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Security Best Practices in Custom Software Development

The cyber security has become one of the biggest concern for both businesses and customers. That is due to the rising sophistication of cyber threats and the following consequences of the data breaches. We have recently witnessed some global levels of data breaches in well-known multinational and some of the world’s largest enterprises. The mainstream news and TV channels are discussing the cyber security threats and attacks in the prime time transmissions. The words hacking, phishing, ransomware, identity theft, computer viruses and other technical terms have become very common. No matter if someone know the meaning of it, but everyone of us have heard and read those terms. This led to the skyrocketed concerns for cyber security.

Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and broader UAE tend to utilize multiple software applications to streamline their operations. When it comes to business operating systems, ERPs, information systems, software applications and management tools, businesses have to routes, the commercial off-the-shelf solutions (COTS) or the custom software development. Businesses have realized the importance and impact of customized software applications. Hence businesses are moving to customized software solutions day by day. In this article we will explore the best practices software development companies and teams should follow to ensure reliable and secure software solution. Businesses should ensure their software development team is following these best practices.

See Also: What is custom software development?

See Also: Why Off-the-Shelf Solutions Fall Short: Advantages of Custom Software Development

Security Best Practices in Custom Software Development
Security Best Practices in Custom Software Development

Custom Software Development Best Practices for Elevated Security

The custom software development and cyber security are two most sophisticated topics. If you are not qualified enough you might not able to comprehend these two subjects. Therefore I will try to explain it in a very simple and less technical manner. When a business decides to build a customized software solutions such as a customer portal, intranet application, customer relationship management tools, mobile applications, payment portals or interactive self-service channels for their customers, the very first step is to understand the basics of the software security. The first and most important step is to draw a security requirement outline.

It doesn’t matter how well you understand software development or cyber security, you just need to understand the basic working of the application and data management. You can engage a professional software developer either form your team or from your outsourcing partner’s team. Just sit with them and ask them what data will be collected from the users, what will be stored within the software application and what data will be transmitted or fetched from other software solutions or databases. This will help you understand the criticality of various data types. For example the personal identification information and the financial information requires the highest security possible.

See Also: Why the Custom Software Development is Good for Your Business?

See Also: Benefits of Investing in Custom Software Development for Your Business in Dubai

Custom Software Development Best Practices for Elevated Security
Custom Software Development Best Practices for Elevated Security

Once you have all these data types you can now begin with the development of the application and at the completion you will have to sit with the team again to see if the following crucial cyber security best practices are followed correctly or not. Early security planning and identification of compliance is crucial. Moreover different industries also have different security compliance, required by relevant government authorities. Identifying these requirements early on will not only help you make your custom software solutions more secure but it will also save you time and cost of redesigning later. Following these best practices will also help you eliminating flaws and vulnerabilities from your tailored software solutions:

Use Secure Coding Techniques

The custom software development is a technique of building software applications and solutions form ground up. Most of the times these software tools are built using various different software stacks and frameworks. This means that the software development team will have to do a lot of coding and programing to achieve the desired functionalities. Writing secure code and following secure coding methods is crucial to ensure the ultimate security of the customized software. When the security best practices are implemented from the very beginning, it results in better and strong security of the application. For example:

  • Input Validation: All inputs should be validated before sending them to the system or database. This practice will help you minimizing the chances of SQL injections and cross-site scripting. These two are most common threats for software applications.
  • Data Sanitization: This one is also relevant to the above point, but it will help you elevating the security. As the name suggest the data sanitization means ensuring any data or command entering to the software is sanitized, hence ensuring no code injection or unauthorized access.

It is crucial to ensure all team members are well-versed with the above best practices and methodologies. Furthermore businesses should also check and review the code at every milestone or at completion of every module. Moreover once your customized application is complete, you should conduct a thorough security analysis.

See Also: Custom Software for Improved Business Efficiency

Use Secure Coding Techniques
Use Secure Coding Techniques

Implement Strict Access Control and User Identification

When businesses opt for custom software development they tend to have requirements from a particular user group or department. This means that there could be so many different users who will be operating your customized software application. The access control is simply a mechanisms to manage who can access which part of your software application. The access control will dictate the policy to grant various accesses to different features and functionalities. You should ask your custom software development team to build control mechanisms and features which allow you to define multiple job roles with ability to give them access to different parts of the software.

The role-based access control features will allow businesses to create multiple job roles with different levels of access. For example, the system administration role is usually designated to IT team and the system administrator has full system access, including ability to create other job roles and configure various different levels of access. For example, some user might only have access to read the data, some might have access to write it and some might have access to certain future. It is crucial to implement the rule of “least privilege” this will ensure everyone will only get access to the features and data they need. Therefore fool proof user identification and authentication mechanisms should also be implemented.

See Also: Leveraging Big Data in Custom Software Development

Implement Strict Access Control and User Identification
Implement Strict Access Control and User Identification

Data Encryption at Both Storage and Transmission

Businesses often doesn’t realize the importance of encryption. Encryption at both storage (at rest) and transmission (while transferred) is extremely important. It can greatly improve the security of the solution as well as it can also prevent people with malicious intent to access or intercept your data. The encryption technologies has become very advanced, now a days if you apply encryption properly, it is nearly impossible to decrypt them without proper access and decryption protocols. Encrypting any data would take very less computer resources, in fact almost none. But when you try to decrypt any data without decryption code and protocols you might be needing some very powerful super computers to be able to find the right pattern to decrypt it. Thus the encryption can greatly improve security.

The encryption ensures that your data will remain protected even if it is accessed by unauthorized means, or intercepted during the transmission. In case if someone even gets access or intercept your encrypted data, they would never be able to decrypt it. This will prevent any unauthorized access to your sensitive data. All important data types should be encrypted, especially the personal information and financial must need strong encryption. You can utilize Advanced Encryption Standards or AES which is international standard for encryption. For data transmission it is absolutely essential to transmit data through a secure connection by utilizing the SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security). This will ensure your data will remain secure and protected.

