Intelligent Queue Management System Archives - RSI Concepts - Top IT Solution Provider Company in Dubai, UAE

May 27, 2022

Why Queue Management Systems Are Essential In Supermarkets

Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the supermarkets, shopping malls, retail stores, discount stores, and other small and medium size retail businesses are booming. In fact in some places you can find more than 10 supermarkets in the same row. This is due to the fact that most of the middle class population lives in flats and high rise buildings, so these stores have enough amount of customers. However, this also provide customers with more options in a close proximity and make the competition very tough. When people visit supermarkets, shopping stores, retail shops and businesses their experience could have very long-lasting effects on them. If a customer had a great experience they will most likely to return, if they had a bad experience they might not return. Another very common behavior is detected in retail customers which is that if they found there are long queues at the counters, they might not even enter the supermarket, instead they immediately move on to the next business. That is why having a good queue management is extremely important for supermarkets.

How a Retail Queue Management System Works

A retail queue management system is completely different from the traditional queue management system where the customers and visitors sign-up for the queues and get a ticket number issued against their position in the queue. In the supermarkets and retail sector the queue management system is rather a bit more of a data collection tool which help managers to get real-time data from the store. The integrated algorithms and AI (Artificial Intelligence) based software engine can accurately predict the crowd formation several minutes (20 to 30 minutes) priors which provide manages enough time to activate all the counters and make sure all the cashiers are at their positions. The retail queue management system relies on a video processing mechanism which accurately measure the number of customers entering in the supermarket and the number of customers/carts at the cash counters.

With the help of previous data and intelligent software engine the retail queue management system can accurately predict the crowd formation and it can also help managers understand the reasons of cart abandonment. This data can help managers refine their future strategy and help them understand the major factors of crowd formation and cart abandonment. Furthermore the system can accurately track the idle time of each individual cashier/service agent, the wait time of each customer and the service delivery/transaction time of each customer. This data can help managers monitor and improve employee performance as well which could have significant impact on service quality and customer satisfaction.

The Impact of Wait Time on Supermarkets & Retail Customers

The retail market is getting very sensitive, the customers are becoming more sensitive to wait time and overall experience. Studies have revealed that the 25% customers don’t tolerate more than 2 minutes of wait time, 55% to 60% of the consumers prefer not to wait more than 4 minutes, and almost 70% to 75% says they would abandoned their carts if they had to wait more than 5 – 6 minutes. The studies was done among selected customer groups from all around the world. In different countries and regions these figures could be different. However we can get an idea of the importance and impact of wait time on customer happiness. The ability to check out quickly have significant impact on customer’s perception of the brand as well. Most of the customers judge a business’s credibility on the bases of the experience they have with them.

A retail queue management system is a great tool to effectively reduce the customer wait time. It provide real-time data updates, and it has in-built automatic notification and alert mechanism which can alert the management and the relevant personals when things go beyond the thresholds. This way the management can also take steps and get themselves ready for increasing number of customers at the counters to prevent long wait time.

Retail Queue Management System Improves Resource Management

Here in Dubai and all across the UAE the supermarkets and the retail sector always have multiple tasks for the cashiers. The fact is that the market is not always crowded, it is just a few peak hours when the supermarkets and the other retail businesses gets too many customers, in such scenarios all the cash counters must be online to expedite the checkout process and to prevent the long queues and crowd formation. A retail queue management system can monitor the footfall along with capabilities to measure the number of customers at the cash counters awaiting checkout. This ability blended with intelligent software engine enables the retail queue management system to accurately predict the queues. All this data collection and data analysis is done in real time and the results are provided to the managers. Which allow them to get ready for the increased number of checkouts and provide them enough time to gather employees at the counters to ensure a continuous and uninterrupted customer flow.

With the help of real-time data and predictive abilities of the retail queue management system the manager can effectively and more efficiently manage the resources. Furthermore the retail queue management system also maintain the historic data which can be analyzed with in-built analytical tools to understand several trends. The managers can effectively understand the cart abandonment trend, the peak hours’ trend, and even the employee performance and various KPIs. Which help them make policies and build strategies to effectively use resources to obtain maximum efficiency and productivity.

Retail Queue Management System Measures Cart Abandonment

For any supermarket and retail business the tracking of cart abandonment is crucial. The retail queue management system is very good in accurately measuring the cart abandonment. As we already know the customers don’t tolerate much wait time. But the wait time is not the only factor causing cart abandonment. In fact there is another very important aspect of retail queuing that cause results in increased cart abandonments. Several studies and researches have concluded that on an average in a supermarket or any other retail business if a customer found the queue is longer than the 7 people, they are most likely to look up for another counter and eventually they will leave empty handed. This is a very important matric to track. There has been several studies and surveys that showed that almost 85% of the customers avoid such supermarkets and retail businesses where they think they will have longer queues.

