May 2023 - RSI Concepts - Top IT Solution Provider Company in Dubai, UAE

May 31, 2023

How to improve customer flow management?

The customer flow management is always challenging, whether you are a small business or large enterprise, your customer facing offices and service centers have huge impact on your brand’s reputation and your business’s perception in the public. Poorly managed customer service center not only increase customer churn rate and make your customers unhappy but also harm your business’s reputation and overall brand image. The customer flow management is monitoring and dealing with customer queues across a customer facing environment. No matter if you are a small grocery store or a large-scale customer service center with tens of service counters, the biggest challenge is to maintain a smooth and continuous customer flow and ensure a satisfactory experience. When businesses start failing to deliver an optimum level of satisfaction and smooth customer journey will start losing customers rapidly. Especially in Dubai and anywhere in UAE where customers have a lot of options, it is easier and much convenient to switch rather waiting for your service provider to make improvements. That is why the customer flow management has a significant role in business’s success and growth.

What is Customer Flow Management?

The customer flow management is the management of customer journey for the businesses who offer in-store or in-branch services, where the customers have to come and visit the business to avail a service or to make a business transaction. The customer flow management includes everything from customer entering in the premises and till leaving the premises after a successful service delivery. It encompasses the entire customer journey and offering great service and interaction at each touch point. The customer flow management means improving the customer experience, minimizing the friction, monitoring customer flow and the entire journey, and ensuring your customers left happily. It also includes guiding your customers and visitors through each step, monitoring their behavior, and ensuring a quicker and smoother service delivery experience. All this requires a systematic and well-structured management framework which is nearly impossible to achieve with manual and traditional queue management practices. That is why a queue management system is the best companion to optimize the customer flow management and achieving the ultimate level of customer satisfaction.

What is a Queue Management System?

A queue management system, queuing system or customer flow management system all referred to a digital solution which help businesses streamline customer flow, improve management and organize the entire customer journey to achieve higher productivity and customer satisfaction. A queue management system is a software based solution with several integrated hardware components. The queue management system software engine is based on AI (artificial intelligence) and smart algorithms which help businesses to implement their queuing policy as well as help them monitor the customer journey and collecting valuable business intelligence data which is vital to improve strategies and relevant business processes. A traditional queue management system includes a server side software application with multiple dashboards for service agents, managers, head-office/senior management, and intuitive customer facing UIs (user interface). Typically a ticket dispensing device or interactive kiosk is used to dispense the tickets for the queue along with a customer calling system and digital signage screen which displays live queuing information and multimedia content. The more modern queue management systems can have a variety of hardware and software features such as virtual queuing and various peripherals to collect customer data and get user inputs.

How Queue Management System Improves Customer Flow Management?

Different businesses have different needs and different queuing policies. Every business offers multiple services, even businesses who belongs to same industry could have different priorities and different queuing strategies despite offering the same services. Hence the queue management system and the customer flow management could differ from case to case. However, there are some universal benefits of implementing a queue management system which help all types and sizes of businesses to improve their customer flow management and strengthen their administrative capabilities. Here are some key advantages of implementing a digital queue management system which help improving the customer flow management.

Queue Management System Reduce the Physical Waiting Lines

The customer flow management depends on how the physical waiting lines are constructed. The physical waiting lines should be constructed carefully to avoid overlapping, congestion or crowd formation in the waiting area, which disrupt the natural flow of customer and cause many problems.Furthermore the physical space and shape of the premises should be considered carefully while designing your queuing policy. Commonly any business in Dubai or anywhere in UAE offers multiple services in their customer service centers, some of the services have more customers than the others, the waiting areas or the available space is not always even and along with that the management should also consider the customers who might be navigating their way through the premises which could cause disturbance. Let say the counters with the longer queues should be allotted more space in front, and the rest of the traffic should be routed to avoid overlapping. Apart from that, the queue management system software itself can be a great support to avoid long waiting lines. All modern queue management systems allow virtual queues, which means even if a customer is signed-up for a waiting line, they are not required to stand in physical waiting line, and instead they can wait comfortably in the designated waiting areas. This help reducing the size of the physical queues and avoid congestion in the waiting areas.

Queue Management System Helps in Crowd Prevention

Offering customers a comfortable waiting environment can greatly improve their experience. But crowded waiting areas are always concerning for the customers. Think from a customer’s point of view, if you go to a bank branch and see full waiting areas, the first thing you will think about would be that it will take too long to get the service, this negative feeling can have a great impact on your overall experience. Furthermore most of the people who are in the waiting areas might want to go outside, which means they must guess if there are 10 more customers ahead of them, it might take 20 to 25 more minutes to their turn, in such cases the chances are customers might end up losing their position in the queue. Hence next time they will never do such thing. Therefore a proper communication is necessary. The modern queue management systems uses integrated SMS notification and alert system and keep sending messages to the customer and updating them about the queuing status and estimated time remaining to their turn. This gives confidence to customers and more customers enjoy their waiting time while doing something else of their interest which improves their waiting experience. The communication is not limited to SMS, even the queue management system smartphone applications, customer portals, WhatsApp and various other communication channels can be used to keep your customer informed. All these features help preventing crowd formation and reduce customer churn rate.

Queue Management System Improves Employee Performance

A digital queue management system is a very powerful tool, it not only offer several employee performance monitoring KPIs but it also help improving employee satisfaction and increase their productivity. A queue management system can take a lot of workload off of the employees with its incredible ability to digitalize and automate several processes and steps. Furthermore the queue management system has in-built smart algorithms and AI which enable it to capture and analyze data from each and every touch points, which enables it to evenly distribute the workload among all employees. It has capabilities to take decisions in real-time and balance the workload of the employees which increase employee satisfaction. Furthermore it offers a variety of tools which help employee in service delivery tasks, pre and post service tasks and provide them more control. The enhanced employee experience results in better service quality. The queue management system free employees from worrying about the line management and other such problems caused by unorganized and manually managed queues which increase their productivity and performance. Resultantly it significantly reduce the customer waiting time and improve service quality.

Queue Management System Reduces the Customer Wait Time

The queue management systems are proven to be highly effective in reducing the customer wait time and improving their waiting experience. It offer customers more freedom and control over their journey and at the same time it helps improving employee satisfaction and performance which results in significant reduction in customer waiting time. When the customers are not tethered to a physical waiting line, they are free to wait in the waiting area or enjoy their time outside, this has huge impact on the perceived wait time. When it comes to customer flow management, there are two time factors that businesses should consider, one is the actual wait time and the other is the perceived wait time. The actual wait time is the actual time that a customer must have to wait for. However, the perceived wait time is the wait time that the customers think in their minds. Think of a traffic congestion, when you are stuck in the traffic, your brain always tricks you in believing that your track is moving slower than the adjacent tracks, the same phenomenon is applicable here too. When customers are in physical waiting lines, or they are stuck in the waiting area they get bored and the sense of time is changed, in such conditions people think the time is moving slow or a lot of time has passed. The queue management system allow customers to wait freely even outside and provide them with regular updates and alerts, furthermore the customers who are sitting in the waiting areas can be engaged with regular and very frequent audio announcements, queuing information displayed on the signage along with the multimedia content. That is how a queue management system help reducing the actual wait time, perceived wait time and negative psychological impact of waiting which results in more satisfactory customer experience.

Queue Management System Collects Valuable Business Intelligence Data

A digital queue management system is capable of collecting a wealth of business intelligence data which help businesses monitor their queues, and allow them to analyze their current queuing policy. With the help of queuing data and other statistical data that is collected by a queue management system businesses can evaluate their processes and customer journey which help them highlighting the flaws and areas of improvement and give them a chance to improve their strategy and queuing policy. Businesses can continuously analyze this data and make regular tweaks to achieve the higher performance and efficiency. The queue management system also helps tracking the customer churn and provide valuable information which help management understanding the causes of customer churn. The queue management system also closely monitor employee performance and highlight the needs of training and help management in resource planning and for several HR decisions. Furthermore the queue management system provides insight to customer behavior and help businesses understand customer preferences which is important to align their processes with customers’ needs. A digital queue management system can also collect customer feedback directly from customers using multiple integrated communication channels and on-premises touch screens, tablet devices and interactive kiosks which further provide deeper insight to customer behavior, needs and problems and help businesses improve their processes and strategies which results in better customer flow management.