See Also: Custom Software Development for Enhanced User Experience

See Also: Custom Software Development Progressive Web Apps – Beginner’s Guide

Data Encryption at Both Storage and Transmission
Data Encryption at Both Storage and Transmission

Implement Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

The secure software development lifecycle or SDLC is not just a technique but a complete strategy. It states that the security should be implemented and prioritized at each and every stage of the software development lifecycle. Starting from planning to designing and then deployment and even for maintenance, incorporating checks and balances at every stage should remain the top priority of the software development team. Here are some best practices to incorporate security at each and every stage of the software development process:

  • Planning: During the software planning process, two important things need to be prioritized. First the security requirements and compliances should be accounted at very early stage. Then the risk assessment and threat modeling should be conducted to identify potential threats, vulnerabilities and risks to ensure all these threats and vulnerabilities will be neutralized effectively.
  • Designing: The design considerations and security architecture should be embedded at the core of the application. Best practices like, secure coding, encryption and system access should be incorporated in the design of the software. A thorough threat modeling should be conducted for different design choices to ensure maximum security and protection.
  • Development: It is extremely crucial to ensure that your custom software development team should be well-versed with the best security practices and secure development techniques. The secure coding practices can eliminate the chances of some of the most common attacks such as SQL injection, buffer overflow, and cross-site scripting, etc. Furthermore the advanced code analysis tools both static and dynamic should be used to find any potential vulnerability in code.
  • Testing: Businesses should ensure the project managers and relevant personals keep testing the application throughout the development phase. Furthermore a full-on security testing round should be conducted after development completion and before going live. Automated tools should be used to simulate attacks, and other testing methods such as penetration testing, security audits, and vulnerability testing should be conducted before going live.
  • Maintenance: Once your customized software is developed, tested and deployed, then you will be needing maintenance which is a continuous process. Usually software applications require periodic maintenance, however, ongoing monitoring and patching is crucial for security. Businesses should have incident response policy and protocols in place. Furthermore any updates, customization and integration would also require in-depth security testing.

Businesses should strictly incorporate security in their software development lifecycle. This will not only make their application more resilience towards threats and vulnerability but it will also ensure the protection and safety of the data of your customers and employees. A secure development lifecycle also encourage cross-functional collaboration between the security and development team which also help improving the security and resilience of your customized software applications.

See Also: The Cost of Custom Software Development: Factors to Consider

See Also: Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Your Custom Software Development Project

Implement Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
Implement Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Conclusion

The information technology have advanced so rapidly that it is very difficult for a common person to keep up. With the advancements of computer technology the software has become much more complex and sophisticated. For example, there was a time when 1GB RAM and 40GB storage was more than enough for a common PC user, now a days we have smartphones with 16GB RAM and up to 1TB of storage. This all happened in just two decades. This made technology much more complex, so does the security and safety of the user data. As the technology is evolving rapidly the cyber criminals are also adopting to innovative and very sophisticated techniques to attack on businesses and people. This is what made everyone more concerned about their security and data protection.

This rapid development of technology also compelled businesses to adopt to modern software solutions and tools to keep up with the emerging needs. When it comes to software businesses tend to utilize multiple software application to streamline their entire operations. The custom software development is the ideal route for growing businesses, as it can cater to their exclusive business needs and can offer them a great competitive advantage. The security is one of the most critical aspect of custom software development, as there is a common misconception that the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions are more secured. However, this is not true always, in fact the by adopting to modern and best security practices in your custom software development you can greatly improve security and data protection.

Strictly implementing a secure software development lifecycle strategy can help you elevate security of your bespoke software solutions. Businesses should ensure adopting and implementing secure coding methods, continuous security testing and monitoring, risk assessment and threat modeling and various other best practices discussed in this blog. The software development itself is a very sophisticated subject let alone the cyber security. Therefore I have tried to simplify the security best practices to make them understandable by avoiding technical terminologies and methodologies.

If you still want to learn more about the subject or if you want to explore the possibility of developing a highly secured and tailored software solution for your business of organization, 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.

See Also: How to Develop a Custom Software in Dubai?

See Also: Emerging Trends in Custom Software Development


The Impact of Queue Management Systems on Government Services

The government entities, offices and service centers plays a crucial role in delivering public services, and their performance directly impact the public’s perception of the government. The UAE has a large number of foreign companies and businesses and the country is also a tourist hotspot in the entire region. In such diverse and vibrant market landscape the government’s image is crucial in both attracting foreign investments as well as the tourists. Therefore adhering to the highest standards of customer service is critical for the government entities, offices and service centers.

If you are living in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi or any other part of UAE you would have at least once interacted with a government service. This also indicates the huge traffic at government service centers. Hence the government services need a digital and efficient queue management system to ensure higher customer satisfaction.

The customer happiness is one of the most critical KPI for any government entity in UAE, whether it is federal government or regional government, all government entities focus a lot on customer satisfaction. A good government perception not only build trust but also attract more investments and tourism. Moreover as the private sector is rapidly advancing and becoming more customer-centric the customer demands and expectation from government services are also rising.

This demand a highly efficient and effective solution that can help government entities, offices and service centers to proactively streamline their customer flow, minimize customer wait time, and make their services more efficient. In this blog we will discuss the impact of a digital queue management system and how it can benefit both the citizens as well as the government service centers.

See Also: What are the Different Types of Queue Management System?

The Impact of Queue Management Systems on Government Services
The Impact of Queue Management Systems on Government Services

What is a Digital Queue Management System?

A digital queue management system is a technological solution which is designed to efficiently manage and streamline customer flow. Whether the customers are in physical queues or virtual queues a digital queue management system guides them, while effectively reducing the wait time, and elevating the overall customer journey and experience. The digital queuing is common in banks, healthcare, telecom, retail, government service centers and various other industries. The government entities, agencies and offices can effectively reduce the congestion, streamline customer flow, expedite the service delivery process and increase customer happiness by implementing a digital queue management system.

