also automates various business processes. It is capable of integrating with other enterprise tools and solutions which further enables the businesses to create innovative ways to improve their customer’s journey and experience. An efficient queue management software can provide you a great competitive edge which will ensure better customer retention and customer loyalty. Loyal customers are the most precious asset of a business. Especially in the year 2021 when the demands and the behavior of the customers are changing very quickly and the competition is getting tougher day by day a queue management system and software can be your strongest arsenal. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to install a new queue management system or want to replace your outdated queue management software, feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page. Or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: 7 Features of Queue Management Software

June 20, 2021

7 Features of Queue Management Software

A queue management system (QMS) consists of two major parts, a hardware section, and a software section. Both the queue management system software and hardware have different components and accessories. These components, accessories, and modules are used to build certain features in the system. These days in Dubai and all around the UAE the more modernized and customized queue management systems are being used. The primary objectives of the queuing solution are to manage the customer flow, improve customer experience and increase productivity. There are so many different types of queue management systems available in Dubai, UAE which could be very confusing for the business. This begs the question of which queue management system will suit you or how to distinguish between a good or bad or an average quality system? There are certain markers or features that a good queue management system software should have in general, if all those features are there then you can easily decide if it will suit you or not.

You must be thinking that there is hardware involved too so why we are only talking about the software, the only reason is that the hardware itself is nothing without the software, if the software is offering a certain feature then by default the hardware will come along. That is why we are focusing only on the software features. There are certain queue management systems that are purpose-built or dedicated to a certain industry or application only, even for those types of queuing solutions the queue management system software must have certain traits which will determine the effectiveness and productivity of the queuing solution.

Here are 7 features of queue management software that you should look for when acquiring a new queue management system:

1. Virtual Queuing

A virtual queue management system is the modern day’s need. Since the year 2020 has completely transformed the customer experience and customer expectations too, the year 2021 is the year of more digitalized and personalized customer journey and customer experience. The social distancing and health and safety of the visitors and the staff is the top priority for any business these days. The virtual queuing module will help businesses to easily maintain and manage the active queues as per their capacity to ensure social distancing. Virtual queuing is not just for implementing social distancing but it is also offering a great digital experience.

The customers and visitors are allowed to sign-up even before arriving at the branch. This requires more efficient software that is linked with various other systems and tools to allow the customers to sign-up through different channels such as smartphone applications, SMS, calls, QR codes, etc. The virtual queue management system not only facilitates the customers and visitors but also reduces or literally eliminates the wait time. The customers can arrive at the very exact time of their turn and get the service done. That is a huge leap in terms of customer experience, from waiting for hours to waiting for a few minutes or even no wait can make your customers extremely happy. Various different market researches and studies showed that the average acceptable waiting time for an ordinary customer or visitors is thirteen minutes, any time later than that could harm the customer experience.

2. Separate Dashboards

Any good queue management system should have separate user dashboards with dedicated interfaces to increase efficiency. This feature also makes the administration easier and more managed. There are usually three main interfaces or dashboards in a queue management system:

Customer Interface
Agent Interface
Admin Interface

The customer interface is always separate from the other two. In Dubai and all around the UAE the traditional queue management systems usually provide an interactive kiosk-based customer interface. The customers and visitors can sign-up for the queue and get a ticket or token issued bearing their queue number and some other information.

The agent dashboard is usually a web-based dashboard. This dashboard provides the basic controlling and monitoring of the current queues and their statuses along with the facility of customer calling and managing the customer flow. Sometimes the admin dashboard is also used for the same purpose, but mostly the agent or server dashboard is kept separate.

The admin interface or administrative console is also a web-based control panel. This not only provides administrative control over the entire branch or overall connected branches but also provides data analysis and reporting features too. The management can add multiple levels of administrative roles or job roles with respective authority and data access policies to establish an administrative hierarchy.

3. Remote Management and Real-time Monitoring

Whether you are implementing the queue management system in a single branch or office or you don’t even have another branch at all, remote management and real-time monitoring are must-have features for any good queue management system. The remote management will let the managers and the higher management manage the queuing system and handling some other system administrative tasks while they are not sitting inside the branch or office. The real-time monitoring is also providing real-time system updates and live information about the ongoing customer flow and other queuing data.

However, if your business has multiple branches and is located in multiple cities the remote management and real-time monitoring becomes very handy. For example, your head office is located in Dubai, and you are a manager who is responsible for the customer experience and customer flow. You must need a system to get the updates and monitoring features so you don’t have to call or contact the branch manager to get the required info regarding the customer flow and customer experience.

The remote monitoring and real-time updates are achieved by linking all the branches and locations to the main location or head office. The queue management software has a server-side application that can be hosted locally or online. The administrative dashboard and interface allow the higher management to get access to the data and information of any branch, and on top of that, all the queuing information and statistical data have been updated regularly. This makes a queue management system a great tool to monitor and control the customer journey and customer experience at all branches without even going there or following the long manual workflow and internal processes.

4. Customer Feedback System

As the primary objective of a queue management system is to improve the customer journey and customer experience. Despite investing a lot and making a lot of efforts how would a business know if their efforts are in the right direction or not? The simplest answer is to ask directly to the customers and the best way to do it is via a customer feedback system or via a customer happiness scale. The customer happiness scale or customer feedback system is used to collecting customer feedback and is usually placed at the very last step of the service delivery so when the customer got everything done, they should be asked to share their opinions.

A good modern-day queue management system must have an in-built customer feedback system or a customer feedback module. In some cases, the external customer feedback systems are also linked to the queue management systems as well. The objective here is to understand the customer’s experience. As a queue management system is designed to manage the customer experience throughout the entire customer journey, so it is important to understand how your customers feel about it.

Normally touch screens or tablet stands are used and placed at the counters or at the exits depending upon the infrastructure of the premises. The customer feedback is collected in the form of a happiness meter or scale or a small customer survey. The important thing here to understand is to keep the feedback process simpler and easier. Traditionally a happiness meter suffices, but in certain cases, a short customer survey is also helpful. There should be only two to three questions in the survey and maybe some contact details too. Anything more than that and the customer will not attempt it, or even if some of them do attempt the survey, it will impact the wait time as the next customer can’t be called until the first person is completely done with the counter.

5. Reports, KPIs, and Business Intelligence Gathering

Each and every industry has some standards and norms. Similarly, different regions have different business practices and different standards as well. Likewise in Dubai and all across the UAE all of the leading queue management system providers also offer a reporting module along with their queue management system software. However, there are certain things that you must consider before implementing the queue management system, for example, a comprehensive reporting module, an in-built data analytical engine, KPIs or key performance indicators, and business intelligence gathering.

The KPIs or key performance indicators are for the employees and the agents/server. These indicators capture various stats and performance markers. For example, how long is an employee taking to serve a customer? Which service is taking the longest time and so on? Which employee is handling most customers in a day? Which employee is getting the most positive or negative feedback? And a lot more. These indicators will help management to understand and monitor the performance of the individual employees as well as of the teams and branches as well.

However, business intelligence is gathered through various touchpoints, statistical data, performance indicators, and customer feedback. The queue management system can also help businesses in understanding the customer journey and various other factors that are very helpful for making decisions and taking steps to improve the customer journey and customer experience. Such data and information are crucial for strategy making and planning for the future. The business can utilize the data to understand the expectations and needs of their customers to make adjustments to further improve customer experience and customer journey.