Conclusion

Businesses who offer in-store or in-branch services face many challenges in customer flow management. The optimization of customer flow and well-managed queues are crucial for customer satisfaction. Unhappy customers tend to switch service provider and also hurt brand’s reputation which could jeopardize the growth of the business. That is why businesses not only in Dubai but all around the UAE invest millions in customer experience. A digital queue management system is a perfect companion to eliminate customer flow management problems and to enhance the productivity, performance and efficiency of the customer service centers. Queue management systems are known for their ability to significantly reduce the customer waiting time, but that is not all, a digital queue management system help businesses implement their queuing policies, enhance customer experience, improve employee efficiency and collects valuable business intelligence data which help businesses to further improve their strategies, polices, and processes. In this blog we have discussed how a digital queue management system can help businesses in improving customer flow management and attaining higher customer satisfaction. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design and implement a customized queue management system for your business, 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.

Check out this: From Chaos to Control: How Queue Management Systems Can Improve Your Business

May 24, 2023

From Chaos to Control: How Queue Management Systems Can Improve Your Business

Every businesses knows how difficult it could get in customer facing environments, especially during the peak hours, when the footfall is high and the customer waiting areas and counters become crowded. Think from a customer’s prospective, if you are a customer you are at a service center, there is a huge crowd, it is even difficult to find a place to sit, and there is no help or guidance from the staff, how would you feel in a situation like that? It could get very frustrated, that is why businesses needs to take serious steps to prevent their customers form any such situation. It will not only make your customers unhappy, but it will result in loss of sales, increased customer churn rate, and less repeated business which could have some serious repercussions in the long term. Businesses adopt different ways according to their needs to improve the customer flow. However, a modern digital queue management system is the right solution to all those problems. It provides tools and features which help businesses in managing their queues, resolving problems, shortening customer journey, improving customer experience and much more.

What is a Queue Management System?

A queue management system is a digital solution which help businesses organize the waiting line, minimize the customer waiting time and improve branch efficiency and service quality. A queue management has two distinct part, one is the software which is usually a server application which provide a central management and administrative control over all connected branches. The queue management software various from case to case, but the most common and essential features are an administrative control panel, service agent dashboard, customer UI (user interface), ticket calling and announcement features and data collection and analysis tools. The hardware part includes a ticket dispensing unit, which is usually aninteractive self-service kiosk, there is a digital signage display which is used to display live queuing data, and a sound system to make audio announcements. Furthermore there are several other software and hardware components which can be included in the queue management system to enhance its capabilities and to offer innovative features.

How Queue Management System Help Turning Chaos into Control?

A queue management system offers a variety of features and digitalize several aspects of the customer journey which help organizing everything. Furthermore the customer behavior is not constant, it keep changing, a queue management system collects valuable business intelligence data and help businesses acquire deeper insight to customer behavior, market trends and help management align their efforts to maximize the customer satisfaction. Here are some key advantages of a queue management system which help businesses in turning chaos into control.

Advantages of Queue Management System: Organized Waiting Areas and Queues

The queue management system is a very capable tool, it helps organizing the waiting areas and customer waiting lines. It automates customer flow and customer journey which helps organizing the customer queues and solve several problems. In manual queuing customer have to face several issues, they got frustrated, most of the time customers and visitors don’t have a clue about their remaining waiting time. The queue management system help customers and issue them token numbers, which represents their position in the queues and allow them to wait comfortably in the designated areas. Furthermore the customer calling, customer routing and the entire customer flow is controlled by the smart algorithms of the queue management system software in real-time. Which significantly increase the customer flow and improve the customer journey. Since everything is managed by an automated program so the customers also don’t have any complains and everyone knows that their token number and position in the queue is secure and they will be served on their turn. These and several more such features allow businesses to organize the waiting areas and customer queues.

Advantages of Queue Management System: Reduce Customer Wait Time

Order and organized queuing environment save a lot of time. The customers are welcomed by interactive self-service kiosk, they are asked to choose which service they want, and in some cases the customers are also allowed to input data while issuing the token number. Everyone is served according to their positions in the queue. The queue management system balance the load of service counters based on various data inputs coming from different touch points in the system and the current service delivery rate. The smart algorithms can sense if one counter is having shorter queue, and they can automatically reroute a few customers to those counters, the queue management system also monitors employee performance, it can understand which employee is best at which service and on the bases of services required by the customer it can assign them a counter with high probability of quicker service delivery. There are tons of such features which help organizing the customer waiting areas and queues to shorten their wait time.

Advantages of Queue Management System: Improve Customer Experience

A queue management system plays a crucial role in improving customer experience at the branch. Without a queue management system the customers have to wait in long queues, which usually work on first come first serve bases. Furthermore there are line jumpers, poorly managed waiting lines and much more which can completely ruin their experience at the branch. A queue management system allow them a complete framework and eliminate several problems which results in more shorten and simplified customer journey. The queue management system also provide many features such as live queuing data at large signage displays, frequent audio announcements, multi-lingual intuitive UI for customers and much more which improves customer experience. The reduction in wait time have huge impact on customer happiness, when the customers will have to wait less and in a well-organized waiting environment, they remain calm and more supportive when they arrive at the service counter, it is easier for the service agent to satisfy a calm customer rather a frustrated, annoyed and unhappy customer. All such features greatly improve customer experience and results in higher customer satisfaction.

Advantages of Queue Management System: High Staff Productivity

A queue management system can offer a variety of features which can be used to improve staff productivity and performance. The staff satisfaction and morale plays crucial role in performance. When the staff work under a balanced workload they become happy and satisfied, happier they are better their service would be. A queue management system offers self-service ticket dispensing mechanism which reduce employee workload. It organize and manage all the customer flow from various stages of customer journey, even in case of stepped services or multi-counter service delivery the queue management system can manage the entire customer journey and customer flow. This means that the staff no longer have to worry about the problems occur in manual queuing, they are free to focus on most important tasks, they are never interrupted and they don’t have to stop their work for another task or to solve a problem. These features help reducing the workload of the staff and also results in better resource management. High staff productivity and performance help businesses improve the human resource strategy and results in better and improved branch operation with significantly less cost.

Advantages of Queue Management System: Central Administration and Control

The queue management system is a digital tool, majorly the server application is hosted at a local or online cloud server, which is linked with all branches, and therefore the data from all branches is updated in real-time at the main server. The head office can control and monitor any branch in real-time. Furthermore it also allow businesses to configure their work flows and processes according to their policies. The queue management system also features a smart alert and notification module, which can be configured to send alerts and notify the supervisors, branch managers or even the head-office when a certain event occurs, such as if the foot fall raised to a particular threshold value, or if the open ticket reaches to a threshold value and so on. These alerts and notifications are completely customizable and enable management to take actions and steps in a timely manner. This provide more control over the branch and the queuing and it also enhance their administrative capabilities which results in much better and well-organized operations.

Advantages of Queue Management System: Collect Valuable Business Intelligence Data

The modern businesses heavily rely on IT solutions and digital technology. For IT industry, software, digital solutions and communication, the data is the most valuable thing. The business intelligence data is the analytical data and insight acquired from a particular system or digital solution. A queue management system software is a very powerful AI based tool. Which is capable of collecting the most valuable business intelligence data.This data can help businesses and organizations in decision making process, identifying and solving various problems and improving their strategy. A queue management collects business intelligence data such as customer interaction at each touch point, employee performance data, customer preferences and several other behavioral insight. The business intelligence data help businesses take informed and timely decisions. It help them improve employee performance and support the HR in many tasks. The queue management system data also help understanding customer behavior, customer trends, their needs, expectations and market trends which provide a valuable insight and help businesses update their strategies and processes. It highlights several flaws and improve management.

Conclusion

The businesses in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and all around the UAE spend millions on customer satisfaction solutions. The customer satisfaction is crucial for any business but in competitive markets like of UAE, the customer satisfaction become more significant. In UAE the customers are more sensitive, sensible, and savvy and demanding, above all they have a lot of options available. One bad experience could repel them form your business and they will end up with a competitor. That is why the crowd and poorly organized queues are a nightmare of every customer facing environment. Businesses need to be more active and attentive when they make policies and strategies for their customer facing environments, such as customer service centers, branches, and service areas. A queue management system is a modern and advanced software solution to deal with all types of problems associated with customer experience and staff performance. In this blog we have discussed how a good queue management system can turn chaos into control. We have listed several advantages of implementing a queue management system at your customer facing environments. If you want to learn more about the subject of if you want our help to design and implement a highly cost-effective and customized queue management system for your business, 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.

Check out this: Why You Need a Customer Flow Management Software?

May 23, 2023May 23, 2023

Why You Need a Customer Flow Management Software?