The queue management system also help improving the staff performance and overall quality of the service. The queue management system can automatically implement the queuing policy with utmost efficiency. A queue management system consists of two parts, one is the software and the other is the hardware. The queue management software is the brain of the system, it monitor queuing, help implementing queuing policy, manages customer as per their priority level and it also collects in-depth analytical data. The hardware of a standard queue management system consists of an interactive self-service ticket dispensing kiosk, digital signage screens, counter plates, announcement system and in some cases physical queuing management instruments.

Whether it is stepped service, or single-counter-delivery, the queue management system can effectively manages all. It can further be customized as per the business needs. Hence if you want to integrate more IoTs or hardware devices, or if you want to build more creative and innovative features, you can tailor-made a queue management system as per your needs.

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

What is a Digital Queue Management System?
What is a Digital Queue Management System?

Why Government Services Need a Digital Queue Management System?

One of the most crucial aspect of all government services is to ensure the happiness and satisfaction of the citizens. Long wait time, disorganized queues, crowded service centers and poor communication can lead to dissatisfaction of the citizens. The long waiting lines and overcrowded waiting areas can lead to slower service delivery, which also prevent organizations to leverage the full potential of its human resource. That is why the government entities, agencies, offices and service centers need a digital queue management system.

A digital queue management system not only help addressing customer pain points but it also empower management and service agent which results in better performance and efficiency. Here are some key advantages of implementing a digital queue management system at a government office, entity, agency or service center:

See Also: Queue Management System Problems and Solutions in Dubai, UAE

Reduce Customer Wait Time

One of the biggest challenge at government service centers is the management of customer wait time. Customer often complaint about wait time and this cause discomfort and dissatisfaction. A queue management system is a great tool to reduce and optimize the customer wait time. The queue management system monitors customer flow in real-time, take real-time decision, direct citizens to the right counter, and it provides real-time queuing updates which expedite customer flow and help reducing wait time. The queue management system also help service agent in various aspects, effectively reducing the service delivery time, which also reduce customer wait time.

The queue management system also have smart algorithms which enables it to calculate the estimated time to turn, this help minimizing the negative wait time perception. Hence the queue management system not only help reducing the wait time but it also help improving customer experience and happiness.

See Also: Importance of Queue Management System for Government and Public Offices

Reduce Customer Wait Time
Reduce Customer Wait Time

Elevating Reputation and Fostering Public Trust

When citizens went to a government entity, agency or public office they expect the highest level of transparency and equal treatment for all. Poorly managed queues, crowded waiting areas, limited staff, and slow service delivery can cause serious dissatisfaction which overall undermine the reputation of any government entity. Especially when the customer lines are managed manually, the line jumping, confusion and customer complaints are common. All these factors not only annoy your customers but also damage your reputation as a government entity.

However, when a digital queue management system is deployed, everyone knows the tokens and customer flow is managed by a computerized system. This means everyone is treated equally, moreover the customers have clear view of what is happening. The customer flow and entire journey is well-organized and smooth, this help fostering customer trust. The customer happiness and trust help government entities elevate their reputation and public perception.

See Also: What Is Virtual Queuing? A Guide to Virtual Queues

See Also: Queue Management System Features you Need for Modern Queuing

Elevating Reputation and Fostering Public Trust
Elevating Reputation and Fostering Public Trust

Boost Employee Performance and Productivity

At government entities and offices, the front-desk staff is always overloaded because of large footfall. When the staff has higher workload, they tend to perform poorly and their work quality could also decline. This has become a serious problem in various service sectors. A queue management system greatly improve the customer flow, it manages most of the queuing tasks and it also help optimizing customer journey. When the queue management system divide the workload of the staff, the staff can focus more on high-priority and more productive tasks.

Furthermore the queue management system provides real-time queuing data and analytical data which help managers take swift actions and help them in effective human resource management. This also help management and service staff to address issues and avoid bottlenecks before escalation. The queue management system also capture various employee KPIs which further help refining and boosting staff performance and productivity.

See Also: Paperless Queue Management System

See Also: Queue Management in Banking: Enhancing Customer Experience

Boost Employee Performance and Productivity
Boost Employee Performance and Productivity

Increase Accessibility and Inclusivity for All Citizens

The government is responsible to serve all citizens, this means the government services and service channels should be accessible for people from all walks of life. The government service centers should be able to meet the needs of diverse customer base, it could include, elderly people, people with special needs, and citizens from diverse cultural backgrounds. The digital queue management system has interactive self-service ticket dispensing kiosk, which can offer adjustable screen, touchscreen-optimized UIs, multilingual interfaces, voice-activated support and various such features which help people with special needs to utilize the system with ease and comfort.

The queue management systems also have digital signage displays with live queuing details and audio announcement system. These system can have multilingual support to cater to the needs of diverse customer base. Special service counters and channels can be leveraged effectively to increase accessibility and inclusivity.

See Also: How a Queue Management System Can Transform Your Business Operations

Increase Accessibility and Inclusivity for All Citizens
Increase Accessibility and Inclusivity for All Citizens

Virtual Queuing for Elevated Citizen Experience

The advanced queue management systems also support virtual queuing. The virtual queuing offers digital channels which enable citizens to sign-in remotely without requiring to be physically present at the branch. The digital queue management system can integrate with online appointment booking channels, citizen portals, Email, SMS, WhatsApp, and even with mobile applications. This enable citizens to sign-in to a virtual queue even without arriving at the service center. Furthermore the virtual queue management system provides live queuing updates, notifications, and alerts through integrated communication channels.

The virtual queuing help citizens to spend their wait time anywhere they want, even they can plan their visit and arrive when their turn comes. This can literally reduce the wait time to none, elevating customer experience, giving them more freedom and comfort. The virtual queue management system also collects valuable insights which help management elevate citizen experience.