6. Flexibility to Integrate via APIs

Any modern queue management system whether it is a general-purpose or a dedicated solution for a certain application/industry must have certain capabilities to integrate into the main information center or IT infrastructure of the organization. As we have mentioned a few things above such as virtual queuing, smartphone applications, online appointment booking, etc. All such features can be provided by a queue management system acting as a standalone solution or synchronizing and integrating with the other enterprise solutions & systems.

Such integration is achieved via secure web services or also known as APIs. System integration is a very important feature of a queue management system. It allows the queuing system to communicate with other databases and business tools to further improve the customer journey and customer experience. Integration is also very important to boost system efficiency and productivity.

The system integration via APIs not only allows the queue management system to get access to certain data but also allows the system to feed in data to other systems for other purposes as well. For example, customer feedback can be synched with the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software. The KPIs indicators can feed the overall enterprise performance management system for certain inputs. System integration opens up the ways for innovation and creativity and provides businesses with more flexibility, control, and better efficiency.

7. Future Scalability, Upgrades, and Maintenance

The capability to scale and upgrade to meet the future’s requirements is something that is mandatory for any kind of business solution. Businesses are very skeptical of upgrades, future scalability, maintenance, and the expected cost for all such activities. As an IT solution is a long-term investment so the annual maintenance, future upgrades, and scalability are always a big concern for businesses. However, in the case of Queue Management Systems, these things are not as that complicated. The future scalability of the queue management systems is relatively easier. For example, if you have a queue management system installed in 3 branches and want to expand it to another two, it can be done by simply installing more basic devices and doesn’t require any core change or upgrade. Mostly the queue management system software is already built to support expansion.

Keeping in mind the rapid changes in the market trends and customer behavior in Dubai, UAE the capabilities of future upgrades are extremely important. A modern-day queue management system should be able to offer very cost-effective future upgrades and modifications to meet the ever-growing demands. The upgrades and modifications to the queue management system software can only be achieved if the system is designed to be friendly with such changes, else it would be difficult, costly, and problematic.

Another important aspect of the queue management system and its software is the regular maintenance and its cost. The queue management systems overall and their software are constructed on widely available platforms and technologies. The queuing systems are designed to be operated 24/7 and hardly require any reboot or maintenance for several years. So, the maintenance cost of the queue management system software and other components is very easy, simple, and cheaper comparing to any other IT solution.

Conclusion

As Dubai and all around the UAE businesses these days are actively seeking solutions to improve their customer journey by effectively managing the customer experience and employees’ productivity. A queue management system is the only tool that can help businesses effectively manage and improve the customer experience, customer journey, and service delivery methods. Most of the businesses have already implemented a digital queuing solution and are currently seeking to replace it or upgrade it, while others are eagerly looking to catch up by implementing a brand new queue management system. As the year 2020 has completely transformed the market trends and customer behavior the year 2021 is the year of adopting the new standards. That is the reason many businesses who are seeking to boost their productivity and profitability are planning for a queue management system to meet the needs of their customers.

There are so many queue management system suppliers operating in Dubai, UAE and there are so many different queue management systems available too. The difficulty is how to choose an appropriate queuing solution that could help you to achieve your objectives and goals. The purpose of this blog was to let our readers a better understanding of the queue management system software and we have listed 7 features of queue management software which will help our audience to easily judge a queue management solution. The most important thing to consider is that if the queue management system software is capable enough to provide you features and functionalities that will help you achieve the highest efficiency in terms of customer happiness and employee performance.

Another important thing to consider is the capability to scale for future needs, upgrades, and easy maintenance. The cost is always a big concern of the businesses so the upgrade, expansion, and maintenance should be very cost-effective and less time-consuming. RSI Concepts is one of the leading queue management system providers in Dubai, UAE we serving our customers for more than a decade with a very high success rate. We are here to help you find a great queuing solution for you that will not only help you build up a positive brand reputation but will provide you a great competitive edge too. Feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: Queue Management Challenges 2021

June 20, 2021

Queue Management Challenges 2021

As the year 2020 had a huge impact on everyone, the customers are expecting a bit more digital experience. The year 2021 brings new challenges for queue management and queuing systems as well. Businesses in Dubai and all across the UAE will have to adopt digital solutions in order to meet the expectations and needs of the customers. The customer interaction should also be improved by adding digital interactions and experience. Nowadays the price has become a secondary factor when it comes to the customer loyalty, instead, the experience and interaction is the most important factor in customer loyalty. If you are offering a good price but not a good interaction your customers will soon leave you. Investing in customer experience projects and strategies such as queue management systems is a long-term investment, it could literally double up your revenue in three to four years. However, if your customer journey and customer experience are slightly less than the average you will immediately witness a decline in revenue, and customer retention will become harder. This scenario results in a lot of challenges for the queue management systems as well.

Here are some challenges for a queue management system in 2021 and their reasons:

Challenge No 1. The Impact of Pandemic

The customer experience was earlier ruined by the crowded waiting areas and long queues. Businesses have to find innovative ways and solutions to manage such scenarios. After the pandemic of the COVID-19, this has completely changed, now businesses not only have to handle the queues but they must have to deal with the social distancing and health and safety regulations as well. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the governments have very strict policies and regulations, which are great for the health and safety of the public and society but for the business, it becomes even harder to manage the customer flow under such circumstances. The queue management systems earlier were programmed to automate customer journey and customer flow, now they must have to manage and control the number of customers allowed to be in the queue in order to implement social distancing.

Another most important factor is that businesses all around the world are actively seeking methods to cut costs. In such scenarios, expensive solutions or bulky upgrades are not an option for most businesses. This means that the queue management systems must have to be very cost-efficient and very effective to deal with social distancing and such scenarios. A queue management system will have to provide additional features and functionalities to aid the management in handling such situations at the same time it has to be very cost-effective too. If we talk about the long-term gains, queue management is an excellent customer happiness solution, as for the short-term gains, leading queue management system providers in Dubai such as RSI Concepts are offering great deals and support for local and international clients.

Challenge No 2. Customer Expectations

Customer expectations is a very important trend to keep an eye on. There are so many factors that influence customer expectations. The more notable are the competitors, the overall market trends, for example, in 2021 all sorts of businesses, public and private sectors, government offices, and everywhere else where ever you go, the social distancing is a must. This lead to a new trend, now a day’s people expect from their brands and service provider to offer certain solutions and systems in place which will help them to implement social distancing and such stuff.

Apart from social distancing, even before that in Dubai and all across the UAE businesses and institutions who are facilitating visitors and customers are always having one or another kind of digital queue management system. This trend led people in expecting a digital queue management system wherever they go. If their brand is not offering a digital queue management system then they will perceive it negatively and they could think that the brand is outdated or old hence they should consider other businesses who are offering better services, etc.

Another important factor is the competition. If your competitors are offering a digital queue management system at their branch, then your customers and visitors will also expect a digital queue management system there and so on and so forth. That is how customer’s expectations are formed and businesses should have to consider those trends and customer expectations when making future strategies and taking decisions.