Every customer facing environment have difficulties in dealing with the customer flow and increased footfall. Businesses adopt several strategies to ensure the customer have a great experience and quicker service delivery. What every business should know about customer flow is that it is not only about implementing a ticketing system, in fact it is a far more complex phenomenon. Businesses will have to have a monitoring mechanism in place which provides customer behavioral data and insight to help them understand the effectiveness of their current strategy and process. A simple ticketing system might solve some major problems of queuing and customer flow management, however it won’t provide any data or offer more control over the queuing process. First come first serve is not enough in modern customer service centers in Dubai and anywhere else in UAE. Businesses offer multiple services, they have multiple service counters, some also offer stepped-services and there are tons of other aspects which could impact the customer flow and customer experience.

In such situation a smart software with AI (artificial intelligence) based algorithms and superior data collection tools can help businesses in effectively implementing their queuing strategy and help collecting data from customer touch points. A customer flow management software is a very effective tool to improve customer journey and customer experience. In this blog we will discuss why businesses need a customer flow management software?

What is Customer Flow Management Software?

A customer flow management software a software application which is designed to help improving customer flow, avoiding crowd at branch, reducing customer wait time and enhancing customer experience. The customer flow management software is a centralized application, which means all your connected branches can be managed and monitored form a central management control panel. All the branches are linked via a server and all the data is relayed to the main control panel and central database in real-time. These features not only improve business’s management capabilities but also enable them to respond to different situations very quickly. Furthermore there are several hardware components that are connected with the customer flow management software, such as ticket dispensing unit, digital signage displays, counter plates, and audio announcement system. These tools help businesses improve the efficiency of their branch and customer experience which is essential for success and growth.

The modern customer flow management systems comes with a variety of other hardware and software based tools, such as Emirates ID scanner, RFID, Barcode/QR Code Reader, integration with email, SMS, WhatsApp, customer feedback and much more. All these features help businesses offer innovative solution to their customers and ensure maximum efficiency at customer flow and a superior customer experience. In this blog we will discuss why a business needs a customer flow management software.

Advantages of Customer Flow Management System

There are several advantages of customer flow management system for both businesses and customers. One of the greatest advantage of using a customer flow management system is that it is customizable and allow businesses to utilize it as per their needs, for example, a hospital/clinic would have a different customer flow policy comparing to a telecom customer service center or banks. Similarly every business have different needs, hence every business can take full advantage of its innovative and customizable features.Here are some key advantages which make customer flow management software an essential tool for the digital transformation and customer satisfaction.

Advantages of Customer Flow Management System: Digitalization and Automation

The customer flow management system help in branch transformation and digitalization of services. The digitalization and automation help improving efficiency and the entire queuing process. With manual customer flow management there are several problems, disputes among the customers waiting in long slow-moving queues and the staff and even with other customers and visitors are a common sight, especially during peak hours. Furthermore it is difficult for customers and visitors to select the right queue as per their needs, people end up in wrong queues more often which cause more issues. The customer complaints are also very high in manual customer flow management methods. However, with the customer flow management software all these and several other inherent problems of manual queuing can be eliminated. The customer flow become more organized, smooth and automated which reduce customer waiting time and also improve staff efficiency.

Advantages of Customer Flow Management System: Reduced Customer Wait Time

The customer wait time plays crucial role in customer satisfaction, longer wait time less customer satisfaction and vice versa. The customer flow management software helps reducing the customer wait time. There are two aspects of customer wait time, one is the actual wait time and the other is the perceived wait time. The perceived wait time is a psychological phenomenon. Think of a slow moving traffic on a multi-lane high-way. We often think that our track is moving slower than the next one, but when we change track and more to the next track it seems like this one is even slower. All this is due to our brains perception. Similarly when we are in queue at a customer service center, we often think our line is moving slower than the next one, this cause line-jumping in manual queuing management. However, with the customer flow management software everyone knows that the customer calling, their position in the waiting line and everything is controlled by a computer, hence no-one can complain of favoritism, or any other discrimination. Furthermore the digital signage display, frequent audio announcements and other features kept the customer busy and engaged which reduce their sense of wait time and help minimizing both perceived and actual wait time.

Advantages of Customer Flow Management System: Improved Service Quality

When a customer flow management system is deployed, the service agents have more balanced workload, the wait time is reduced significantly, and the customers tend to be more happy and satisfied. This is due to many reasons, for example, when the customer flow management system is deployed it automates several steps of the customer journey which results in less wait time, the automation also lifts off a lot of workload from the staff which improve their performance. When the service agents work under a balanced workload, their performance get improved. The service agents doesn’t have to worry about the queues, customer complaints or such tasks, which allow them to fully focus on their primary tasks and results in better employee performance. When the employees have balanced workload and they can focus on important things, their quality of work also get improved. Which means the service quality is improved. Furthermore, as the customers also have to wait for a moderated period of time, they are also not unhappy when reaching to the service counter, this help service agents quickly connect with the customers and improves communication and results in better quality service and more customer satisfaction.

Advantages of Customer Flow Management System: Offer Virtual Queuing

All modern customer flow management software are equipped with virtual queuing features. The virtual queuing is not a new concept, however, it gained popularity in past few years, and now a days more and more businesses are adopting virtual queuing to enhance their customer experience. The virtual queuing allow customers to interact with the customer flow management software using various digital or remote channels such as smartphone applications, online customer portals, websites, SMS, WhatsApp, email, QR Code and online appointment booking tools. All these features offer convenience and easy access to customers and allow them to sign-up remotely for the queue. They can sign-up for the queue without even being present at the branch or in the physical waiting line. This offer them more freedom and control over their visit, and on top of that the customers can receive real-time updates, alerts and notification from any preferred channel. This allow them to plan their visit in a way that they can arrive at the same time when their ticket is called. Hence there is literally no wait time. That is why the virtual queuing features can significantly improve the customer flow and also reduce the workload of the branch. Businesses can save a lot by reducing and effectively managing human resource and branch operation.

Advantages of Customer Flow Management System: Collect Business Intelligence Data

One of the great advantage of a customer flow management software is that it can collect highly valuable business intelligence data. It can capture statistical and analytical data from each and every touch-point during the customer journey, it can monitor customer behavioral data, preferences and even employee performance data. All that can be very helpful in decision making process and help management making informed decisions. The employee performance KPIs and other data can be relayed to the HR department which help them improving their training programs and taking other important HR decisions. Businesses can also collect direct customer feedback from the customer flow management software, as it can be integrated with customer feedback tools as well as any CRM software. This help businesses to conduct several customer feedback management campaigns and do research to improve their future strategies and plans. The customer flow management software is a central application which means that it provide real-time updates to the branch managers, head-office and key stakeholders and avoid any delay in important decisions. The business intelligence data not only help businesses improve their strategies, but it also help them identify the flaws and problems and enable them to solve them without harming customer experience which makes it very important for long-term success and growth.

Conclusion

For any customer facing environment the customer flow management is the biggest concern of the businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE. The market is very competitive, the customers are more demanding and the industry standards are very high, in such scenarios it is extremely important to take all necessary measures to ensure customer satisfaction. The customer satisfaction depends on their experience in the branch, if they had a great experience they will definitely be satisfied. But it is extremely difficult to ensure customer happiness, especially during peak hours. The customer flow management software is the best solution to all those problems. It help businesses enhance customer experience and maximize the customer satisfaction. It help them improve employee efficiency, and also a great way for digital transformation. The digitalization and automation greatly help improving the operations of the business and help them effectively utilizing human resource and minimizing the operational cost. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to implement a customized customer flow management software for your business, please feel free to leave a comment in the comment box below or contact us through our Contact Us page and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: Features of a Best KPI System for HR

May 22, 2023

Features of a Best KPI System for HR

The HR operation and their responsibilities are continuously increasing day by day. The evolution of the HR industry was relatively slower but since last two decades and especially the last eight to ten years have rapidly transformed the HR industry. This also created a lot of opportunity to introduce technological solutions to meet the modern day demands and expectations. The HR department in every business or organization is a key player in the success. It is their responsibility to hire right staff, maintain their motivation and growth, and keep improving their performance and skills to enable them to deal with the challenges of future. For that the HR department implement various strategies and methodologies, sometimes the technology is also deployed to enhance the impact and capabilities of the HR department. Here in Dubai or anywhere else in UAE the markets are very competitive, the job opportunities are in abundance and it is very difficult to keep employees engaged and motivated to achieve higher performance and to reduce the employee turnover rate.

In this blog we will discuss the KPI System and what features or tools you must have in KPI system to make it most impactful for your HR department and for your overall organizational performance.