See Also: What are the Basic Components of Queue Management System?

Virtual Queuing for Elevated Citizen Experience
Virtual Queuing for Elevated Citizen Experience

Business Intelligence Data for Improved Service and Efficiency

That queue management software not only capable of collecting a wealth of valuable business intelligence data but it can be integrated with various other government services and digital channels. The government offices and agencies can even integrate the citizen identification system and payment solutions within their queue management system to streamline the payment process. The queue management system collects various types of statistical and analytical data from each and every touch point.

For example, the management can effectively track the service trends, individual and average wait time, peak hours, customer flow, staff KPIs and even citizen’s feedback. The queue management system also offer in-built analytical and reporting tools which help generating actionable reports. The insight and reports can also be relayed to a central system via integration to incorporate it in the decision making process which lead to elevated customer experience and better staff efficiency.

See Also: Pros and Cons of Queue Management System

Business Intelligence Data for Improved Service and Efficiency
Business Intelligence Data for Improved Service and Efficiency

Conclusion

The UAE has large expat populations in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other emirates. The country is a very attractive business and tourist hub. This results in huge burden on government services and the government is very focused and serious in ensuring great service experience at all its service centers. A queue management system at government service center can have profound impact on the citizen’s experience, service delivery efficiency and overall operational performance. The government agencies, entities, service centers, offices and entities are always keen on fostering citizen’s trust for better reputation and public perception. This is also crucial for overall public perception of the entire government.

With the rapid advancement in self-service channels, and digital technologies the entire world is facing increased demand in efficiency, accuracy, and transparency. A digital queue management system is the ideal solution to deal with these challenges as it can greatly reduce customer wait time while significantly boosting staff performance and service delivery processes. This lead to higher customer happiness and satisfaction which is essential for fostering public trust and building positive government perception. Long waiting lines, disorganized queues, and crowded lobbies can greatly undermine the customer experience, resulting in unhappy and unsatisfied customers.

A modern digital queue management system offer innovative features such as virtual queuing, automated customer routing, and real-time queuing data which help improving the entire queuing process. The queue management system also offer features which help management in improving the performance and also help reducing the workload of the service agents. The integration allow government entities, agencies and service centers to integrate multiple channels, services and databases with their queue management system to streamline various workflows and internal processes.

In this blog we have discussed the impact of queue management system on government services, if you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to develop a bespoke queue management system for your organization, 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.

See Also: Queue Management System and Predictive Waiting Time

See Also: How to Implement a Queue Management System at an Airport?

See Also: How Queue Management System can Boost Productivity and Profitability?


The Role of AI in Enhancing Queue Management Systems

The customer service industry have completely transformed over the past decade. Whether it is a bank, hospital, educational institute, government agency, retail store or airport, the queue is one of the biggest challenge any business faces. The poorly managed customer flow can have toll on both customer satisfaction and the operational efficiency. The long or poorly-managed queues can cause frustration and dissatisfaction in customers. In highly competitive market landscapes, slight discomfort to customers could led them to switch. Because customers have access to multiple options, this also means the importance of customer loyalty is paramount. This is where the AI comes to play, the AI has superior capabilities to collect and analyze data, which provide real-time analytics and predictive analysis which are two most effective and essential tools for a digital queue management system.

The AI is a smart software algorithms which are designed to enable any software application to behave and act like human. Although the AI is not capable of human-like intelligence, but comparing to traditional software application, the AI-powered applications are much more superior and impactful. The AI is capable of offering higher level of IoT, Machine Learning, and NLP (natural language processing). These tools can be utilized in a digital queue management system to boost its impact and efficiency. A traditional queue management system is a software-based digital solution which not only allow self-service signups, ticket dispensing but also have several other integrated channels to support virtual queuing.

The AI-powered queue management system not only offer advanced data collection and analysis features but it is capable of managing the entire queuing operation autonomously and with higher efficiency and accuracy. In this blog we will discuss the role of AI in enhancing the queue management and its overall impact on business’s success.

See Also: The Concept of Queue Management and Crowd Control

The Role of AI in Improving Key Business Functions
The Role of AI in Improving Key Business Functions

Integrating AI with Queue Management System

A typical queue management system has two parts one is hardware based which includes ticket dispensing self-service kiosk, digital signage screens, CDUs, and audio-announcement systems. The software part has multiple components which depends upon the application, industry or customization. In general the software has a queue management system server-side application, customer UIs, and the administrative dashboards. The queue management system software integrates with other internal systems, IoTs, third-party tools, databases, central information system, ERPs, CRMs, etc. It is the queue management system software which majorly integrates with the AI or Artificial Intelligence.

The AI comes in various forms, it can be infused within the programing at grass root level, or it can be integrated as a separate module. The queue management system software is built on highly flexible platforms which enable simple and convenient integration. Furthermore there are several components that form the AI algorithm. For example, the voice command and computer vision are powered by various platforms/components, similarly there are several other features which can be added. The capabilities to customize help adding innovative features to enhance customer experience and to boost the operational efficiency and performance.

See Also: Queue Management System with Facial Recognition Technology

See Also: How Queue Management System can Boost Productivity and Profitability?

The Role of AI in Custom Software Solutions
The Role of AI in Custom Software Solutions

How AI Enhances Queue Management System?

Before we discuss the advantages and improvements of integrating AI in queue management systems it is crucial to understand how AI-powered solutions are better than a traditional solution. The AI or Artificial Intelligence is equipped with specialized tools and algorithms which enable them to process and analyze very large volume of data and instruction sets. The traditional software applications fell short on this aspect. Here are a few key advantages of AI-powered software solutions which make them superior from traditional software applications:

Decision Making Capabilities

  • Traditional Software Solution: The traditional software solutions precisely follow the rules, logics and instructions set predefined by the programmers. Thus it is limited to perform tasks as explicitly as defined by the instruction set and doesn’t have capability to take decisions or learn.
  • AI-Powered Software Solutions: The AI-Powered software solutions are excellent at learning and decision making. The AI comes with specialized algorithms that can make decisions based on stats, patterns, predictions, probabilities and analytical data along with capabilities to learn and adopt to new situations as per needs.