Challenge No 3. Customer Journey

The year 2021 is the year of digitalization, everything is getting digital. The things that can’t get completely digital are getting partially digital with heavy involvement of digital systems and solutions. That is not all, businesses have changed their practices and methods too. The queue management systems have to adapt to all those changes as well. Businesses are moving towards digital interactions and inventing ways to be as contactless as possible, however, in most cases a completely digital customer journey is not possible. Now a day’s queue management systems are integrated with various other systems to expedite the customer flow and to improve the customer journey. Most of the queue management system providers in Dubai are focusing on innovating new ideas and personalized queue management systems for certain industries.

The general consumer market is leaning towards online and eCommerce. However, the service-based industries that can’t completely go digital are partially digitalizing their services and service delivery mechanisms. For example, virtual queuing is partially digitalizing the customer journey and queue management. The online appointment is helping the health care industry and so on. As per the regulations and laws, only a certain percentage of customers and visitors can be welcomed at a given time. This means that the businesses would not be able to let more people inside the premises to wait in the waiting area. The customers will have to wait outside. In order to deal with this problem the queue management systems adapted to virtual queuing, online appointments, smartphone apps, and such features to help both the business and the customers too.

Challenge No 4. Customer Experience

Another toughest challenge that a queue management system has today is the customer experience. Despite all those factors that are not only changing the customer behavior but also demand a completely different approach to handle customer flow, maintaining the customer experience is a very challenging job. This is why the queue management systems have to adapt to the new trends and requirements very quickly. All the customer touchpoints, interactions, and relevant business processes that were being handled through the queue management systems should be reworked and redesigned. The modern queue management systems in 2021 are not only a ticket dispensing and customer calling setup but in fact a complete customer happiness and customer experience management tools.

The customers are very sensitive these days, especially about their interaction and experience at public places. As the market has shifted rapidly so there is too much confusion among the marketers and businesses, everyone is trying to catch up. In such situations, things could easily go wrong, so it is important to focus and work in the right direction. This demands critical thinking and a better understanding of customer behavior and demands. Although it may sound difficult it is not. These days the most important thing any customer wants is the quickest service delivery, the least wait time, and better human interaction. Well, this is what a customer always wanted. But these days, it is extremely important to focus on these factors to improve customer experience. An advanced queue management system should be able to help management in dealing with such situations.

These days, the overall market trends and the behavior of the general population are changing. The working from home, online schools, eCommerce, and a long list of online services which before that we never thought could go online, have completely shifted the market trends. Now the customers are very comfortable with the digital experience, in fact, prefer digital over traditional methods. So including digital fragments into your business process along with the personalized interaction or human interaction could really boost the customer experience which will increase customer happiness and satisfaction.

Challenge No 5. Virtual Queuing

Virtual queuing is also a modern customer flow management technique. The virtual queue management system is a queuing system that allows the customers and visitors to sign-up for the queue even before physically appearing at the business. There are so many different methods and approaches to attain virtual queuing functionality. Virtual queuing not only allow remote sign-up but also provides the queuing information and various other data directly to the customer using various different mediums, the most commonly used methods are SMS and Smartphone Applications. This data and live status updates are very helpful for the customers as well as for the business.

The virtual queue management systems are gaining popularity in Dubai and also all around the UAE. Virtual queuing can significantly reduce the customer wait time and in fact, it can completely eliminate the wait time. The customers and visitors are already provided with live updates and queuing information so they can come at the exact time when their number is called. Virtually there will be no wait time at all. The virtual queue management systems also reduce the workload of the staff and servers/agents. Which further improves their efficiency and service quality. The customers and visitors can have an excellent user experience.

Virtual queuing can be a little bit challenging if not planned properly. However, at RSI Concepts, we have a highly experienced design team and business analysts. Our virtual queue management systems can not only provide a personalized experience but also provide a very flexible control panel and data collection module for the management.

Challenge No 6. Integration with Other Systems and Tools

In order to cater to the needs of the businesses under today’s circumstances, a queue management system will have to be able to synchronize and integrate with tons of other enterprise solutions and business tools. For example, in order to include a virtual queuing module the queue management system will have to be linked with the Smartphone Applications, QR Code module, Customer Portals, Intranet, ERP, and Sales System too (if required). These are just a few commonly used types of integration. There are several others that are required to ensure the desired customer experience.

Integration is usually done via Secure Web Services or APIs. Integrating one system with another could be tricky but integrating one system with three or four or even more different systems and synchronizing data between all of them could be very challenging for a queue management system. Sometimes there have to be some intermediary applications to make sure everything works as per the plan without any technical problem. These apps should be designed and developed along with the customization of the queue management system as well.

As each and every business has certain business processes and unique methodologies and practices. So the queue management system also has to be very flexible in order to support the businesses in improving their efficiency and productivity without forcing them to change their business processes and methodologies. This could be even more challenging when the queue management system will also have to integrate with various other systems and corporate tools.

Conclusion

As the year 2020 has completely changed everything the customer journey and customer experience that we were experiencing earlier have been completely changed. The pandemic and resulting circumstances have changed every aspect of our daily life. When social distancing is required the digital and online services are the best solution. However, there are still so many businesses that can’t conduct business online. People will still have to visit the business or a local branch to get the service done. The trends have been shifted and the general behavior of the customers has been changed completely. This means that in order to maintain a better customer experience and customer journey, the queue management systems should also have to evolve.

This brings a lot of new challenges for the queue management systems in the year 2021. The new digitalized features and virtual queuing are not new to the queue management system industry. However, earlier multiple different digital services were provided in different types of queue management solutions. But now a day, all those features have to be provided in a single queue management system. The business should also have to maintain the best customer experience, which is also very challenging for the queue management system. This blog was to highlight those challenges and to let our audience have a better understanding of the market trends and the new advancements in the queue management system market. At RSI Concepts we have specialized in queue management systems and various other customer happiness and customer satisfaction solutions. If you need any help or want to get a quote, feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: What are the 7 advanced features of QMS?

June 17, 2021

What are the 7 advanced features of QMS?

QMS or Queue Management System is a very powerful tool used to improve customer satisfaction and customer journey. Basically, a queue management system streamlines the customer flow and organizes the queues automatically, which helps in reducing the wait time and improving the customer experience. Due to ever-changing market dynamics and the demands of the customers, customer journey transformation solutions are gaining popularity worldwide. Especially in Dubai and all around the UAE businesses and enterprises are focusing more on the customer journey and customer experience than ever before. The main reason is that the customers are expecting a lot from their brands and another factor is the tough competition. The healthy competition in the market is always beneficial for the customers, as everyone is trying to offer better quality and service than the others. However, quality products and services are not the only reason for success. In fact, these days the customer journey, customer experience and customer happiness is the most powerful contributor in the success or failure of a business.

When it comes to choosing the best QMS for your business there are certain things that need to be considered. Especially in Dubai and UAE, there are so many variants available, the best choice is always a customized queue management system (QMS). However, there are certain queuing solutions that are designed for specific purposes or applications, for example, queue management systems for hospitals & clinics or queue management systems for colleges & universities, etc. No matter what type or model of queuing you are using the features and functionalities of a QMS remains the same. As the queue management system industry is growing rapidly worldwide and more manufacturers are offering better and cheaper hardware options the QMS system providers in Dubai such as RSI Concepts are also improving the software in order to maximize the impact of the queue management system on the customer journey and customer happiness.

