A queue management system has become an essential part of the businesses who require from their customers to visit their offices, branches, stores or customer service centers to avail their services. No matter which industry you belongs to, if you are operating in Dubai or anywhere else in UAE and your customers will have to visit you for certain business transactions, then you must be aware of the queue management challenges. Here in UAE the technology have penetrated far deeper in our daily lifestyle than anywhere else in the region. For instance think of the smartphones, almost a decade ago when the smartphones where in their infancy, most of the people were still using regular mobile phones with button based keyboard and a small digital screen. At that time the maximum one can do was to access the emails, or browse websites, however, the experience was not so good, the amount of available mobile apps were also very limited. However, with the passage of time, the smartphone have become a necessity, for many of us the smartphones are the primary medium to access to the internet, do online shopping, communication and social networks. This revolution compelled many businesses all around the world to seriously consider the mobile apps to enhance their customer experience, journey and communication.
Now a days businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are proactively exploring the ways to magnify the gains of the mobile and digital mediums. Businesses are offering services that can be accessed and availed from the smartphones. Your entire personal bank is available on the smartphone as a mobile app. People tend to surf internet over their smartphone, in fact the mobile searches have already surpassed the regular desktop/laptop searches. This had a profound impact on customer and business relationships. Now a day’s, the customer also expect from their favorite brand or service provider to offer mobile applications, in fact having a mobile app can add value to a business’s credibility. That is why most of the modern queuing solution such as RSI Queue Management System have in-built integration available for the mobile apps. Businesses can gain a variety of benefits from utilizing the smartphones and offering mobile apps to their customers. In this blog we will discuss how a queue management system can leverage a good quality mobile app to maximize customer’s experience and satisfaction.
A Good Queue Management System Mobile App Minimize the Wait Time
For any queuing solution the primary and most important task is to reduce the customer wait time and improve their experience throughout the entire customer journey. The studies have shown that an average customer can happily wait for just a few minutes, any waiting time longer than that would start impacting the customer experience and will eventually led to unsatisfied customers. No matter what else you do if your wait time is too long, it would be extremely difficult to deliver a happy and satisfactory customer experience. The very first thing your customers will going to notice is the wait time, if the wait time is too long or waiting experience is bad the customer will arrive annoyed or stressed already, which makes it extremely difficult for the service agent to switch their mood and make them happy within the limited time they have. That is why the wait time and waiting experience are crucial for customer happiness and customer satisfaction.
A mobile app integrated with queue management system can offers a variety of features which can be used to reduce the customer wait time and to improve their experience. The problem with crowded waiting areas is that they add to the anxiety and stress of the customers, however the queue management system mobile app allows the customer to sign-up remotely for virtual queues. This enables them to virtually enroll in the waiting lines, way before they physically arrive at the business. It also allows customers and visitors to manage their schedule in a way to minimize the in-premises wait time. Hence the actual waiting time could be a lot less than the estimated wait time. Moreover the mobile app also allow the customer to keep getting updates and feeds of the on-going queues and keep them reminded of their number in the queue. So, they don’t forget or get late. This is a huge leap. It can significantly reduce the wait time, and it can prevent crowd formation in the waiting areas.It also improves the waiting experience as well. The reduced wait time is a key to happy customer experience and stress free customer journey.
Mobile App Improves Waiting Experience and Reduce Perceived Wait Time
The queue management system mobile app can enhance waiting experience and it can also help reducing the both the actual and the perceived wait time. Most of the time when we are in a long queue, we might think that the queue next to us is moving faster than us, if we somehow manage to jump into the ‘faster’ queue, almost in a few minutes we realize that now the previous queue is moving a bit faster, this is just a trick of the mind, in reality, both queues are on the same pace. Usually the perception under stressful environment and circumstances is just the amplified version of the reality. That is also applicable when people are waiting in long queues. So the perceived wait time is always higher than the actual wait time. The mentioning of estimated wait time is another most important aspect of customer waiting time which most businesses often neglect.
We human react differently to the things we know and to the things we don’t know, we have something called “fear of unknown” embedded in our DNA. Whenever such situation arises when we are not aware or certain of the outcome we fear it, and it puts our body and mind into a kind of defensive mode, which generates stress. Same is applicable to the waiting experience, when the customers don’t know how much time they will have to wait, it stressed them out. People start feeling the pressure and it affects their experience. However, with a mobile app, the business can provide all necessary queuing details including live updates, estimated wait time, any changes or even communication can be enabled between the service agents/staff and the customer. Which can provide a great relief and it can help ease down the stress of the waiting.
This also allow the customers to manage their visits more efficiently and resultantly they have to wait very less, in fact in some cases there is literally no wait time, the customers can instantly get served as soon as they arrived at the business. This enhances the customer experience and raise customer satisfaction and customer happiness.
The Mobile App Simplifies the Sign-up By Introducing Unconventional Methods and Mediums
One of the biggest advantage of queue management system mobile app is the simplified sign-up process. In any traditional queuing setup the customers will have to physically arrive at the branch to sign-up for the queue. The sign-up is usually done via an interactive ticket dispensing kiosk. However, with the queue management system mobile app, the customers and visitors can sign-up right through the mobile app, without requiring them to physically be present at the business. The queue management system mobile app can issue electronic tickets or token numbers, and sign them up for the virtual queues. The customers can leverage the virtual queues and wait outside or plan their visit in a way that they reach only at time when their turn came. This can prevent long waiting time and even it can also completely eliminate the wait time. Which is great to improve customer experience and customer journey.
