Businesses want to improve productivity, turnover, and employee performance and cost efficiency all while improving the customer happiness and customer satisfaction. Customers never like to wait in long queues, they want instant services. However, the queues are inevitable in reality. This means the businesses and organizations will have to deal with queues. Here in Dubai, and in fact all around the UAE the market is very competitive and the customers simply have too many choices. One bad experience is enough to make your customer switch to a competitor. Another important factor is that the UAE is one of the most modern and advanced society, people living here are mostly highly educated and the market norms and standards are very high. That is why it is crucial for a businesses to sustain its customers by any mean. The market trends, customer’s preferences and competitors are all important factors to consider for a long term strategy. Now a days, a regular or ordinary customer place their experience equal to the quality of the product or service they are obtaining. That is why the customer experience had become an absolutely necessary aspect of customer satisfaction strategy.
The customer satisfaction is mainly based on customer experience, whether it is with your product or services, staff, customer support team, sales team, or even through digital channels. That is why it is important to improve customer experience at all the touch points. In our today’s topic we will cover only the customer experience at the business premises or at the branch. The customer experience includes each and everything from signing up for the queue to getting the service or making the purchase and even afterwards. The waiting time, long and poorly managed queues are major causes of customer dissatisfaction. Studies have shown that in general a customer can wait for 8 to 12 minutes comfortably, after that the customer starts getting annoyed, anxious and stressed. This wait time is even lesser for certain businesses. That mean either the business will have to find a way to serve the customer before that safe waiting time limits or the business will have to find a way to increase that limit.
A queue management system is the best solution to that problem, it can not only help businesses to reduce the wait time but it also help businesses to increase that limit by engaging customers and improving their waiting experience during the customer journey.Here is how a businesses can utilize a queue management system to increase customer tolerance to the wait time while reducing it simultaneously.
What is Queue Management?
Most of the time people line up to avail a service at a business. This happens when the counters or servers are less and the customers are more. That is the case almost all of the time at many businesses. Such queues are mostly unstructured and not properly managed. Which results in several problems that both the customers and the staff also faces. The queue management is the process or technique to manage those queues with more efficiency, efficacy and flexibility which facilitates both the customer and the staff of the business. Basically the queue management’s primary aim is to enhance customer experience, reduce their stress and improve the customer journey. In parallel to that the queue management also improve staff performance and productivity. This altogether improve the overall profitability of the business by making customer satisfied and loyal. Happy customers also help improving brand reputation and credibility.
What is a Queue Management System?
A queue management system or QMS is a tool that is used to effectively and efficiently manage the customer queues. The queue management system is used to manage the waiting time, customer flow and customer experience. It also collect valuable business intelligence data for the businesses which help them improve the customer experience and customer journey. The queue management system also provide advanced monitoring and management features which can be applied at multi-branch setup and help the main branch or head-office to gain a better control and monitoring over all connected branches. A queue management system is a mixture of software and hardware. The software is usually an application with multiple interfaces for different group of users. The hardware usually consists of an interactive kiosk or a ticket dispensing machine, which dispense the queue numbers for the customers. There is a digital display which is used to provide queuing information and update in the waiting area.
Almost all modern day queue management systems use audio announcement system which announces the next ticket number and the counter where their turn came. Along with that it also depends on the needs and requirements of the business. Some businesses also include a lot of other software and hardware features. The queue management systems can easily integrated with the central information center of the business as well as with other enterprise solutions and business tools. This capability significantly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the system and also allow the businesses to introduce innovative features and customization which can help them further improve customer experience and various internal business processes that can impact customer experience.
The queue management systems are built on a very widely available hardware technology which makes them compatible with millions of hardware peripherals and interactive devices. Businesses can use a variety of hardware devices to introduce new features which please their customers and simplify their journey. Here in Dubai and all across the UAE mostly the simpler versions are used and major focus is at the software side, however, the interactive ticket dispensing kiosk can have a variety of hardware devices such as Emirates ID Reader, Barcode & QR Code Reader, Smart Card Reader, Document Scanner & Printer, Payment Gateway integration and POS, Biometric, Facial and Retina Scanners, Passport Scanners, and many more. These all hardware accessories are used to introduce new features to queue management system and help businesses in further simplifying the customer journey and improving the customer experience and customer happiness.
What Makes Queue Management System (QMS) Essential for Modern Businesses?