Here are some advanced features of a QMS:

1. Virtual Queuing

The most popular and very advanced feature in a QMS is virtual queuing. As we all know the current pandemic has completely transformed the customers’ behavior and expectations. Which results in a more digitalized experience than ever before. Virtual queuing is also a modern-day solution for a whole bunch of problems. Virtual queuing is not a new invention, in fact, it was around for a long time before the pandemic, but in late 2020 and since the beginning of 2021 the virtual queuing has been gaining momentum. More businesses are showing interest in virtual queuing. The idea is to let customers sign-up for the actual queue before even arriving at the branch. Such customers and visitors are treated the same way as they were present in the actual physical queue. This not only reduces the wait time, as the customers can arrive at the very moment when their ticket number is called or just before that. And it has a great impact on the customer journey and customer experience.

2. Smartphone Apps

Smartphone applications are very common these days. In fact due to the vision of digitalization of the government announced by the government of UAE, a lot many trends have been changed. As the government is effectively providing e-services and various portals to enable digital channels, the general public is also very used to digital services and digital mediums. The most used digital medium is smartphone applications. This has set a new trend, the public and private sector followed by offering digital alternates and smartphone applications to access digital services. The queue management system or QMS is no exception, all the leading queuing solution providers have adopted the trend and are currently offering smartphone-enabled queue management systems.

The smartphone applications also support virtual queuing and other features such as online appointment booking, branch allocators, real-time queue updates and status monitoring, and much more. The main idea behind this is to further improve customer experience and provide them more freedom and control over their visits and schedules. The smartphone apps allow online or remote sign-up and then it also provides notifications, announcements, and real-time status updates to ensure the customer or visitor doesn’t miss out on their turn. These features are incredibly transforming the customer journey and customer experience. Furthermore, the queue management system smartphone applications can also be used to collect various stats and business intelligence data which is very helpful in decision making and planning.

3. Appointment Booking Module

The appointment booking module is a fairly new addition to the queue management system. It enables the customers and visitors to choose the time and date of their choice to plan their visit. It also enables them to virtually sign-up for the queue. Hence when the appointment time comes the customer can arrive at the very exact time of their turn and don’t have to wait in the long queues. The customers can be served instantly at the time of their choice. The appointment booking module is a great feature for queue management systems.

Usually, the appointment booking panel or portal is provided via website or smartphone applications. The appointment booking portal also provides statistical data such as the busiest hours details, the busiest day details on any particular branch. The customer can also set a time and date of their choice and then the system can tell them which nearest branch will be least crowded at their desired time. Such information is very helpful for customers and visitors to plan their visit. The online appointment booking module also provides other appointment booking methods such as SMS, Email, or Phone Call. The customer can enjoy more freedom and lesser wait time and they can also schedule their visits at their own convenience. It helps to improve the customer journey as well as the customer experience. Customer satisfaction and happiness rise which leads to higher customer loyalty and more easy customer retention.

4. Integration via APIs

Any modern QMS (queue management system) is incomplete without the feature of integration via APIs. The API integration is the most convenient, simplest, and cost-effective method of integration between two systems. The integration is mainly used to link various systems with each other or with the central information center of the entire organization. It not only helps businesses to innovate new methods and techniques to improve the customer journey and experience but it also helps businesses to boost the efficiency of the staff. Not only in Dubai, UAE but all around the world the API integration is the most common method of synchronizing two or more systems.

The integration of the queue management system with other enterprise tools and software allows the business to collect more accurate monitoring and statistical data. It helps to improve various business processes via automation which directly impacts the service delivery process and customer journey. Every modern-day QMS should be able to support API integration.

5. Centralized Control and Monitoring

As in Dubai and all across the UAE most of the businesses have regional branches and offices at multiple locations. Which raises the importance of centralized control and monitoring. The centralized control and monitoring are must have the advanced features of a QMS. It enables the head office to monitor and control all of the branches from the head office that is why this feature is also known as remote management and monitoring. A queue management system with centralized control and monitoring feature enables the head office to assign various tasks and workflows to the relevant branch managers, CRMs, and supervisors. The head office will be provided with real-time updates from all connected branches and locations. The queue management system should be able to allow building and configuring administrative functions and job roles. A complete management hierarchy should be provided.

In the queue management systems, the management hierarchy enables the management to easily authenticate the system users to allow them access to the relevant data. For example, the branch manager of branch A should not be able to view data from branch B or any other branch’s data unless permission is being granted from the head office and vice versa. This is a great feature to organize and manage the operations of the queue management system.

6. Reporting, KPIs, and System Usage Stats

As the queuing systems or queue management systems (QMS) evolved over the past few years, the data and analysis methods got improved over time as well. The reporting, system stats, and usage data along with the KPIs provide a vital insight into the entire business process and the performance of the employees. The KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are set up to measure and understand the performance and behavior of the employees. The system can provide KPIs such as:

How many customers are being served by an employee in a particular day or over a week or on monthly bases
How much average time is consumed by an employee to serve one customer or visitor
How is the performance of the employee during busy hours
Which employee is better at delivering which service quicker than the others
Which employee is good at which service and vice versa
Which employee is getting more negative or positive feedback
Which service is being disliked by the customers
Which service is more popular
Which signup method is more popular

Obviously, these are just a few points there are so many other details that can be captured. The reporting module covers the entire customer journey and all-important touchpoints. The system usage stats provide a comprehensive detail about the services most used and liked by the customers along with the queuing process details. These all details, data, and stats are compiled in reports and analyzed by the queue management system’s in-built analytical engine to extract actionable reports. The management can use this data to make future strategies and to take steps to improve their service delivery process, customer journey, and experience and to improve their products and services.

7. Cross-Platform Compatibility, Scalability, and Simple Operation

These days everything is very fast and keeping up the pace is vital for sustainability and profitability. Any modern enterprise system or business tools should be able to stay relevant for the future or should allow simple and easy upgrades with affordable costs. Although the Cross-Platform Compatibility, Scalability and Simple Operation are three different features but are completely intertwined. Cross-platform compatibility also known as plug-n-play operation means that the QMS or queue management system should be able to work with different environments. To be more precise it means that regardless of the operating system or computer type or model the QMS interface should be able to work one hundred percent. That is why modern-day queue management systems offer web-based user interfaces. Which only requires a standard browser (MS Edge, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, etc) regardless of the system type whether it is a workstation or laptop or windows based computer or MAC-based computer, or Linux queue management system dashboard works without any issue.

The scalability or ability to upgrade and expand is also very important while selecting a queue management system for your business. Businesses should carefully examine the feasibility and terms of future expansion and upgrades while selecting a QMS or queue management system. The technology used to build the queue management systems is very widely available and is quite durable, which ensures longevity and long-term operation with very little maintenance cost. This is also very important and all advanced queue management systems are very durable, their lifecycle is longer than most of the other corporate solutions and the maintenance cost is also very low. The operation should be simple and doesn’t require much training. This is why at RSI Concepts we always suggest our customers go with a customized solution that not only boosts the performance but it is also very simple to operate.

Conclusion

If you are operating in Dubai or any other region of UAE and you are providing such services which require one-on-one interaction with your customers. You must have a queue management system. The queue management system not only helps to streamline the customer flow but also helps to improve the customer journey, customer experience, and employee performance. Happy customers are a most precious asset of a business because they remain loyal to the brand and spread positive words about the brand which not only helps attract more customers and visitors but a positive brand identity also helps to get better conversion rates from all sorts of marketing campaigns.