What is a KPI System?

The KPI stands for Key Performance Indicators. By definition the KPI system is a system devised to monitor, measure and track performance in form of a measurable and quantifiable metricsfor a specific objective over a pre-defined period of time. The KPI system provide targets and set goals for individual employees and teams, it provide milestones to track progress and it also provides valuable performance insight data. The UAE is a very competitive market where the market trends and customer demands are always changing, in fact an ordinary customer in the country is more tech savvy than anywhere else in this region, which means the businesses will have to ensure great service, quality products and satisfactory customer experience. Regardless of your business type, whether you are a B2B or a B2C business or you an entirely online-based business, the customer satisfaction is a key to success. That can only be achieved when businesses utilize their resources at maximum potential and achieve highest efficiency and productivity. That is what makes KPI system so crucial and necessary for any business.

What is Performance Management and what is the Role of KPI in it?

Every business or organization have a long term vision, under the directive of that vision businesses set their goals, and as per high-level organization goal, managers set goals and strategic objective at individual, team and even department levels. In order to achieve the goals all objectives and milestones should be achieved and to do so managers make plans device strategies and assign tasks to maximize the outcome of whatever human and non-human assets they have in hand. But how one can ensure the optimum level of efficiency and productivity is met in order to achieve the goals from individual level to all the way up to organizational level. The performance management is the answer to all those questions. A performance management system is a complete framework based on technology solution and methodologies which measures and monitors performance of the employees in a regular and measurable manner. The performance management sets expectations, assigns goals, help improving various business processes and communication and it also help identifying flaws and road-blocks preventing your employees from performing well.

However, the KPI or key performance indicator is a tool which measures the actual performance and without it neither manager nor the employees can understand if the performance goals are met or not and if the progress is in right direction or not. The KPIs provide a scale to measure the actual efforts of the employees and assess the outcome they produced during a certain period of time. The goals are relatively broader outcomes, it is the KPIs which provide a comprehensive framework to measure the performance and progress in quantifiable manner. For example, if an organization have a goal to improve its finance, then they must have to focus on new sales and recovery of pending payments. Traditionally these two are handled by two different departmentshence two different KPIs will be assigned to teams to ensure the broader outcome achieve your goals. The KPIs can also be modified or completely changed during the performance cycle to ensure the high-level organization goal is achieved. That is what makes KPIs essential for performance management.

Features of a Best KPI System to Strengthen your HR Department

When it comes to the features of a KPI System, there are two different aspects, one is the features based on the capabilities of the KPI system which means what it can monitor and measure and the other is the technical aspects, such as the technology used to develop the system, the system implementation methods, and other such specs.

Features of a Best KPI System: Functionalities

From the functionality stand point, the most important is what a KPI System can measure and how user-friendly it is. This will determine the impact and usefulness of the KPI System. Here are the core functionalities that make a KPI System best fit for modern businesses:

Absenteeism or Employee Engagement:The absenteeism rate is a great indicator for employee engagement, it is measured as the percentage of the total working days of the entire staff/workforce. If it is higher than the all-time high then you must investigate to find and rectify the problem.
Productivity:The employee productivity or effectiveness is a very sophisticated and a multi-dimensional concept. Usually it measures the number of sales and number of saleable products produced by the employee, but it includes several other factors such as availability, quality, employee working time, the number of delivered product, etc.
Employee Satisfaction:The employee satisfaction is usually associated to salary and financial benefits, however, that is not all. The organizational environment, work-life balance, flexible working model, and corporate culture, etc. have a vital role in employee satisfaction. The NPS (net promoter score) feedback is a great measure of the employee satisfaction.
Employee Turnover Rate:Another great metric to measure the success of your retention efforts is to measure employee turnover rate. The low turnover rate is always good and it shows employee satisfaction and success of your employee retention efforts. It also help HR to plan for talent replacement.
Training Cost: The employee training cost is a great measure of understanding how much you have spent on onboarding, training and upgrading the skillset/knowledge of your employees. A short knowledge test could help you evaluating the training program which is very helpful to make employee development strategies for future and making other smart decisions.
Workload/Overtime: The overtime hours will always be very helpful in understanding the workload of your employees. The overtime or workload metrics will tell you the effectiveness of your operations, process and even resources and it will also help you preventing and rectifying the impact of permanent long work hours, as it is bad for motivation, morale and productivity.
Hiring Cost: The hiring cost or cost per hire is a very important HR metric and it measures the amount of resources you have invested in finding the best fit for your each need. The hiring cost includes everything from advertising and onboarding cost to the time spend by other stakeholders in hiring the new employee. Higher hiring cost always indicates problems.
Employee Rating: The employee rating or talent rating is a very important KPI for the HR department, it will help evaluating the employee quality and help HR department to highlight flaws in their recruitment processes and mechanisms. The individual employee evaluation, rating and quality will also help you identify the deficiencies in your workforce.
Turnover Rate by Employee Group:The turnover rate by employee group is a very simple and straightforward KPI. It tells if any particular group of your workforce is unhappy and it measures the voluntary leave in percentage. For example, people from the IT departments, or people belongs to a particular age group, etc. have high turnover rate.
Employee Dismissal: The employee turnover rate can have multiple factors, such as resignation, expiry of contract, retirement, resignation, and several other factors. It will help you identify different aspects of employee turnover and if the employee dismissal is due to in capacity of full filling their job then the recruitment process should be improved to avoid such incidents.

These are some of the most important and essential features of a KPI System. Obviously these features and KPIs are not limited to the above list, but if a system have all above mentioned features then you can confidently say it would be very helpful in achieving your HR goals and objectives.

Features of a Best KPI System: Technical Specifications

A good KPI System must have sufficient technological advantage to ensure your success. There are several factors that you should consider while developing or selecting a KPI System. Here are the most important technical specification which makes a KPI System the best for your business.

User-Friendly UI: The user interface or UI is one of the most important aspect of any software solution. The KPI System must be design in a way that it meets all the needs of the user and offer them a simplified information structure and functionalities which makes it easier for them to perform required task within the KPI System such as setting up goals, objectives, KPIs, communication, data collection and compilation, analysis and reporting, etc.
Easy Accessibility: Another great feature to have in your KPI System is the easy accessibility, it should be accessible from both mobile and regular computers and it should also have capabilities to facilitate off-campus employees. Most of the time the employees who are working off-campus are unable to have access to various HR services, which is why it is important to provide them access even if they are working in remote locations.
Multiple Data Collection Modes: For any KPI System or performance management system the key is to enable multiple data collection modes, it should be able to log all the meetings and their discussions and conclusions, the automatic data collection should be enabled and it should also allow manual data upload/entry features to ensure maximum data can be collected. More data means more accuracy, multiple data collection modes help improving the accuracy.
Third-Part System Integration: The third-party system integration is an important feature for any corporate tool. The modern businesses and organizations are developed on a centralized information management system and allow data flow between multiple systems. The KPI System should be able to integrate with other business tools, software and system via APIs and enable a bi-directional data flow which will maximize the efficiency and it will help improving various performance management processes.
Customization & Scaling: The markets in Dubai and all around the UAE are very competitive hence businesses need to gain advantage over their competitors. The best way is to opt for custom software development instead of going for a commercial off-the-shelf software which most probable your competitors might be using too. The customization allow businesses to focus on their main areas of interest and avoid unwanted complexity in the system. The scalability allow businesses to further improve the capabilities of their software over the time and scale it up as per their needs.
KPI System Deployment: That is a bit more technical rather functional aspect, but it is very important. Businesses and customers are very cautious about their data and any data breach could greatly harm a business by jeopardizing its operations and compromising its reputation. Hence it is important that the KPI System you are implementing should match your IT team’s security requirements and deployment protocols. A good KPI System should be able to deploy in in-premises data centers, online hosting, or cloud as per the needs of the customer. The data protection and security features should be in place to assure privacy and protection.
Cost & Maintenance: The cost is surely one of the most important aspect of any project, it is important that the deployment, operational and maintenance cost of the system is according to your budget. Furthermore the customized solutions are more superior in terms of offering higher ROI, minimizing the maintenance and operational cost. As the custom KPI System will be exclusively developed for the business hence the ownership rights belongs to the user. It means there would be no monthly or annual fees, and there would be no hefty price tags with the customization, upgrades and scaling up the software solution.

Here I have mentioned some important technical specs and features which you should consider while choosing a right KPI Software solution for your business needs.