Problem Solving Approach

  • Traditional Software Solution: The traditional software have limited capabilities when it comes to problem solving. These software are limited to a top-down approach which limit the solution to preprogramed logics and rules. This also strictly limit their capabilities to scenarios and conditions these software are designed for.
  • AI-Powered Software Solutions: The AI-Powered software solutions follow bottom-up approach which enable them to learn from historical data, live data feeds, and changing scenarios. The AI algorithms can identify patterns, changes, and predict future scenarios. This greatly increase their decision making abilities and help them to solve more complex and unprecedented problems.

Adaptability and Future Proofing

  • Traditional Software Solution: The traditional software are very static in nature, they are only capable of operating in pre-programmed scenarios and conditions. If the condition or scenario got changes, then these software solutions has to be upgraded manually. This is also due to the limited data processing capabilities of traditional software solutions.
  • AI-Powered Software Solutions: The AI-Powered software solutions are very dynamic and capable of quickly adopting to new conditions and scenarios. The AI algorithms can adjust and modify their operation as per the current conditions without requiring any manual upgrade. This is due to the excellent capabilities of AI for processing large volume of structured and unstructured data and advanced decision making abilities.
Queue Analytics: Leveraging Data for Smoother Operations
Queue Analytics: Leveraging Data for Smoother Operations

These are some of the key differentiators. There are several more factors that differentiate the AI-powered software solutions from the traditional software solutions. In conclusion the traditional software solutions are fundamentally designed to perform pre-programmed, straightforward, and repetitive tasks. The AI-powered software solutions on the other hand are very dynamic, sophisticated and capable of learning new things which enable them to quickly adjust their operation as per changing requirements, conditions and scenarios. Due to this ability the AI-powered queue management systems have become an ideal solution for modern day’s queuing problems.

See Also: What are the Different Types of Queue Management System?

Here are some key factors to understand how AI can greatly enhance and improve the queue management systems to ensuring excellent customer experience and unexceptional operational efficiency:

AI-Powered Predictive Analysis

One of the biggest advantage of AI for queue management system is its exceptional abilities and capabilities of predictive analysis. The AI-powered queue management system have advanced data collection and analysis capabilities. The AI algorithms can identify pattern, correlations and comparisons with extremely enhanced capabilities to extract insight from a multi-channel and versatile data pool. This enables them to forecast future footfall with extreme accuracy and precision. The predictive analysis is the most crucial factor for customer flow management.

It helps management understand the customer flow and enable them to prepare themselves for future footfall. The predictive analysis is also utilized for various other purposes such as evaluating staff performance and identifying changes or fluctuations in staff performance and overall operational efficiency. The AI-powered predictive analysis are many times more effective and impactful than the traditional queue management system.

See Also: Streamlining the Waiting Experience: How Queue Management Systems Improve Patient Flow

Predictive Analysis and Forecast
Predictive Analysis and Forecast

AI-Driven Real-Time Customer Flow Analysis

For any customer facing environment the biggest challenge for the management is to gain the real-time information about what is happening and how is it happening. This provides them a better understanding and help them to take steps to ensure a smooth and seamless customer flow all the time. The AI-powered queue management systems can be considered on steroids when it comes to real-time customer flow analysis. The AI-powered smart algorithms collects and analyze data from various touch-points and provide real-time insights for the management.

The management can learn about customer behavior, customer flow, and full dynamics of their queuing process. The predictive analysis and real-time customer flow analysis are two great tools to prevent congestions, identify and eliminate the problems slowing the customer flow. These tools not only provide higher visibility into the queuing process but also help management take informed decisions to improve and boost operational efficiency.

See Also: How Queue Management System Helps to Provide Better Customer Service

See Also: Government Digital Transformation: Implementation of Queue Management System

A modern queue management system automatically manages customer flow.
A modern queue management system automatically manages customer flow.

AI-Powered Customer Segmentation

Every business has different queuing policies and different customer/visitor segments. For every segment businesses have different policy to ensure every customer segment and group is catered to their needs. The AI has inherent capability to understand and analyze large volume of data. That is not all, in fact the AI is capable of collecting data from various sources and it can collect and analyze various types of data. Especially when it comes to multichannel data sources, the AI tend to very effective.

The AI-powered queue management system can collect and analyze queuing data from various sources with advanced capabilities to analyze and understand patterns. This enable AI to collect and analyze customer data, their arrival pattern, previous visit details, and interaction through other channels. This analysis is vital to extract deep insight which help categorizing and segmenting customers into various groups. Based on this segmentation businesses can personalize the customer experience for higher customer satisfaction.

See Also: How to Avoid Long Queues at Your Events

See Also: What Is Virtual Queuing? A Guide to Virtual Queues

Customer Journey Automation and Personalized Experience
Customer Journey Automation and Personalized Experience

AI-Driven Computer Vision

The computer vision is almost a science fiction like feature. In simple words the computer vision is a feature that turns videos into highly valuable insights. The AI-powered queue management systems can collect and analyze video feeds from existing CCTV Cameras along with adding a few more specialized cameras at key strategic locations. This video input give AI a large amount of analytical data. The AI-powered computer vision algorithms analyze and understand the video feeds with excellent accuracy. The Computer vision powered queue management system can accurately count the number of people entering in a facility, and moreover it can also track their movement throughout their stay within the facility.

This help businesses understand the customer behavior in more depth and enable them to derive policies and strategies for crowd prevention and improved customer flow. The computer vision not only monitor customers but it can accurately distinguish between the staff and guests and it can track their movements as well. These features help management in decision making and strategy building processes.