However, when it comes to selecting a queue management system, there are too many options available. This is the reason we wrote this blog to help our audience understand the advanced features of a queue management system. It is always better to consult professionals or

seek help, at RSI Concepts we always welcome everyone. So, if you have any questions or need any more details on anything feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: What are the Basic Components of Queue Management System?

June 16, 2021

What are basic features of Queuing System?

The queuing system or queue management system is a combination of software and hardware tools, which allow businesses to effectively manage their daily customer flow. The markets like Dubai and other emirates of UAE are very advanced, modernized, developed, and technologically far superior to any other nation in the region. This sets up very higher standards for almost everything. The economy of UAE is huge and is growing along with gigantic occasional boosts such as the Expo 2020 event which was postponed to 2021 and is just above our heads, the economy is very promising and this attracts a lot of companies and investors to hop in. Which leads to tougher competitions. The competition results in very demanding customers who expect very high of their trustworthy brands.

The queuing systems are at the very top of customer experience management and have a huge impact on the customer journey and customer satisfaction. This is why the Dubai market is full of queue management system providers. RSI Concepts is one of the leading queuing system and customer experience transformation solution providers. There are so many different types of queue management systems advertised these days, and almost all of them are different than one another. However, the basic features of a queuing system are the same. For example, the prime objective of a queuing solution is to improve the customer journey and customer experience along with that the employee performances also got improved, one agent/server can serve more customers in a single shift if an effective digital queuing system has been commissioned.

Here are 10 basic features of the queuing system:

Queuing System Feature 1. Organized Queues

A digital queuing system ensures a well-organized queue. However, with manual management, the management will have to deal with lane jumpers, hustlers, and sometimes confrontations between the customers themselves and between the customers and the staff. This is very frustrating for the customers and for the staff too. If the queues are managed manually then more staff is required to manage everything. In addition to that physical barriers, stanchions, and other things are also required to manage the queues, even then disputes, delays, and troubles are common sites, which completely ruins the customer experience and makes the customer journey terrible. However, with the digital queue management system, everyone has to sign up for the queue. A ticket number or token number is given to every customer and visitor. No one can trespass on other queues, or jump the lines, or any such thing. The chances of disruption are almost none. Businesses can easily organize a queue without requiring much staff intervention.

Queuing System Feature 2. Easy & Automatic Customer Routing

Another problem with manual queuing is that the staff will have to make separate lines, which again they have to manage too. Priority customers or premium customers might also be stuck in regular queues, which is very discomforting and discourage customers from becoming premium or priority customers. But if you are using a digital queuing system, the system can easily distinguish between ordinary and priority customers and visitors. That is not all the digital queuing system also provides automatic management of the customer routes. Let me explain, for example, there are several services offered by a business which usually is the case. Most of the time for different services different counter are allocated and only designated staff to provide certain services. Which requires very accurate customer flow management and customer routing. This can be achieved easily using a digital queuing system.

Queuing System Feature 3. Reduced Wait Time

With manual queue management, a business will have to allocate more resources to manually manage the queues and customer flow. Which is not only expensive but it could cause a lot of trouble too. The manual customer flow management requires staff to manage everything which is very time-consuming, resultantly the customers will have to wait for more. However, with a digital queuing system the customer flow management, the customer journey, and customer flow is managed by the queue management system without any human intervention. The well-organized queues, automatic customer routing, and improved management prevent all the time-consuming problems of manual customer flow management. Which significantly reduces the wait time of the customers. As the staff is being relieved from the duties related to queue management they can focus on serving customers and can serve more customers in the same amount of time. Which reduces the wait time and also improves the customer experience.

Queuing System Features 4. Improved Customer Journey & Customer Experience

The well-organized queues, automatic customer routing, and reduced wait time can significantly improve the customer journey and customer experience. The traditional customer journey starts from the very moment a customer enters the premises and it sends when a customer leaves the premises. The customer experience is the actual experience a customer has going through that journey. It could be either good or bad, if a customer’s experience is as per their expectation then the customer journey is good if not then you should really think about taking action fast. A queuing system not only reduces the customer journey but also makes the customer experience very pleasant and comforting.

The digital queue management system can easily identify the priority customers and the customers who require certain services. Then the queuing system automatically routes them to their designated counters/agents. This feature not only reduces the workload from other counters but also reutilizes the vacant counter for general services. Especially in Dubai and other parts of UAE most of the businesses are offering multiple services and certain counters are designated for certain services. Or in the case of stepped service delivery, when a customer has to go to multiple counters to avail a full service, automatic customer journey management comes in handy and it could significantly improve customer experience.

Queuing System Feature 5. Improved Productivity and Profitability

A digital queue management system is far superior to any manual customer flow management practice. It significantly improves customer happiness and customer satisfaction. The queuing systems are a great tool for businesses to ensure steady growth by improving customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction helps increasing customer loyalty which further helps businesses to establish a positive brand identity. The positive brand identity then attracts more customers and also help businesses to improve customer retention rate. Which ultimately also results in better conversion rates. As the queue management system improves the customer journey and customer experience, they also reduce the workload from the staff and agents, which enables them to perform well. It means businesses have to pay less for the expenses and human resources. This not only increases productivity but also increases profitability.

Queuing System Feature: 6. Customer Engagement and Wait Time Experience

Any queuing system comes with a certain list of basic queue management system components. Which include a digital signage screen, counter markers, and an announcement system. In Dubai and other parts of UAE, in fact, all around the world a big display is used as digital signage which provides all the ticketing information along with the customer calling announcements. Digital signage can be utilized to play multimedia content or adverts or any other interesting content to keep the customer engaged in it. A known waiting time is far better than an unknown waiting time. All the information on the screen is being updated in real-time along with the multimedia content or adverts it keeps the user engaged and busy. Customer engagement can significantly reduce the stress of waiting. Hence it improves the customer wait time experience.

Queuing System Feature: 7. Centralized Management & Real-time Monitoring

Where a digital queuing system is offering so many benefits for the customers and the staff it also helps the management to effectively monitor everything in real-time. That is not all the head-office management can effectively control and manage any branch from the head-office. All the branches are connected to a centralized management system. All the data captured from the branches are synchronized in real-time with the head office. Remote management is enabled. The head office can push any policy or configuration change from the head office to any branch or to all branches. However, the branch manager will also be capable of managing and controlling the queuing system for their branch and would not be able to access or control the other queue management systems until the access and permission are granted by the head office. The head office can create administrative users with whatever access and control they want to. That is a great feature for head-office management.

Queuing System Feature 8. Reporting, KPIs, and Stats

A good queue management system always captures valuable data and measures KPIs (key performance indicators). Mostly a queuing system capture system usage data, such as which services are most availed, which services take the maximum average time or minimum average time, etc. Such data is very helpful in understanding customer behavior and their demand. Furthermore, the queuing system can also measure KPIs for the employees such as how much customers are being served by any employee on average. How employees are performing during rush hours? How much gap or break an employee is taking during finishing one customer and the next customer calling, etc. This data helps the management to understand the employee performance and their behavior which could be very helpful in arranging training or for other HR activities.