Managing queues and customer experience is a very sophisticated task, it requires a lot of resources and planning. The manual work requires a lot of human resource, planning and still it is not as that effective. Improving customer waiting experience, customer journey and customer satisfaction need a lot of information and data analysis. Manually it is nearly impossible to gather all that data and do that kind of analysis with accuracy. Whenever there will be manual data collection, human will involve and common errors and mistakes will be inevitable. That is why a queue management system is essential not only to effectively manage the queuing process but it is also absolutely necessary for monitoring and collecting data which can later help in improving strategies, business processes and customer experience.
Here are a few reasons which makes a queue management system an essential for modern businesses:
Reduce Customer Wait Time
One of the most impactful factor on customer happiness and satisfaction is the wait time. No one wants to wait, everyone wants to get served as quickly as possible. A queue management system streamline customer flow, segment customers into different groups/categories as per their needs, direct them to the right counter and completely automate the customer flow process. As soon as a customer get served on a counter, the next one is automatically called via audio & visual announcements. And that is not all, an efficient queue management system can also be helpful in various other steps of the customer journey. For example via agent portal or agent interface a queue management system can help reducing the agent’s efforts, which keep them more focused on their primary tasks. Hence they can deliver even better customer services which makes your customer happy and satisfy.
The automatically managed waiting lines, doesn’t cause much complaints as everyone knows the queue is controlled by the computer so everyone knows everyone will be treated equally, no one can line jump, and no agent or staff can favor anyone, etc. Such complaints are common in manual queues, even though the businesses put a lot of efforts to reduce them, people would still have such complaints in case of manual queues. That is why the digital queue management eliminates a lot of problems, makes customer happy and also enable staff to serve more customers in a single shift. Which in result also reduce the average customer waiting time.
Reduce Perceived Wait Time and Improve Waiting Experience
The perceived wait time is always higher than the actual wait time. Have you ever noticed, during the rush at the high way or at a grocery store the waiting line next to you felt faster than that of yours. However, when you switch it the reverse happens! It is just a perception of human brain. Sometimes we think the time is moving slower than it actually is. This is mostly due to boredom, waiting or lack of interest. The same happens at your business too. Your customers might think the time passed is more than the actual time passed. Another factor that contributes to increase perceived wait time is the absence of any other engagement, or one could say distraction. A queue management system provides the both, it actually reduces the actual wait time and it also help reducing the perceived wait time. A standard queue management system uses large display screen, these screens are used to display the queuing information. Businesses can use those screens and enable audio and visual announcements which can easily distract the customer from focusing on being waiting in a long queue.
Businesses can also use another trick which is mentioning the estimated time to turn at the ticket. With the help of a queue management system this can be done easily. These features and a lot many other such features help businesses in reducing both actual and perceived wait time. When the actual and perceived wait time is reduced and during that wait time the customer is engaged with regular audio announcements, large bright display screens in front of them and with the estimated time to their turn, they feel more comfortable and in fact they can tolerate more wait time comparing to the situation without all those features.
Virtual Queuing Literally Reduces the Wait Time to None
The virtual queuing is not a new technology, in fact it is present since a long time, but since past two to three years the virtual queuing caught the attentions of the businesses in Dubai and everywhere in UAE. Businesses are adopting to virtual queuing on a rapid pace. The virtual queuing has ability to literally reduce the wait time to none. It done so by introducing advanced features such as remote sign-up channels, virtual queues, mobile or remote communication and such features. The customers are free to sign-up for the queue using a QR Code, an online link, SMS, email or even the business website and some advanced queue management systems also offer appointment booking modules as well. Such module ad features enable customers to sign-up for the queues without being physically present at the premises.
This means they are enrolled in the waiting line virtual without being physically present, hence they can easily plan their visit to arrive at the business only when their turn comes. Hence there will be literally no waiting time at the business. The virtual queuing also allow businesses to communicate with the customers using SMS, online links, mobile apps and other digital channels which enhance customer experience and increase their satisfaction.
Automatic Customer Flow Management Improves Customer Experience
A queue management system has a very intelligent software engine, which can be programmed as per the needs and situation. The businesses can use these features to setup a customer flow plan. Each business offers multiple services and each business deals with different categories of the customers who are attributed with different levels of priorities. For example, for certain services a business could have exclusive counters. For certain customers a business could have exclusive counters, such as for premium or VIP customers a business have policy to prioritize them at highest then there could be a dedicated counter for people with special needs and so on. All these variables can be programmed in the queue management system and it can automatically control the customer flow and customer journey for each customer category by automatically segregating them as per their priority or any other attribute.