See Also: How Queue Management System Helps Maximizing the Efficiency?

Real-time Monitoring and Remote Management
Real-time Monitoring and Remote Management

AI-Powered Virtual Queuing

The virtual queuing is gaining huge popularity due to the convenience and control it offers to both customers and the management. The virtual queue management system is equipped with various remote channels which enable customers and visitors to book appointments or generate tickets through remote channels. The most common virtual queuing channels are SMS, WhatsApp, QR Codes, Email, Website, Appointment Booking Portals, Customer Portals and Smartphone applications. These channels allow customer to sign-up for a virtual queue without being required to physically present at the premises.

This empowers customer and provides them freedom to spend their time wherever they want. The AI-powered queue management system has advanced analytical capabilities which help optimizing virtual queue and overall customer experience. It can accurately predict customer wait time and it can also analyze customer behavior and journey in virtual queues which help management improve overall customer experience and operational performance.

See Also: World’s First WhatsApp Queue Management Solution

See Also: Why Business Need Mobile Apps along with Classic Queue Management System?

What Makes Virtual Queuing System Ideal for Customer-Centric Businesses?
What Makes Virtual Queuing System Ideal for Customer-Centric Businesses?

AI Boost Staff Performance

For any customer service center the staff performance is crucial. The higher staff performance not only help minimizing the customer wait time and improving customer experience, but it also help businesses leveraging the full potential of resources. For seamless customer flow the staff performance is crucial. The AI-powered queue management system effectively capture various staff KPIs. Furthermore the AI algorithms provide real-time and predictive analysis which help management in resource planning and management.

The AI-powered computer vision further allow businesses track and manage staff performance with more efficiency. The analytical data and insights greatly improve management’s visibility in customer flow and staff performance. The real-time queuing features help management instantly sense any change in conditions and respond to ensure seamless customer flow. With elevated staff performance businesses can effectively reduce cost and elevate customer experience.

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

Queue Management System Improve Staff Performance and Operational Efficiency
Queue Management System Improve Staff Performance and Operational Efficiency

Conclusion

The customer service sector knows the importance and sensitivity of customer experience in this sector. Therefore businesses tend to adopt and implement various digital and technology-based solutions. As the technology is progressing these solutions are also evolving. One of the most impactful advancement in technology industry is the adaptation of AI or Artificial Intelligence. With the integration of AI in queue management systems businesses can effectively elevate the customer experience and boost operational efficiency. The AI has some spectacular features such as ability to collect and analyze data from various sources and forms, which offers predictive analysis, real-time monitoring, virtual queuing and staff performance tools which help management improve customer flow and elevate customer satisfaction. The market conditions, queuing scenarios, and customer demands are subjected to change and evolve continuously.

The AI algorithms have advanced capabilities to deal with changing conditions and scenarios. The AI algorithms are very sophisticated with in-built capabilities of problem solving which enables AI-powered queue management system to learn and evolve to adopt to changing conditions and scenarios. Furthermore the AI-powered queue management system comes with advanced customer segmentation features which help businesses deliver highly personalized customer experience and frictionless customer journey. The elevated customer experience, enhanced operational efficiency, reduced service cost, and exceptional business intelligence data contributes to the overall bottom line of queuing.

In this modern era and competitive markets like Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and broader UAE the AI-powered queue management system is not just a technological upgrade, but an absolute nasality. In this blog we have discussed the role of AI in enhancing the way businesses manage their customer flow and customer experience. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design and develop a bespoke AI-powered queue management system for your business or organization, 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.

See Also: What to Consider When Choosing a Queue Management System

See Also: Why Bank should Integrate Appointment Booking System with a Queue Management System?


Data-Driven Decision Making in Performance Management

For any growing business the biggest challenge is to optimize the cost and performance while ensuring maximum customer satisfaction. Although that might seem a very simple concept, but that is way more complex and sophisticated. When it comes to manage human resource and optimization of operational efficiency, the HR department plays a crucial role. The HR is basically responsible for hiring and retaining right talent, ensuring the required skillset is always available for the organization and the HR is also responsible for leveraging the true potential of the workforce.

For that the HR and business leaders adopt various practices and solutions. The performance management system or employee performance appraisal system is a digital solution which collects and analyze performance data and produce actionable insights. This performance insights help businesses optimize employee performance, align them with strategic goals and objectives, and increase employee loyalty.

Data-Driven Decision Making in Performance Management
Data-Driven Decision Making in Performance Management

What is a Performance Management System?

A modern performance management system or employee performance appraisal system is a structured framework and combination of processes and techniques aided by a specialized software application. Typically the HR team and business leaders have to go through a lengthy and difficult manual process to perform performance appraisals at the end of the term. This involves multiple processes and human efforts and cost. Therefore businesses and organizations who follow traditional performance management practices tend to have annual review process or biannual at maximum.

However, the market landscape is changing rapidly, and businesses need a robust, efficient and cost-effective way to evaluate performance. Moreover the performance management itself has evolved a lot, the annual reviews and appraisal practices are no longer effective, and both the employees, managers and most of the business leaders lost their faith on annual evaluations or reviews.

See Also: The Impact of Performance Management on Organizational Culture

What is a Performance Management System?
What is a Performance Management System?

The present day performance management system and practices are focused more on continuous performance management, instead of taking it as an annual exercise. The modern performance management systems are also focusing a lot on employee engagements and well-beings. The modern performance management system heavily rely on AI-driven performance management software. This software is a key tool to collect large volume of performance data. The performance management system software comes with in-built data collection tools, KPI setup mechanisms, communication management tools and countless other features which empower management and also help automating various processes and workflows of performance management.

The performance management system not only make the process efficiency and effective, but it also offers innovative tools for both individual employees, and managers. All these features help aligning employees with organizational objectives and boost staff performance.

See Also: The Risk of Poor Performance Management and How to identify it?