Moreover the businesses can also allow customers and visitors to make changes to their visit if in case they are late or got caught up in something, this also allow the staff to easily fit them in the next available slot and prevent any inconvenience. The customers can also signup for the queues, using SMS, WhatsApp, Email or other alternative methods which also improve their experience and make the process more convenient and user-friendly which is a key to customer happiness and customer satisfaction.
Enable a Direct Communication Channel with Individual Customer via Mobile App
Businesses can enable a direct communication channel with the individual customer via mobile app. The queue management system mobile app can host a bunch of features such as in-app messaging, on-screen notifications, push notifications, alerts and much more. This allow the businesses to keep the customers up-to-date and it also help them improve customer experience by providing them human interaction and live support. For example, in case if any unpredictable scenario arises which could cause delays to the customer’s estimated time in the system, the customer agent can immediately communicate it with the customers and visitors and they can also give them instructions to reschedule or share updates with them with the new schedule, etc. Moreover the customer support agents can also contact customers and visitors to ask them to bring any documents that they might need, or give them reminders of important things, etc. Such communication improve customer experience, increase their level of trust and help businesses build a stronger relationship with them which is a key to long term success.
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Offer Additional Features with Queue Management System Mobile App
The smartphone are becoming more powerful day by day. This allowed the mobile app developer to introduce a lot of innovative features. The modern mobile app development technologies have become very advanced and cost-efficient, adding more user-friendly features in a mobile app is not expensive at all. That is why the queue management system mobile app can be used to offer a variety of innovative and technologically advanced features which can help both businesses and the customers. For example, if a service required to upload documents or ID of the customers, the customers can be asked to scan or upload these document via their mobile app even before arriving at the business. This will expedite the service delivery process and it make it a lot easier for the customer support agent to deliver good quality service more quickly with less efforts.
Another great feature that a queue management system can offer is businesses locator and branch locator. The locator functionality uses the GPS to learn about the customer’s location, then it pull up the nearest location or multiple locations in the close proximity. The mobile app can also integrate navigation maps, to let the customer navigate to the desired branch/location. Moreover the locator module also provide the live queuing info with the estimated wait time at each branch, which help customers to easily select the branch with shorter wait time. The mobile app can also be integrated with the appointment booking module or it can also have an in-built appointment booking module to let the customers and visitors schedule their appointment at their convenient time and date. The live queuing information, continuous alerts, notifications and reminders can help improving the customer experience.
See More: Efficient Queue Management System Qualities
Collect Customer Feedback via Mobile App
Customer feedback is a very valuable data for any business. Collecting customer feedback help businesses understand various aspects of customer relationship and the customer journey. Businesses can easily identify the areas of improvements, new market trends, their customer’s needs and even businesses can evaluate and assess various business processes and employees who are involved in customer journey. The biggest problem with the customer feedback data is the quality and quantity of the data. In order quantify the customer feedbacks and to be able to produce actionable reports, the customer feedback data must have certain qualities and should also have enough quantity to remove ambiguities and confusions. The mobile apps are one of the most effective customer feedback collection channels. There are two main reasons, first the businesses can easily push customer feedback surveys to the targeted audience at the right place and time, which increases the quality and quantity of the customer feedback data.
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A queue management system mobile app can collect various different types of customer feedback data such as NPS (Net Promoter Score), CES (Customer Effort Score), CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Survey), General customer happiness meter/scale and much more. This data can provide a deeper and much accurate understanding of all aspects of customer journey and customer experience. Businesses can channel the customer feedback data into decision making and policy making process and they can make informed decisions on the bases of the customer feedback data and they can set up future strategies that are more in-line with their customers. This can maximize the customer happiness and customer satisfaction and also give them a sense of importance and connecting with the business.
Gather Business Intelligence Data
A queue management system is a great source of business intelligence data, with the help of the mobile app the data quality can be refined and businesses can collect more details which can help them to improve customer journey, customer experience and customer satisfaction. Businesses can easily collect demographic and geographic data of the customer which help them to understand their customer’s persona and it is also very helpful in providing personalized customer experience on the bases of the preferences, their purchase habits and much more. Moreover the mobile app can also collect various system usage stats and other data which can be used to evaluate and assess the current business processes. Businesses can utilize the queue management system mobile app data to improve their communication, identify the areas of improvement in the customer journey and it also help them identify the causes and reasons that are impacting customer experience and customer happiness.
See More: Virtual Queuing and Digital Customer Experience
Conclusion
For businesses maintaining a certain level of customer happiness while managing long queues is a very challenging task. Studies have shown that the customer don’t like to wait for extended period of time. There is a threshold limit of waiting time, if that exceeds the customer start feeling anxious and stressed which could have devastated effects on customer happiness and customer satisfaction. For each industry the threshold time limit is different, however, it is usually taken as around 10 to 13 minutes. Any time longer than that will going to impact the customer happiness and customer satisfaction. That is why the queue management systems are absolutely necessary for the businesses who need their customer to visit them for certain business transaction. The queue management system mobile app comes with various benefits which can be utilized to enhance customer journey and customer experience. Businesses can also use the mobile apps to collect customer feedback and to gather valuable business intelligence data. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system and mobile apps provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to develop a queue management system mobile app or if you want to learn more about the subject, please 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.
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