The retail queue management system not only accurately measure the number of cart abandonment but it can also correlate it to the number of customers in the queue. The businesses can use this data with the average cart value to estimate how much sale value they are losing on an average. This data can be very helpful for the management in decision making process and they can compare the sales value loss with the expense of hiring a new cashier and make a decision very easily. Such features make retail queue management system a very useful tool for the supermarkets and retail businesses.

Retail Queue Management System Help Improving Customer Experience

Retail queue management system is very helpful in improving customer experience. The customer experience is majorly driven by the wait time and waiting lines in the supermarket and other retail businesses. In order to make your customer happy it is extremely important to make their checkout experience happy. The retail queue management system help businesses understand customer behavior, cart abandonment trends and several other matrices which help businesses effectively and efficiently manage resource. The retail queue management system also have ability to make accurate predictions of crowd formation and send alerts to the manager and other relevant personals. This feature help managers to take necessary steps to prevent crowd and appoint more employees at the cash counters to ensure smooth customer flow. Which not only enhance customer experience and reduce their waiting time but it also help reducing customer churn rate or cart abandonment.

Happy customers experience help supermarkets and retail businesses to gain customer trust, improve brand image and increase their loyalty. The loyal customers can be a great asset for supermarkets and other retail businesses as they are tend to be a good brand advocate and help getting more customers. The real-time data and recorded data can be used in decision making and policy building process and can help business in long term.

Conclusion

For any supermarket or retail business the biggest challenge is always to manage the long queues at the cash counters. The customer experience is pretty much driven by the waiting time they had to spend at checkout queues. A business can easily train its staff to make the checkout process quicker, but it is very hard to control the number of customers lined up at a cash counter. A retail queue management system is specifically designed for supermarkets and retail businesses to help them reduce the customer wait time, it also help them efficiently manage their employees and resources. And it collect and provide real-time data. The managers can use the real-time data to understand customer behaviors and cart abandonment trends. This help them identify the problems that their customers are facing and provide them accurate business intelligence data to help them in decision making and policy building phases.

These traits of a retail queue management system make it essential for the supermarkets and retail businesses. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you with your queuing 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.

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September 23, 2021

Queue Management System with Facial Recognition Technology

A queue management system is a great tool to transform customer journey and customer experience. These days business in Dubai and all around the UAE are heavily relying on digital queuing solutions to effectively manage customer flow and to improve customer experience. The queue management system have huge direct and indirect impact on customer experience and service delivery. It can significantly reduce time and enhance employee performance which both result in better and improved customer experience. As the technology and digitalization have taken the entire world like a storm, things are changing rapidly. There are tons of technological advancements and so many new tools and technologies have been introduced to the market each year. The facial recognition is a modern technology, it is used to identify someone from their face. For human it is not a big deal but for technology it is a big leap, the technology was available since more than a decade, but in past few years it become publically available and mass production have significantly reduced the cost.

The queue management systems have travelled a long journey and reached to a point when machine learning, artificial intelligence, smart algorithms and powerful software engines are completely changing the customer flow and customer journey management. The facial recognition technology is a great tool to immediately identify the customers and visitors, it can greet them at the interactive self-service/self-signup kiosk, the in-built software engine is capable of recalling the previous service availed by the customers and can ask them about that, later the facial recognition can detect the customer arriving at the counter and push their data and info to the server/agent dashboard, which can expedite the service delivery process. The facial recognition is also helpful for feedback collection, as the customers are not required to input their ID and Contact information, the surveys become short and the response rate increases automatically.

Queue Management System with Facial Recognition Technology Improves Customer Experience and Brand Reputation

The year 2020 was and the year 2021 is the years of digitalization, the general public is more aware and comfortable in using digital solutions and adopting to new technologies. Several studies have shown a completely different trend in general public, people are more inclined toward the technology and digital. A touch of high-tech would always be appreciated, the facial recognition and integration with advanced intelligent software solution will enhance the user experience. When the users will be greeted by name and their identity will automatically be detected, they will get a positive impression. This will also help building a positive perception about the business such as the business is up-to-date with latest technological advancements, this also gives an impression that business would use modern technologies and latest solution for their products/services too. Which is always appreciated.

Moreover the customer experience will be personalized and more impactful. The user interface, the customer routing, the ticket printing and so many other things can be garnished with the personalized touch. Which will enhance the customer experience. From the management point of view the identification of the customer at the sign-in step is also very helpful in expediting the customer journey and it could also reduce the service delivery steps. The shorter, personalized and high-tech customer journey and customer experience help businesses building a good relationship with their customers. The marketers are well aware of the benefits of the personalized communication, similarly the personalized customer experience also improve their trust and loyalty with the brand and earn positive reputation and brand identity for the business.