Conclusion

The markets in Dubai and all around the UAE are very competitive and the competition is rising day by day. The market is very attractive for new investors and global players in several industries. In such environment if you want your business to thrive and grow you must have to increase your competitive advantage. Your workforce is not only the backbone of your business or organization but it can also help you gaining a great competitive advantage. The prime responsibility of the HR department is to ensure that you always have the right skillset which is needed to complete your next project. In order to achieve this goal, the HR department implement several methodologies, fool proof recruitment strategies and what not. The KPI System is one of the most important tool for the HR Department. It not only help them perform several of their routine tasks, but it also help them evaluate their strategies and processes. The performance management is a key to long term and sustainable success.

The KPI System help HR to improve the impact and scope of their performance management strategy and help them achieving the success which surely translates to the overall success of the entire business. In this blog we have discussed what a KPI System is and what features can make it the best KPI System for your business. If you still have doubts, you can contact us through the comment box below and if you want us to help you design and implement a customized KPI System as per your business needs, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page and someone will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: Which Software Development Trends Yield Success in 2023?

May 19, 2023

A Complete Guide to Responsive Web Development in 2023

Whether you are a small or large business, whether you have offline operation or a fully online business, the websites have huge impact on your marketing, sales and brand image. In Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah or anywhere in UAE the internet is widely available, in fact the 99% of the population of the country have access to the internet and almost same use mobile phones. According to several large-scale studies, the usage of internet and usage of mobile phone have become a part of our daily lives. Whether it is for business purposes or for personal use, the internet and mobile phone are very common. In fact studies have suggested that on an average a UAE residence can spend several hours on internet and on their smartphones. No one can deny the importance and impact of social media on a business. The modern day websites have evolved a lot, starting from merely a digital/online brochure, the websites have become a very powerful marketing and communication tool. The usage of social media is increasing day by day, the online presence of brands has such a huge impact that businesses are investing a huge chunk of their hard-earned profit on digital marketing campaigns.

With the passage of time the digital marketing have surpassed the traditional marketing industry. The internet connectivity and easy access of smartphone have completely changed our lives. On an average a UAE residence spends hours on social media on daily bases to connect with friends and family and for entertainment purposes. This is what made digital marketing so important. Your corporate website is considered to be the center point of all your digital efforts, whether you run advertisement on social media, Google or any other digital platform, the final goal is to bring visitors to your website, which is the ultimate conversion tool of the digital world, and this is what made your corporate website so important for all your digital efforts. Now a days when someone has to buy a product of if someone needs a service, whether it is a B2B or B2C business, most of the people tend to look it up in the internet. That is why your corporate website can become a high-revenue generating tool. In this blog we will discuss why a responsive website is crucial for a modern day business and what factors you should consider during your next responsive web development project.

What is Responsive Web Development?

Technically the responsive web development is defined as a website which contains multiple layouts in a single web instance. This may sound a bit complex, but it isn’t. In simple words, a responsive website is a web design which have ability to sense the screen size, platform and even browser from where it is being accessed, and then rearrange its components, design elements, and complete UI according to that to offer excellent user experience. That is why multiple layouts are programmed in a single website. The responsive web development has become very advanced, now a days, you don’t even have to build several layouts, in fact the programming have become so smart that it can handle a lot of things at its own. However, there are several popular framework which are used to develop responsive web designs. The most popular responsive web development framework is Boostrap, however there are several other alternates such as Tailwind CSS, Bulma, Materialize, Foundation, Pure CSS, Skeleton, PowertoCSS, Element, Metro UI, etc. All these framework are suitable for different kind of responsive GUI (graphic user interface). However, the Bootstrap is the most popular and have tons of online support, so it is better to use this framework for responsive web development.

What is the Difference between Adaptive and Responsive Web Development?

The responsive web development is the most trending and modern approach to develop fluid web design which can re-order and rearrange itself according to the user viewport, the screen size and orientation. The frontend developers only need to be careful with the CSS and some programing tactics can achieve the goal. That is why for 99% of the responsive web development, the web developer utilize a framework and build their website on it. However, the adaptive web development is a very old technique, in fact it was the very first method to make traditional/desktop websites compatible with mobile screens. In adoptive web development method, the website designers built several different website layouts, unlike responsive where only a single layout is designed. Usually in adaptive web development there are six most common layouts which are designed for very small screens starting from 320px to very large 1600pxand a few standard sizes in between, 480px, 760px, 960px, and 1200px. All six could follow the same theme or all six could made entirely different form each other. The responsive web development requires only single codebase, however, for the adoptive web development the web developer will have to build all six totally separate websites, that is why the adaptive web development failed and responsive web development have become the new industry standard.

Key Components of Responsive Web Development

Now the question is how the responsive web designs are made? Well! A web browser is basically a complier which executes certain source codes and generates output in the form of a website. It is also connected to the backend/server of the website which make our interaction possible with the websites and web applications. An ordinary web browser like Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox and Opera, etc. can execute CSS, HTML and JavaScript (relevant to web development). When it comes to responsive web development, there are three key components that make a website responsive. Without these three components the optimum user experience in all compatible viewports is not possible.

1.Media Queries

CSS or Cascading Style Sheet is a web development programing language which is considered to be the industry standard for the modern websites. The media queries are basically applying different filters or conditions to the CSS code which enables a web design to respond to the platform, browser, screen size and even device orientation. The media queries are used to create different layouts using a single content block on the web page. A media query allow the design to follow a simple rule based on the minimum or maximum value of the screen rather than a numeric value which enables the content block to resize and even rearrange itself according to the screen size, orientation of the device, browser and resolution.

2. Flexible Visuals

This is a technique to create adaptive images using effective pixel (epx) technique which enable the web design to resize images according to the perceived screen size. This is important to manage different screen sizes and resolutions while using a single codebase. Usually the design elements are created using relative unit, such as 4 epx which is easier to scale to a whole number. Furthermore the fluid girds technique is applied to execute the flexible visuals or effective pixel layout technique. Without fluid grid implementation the flexible visuals don’t work. The adaptive visuals or flexible visuals allow an image to scale up to 100% of the size of its container.

3. Fluid Grids

Fluid Grids is a modern technique to align the elements of the designs with the screen size and resolution. The fluid grids are created using smart codes and algorithms, usually the screen is divided into smaller and equally sized columns and then all the design elements/content is placed in those columns with the aim to achieve 100% width which includes the content block, visuals or images, padding in and around the element to match the 100% width of the grid. That is why such web designs are also called liquid design and all elements are assigned relative sizes, usually in percentage to and the algorithms enable them to respond to the size of the view port or the width of the screen. All elements are created with proportional height and width which enables the layout to adopt the available space while keeping the design intact.

Best Practices of Responsive Web Development

A responsive web development is a crucial and important project for a business. It is not just the mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, PDA, etc. that you should prioritize, in fact both the desktop/laptop layout and the mobile devices layouts are equally important for the success. This might seem confusing or sophisticated, but it isn’t. Here are best practices for responsive web development.

Mobile First Approach: The mobile first approach is gaining huge popularity among businesses since the beginning of 2023 in Dubai and everywhere else in UAE. The main reason why mobile first approach is so popular is because it prevent several user experience related problems, designing for the smaller screens and then scaling it up ensures a smooth user experience and ensure a great user-friendly UI (user interface) at all screen sizes.
Touchscreen Compatibility: The user interaction and user experience is greatly different when the user interacts with mouse and keyboard comparing to when user interacts with their thumbs or fingers on a smaller touch screen. That is why this technique is used, it allow the web developer to add features such as adequate space for swipe/scroll, touchable buttons, widely-spaced links, intuitive menu and user-friendly navigational structure for the mobile device user.
Prioritizing Design Elements: The responsive web development enable the designer to prioritize different design elements for different screen sizes and layouts. The designer can choose what should be displayed on the smaller layouts and what shouldn’t. It is important to avoid putting such elements on small screens which doesn’t have much significance from the design/aesthetic or functionality point of view. It also improves user experience and make design more intuitive.
Implement Design Patterns: There are four most popular used design patterns, mostly fluid, column drop, layout shifter, and off-canvas. Such design patterns usually use breakpoints to adapt different screen sizes. A different CSS code can be applied to each breakpoint by using media query which optimizes the layout for user viewport. It is ideal method to transit from wider to screens to smaller screens such as design transition from 4 to 2 column, etc.
Accessibility: The accessibility is very important for responsive web development. It revolves around four principles, perceivable, operable, robust and understandable. Your website content should support screen-readers and other assistive technologies. The contrast and the font size should make the text more clear and readable. It should support voice-to-text inputs, and all functionality should be highly visible. The page-speed shouldn’t effected by these features.