Queuing System Feature 9. Integration with other Systems

The queuing systems are built with very flexible technology and can easily be integrated with third-party systems, corporate tools, enterprise solutions, and other systems via secure web apps or APIs. This integration is very helpful in automating many processes which can reduce the wait time and service delivery time to improve the customer journey and customer experience. Furthermore, the queue management system can also fetch data from various other systems to their interfaces and vice versa. The integration makes way for a lot many advanced features as well, for example, integration with online customer portals, smartphone applications, online booking and appointment systems, ERP, SAP, and many more.

Queuing System Feature 10. Easy Upgrade and Future Scalability

Another very basic feature of any queuing system that you should be looking for is its capability to easily upgrade and expand or future scalability. This is very important. As we have noticed that most of the time businesses expand, once they install a queuing system in one branch, they might want to install it to another branch or maybe all of them. Usually in Dubai and all across of UAE businesses first start with installing such solutions in a few branches then they keep expanding them to other branches. This is cost-effective and it also gives businesses enough room to improve the solution. The queue management systems should be able to keep up with the ever-changing trends, the capability to upgrade, and future scalability should not be very difficult and very expensive. This is what each business should clearly discuss with the supplier before starting the project.

Read More: What is Queue Management System?

Conclusion

The Dubai and other emirates of UAE are all highly advanced and technologically developed societies. The economy of UAE is huge and is very promising for new investors, which means a lot of competition, the competition is always good for the customers and consumers and it indicates a healthy market. Like any other developed nation, the customers in UAE have very high expectations and are very demanding. This further increases the importance of customer satisfaction and customer happiness. A queue management system is a great tool for customer experience and customer journey management. The purpose of writing about the 10 basic features of a queuing system was to provide our audience and customers with a detailed guide on the basic queue management setup and how a business can benefit from the queue management systems.

Although there are so many different types of queuing systems, however, the basic remains the same and the understanding of basic features and their benefits is very important for businesses in order to choose an appropriate solution for them. It is always better to seek advice from a professional queue management system provider such as RSI Concepts. We are specialized in customized queue management systems and customer satisfaction solutions. We are helping businesses and organizations in transforming their customer journey and ensuring steady growth by improving customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, and increased conversion rate. If you are looking for a queue management system or want to learn more, please feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get back to you soon.

Check out this: What are advance components of Queue Management System?

June 16, 2021June 16, 2021

What are advance components of Queue Management System?

Before we discuss what are the advanced components of a queue management system? Let me first explain why a queue management system is so vital for your business! The main objective of a queue management system is to let businesses streamline the customer flow to improve customer experience and to be able to serve more customers per day by each server/agent. It helps effectively managing the customer flow and queues which results in a reduction in wait time and ensures quicker service delivery. Any digital queuing solution would be very helpful for the staff and the servers/agents in improving their work efficiency as well. As the queues and the customer, flow is automatically managed by the queue management system so the servers/agents can easily focus on their prime tasks which will not only reduce the service delivery time but will also significantly improve the service quality and customer journey.

The customer journey can be automated entirely and the queue management system is also helpful in expediting the service delivery process. This helps businesses in building better relationships with their customers and visitors and it portrays a positive image of the brand as well. The positive brand reputation attracts more customers and visitors and it also helps improving conversion rates of all sorts of marketing efforts. However, there are so many different types of queue management systems advertised in the market especially in Dubai, UAE. This raises the question of which queue management system you should choose. The simple answer is to first understand the queue management system and its components then decide for yourself which solution would work for you.

There are so many advanced components of queue management systems available in the market. You should be able to choose according to your needs. That is why we are writing this blog to let our audience and customers easily understand the latest advancements in queue management systems.

How does a Queue Management System work?

A queue management system is a combination of software and hardware tools designed to help businesses effectively managing the customer flow. Its primary objectives include customer experience and customer journey, automated customer flow management, improved employee work efficiency, improved service delivery, and service quality, higher productivity, and profitability for the business. The working of a queue management system is very simple. The customers and visitors start with a signing up process, which is usually selecting the required service from an interactive touch screen kiosk and then printing their tickets for the queue. Then they are directed to the waiting room, where they can monitor the queuing status on digital screens and they are also notified by the audio announcements. Once their turn comes they can visit the designated counter/server to avail the service and that is it. Sometimes businesses also provide an option to submit feedback before leaving the premises.

Any queue management system consists of two major parts, software, and hardware. The software has its own list of modules and components, the hardware also has the same list. As the technology used to make the queue management systems is very widely available so the peripherals and accessories are also widely available. There is literally no limit to innovation in this market. Since around a decade ago so many big multinational manufacturers invested in the industry, then there has been millions upon millions of dollars had been invested only in R&D. This makes the industry very modern and innovative. However in Dubai and other parts of UAE, a certain market behavior or culture is established, so we will going to talk about only the popular components of the queue management system in our country and also in the gulf region.

Here are the advanced components of the queue management system:

What is a Queue Management System Software?

A Queue Management System Software is basically a server-side application that runs on the server and provides a different interface to interact with the system. In Dubai and other emirates of UAE, the most common type is the web-based interfaces for the agents/server and for the administration. For the visitors and customers usually, a touch screen interactive kiosk is used. However, these days other interfaces or methods are also used to interact with the customers and visitors.

Here are the details of some most popular advanced software component:

Customer/Visitor Interface via Self Service Interactive Kiosk

The customers and visitors can interact with the queue management system using an interactive touch screen self-service kiosk. The interface allows the customers to select the required service from the list of all available services and then automatically sign them up for the queue. The kiosk also prints a ticket bearing the queue number and some other basic information.

Queuing Information and Announcements

The digital screens and signage are used to display the current queuing information. These signage and displays are placed in strategic locations where everyone in the waiting area can view them. In Dubai and UAE mostly the information of the current tickets under process on each counter is displayed along with the next ticket number and estimated time along with some other information such as an advert or multimedia content is played to keep the customers and visitors engaged.

Agents/Servers Interface

The agent/server’s interface is mostly a web-based application that can be easily accessed from the computer browser. The agents can perform basic tasks such as customer calls, canceling or updating a ticket number or rerouting any ticket to a different counter, etc.

In some advanced configurations, much more can be done by integrating the queue management system with various other enterprise software and tools. This not only saves a lot of work for the agent/server but also expedites the service delivery process. The lower time for each service delivery results in happy customers and improved efficiency of the staff.

Administrative Dashboard or Control Panel

The administrative dashboard or control panel is the interface for the management, such as branch managers, supervisors, and/or head office management. The management can not only manage various processes but it can also extract valuable business intelligence in the form of statistical data, KPIs, system usage data, customer/visitor feedback, and customized reports in different formats. Regular automated reports can also be configured such as daily reports, weekly and/or monthly along with performance reports for the branch, particular service, agents, and so on. It entirely depends upon the business itself.

The administrative dashboard also allows the management to customize the customer journey, set and create policies, manage other system users and allow access by creating workflows and administrative hierarchies. All the branches can be monitored and controlled through the head office remotely. The head office can extract the data and prepare the reports from any branch. All the data is being updated in real-time, the live stats and monitoring are also available in some modern systems.