Furthermore businesses also have different types of services, such as some businesses offers some services which can be delivered through a single counter, some services are meant to be delivered by multiple counters, such services are called stepped services. A queue management system can efficiently manage each type of customer flow as per the programming or setting at the admin panel. Hence the businesses doesn’t have to appoint additional human resource to guide and help customers, in fact the queue management system can do the job. This not only make the customer journey hustle free but it also save a lot of resources to the business.
Reduce Employee Work Load and Improve Employee Performance
With the manual queuing the employees are always engaged and distracted with so many other things. They could easily deviate from their primary tasks, which cause delays and poor performance. The employee feel under pressure, they feel more workload and their performance decreases. With the queue management system in place, the employees don’t have to worry about managing the queues, or solving disputes between the customers or listening to their complaints, in fact they can completely focus on their primary tasks. This also reduce the workload of the employees they feel working under a balanced workload and the feel much lighter and comfortable which not only boost their performance but also increase their work quality which eventually results in happy and satisfied customers. Moreover the queue management system can also be integrated with other systems and central information center of the business which enables them to further assist the agents and server in task closing and preparation of the next gig. Which also reduce their workload and improve their performance and quality of work.
Collect Valuable Business Intelligence Data (Stats, KPIs, Feedback, etc.)
A queue management system is a digital system and is capable of capturing statistical and system usage data from each and every touch point of customer journey. Which allow the businesses to get a deeper insight to the customer experience and customer journey. It also provides them a window into customer’s mind, and help the management in understanding customer’s liking, disliking, there preferences and much more. The management can also utilize the business intelligence data form the queue management system to understand the market trends and also for product development. The queue management system not only collect stats and system usage data but it is very capable of collecting various KPIs, such as employee KPIs and other important matrices. The queue management system can accurately track and monitor employee performance. The business management can assess employee’s performance and they can learn about their strengths and weaknesses, their performance and they can even set notifications and alerts in case of poor performance. Which are very helpful in taking timely actions and improving employee performance.
The queue management system can also collect customer feedback and make the feedback process very simple and easier for the customers. Which results in increased turnover and high quality customer feedback data. With the ability to integrate it with other systems, tools and database the businesses can develop features to even manage the feedback by performing analysis and generating report and they can also use the queue management system to close the customer feedback loop, which not only eliminate the need of a separate customer feedback management system but also makes the process a lot easier and more convenient for the management and the relevant staff.
Queue Management System Increases Productivity and Profitability
A queue management system is not just a queuing system but it is a full-fledged branch transformation tool. It can help businesses at many fronts. It help them automate several business processes, boost employee performance and their quality of work. And a queue management system can collect and gather valuable business intelligence data which can be used by the businesses to track and monitor performance of various functions and employees and also help them make informed decisions. The Queue Management System is absolutely necessary tool for the modern businesses. It boost their productivity and capabilities to perform well. The automation and digitalization reduce the human resource and also eliminate the need of acquiring various other separate tools and systems which in itself is very cost-effective and reduce help businesses in managing the expenses.
Moreover the customer happiness and customer satisfaction help businesses retain the customers, and improve their brand image. A good brand image attracts more customers and also reduce the marketing and branding expense. All those direct and indirect impacts of a queue management system are very cost-efficient. A queue management system boost a business’s performance, productivity and profitability and ensures a long term growth.
Conclusion
Every business wants its customer to be happy, satisfied and loyal to them. Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE invest millions in systems and solutions to achieve this goal. However, keeping the cost low, obtaining maximum efficiency and productivity and at the same time ensuring your customers are happy and satisfied. But how a business can achieve this? This is a very difficult question but it has a very simple answer which is a Queue Management System. A queue management system not only manages customer flow and reduce customer wait time but it does a lot more than that. It help businesses understand the customer behavior, customer journey and the customer experience. A queue management system significantly reduce the customer wait time, it improves their waiting experience and at the same time it boost employee performance and increase overall productivity of the business. A queue management system in the long term is a great solution to achieve highest performance, unmatched productivity and great ROI by significant improvement in profitability and cost reduction.
RSI Concepts is a leading brand in queue management systems in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about eh subject or if you want our help to improve your customer experience and boost your performance, productivity andprofitability, feel free to let us know via 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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