If you follow the above mentioned best practices of responsive web development you can build a highly user-friendly website for your customers and targeted audience.

Why it is Important to Develop a Responsive Website for your Business?

Every business wants to reach out to maximum audience, if you know your most of the audience is using a particular communication channel, will you ever miss it out? Never, the responsive website is the same case. As the internet usage and web traffic from mobile devices is increasing day by day, the chances are most of your targeted audience and precious customers might be using smartphone or tablets as their first priority device to access to the internet. If you are running digital marketing campaigns then chances are most of the visits driven from social media platforms would be from smartphones and tablet devices. This is what makes responsive web development so important for a business. However, here are some key advantages of responsive web development:

Instead of designing different layout for different screen sizes/platforms you can have one responsive website which is compatible with all targeted platforms and mobile devices and since the responsive websites uses only one codebase, the development time and cost is low.
The modern day users expect businesses to offer a consistent user experience across all channels which is easy to achieve with responsive web development. Responsive web development also improves branding and are much more cost effective than adoptive web development.
The SEO or search engine optimization is one of the most important factor in any website’s success. People tend to search for products, services or brands in Google, and the responsive web development aligns with the SEO standards of Google and help you drive more traffic from search.
The responsive web development usually uses a CMS which allows you to easily manage the content and media on your website. It also help you make changes quickly and doesn’t require making changes on all different layouts separately, which also makes management a lot easier.
The responsive web designs are more accessible. The users can easily connect with your business from your website. For example, they can instantly use location maps, contact you via WhatsApp with one click or make call to your number by one tap from their phones and much more.
Most of the users have their social media, WhatsApp and other apps on their smartphone, a responsive web design allow them to easily share links of your website on their social media or with their friends and family using other installed applications on their phone.
You can also create a separate mobile segment to collect the analytical data of your mobile users and to monitor their behavior on your mobile layouts. This is very important from strategic point of view and can help businesses greatly in improving user experience and user journey.

These are some of the main advantages of responsive web development. For different industries the importance might be even higher, but one thing is sure that for any present day business who wants to build a website it is must to have a responsive web design.

Conclusion

A corporate website is crucial for business’s success in the modern day and age. Studies have revealed that most of the people tend to search online for products, services and even for brand if they need anything. Your website could be your first interaction with a possible customer. It can greatly build or ruin your brand image. Hence it is important that you have an up-to-the-mark website with all modern day’s features and ingredients to ensure a satisfactory interaction and digital experience for your customers and targeted audience. Your website will provide you to reach out to the unexplored territories and access to the wider range of audiences from all over the world. This blog is designed to provide all basic and necessary information about responsive web development. I have tried my level best to keep it simple and easy-to-understand by using less technical terminologies and simpler explanations. This guide will help you understand the subject, if you still have any doubts or questions you are welcome to drop a comment in the comment box below or if you want us to build a highly appealing responsive website for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page and we will get back to you soon.

Check out this: Which Software Development Trends Yield Success in 2023?

May 5, 2023

Which Software Development Trends Yield Success in 2023?

The modern day businesses are heavily relying on technology, whether you are a small local business or a large multinational enterprise, whether you are government office or a non-profit organization, in today’s world any kind of business or organization must utilize some kind of digital or technological solution to operate properly. In some businesses and industry sectors the technology is more deep rooted than the others, but the role of technology is important in any type or size of business or organization. The businesses and organizations who utilize technology must know the importance of software development. Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE have proven to be most tech savvy markets anywhere in the Middle East. The software development industry is also booming, in fact the UAE is serving as the head office for the entire MENA region for many international technology and IT brands.The IT and digital industry is very advanced and with several futuristic initiatives the federal and local governments are pioneering a new era in the region. This also means that the local software development industry is also highly advanced and technology is deeply integrated in the local businesses.

There are two distinct types or classes of software development approaches, one is customized or bespoke software development solution and the other is commercial off-the-shelf software solution or COTS. Each software development method have its own merits and demerits, however, the customized software development is becoming more popular since past few years. More and more businesses are preferring custom software development over the COTS solutions. The custom software development provide more control, flexibility and exclusivity over the application and offer great value. When a business leader or manager decides to implement a new software solution to boost their organization’s productivity or to deal with a serious problem, the biggest question they face is how to ensure the software solution will meet their full requirements and how they can ensure an excellent ROI of the project. Just think of your smartphone, whether you are an Android or an iPhone user, you must be aware of frequent software updates, in fact most of the companies advertise software as the main feature in their sales pitch.

The catch here is that the lifecycle of a software could be pretty short, that is why when a business decides to acquire a new software application or have custom software development project they are concerned about the lifecycle of the software as well. In order to ensure a software will remain usable, effective and relevant for a long period of time, the business must ensure they are following the top software development trends. In this blog we will enlist the top software development trends that can ensure the success in 2023 and beyond.

Top Software Development Trends: The Rise of AI (Artificial Intelligence)

Whoever is living in Dubai or anywhere in UAE and somehow attached to information technology must have heard of ChatGPT. The ChatGPT is a remarkable AI (artificial intelligence) based tool, a few months ago when the ChatGPT 3.0 was introduced to general public, it immediately took off like a storm, whether it is social media, print media or cable networks, everyone have mentioned it one way or another. Now a days’ the ChatGPT 4.0 is also available, and it is a remarkable tool, it gives a common man the first glimpse of the extraordinary potential of artificial intelligence technology. The tech enthusiast and the professional software developers were already familiar with the AI and machine learning technologies. Recently the Government of Dubai have also announced plan to incorporate ChatGPT or similar AI tool in government services to enhance the customer experience. It is due to the endless potential and innovation of the AI that it is gaining such popularity and acceptance all around the world. Since past few years the top software development agencies in Dubai have started exploring the way to integrate AI tools to improve the efficiency and efficacy of their customized software solutions.

The market seems to be very welcoming for the artificial intelligence and AI based tools. That is why this trend is most likely to stay for several coming years, and I personally believe that it will be so common in near future that it will become an industry standard for the custom software development and several other industries. Majorly the AI can be used to improve automation, productivity and user experience. These are the most crucial aspects for the success of any software and the business too. Every business wants to automate routine tasks to save human resources and to minimize the cost, the AI will also help improving the productivity and performance across all verticals which is also extremely important for any business’s success. The IT experts and software developers are already familiar with the potential of the AI but now even a layman is getting exposure to AI and realizing its benefits and potential. That is the reason we are anticipating that the artificial intelligence, machine learning and smart software development will going to play even a larger role in the future in software development sector. That is why this is one of the most important trend to consider for your next custom software development project.

Top Software Development Trends: Cloud Computing

The cloud computing is still one of the top trend for the software development. We have been covering this topic for many years now and I can confidently say that the cloud computing will remain one of the top trend for the rest of 2023 and for many more coming years. In this modern day and age there is not even a single industry or market sector which is not leveraging the cloud computing technology. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the most popular trend is the hybrid and multi-cloud solutions but a vast majority of the businesses are using cloud computing to strengthen their IT infrastructure. The cloud computing have completely transformed the way software are designed, developed, implemented and managed. The cloud computing is much more cost efficient comparing to traditional datacenters, it is highly scalable, offer more flexible control and also considered to be more secure. The cloud computing offered unmatched advantages, it is much easier to scale and customize, and it offers higher availability which is essential for a better customer experience. Businesses also optimize their operational cost by adopting cloud computing based software development approach.

Top Software Development Trends: The Digital Immunity or Immune System

The digital immune system is not a new concept, in fact it was first introduced in the early 90s when the internet was still in its infancy. Even at those times when the internet was not as that fast, the software and operating systems were extremely simple, the cyber security have emerged as a serious concerns for businesses and enterprises. Mr. David M. Chess was a leading researcher at IBM who first introduced the concept of digital immune system in 1991. The system was a solution to protecting technological and digital systems against the cyber-attacks and cyber pirate threats. However, now a days, your smartphone is more powerful computing machine than the most advanced computers of that time. The technology have become so complex, sophisticated and enormous which makes it more difficult to deal with cyber threats. Now a days the internet pirates and cyber-criminals have more high-tech tools and means to orchestrate highly sophisticated and comprehensive attacks on businesses and enterprises. This is what made digital immunity of the notion of digital immune system more important and relevant for todays’ world andincorporating high-level security features and protective measures have become the most popular trend for the software development industry.