The performance management system software comes with in-built data collection tools.
The performance management system software comes with in-built data collection tools.

What is the Role of Data-Driven Decisions in the Modern Performance Management?

The traditional performance management processes heavily rely on personal opinion and subjective reviews. This approach not only allow personal bias but also degrade the transparency of the entire system. Another biggest flaw with the traditional performance management system was the discontinuity. The performance appraisals and reviews were taken as an annual exercise such as accounts audit. This makes traditional performance management more ineffective.

Furthermore the overall market landscape is becoming more competitive and businesses are transitioning into a new customer-centric business era where the customer demands and expectations are placed at top or every strategy. This businesses need to respond to changes quickly and efficiently, they need to be more innovative and effective to gain competitive edge and so on. All this requires a highly effective and efficient decision making process and the data-driven decisions are considered to be the lifeline for the growth and progress in present times.

See Also: Performance Management System: Best Practices

See Also: How to Set Goals for your Employees in Performance Management System?

What is the Role of Data-Driven Decisions in the Modern Performance Management?
What is the Role of Data-Driven Decisions in the Modern Performance Management?

Performance management is all about aligning the staff with the high-level organizational objectives and goals. This is done by continuously monitoring performance, altering strategies, course correction, and strong decision making process. The data-driven decision making is a universal process where all the decisions are based on the data, facts, insights, and accurate information gathered through various channels, and sources. When it comes to performance management the performance data is crucial for decision making.

Business leaders, management and/or HR needs precise and in-depth data to ensure successful decisions. Without accurate performance data businesses can’t identify areas of improvement, employee’s pain points, training needs and various other aspects which are essential for performance management. That is why the data-driven decision are absolutely essential in performance management and overall success and progress of a business.

See Also: What are the Features of a Best Performance Management System?

See Also: 6 Performance Management Problems and How to Solve Them?

Business leaders, management and/or HR needs precise and in-depth data to ensure successful decisions.
Business leaders, management and/or HR needs precise and in-depth data to ensure successful decisions.

Key Advantages of Data-Driven Decision Making in Performance Management

The performance management is all about taking accurate and timely decision to make sure your workforce and all available resources are always aligned with the high-level organizational goals and objectives. In the modern business landscape the traditional business processes, practices and approaches have greatly transformed. Now a day’s businesses are facing many challenges one of the most critical is to deal with rapid changes in the market landscape. The customer demands, the market trends, and competitors are evolving rapidly.

This demands a highly proactive approach and superior responsiveness. And the performance management system plays a crucial role in making businesses efficient, robust, proactive and profitable. A digital performance management system provides a full-fledge framework to manage performance and first and foremost advantage of data-driven decisions is the highly accurate evaluation and performance insights.

See Also: How to Customize Performance Management System

Key Advantages of Data-Driven Decision Making in Performance Management
Key Advantages of Data-Driven Decision Making in Performance Management

Moreover the data-driven decisions help businesses to continuously improve their operations and employee performance. The data-driven decision making plays crucial role in improving and elevating individual performance as well as the overall performance of the organizations and operational excellence which lead to better products/services and enhanced customer experience. Here are some key advantages of data-driven decision making in performance management system:

  • Objective Performance Evaluation:

    The data-driven decisions eliminate bias and subjectivity from the performance reviews and it also have positive impact on communication and engagements. The HR decisions are based on employee KPIs, OKRs, accurate measure of their productivity, contribution, goal alignment and achievements. The performance data also ensures that the performance benchmarks are tracked accurately and aligned with organization’s standards.

  • Personalized Employee Development Programs:

    For any performance management system the employee development and enhancing their competencies is the most important part. The performance data provides in-depth insight to individual employee’s strengths, weaknesses, behavioral and professional competencies. This help HR to design and execute personalized employee development programs which also help increasing employee engagements.

  • Elevated Efficiency and Productivity:

    One of the biggest obstacle in the employee performance is short sighting on how employees are spending their time. However, with the performance data the managers and HR can easily understand this and the inefficiencies of workflows, tools, and business processes. This can greatly elevate employee productivity and efficiency. This also help setting up SMART goals which keep employees more focused and productive.

  • Better Employee Engagements:

    The employee engagements are the pillar of modern performance management systems. Businesses leaders and HR are eagerly seeking ways and approaches to maximize employee engagements. The engaged employees feel more valued, connected with organizational success, and have a strong professional and emotional bond with the organization. The performance data helps to set up clear career paths and fair reward programs which increase employee engagements and loyalty.

  • Higher Alignment with Organizational Goals:

    The primary purpose of any performance management system is to align the employees and resources with the high-level organizational goals and objectives. The performance data help businesses link individual employee performance with organization-wide metrics, this highlights the individual contribution and impact on the overall performance. It also help aligning the individual employee goals and objectives with the high-level organizational goals and objectives.

  • Proactive Performance Management:

    The proactive performance management is one of the most effective approach for modern day performance management. That is only possible with highly accurate and in-depth performance data. The performance data help managers to identify the obstacles and problems at early stage and even in some cases before they start impacting the performance. This way managers can prevent any impact on productivity and efficiency. The continuous feedbacks and reviews are a great tool to prevent issues even before they arise.

  • Higher Employee Satisfaction and Retention:

    When the employees realize and see that their performance is measures with utmost fairness and accuracy solely based on the data, they tend to trust the process. This trust drives satisfaction and employee happiness. The data-driven decisions help businesses design and execute employee development-focused training and development programs which further increase employee loyalty and help increasing employee retention. The data-driven decisions eliminate bias and favoritism form review processes.

  • HR Empowerment:

    The performance data help HR to make informed and accurate decision related to staffing, resource allocation, employee transfers, hiring/firing, promotions, etc. Data-driven decisions help HR to allocate resources where they are needed the most and help them enhance the outcome of the entire workforce. The performance data also help HR to adopt to the changing needs and enable them to ensure the required talent and skillsets are always available.