Virtual Queuing Module

Virtual Queuing is one of the modern forms of queue management systems. It enables the businesses to let their customer and visitors sign up for the queue before even physically arriving at the branch. The concept is that the customer and visitors can sign up for the queue remotely and then at the very exact time when their turn came they can arrive and get served immediately without even waiting in an actual queue. The system signs them up for a virtual queue and they can either plan their visit accordingly to reach at their estimated turn time or either they can wait outside. Very effective when your branch or office is located in a commercial area or near to recreational activities. It also helps to maintain social distancing. The customers and visitors can easily sign up using their smartphone applications, SMS, email, phone call, online customer portals, websites, etc.

Social Distancing Enabled Queue Management System

As we all know these days the social distancing, health and hygiene is the top concern of everyone, and social distancing is mandatory. Businesses are allocating more recourses to ensure social distancing and implementation of the government-suggested precautions. A queue management system with social distancing mode enabled could be a great help to strictly implementing the social distancing rules and it also helps to avoid the extra expense of allocation of additional resources just to maintain social distancing. The social distancing mode supports various different types of virtual queuing sign-up methods. The most popular method in Dubai and all across the UAE is signing up with a QR Code, which is usually posted outside of the entrance.

Queue Management System Integration

Modern-day Queue Management Systems also allow integration with other enterprise solutions and systems as well. The main objective is to make the queue management system more useful but integrating it with other databases and information centers. This also allows more superior customized features and a lot of other benefits including centralized management as well. The KPIs, stats, and reporting data can be linked to other systems, such as ERP or Intranet, or any other enterprise tool. The integration is very simple via secure web services or APIs. The queue system can also fetch data from any other system via APIs. For example, in order to identify the premium or VIP customers the business can set up an Emirates ID card scanner to identify the priority customers to route them to their designated counters and more such things.

Read More: What is Queue Management System?

Queue Management System Hardware

The queue management system hardware includes all the related hardware to support software functionalities. In Dubai and other parts of UAE, in fact, in the entire MENA region, the practice is to use some standard components. For example, the self-service interactive kiosk is used for sign-up. The digital signage and the screens are used to display queuing information along with media and content. The counter plates are used to mark the counters and the audio announcement system is for the customer call.

Here are the details of some most popular hardware component:

Interactive Kiosk or Ticket Dispensing Machine

An interactive kiosk or ticket dispensing machine is a very basic component, however, these days the touch screen interfaces are used to improve service delivery as well. For example, if you are a priority customer, or a premium customer, or just an ordinary customer or visitor, you can either scan your Emirates ID or any other mode to identify yourself to the system then the system automatically puts you on your respective queue. Furthermore, the Interactive Kiosk or Ticket Dispensing machines are also used to display the list of all the services along with a few other options which are designed to help to improve the customer flow and customer journey.

Digital Signage and Display Screens

Digital signage is traditionally used to display the queuing information and feeds. The information contains mainly the list of all the active queues and the counters along with the ticket number that is currently being served. However, the advanced queue management systems also include a digital signage module that allows the management to play multimedia content on those large displays. The content could be the adverts or any video or animation which keeps the customers and visitors engaged while they are waiting. As these screens also contain the queuing information so almost everyone looks at them and the content or information playing along with that could also be very helpful in reducing the stress of waiting. This improves the customer experience as well as provides a free marketing opportunity.

Customer Feedback System

The customer feedback system is not a new thing, however, integrating it with the queue management system is fairly a new phenomenon. Businesses can benefit a lot from this. Generally, the customer feedback system includes a small tablet stand, touch screen, or a kiosk, which provides an opportunity to easily submit feedback. The software of the feedback system is linked with the queue management system and if the business is already identifying their customers, the queue management system can automatically link the feedback submitted from that particular counter by matching the ticket number and the time of service. Such feedbacks could be very helpful in making future decisions and building strategies to further enhance the customer journey and customer experience.

Advance Hardware Accessories for Queue Management System

The queue management systems are built with very widely used technologies. The server-side application can easily be customized and integrated with tons of software and hardware accessories or extensions. The client-side or the customer interaction which starts with the interactive touch screen kiosk or ticket dispensing machine is also built using native applications or web-based interface. In both cases, the actual machine is either running on Windows or Linux operating system. In Dubai and UAE, almost 99% of the time windows-based systems are used. This makes the integration fairly simpler and easier.

Here are some most commonly used hardware accessories for queue management systems:

Emirates ID Card Scanner or Reader

The Emirates ID Card is our national identity card here in UAE. As the UAE government is very supportive and adoptive towards digitalization and technologies, the Emirates ID or EID is used for identifications. The method is very simple and takes no time to identify the person. The identification information can be relayed to the queue management system server software where it can be cross-matched to the internal databases and then the same can also be pushed to the agent/server database to make the service delivery shorter and quicker. The queue management system can also detect the person’s status such as VIP or premium customer or ordinary customer and can automatically set priority for them. This method is used to improve the customer journey by directing customers to their respective dedicated counters. This is also used by HR departments to improve various service delivery steps.

Facial Detection & IRIS Scanners

Facial detection is a very great way to identify revisiting visitors and customers. Especially in customer service departments, government departments, and mass transit facilities, immigration, and airports, facial detection is widely used. It is used to identify the customers and visitors and later the same information can be utilized to facilitate a lot of many business processes to expedite the service delivery process and to set the priority according to the status of the customers and visitors. The IRIS technology is fairly new having more government applications especially in contactless immigration or digital immigration, etc. However these days the private sector is also adopting technology to improve their customers’ experience and journey.

Voice Assistant

There are two types of voice assistants widely used. The one is to improve multi-lingual support where the voice recites the predefined messages and phrases to assist the users from the process such as helping them out to identify the required service from the list. This is very popular with queue management systems and self-service kiosks. The second is the human-aided voice assistant in which an actual customer support agent assists the user in using any self-service device upon their request. This has recently been introduced to queue management systems and is only effective when the service delivery is stepped and the relevant counters are located on longer distances such as a vehicle testing facility, or a container port or depot, or such facilities.

Conclusion

The queue management system is a very great tool to improve the customer journey and customer experience. It also helps to reduce the extra cost of managing manual queues and it can significantly improve the efficiency of the server/agents as well. The customer experience is vital for building a positive brand image. A positive brand image ensures more customer retention and higher conversion rates. This is a key to steady growth and greater profitability. These days the queue management systems are going through great innovation and advancements due to technological advancements and new programming techniques. It allows the business and system providers to attain more customizations and greater productivity in all sorts of scenarios and conditions.

The basic queue management system contains only a few basic components that allow effective customer flow management. However, with some advanced software and hardware components a queue management system can literally transform the customer journey and customer experience. It could also be a great source of very accurate business intelligence and statistical data. The remote monitoring and controls also allow the head offices to easily manage and control the entire network.

RSI Concepts is one of the most experienced queue management system providers. Our products are the outcome of more than a decade-long experience and intensive research in the local market. Our diverse clientele, experienced staff, and superior technologies enable us to deliver a highly efficient and productive system with excellent ROI rates. Our customization capabilities and integration with other systems can provide you a greater competitive edge. If you are looking for a reliable, cost-effective, and customized queue management system to meet your specific needs, do reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box and we will soon get in touch with you.

Check out this: What are the Basic Components of Queue Management System?

June 7, 2021September 7, 2021

What are the Basic Components of Queue Management System?