Top Software Development Trends: Monoliths, Containers, and Microservices

As the name suggest the monolith is a software development architecture where all components are strongly coupled and self-contained. This means in order to run the software all components should be executed simultaneously. It means multiple components are closely bound and combined in a larger application unlike modular software approach. This method was one of the earliest methods, and expensive as well, because if any update is required in one component of the software than all other components must be updated. However, some software applications still use monolith approach for example the mobile app or customer portal of the banks, which require a lot of components to execute simultaneously in order to complete a task. In order to minimize some drawbacks of the monolithic approach the containerization technique is used, this enable businesses to only scale certain parts of the software which are causing problems and the less used components of the software can remain as is. The monoliths are designed as a one large application which offers multitude of features, however, the Microservices are small application within a container along with the required environment to execute the application. The scalability, deployment, and changes in the Microservices deployment approach are much convenient and cost-effective. The Microservices approach is gaining huge popularity unless you have very specific needs which require you to utilize monolithic approach.

Top Software Development Trends: Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) Development

The smartphones have become an integral part of our daily lives and the business as well. Businesses are offering intuitive smartphone application to their users for a better customer experience. According to Google, almost 50% of the users prefer to use the website of the popular brands instead of downloading and installing their mobile application. Whether you use Apple’s iPhone or Google’s Android phone, we all know that these devices comes with limited storage, and no one wants to full their smartphone’s storage with tons of applications which they might use very rarely. This is what gives rise to Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) development. The progressive web apps are based on latest programming methods and offer a variety of features. Basically a progressive web app is a website but with added benefits of a smartphone application. The progressive web apps are developed similarly like a website but integrated to a platform that enable them to behave like a native smartphone application. User can enjoy all features that they may find on a typical smartphone application while also enjoying the convenience of using a website. The progressive web apps or PWAs download very quickly, doesn’t require users to dedicate larger internal storage space to the apps, while provide all features of a typical mobile app, such as users can install them and access them from their homepage same like an ordinary smartphone app.

Conclusion

The concept of a modern day business is impossible without the technology. The technology have become an essential component of modern societies. Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE heavily invest in IT and digital solutions. The backbone of modern technology is the software. When a business decides to acquire a new software tool, they have two choices, either they go with a commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) solution or either they acquire services of a professional software development agency in Dubai, UAE and get a tailor-made software as per their requirements and needs. The custom software development have emerged as a rapidly growing industry in the country. More businesses are choosing the custom software development instead of acquiring a COTS solution. However, when it comes to develop a custom software there are certain things that the business should consider. The most important is to ensure your customized software solution is built according to the modern trends and latest technologies to ensure an extended lifecycle and better ROI. In this blog we have covered the best software development trends which can yield success in 2023. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to develop an exclusive and tailor-made software for your needs, 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.

Check out this: How a Modern Queue Management System Increase Customer Satisfaction?

May 4, 2023

Key Reasons Why Queue Management Systems are Essential for Customer Loyalty?

Any business’s success can be measured by measuring the customer satisfaction and customer happiness. The customer satisfaction help gaining customers’ trust and make them loyal to the brand. The loyal customers always contribute most to the success of any business. According to several studies it is almost 5 to 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer then selling to an existing customer. Imagine how much customer loyalty can reduce your marketing and communication cost. The loyal customers had already have experience with your business, their expectations are pretty clear, they are familiar with your business practices and methodologies, they are most likely to make multiple purchases directly from your business without ever reaching out to your competitors or doing any market research. It means if you have a huge pool of loyal customers, you are most likely to get repeated sales from them. When a business start establishing a loyal customer base it can sustain growth and move forward towards its broader vision.

The customer experience and customer satisfaction can be significantly improved by implementing modern queuing strategies such as implementing a modern digital queue management system at your customer-facing environments. When you will start treating your customers in a better way and when you start offering them more convenience and comfort, they will start liking you as a brand and eventually you can become their first-choice. That is how the customer satisfaction and customer happiness contributes to attaining customer loyalty. In this blog we will discuss how a queue management system help improving customer experience and contributes in increasing customer loyalty.

Queue Management System Reduces the Customer Wait Time

The customer wait time plays a crucial role in customer happiness and customer satisfaction. Whenever we imaging a customer service center, a public office, a government office, airports, shopping stores or any such place, the long lines and waiting queues are the common sighting at such places. Studies have shown that on an average a customer can wait from somewhere 9 to 12 minutes, and wait time any longer than that could start impacting customer’s experience and cause frustration, stress and unhappiness. The queue management system is a highly effective solution to that problem. It help streamlining the customer flow, manages queues and waiting line automatically, and the queue management system helps in improving the queuing strategy and method. A typical queue management system consists of a highly powerful AI (artificial intelligence) based smart software engine, coupled with several hardware devices, such as interactive self-service ticket dispensing kiosk, audio-visual announcement system and digital signage displays, etc.

The smart queue management software is capable of collecting and analyzing queuing data in real-time and the AI based smart algorithms enable it to take decisions on the bases of current queuing data, historical data, and system configurations. The biggest advantage of implementing a queue management system is that it completely remove the human factor from various touch points of customer journey and make it automatic which not only save time but also prevent several problems that are common in manual queuing. The customer interaction begins with customer being welcomed with an intuitive multi-lingual interactive self-service kiosk. Business can ask questions to categorize customers based on their needs, this will further improve the queuing process. Customers are given with printed ticket or digital ticket bearing their number/position in the queue. Then the customers are free to wait in the designated waiting areas and doesn’t need to stand in long waiting line. This feature can significantly improve customer experience. Furthermore the digital signage keep displaying the queuing information and it also plays multimedia content and other engaging content which keep customers distracted from the wait time.

The queue management system automatically puts customers in the appropriate queue and based on the footfall, current queuing status and various other factors it tries to put customers in the fast moving lines, and it also balance the workload of the service agent which further expedite the customer journey and reduce the wait time. With the manual queuing the wait time is higher, the customers have to wait in long boring waiting lines, which ruin their experience. However, with the digital queue management system all these problems are avoided which result in significant reduction in actual wait time. All those distractions caused by the multimedia content, frequent audio announcements and the real-time updating queuing data on the signage screens, keep your customers distracted from the wait time. This way the perceived wait time is also reduced. The perceived wait time and the actual wait time are the leading cause of customer unhappiness. A queue management system help reducing and optimizing the wait time and results in higher customer satisfaction and happiness which contributes to increasing customer loyalty.

Queue Management System Improves Employee Performance

The customer experience is a very delicate and sensitive matter, even very small looking things can have huge impact on it. Same is the case with the employee performance. The queue management system is a digital tool it can effectively track and monitor employee performance. The queue management system measures several performance metrics and KPIs. For example, how many customers are served by a service agent in a shift, what was the average time of service to each customer, how much time the service agent took for breaks, etc. All such information help management focus on the right directions to improve employee performance and identify the issues that may causing poor performance. Furthermore with the help of a digital queue management system businesses can avoid several problems. In the manual queues the service agents will also have to listen to customers’ complaints, they will have to solve disputes, sometimes customers showed up in wrong queues, then there are line jumpers and several other such problems which keep service agents distracted from their work. However, with the queue management system all these problems vanished and the service agents can easily focus on their primary tasks and also work under balanced workload which significantly improve their efficiency, performance and satisfaction. A happy service agent can serve your customer better and provide them a happy and satisfied experience.

Queue Management System Offers Virtual Queuing

The virtual queuing is not a new phenomenon, however, it got fame in past few years. The virtual queuing is basically the next step of the digital queuing. The virtual queue management system offers more integrated communication and convenience to the customers which results in much better experience and significantly reduced wait time. With the help of virtual queuing features the business can offer its customers multiple mobile communication channels and virtual tools to sign-up for the queue. For example, the customers can sign-up using their smartphones, online customer portal, business’s corporate website, online booking portal, SMS, Email, Call, QR Code and even via WhatsApp. All this help improving customer experience. Furthermore the queue management system can also communicate with the customers via SMS, online updates, smartphone applications, notification and alerts which keep providing necessary updates to the customers. The queue management system mobile application can even guide customers about het nearest and quickest service centers. This way the customers doesn’t even have to arrive to the service center to sign-up or stand in the waiting line, they are completely free to arrive only when their number is called. Hence the wait time can literally reduce to none. These features enhance customer experience, happy and satisfied customers are more likely to become a loyal customer.