A positive brand reputation and good customer experience is very important for the long term success. If a customer had a bad experience it cause harm to the brand identity, such harm could be equated by almost ten positive experiences and the chances are the customer who had a bad experience might never return back to the business. That is why a good customer experience and customer journey are considered to be the most important factor in brand reputation. If a customer had good experience it will build a strong bond with the brand and become a loyal customers, the loyal customers are the one who tend to promote the business and be a good brand advocate. The loyal customers also have a tendency to ignore occasional negative experiences and they always gives their favorite brand another chance. The loyal customers are a great asset and can help business reduce the marketing expenses as well. The studies have shown that it is nine to twelve time more expensive to acquire a new customer than selling to an existing customer. So a good customer experience and a better customer journey could be a key to higher profitability and long term steady growth.

Queue Management System with Facial Recognition Technology Improves the Customer Sign-Up Process

For every queue the customers will have to sign-up. A facial recognition technology enabled queue management system can identify the customer when they arrived at the self-service interactive kiosk to sign-up for the queue. The system can greet them with personalized message along with their name, photo or any other detail. This also enables the businesses to push their marketing strategies for example the business can recall their previous interaction and ask them whether their current visit is regarding to that or not, the businesses can push a marketing message for upgrade for the service they have opted last time and so on. The customer identification is also very helpful in managing and controlling the customer routes and customer journey. The queue management system can easily identify the VIP or Premium customers or the customers who should be served differently or any such case.

In both cases the stepped services and single counter service delivery the customer journey could have a great influence on the customer happiness and customer satisfaction. The businesses can utilize the facial recognition to personalize the customer experience. As the customers are not required to fill-in long online forms to identify themselves so the identification process is very smooth and super-convenience. The queue management system can associate the customer identity with their ticket number and upon their arrival on the counter the queue management system can push all the customer data and relevant information on the agent counter which further facilitates the service delivery process and makes it easier for the agents to have access to the relevant data hence the customer don’t have to provide their information on the counter, which reduce one more step from the service delivery process and make service delivery quicker and convenient.

Queue Management System with Facial Recognition Technology Help Collecting Customer Feedback

A queue management system with facial recognition technology can easily identify the customers and once a customer got a service done the business can request the customers to provide their feedback. Usually the customer feedback system is integrated with the queue management system or modern day queue management system has it as an in-built module as well. As the system knows which customer is being served at the counter to it can relay the same information to the interactive touch screen for the feedback. Usually those screens are installed on the counter or placed very close to it. When a customer have finished their work with the agent/server the interactive feedback screen can display a personalized message with request for the feedback. This will attract more attention and it improves the response rate. Moreover the customer is not required to fill-in their details to submit the feedback. All the customer data and details will automatically be linked to the customer feedback kiosks/screens/tabs.

Queue Management System with Facial Recognition Technology Help Collecting Business Intelligence

The queue management systems are considered to be a great source of very accurate and detailed business intelligence data. A queue management system with facial recognition technology can easily capture a lot more details. In some cases some touch points require the customer to identify themselves by either inputting their contact number, name, email or customer ID or any such perimeter which prolonged the customer journey and most of the customers don’t like it. However with the facial recognition technology the customers are not required to fill-in any details, all the details will be pulled out from the customer database by just recognizing their face. The system can also collect customer feedbacks and a lot of statistical data which is very helpful for businesses to evaluate their current strategies and methodologies. Our queue management system with facial recognition comes with in-built data analytical and processing tools. The businesses can generate reports and assess their employees by monitoring various in-built employee KPIs. Such data is very helpful for decision making and future strategies and it also provide a deeper insight to the customer perception of the brand, their experience and it also highlights the areas of improvement. Businesses can easily make informed decisions on the bases of business intelligence data.

Conclusion

Businesses and organizations in Dubai and all around the UAE are utilizing queue management systems to organize and manage their queues. There is nothing constant in the market, the market is ever changing and evolving, the customer trends are changing, their expectations and needs are changing so does the queue management system. The facial recognition technology is not new but only in past few years it have become widely used in commercial systems and solutions. The queue management systems can utilize the facial recognition technology to boost the customer experience and customer journey. The facial recognition is an easiest way to identify the customers. The customer identification during the earlier stages of the customer journey enables the businesses to provide a personalized customer experience and better customer journey. It also comes with a lot many functional advantages, for example, the customers can be identified during the sign-up process by facial recognition.

The same facial recognition ID can be used at various customer journey touch points and service delivery steps to accelerate the process as well to enhance the customer experience from the sign-up to service delivery and then the customer feedback. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system provider. We offer standard and customized solutions to our customers to ensure better efficiency and competitive cost. If you need more information or want to get a quote, feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you.

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