Queue Management System is a great tool to improve customer experience and staff efficiency. Businesses can significantly reduce the wait time and improve the customer experience by installing a queue management system. As there are so many different types of queuing solutions available in Dubai, UAE, businesses often get confused while acquiring a queue management system. The reason for this blog is to explain the basic system components of a queue management system to let our audience and customers be familiar with the technology and its functions. There are so many different types of queue management systems, some are generic and can be used in almost all sorts of applications. However, some are purpose-made or only made for particular industries. Whatever the case is the core of the system and its components remain the same.

Basic Components of Queue Management System

The two major parts of a queue management system are the software and the hardware. Here is a list of both software and hardware components of a basic queuing system:

Queue Management System Software Components
1. Admin Dashboard
2. Agent Dashboard
3. Customer Interface
4. Data Analytical Engine
5. Reports, Stats& KPIs
Queue Management System Hardware Components
1. Interactive Kiosk/Ticket Dispensing Machine
2. Digital Signage Screens
3. Counter Plates/Screens and Signs
4. Announcement System

Queue Management System Software

A queue management system software is a server-side application with multiple interfaces for each system user. This means that all the computing, logic, and data processing is done on the server. Usually, the interfaces are built as web apps or web-based interfaces. There are different technologies used to build the server-side application. However, the main mechanism and functioning remain the same.

Here are the queue management system software components:

1. Admin Dashboard

The Admin Dashboard is also referred to as back-office or more commonly known in Dubai and UAE as the administrative control panel. This is the main management interface of the system. The management can control various features and configurations from this interface. This panel can also provide real-time monitoring and administrative control of all the connected branches. The administrative hierarchy with access and authentication rights can be allotted using this panel to managers and staff responsible for different operations. New administrative system users can be created and managed through this panel.

2. Agent Dashboard

The agent dashboard is the interface used by the agents and servers. This interface provides all the required information along with the queuing controls and management. A queue management system can be integrated with other internal systems and tools to further expedite the service delivery process. The server or agent dashboard is the interface where all the information can be fetched or can be pushed through as well. Usually, businesses only ask for queuing controls but this is indeed a very useful interface and can be customized to improve the staff efficiency as well as customer experience.

3. Customer Interface

A customer interface is an interface where the customer directly interacts with the queue management system. The core functionality of the customer interface is only to allow customers to sign-up for the queue. In Dubai and other parts of the UAE, we mainly see queue management systems with a ticket dispensing kiosk machine. The interface is usually touch-based with multilingual support. The touch screen kiosks are very good at providing easy interaction. Customers can easily choose the service they want to avail and the QMS will sign them up for the required queue.

4. Data Analytical Engine

The data analytical engine is basically the ability of the software to capture data from multiple interaction points and also data coming from various other inputs. For example in most cases the businesses these days like to integrate a customer feedback system with the queue management system to collect direct customer feedback. The data analytical engine’s responsibility is to process all the incoming data in a predefined way to generate analysis and summaries. This analysis and summaries will be later utilized by the reporting module to generate various types of reports. The data analytical engine is a kind of virtual feature and is not visible for any system user. In fact, it is a background process.

5. Reports, Stats, and KPIs

Once the data has been processed through the data analytical engine, it is ready to process in the form of reports. These reports help the management to understand the performance and progress of various business processes and it help them building future strategies and policies. The queue management system collects various types of system usage information and statistical data which can be utilized in reports. The KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are being used to monitor and measure the performance of the staff as well as of various business processes to easily identify the areas of improvement.

Queue Management System Hardware Components

The hardware part of a queue management system is very simple. It includes basic components that support the software to let various types of interactions with the system. Mainly most of the hardware components are meant for the customers and visitors. The hardware components not only help to manage the customer flow but are also very helpful in improving the customer experience.

Here are the queue management system hardware components:

1. Interactive Kiosk/Ticket Dispensing Machine

The interactive Kiosk or Ticket Dispensing Machine is the very first interaction of the customer or visitor with the queue management system. Usually, touch screen interactive kiosks are being used to serve queuing tickets and let the user sign-up for their required queue. The interactive kiosk is the most widely used hardware, it is very convenient and easy to use. It allows a customer or visitors to navigate to their required service easily by tapping a few buttons on the touch screen. Then it dispenses the ticket for the selected queue/service.

2. Digital Signage Screen

The digital signage screens are large displays placed in certain locations to make them visible for all the customers and visitors inside the premises. The display screens are an essential part of a queue management system as they are being used to display the real-time queuing status and other information. The announcements are also made on these displays. Apart from that these large screens are also used to play content and adverts. This technique helps to reduce the stress of waiting by playing media and displaying constant updates they keep the customers engaged and busy.

3. Counter Plates/Screens and Signs

There are several hardware accessories that can be used with a queue management system however in a basic QMS setup we use only a few accessories such as the counter plates or counter screens and maybe a few digital signs too to routing the customers. It depends upon the service types, premises, and the service delivery process. The counter screens and counter plates are used to mark the counters, the screen can display the ticket number along with the counter number, which is very helpful for customers to easily reach their allotted counter.

4. Announcement System

The announcement system is an essential part of any queue management system. If the waiting area is small and we have enough digital signage screens, the built-in speakers can be used too, else there has to be a dedicated sound system to make audio announcements for customer calls. It is due to the fact that when people are waiting in the waiting area, they might get distracted by several things, such as they are talking, or on the phone or reading or any such thing. Here in Dubai and UAE usually bilingual audio announcement systems are used.

How does a Queue Management System Works?

The process is very simple and easy as the queue management systems are designed to reduce the customer wait and difficulty in availing the service as well as to improve the work efficiency and productivity of the employees as well. The workflow is as follow:

Step 1: Customer or visitor sign up for the queue

Step 2: Customers are requested to wait in the waiting area

Step 3: Customer is being called to arrive at a certain counter

Step 4: The service has been delivered (in case of stepped service, the customer can be directed to the next counter or waiting area accordingly)

Step 5: Customers are being provided with an option to submit feedback before they leave, or they simply left without providing any feedback

This is the customer journey through a queue management system. However, in the background, the queue management system keeps gathering stats and business intelligence too. Which is being transmitted to the management and/or to the head office in real-time. This data captured from different touchpoints and KPIs can be further analyzed and processed to compile actionable reports. The management can utilize these reports to take future decisions and make new policies to improve service delivery processes and also the services. This can help businesses to improve customer experience, customer journey, and customer retention. Which is necessary for steady growth.

Conclusion

The queue management systems are extremely effective and are playing a vital role in many industries. It is important for businesses to understand the actual technology and its operation before opting for any digital queue management system or customer flow management system. Even a very basic queue management system comes with a very powerful software tool and supportive hardware to significantly transform the customer journey and customer experience. The queuing solutions are also very helpful in reducing the workload of the staff and the servers, which can significantly improve their work efficiency. The KPIs, reporting module, and data analytical engine provide great business intelligence. Which can be utilized by the management to identify the areas of improvement and to make future policies and strategies. Customer retention helps improving customer loyalty. If a business has a loyal clientele, it can easily build a strong and positive brand image, which is also very helpful in generating new leads. Positive brand identity also helps improving conversion rates of marketing efforts.

Altogether the benefits of a queue management system are staggering and businesses can gain a lot by only commissioning a very basic queue management system. RSI Concepts is specialized in Queuing Solutions, we have a variety of queue management systems that can provide you a great competitive edge. If you want to request a quote or just need consultation, feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment below and we will get back to you soon.

Check out this: What is Queue Management System?