Queue Management System Collects Valuable Queuing Data and Business Intelligence

The queuing data and the business intelligence is a great tool to analyze and improve your queuing strategy. A queue management system is a digital tool hence it can capture system usage and analytical data from each and every touch point of the customer journey. The queue management system can provide businesses with a wealth of knowledge and a better understanding to the customers’ behavior, their liking/disliking, market trends, customers’ expectations and needs. All this help businesses analyzing and identifying the flaws in their strategy and help them rectify those issues to ensure a better and improved customer experience. A queue management system can also collect customer feedback data. The direct customer feedback gives your customer confidence and help gaining their trust. As when the customers think that their say is important they become more attached to the business. Moreover the customer feedback can also be very helpful in improving several other process. All these features help enhancing customer experience and raise their satisfaction. Happy and satisfied customer become loyal to their favorite brand and help businesses grow and progress.

Conclusion

Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are more adoptive towards latest technologies and modern business practices. The country is highly developed and the general population is very tech savvy. Almost 99% of the population uses mobile phone and have access to the internet. In such a society businesses need to fulfill the high demands from the customers and on top of that the markets are highly competitive. In the past few years, the digital customer experience, the automation and adaptation of modern technologies and solution is on rise. The customer facing environments have also evolved a lot which made traditional manual queuing completely obsolete. A modern digital queue management system have become an essential for modern customer service centers. Businesses who have to deal with medium or large number of footfall can’t function without implementing a modern queue management solution. It has become so common that customers usually expect a digital ticketing system and modern queuing system whenever they visit a business or customer service center.

A queue management system significantly enhance customer experience, it offers them easy sign-up, it reduces their wait time and improves their waiting experience, it help maximizing the performance and productivity of the service agent, and it help improving service quality. All these improvements can significantly improve customer happiness and satisfaction. The customer satisfaction is a key to customer loyalty and the customer loyalty is crucial for a long term sustainable business success. In this blog we have discuss how a queue management system can help businesses attain customer loyalty, if you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to implement a bespoke queue management system for your business, 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.

Check out this: How a Modern Queue Management System Increase Customer Satisfaction?

May 3, 2023

How a Better Web Development can Help Increasing Leads and Sales in Dubai, UAE?

Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE develop their websites, in fact it is a common practice that every business small or large develop a corporate website. There was a time when the websites were used to publish a short company profile and nothing much. But as the technology advances and our reliance on IT and internet have increased, the websites have become more powerful so much so that now a corporate website can be used as a very effective marketing and communication tool. No matter if you operate in B2B or B2C domain, you can equally leverage your corporate website to boost leads and sales. Now a day’s the websites have become more purpose oriented for example, if you are a B2B businesses you will most likely want to get the lead information or you will require your website visitors to fill in a form. Similarly if you are a B2C business you might want to make a direct sale, or book an appointment or any other similar kind of action. All these successful actions will convert a website visitor into a genuine lead and sale.

Every business wants to grow and increase their sales. For that they used various channels and marketing techniques. Acquiring a new customer is expensive, your corporate website can play a crucial role in acquiring new customers as well as offering services and information to existing customers and help you strengthening your business relationship with your customers. A corporate website is a very powerful marketing tool. But it all depends on how better your web development process goes. If you develop an excellent website which aligns with your goals and objectives it will help you grow over the time. The dynamic of online conversions are very different than traditional methods, according to several studies almost 90% to 95% of your website visitors are not ready to make a decision. Hence the website user experience is crucial for the success of a corporate website. A good corporate website will help you communicate with your targeted audience and beyond. In this blog we will discuss how a better web development can help increasing leads and sales for businesses in Dubai or anywhere in UAE.

A Great First Impression Boost Leads and Sales

As the saying goes “First impression is the last” same is the case with the websites. Your corporate website’s first impression will pretty much determine how the visitor will end up on your website, whether they will purchase or perform the desired action or whether they will leave without converting. As I have mentioned earlier that most of the website visitors are not yet ready to make a decision, it is your website which will convince them to convert. According to several studies it takes a fraction of a second, 50 milliseconds to be précised to build a perception of the brand by just the first impression of the website. That is extremely important. Only professionally developed website will have capabilities to leave a great first impression on your audience. The color scheme, the content, the media in the hero area, the menu, the font size, everything matters. Only a professionally developed website can utilize all these aspects to create a great first impression. If a user liked your website at first glance, they are most likely to explore it further, and if they will explore it further they are most likely to convert, make a purchase or fill the form or perform the desired action you want.

Simplify User Journey and Enhance Customer Experience

There are certain web development techniques which can be used to significantly enhance the customer experience by simplifying customer journey. The customer journey starts from pre-sale research to conversion, making a purchase, and even after-sale services. A great professional website help businesses facilitate customers at every touch point of the customer journey. Think from your customers’ point of view, if you are a customer and you need to purchase a product or service, what would be the first thing you will be looking for on a website? It would be information which will explain you the solution of your problem. A corporate website for any business should offer a wealth of valuable information to help customers and audience take a decision. Many business offers multi-lingual websites, they make their websites responsive and offer a unified experience at all platforms. The structure of the web page should be designed according to the customer journey, for example, for a product if should start with the solution your product can offer, than add details about your product, its features, advantages, etc. than explain about your business and what you do, testimonials and review rating can be added to gain trust.

Later the CTA or call to action comes, where the actual magic happens. A typical CTA is a button with explanatory phrase or words written on it, which help your visitors to reach to the part where they will take the desired action you want them to take. The structure of the page, the design and the information/content of the page everything should drive the customer from one step to the next of the customer journey until they convert. A well-crafted web page can significantly boost leads and sales.

Responsive Websites Get More Traffic and Have Higher Conversion Rate

A responsive website is a website which has capabilities to render and rearrange itself according to the platform and the screen it is being accessed from. Now a days the smartphone and mobile traffic have exceeded the traditional website traffic form laptops and desktop PCs. That is why the responsive web development is extremely important. There are several platforms such as we have different mobile operating system, Android by Google and iOS by Apple, then there are limitless variations of screen sizes in smartphones, and furthermore the web browsers which are used to access the website may also have impact on its performance and layout. Different web browsers process the website code differently which is why all these different aspects can have a huge impact on the website and customer experience. A responsive web development help businesses cater to the needs of customers from different platforms. A responsive website can automatically sense the platform, browser, and even the screen size of the device and all this happens within a fraction of a second, the naked eye can’t even register it, it is so quick. A responsive website allow businesses to reach out to a large audience and attract more traffic which ultimately results in higher leads and sales.

SEO Friendly Website is a Key to Success in 2023 and Even Beyond

The SEO or search engine optimization has become more important than ever before. As the name suggests it is about search engines, here in Dubai and in fact in the entire UAE the most used search engine is Google with almost 96% of the search market share which makes it the first choice of people from both mobile devices and traditional laptop/desktop computers. It is the web development which plays a crucial role in making a website compatible with the search engine optimization guidelines. The SEO guidelines are normally given by Google and rest of all search engines also work on pretty much same principles. A SEO friendly website must have relevant information in its source code which are consumed by the search engine crawlers, or spiders. These search engine crawlers read each and every page published on the internet unless you block them. On the bases of the structure, programing and the content of the page the search engine rate every website. According to researches only the top ranked websites get most of the traffic.

The top 5 websites can get up to 70% of traffic or even more. That is why it is crucial that you take care of SEO during web development process. When someone searched in internet for a particular query, let say if I need an aquarium filter pump, I would search it in Google and the search engine will return all the relevant search results who are selling aquarium filter pumps. Only the top ranked website will get most of the clicks and a majority of the searchers will never even bother to go to the next page. That is why it is crucial that your SEO is up to the mark and your website is capable of appearing at the top. There are certain web development techniques which make it difficult for search engines to read your website content, such techniques should be avoided at all costs. Furthermore the search engine also tend to read the source code of the web page hence relevant codes are added to facilitate the indexing process. All such web development techniques will help you get better ranks in the search which means you will get more traffic. More traffic always means more leads and sales.

Conclusion

Corporate website for any business is very important. In fact any customer facing channel is crucial for success in the modern day and age. A website is far more important because most of the digital marketing channels are designed to converge all traffic to your corporate website. Hence it will be the website which will have to do the heavy lifting. If your website is not capable enough you will going to lose precious leads and your customers will most probably end up buying from your competitors. A website not only help you generate traffic but it also help you build online reputation, brand image and a digital brand identity. The customer trends have been changed a lot, now a days customer tend to look up in the internet before making a decision. In the digital world your website will act as your outlet, reception or a service center. Hence it should be able to attract more users and offer them satisfactory experience to boost your online conversions. In this blog web have mentioned a few most important aspects of web development which can help you design and develop a high-converting business website. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you need any kind of help to improve your existing website or if you want a brand new website, 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.

Check out this: How a Modern Queue Management System Increase Customer Satisfaction?