See Also: Best Performance Management Tools and Techniques to Boost Efficiency

See Also: 5 Challenges in implementing Performance Management System

The data-driven decisions help businesses to continuously improve their operations and employee performance.
The data-driven decisions help businesses to continuously improve their operations and employee performance.

Although the data-driven performance management is proven to be the most effective approach however, it comes with some challenges. First and foremost challenge is to develop the data collection mechanisms and then the biggest challenge it to manage and analyze the large volume of data. It sometimes get difficult to determine which data is relevant or not. Therefore most of the modern performance management systems come with AI integrated solutions.

The AI (artificial intelligence) has advanced capabilities to process large volume to structured and unstructured data coming from multiple sources and channels. This enable AI-integrated performance management systems to provide advanced analytical tools with automated reports and actionable insights. The AI-powered data collection and analytical tools can efficiently identify even the minutest patterns and can unlock hidden insights which help empowering the HR and management.

See Also: Top 5 Performance Management Trends in 2022 – 2023

AI Powered Performance Management System
AI Powered Performance Management System

Conclusion

As the technology is evolving, the customer behavior, market conditions, and the businesses themselves are rapidly evolving. We are entering into a new era of technology where our reliance on technology is increasing day by day. The modern performance management systems are one of the modernized application of a very old performance management practice. The performance management is a continuous process as every business and organization wants to leverage the full potential of their resources to ensure highest possible efficiency, and productivity. Businesses operating in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and broader UAE are well aware of the toughest market completion, increasing customer demands and rapidly advancing technologies.

Therefore adopting to latest solutions, methodologies and practices is very common. Over past two decades the performance management has emerged as one of the most essential business function. Since then the technology integration in performance management practices and strategies is continuously rising. The similar impact has been witnessed at the decision making practices. Now a days’ businesses tend to be more successful if they prioritize data-driven decisions over conventional decision and strategy making approaches.

In this blog we have discussed the role of data-driven decisions in performance management and their impact on overall organizational performance and success. We have also discussed briefly about modern performance management systems and data-driven decision making process. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to develop a bespoke performance management system for your organization, 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.

See Also: The Future of Performance Appraisals: 6 Innovations and Changes [Quick Guide]

See Also: How the HR should select a Performance Management System?

See Also: Performance Management System Trends in 2023


Queue Analytics: Leveraging Data for Smoother Operations

In customer service sector the operational efficiency and performance is crucial for long-term business success. The customer satisfaction is the top priority of every business whether it is a bank, hospital, real-estate management firm, educational institute, public office or government agency. Therefore such businesses and organizations tend to implement digital queue management system to streamline their customer flow. A digital queue management system has become integral part of modern customer journey management practices. It streamlines customer flow, automate vital processes, reduce customer wait time and improve staff performance. All these factors contribute to customer satisfaction giving businesses great competitive advantage and helping them to build their brand reputation.

When it comes to queue management system, there are several different types of modern queue management solutions. Some businesses require virtual queuing, some need appointment booking or mobile app integration and so on. However, one thing is common among all types of digital queue management systems and that is their remarkable ability to collect valuable analytical data and insights. This insight is extremely effective in decision making and resource planning processes. And these two processes have direct impact on operational efficiency and performance which is deeply connected to customer satisfaction. In this blog we will discuss how businesses can leverage queue management system’s analytical data to enhance operations and drive performance.

See Also: What is Queue Management? Beginner’s Guide to Queuing Systems

Queue Analytics: Leveraging Data for Smoother Operations
Queue Analytics: Leveraging Data for Smoother Operations

What Type of Analytical Data a Queue Management System can Collect?

A queue management system is a very powerful tool, it consists of an AI-driven software solution and supportive hardware devices. The software collects and monitor analytical data from all touch points which is later converted into actionable insights. These insights help businesses improve customer flow, reduce customer wait time, boost staff performance and enhance overall operations. Here are some key analytical data types that can be collected by a digital queue management system:

See Also: Why do you need a queue management system?

Customer Flow Data

  1. Arrival Rate: The number of customers or footfall at a customer service center during a pre-defined time period. Usually it is on hourly, daily, weekly and in some cases monthly bases. This help planning resource and identifying peak hours. It also help forecast and predictive analysis.
  2. Service Time: The amount of time each customer had to spend to get the service is called service time. This information is very helpful in identifying the flaws in internal processes, workflows and various customer journey steps.
  3. Customer Wait Time: This is often confused with service time but the customer wait time is the time a customer spends in the queues form signing up to reaching to the service counter. This time is crucial in customer experience management.
  4. Queue Length: Whether physical or virtual queues, the queue length is crucial. It is the measurement of the number of customer in any queue at any given point of time. This help businesses improving customer flow and monitored in real-time.

See Also: The Concept of Queue Management and Crowd Control

What Type of Analytical Data a Queue Management System can Collect?
What Type of Analytical Data a Queue Management System can Collect?

Customer Demographic and Behavior

  1. Customer Profiling: The customer profiling is collecting demographic data about customer such as their age, gender, and location. This data is often collected during onboarding or through loyalty programs. The queue management system linked it to a customer interaction.
  2. Customer Journey: The customer journey starts from the point a customer enters in a queue and it last up till customer gets the service and left. The queue management system records customer interaction at all touch points and generate actionable insights form this data.
  3. Repeat Visits: This is very important data, it help businesses understand which customers are visiting service points more often, what were the nature and reasons of their visits and the relevant data about their interaction. It helps improving customer experience and journey.

See Also: What are the Basic Components of Queue Management System?

Customer Demographic and Behavior
Customer Demographic and Behavior

Service Performance Analysis

  1. SLA Compliance: The SLA or Service Level Agreement compliance indicates if the customers are served within the maximum allowed service time, wait time and time to resolution. This help understanding the compliance with the pre-defined SLA standards and it help businesses maintain optimum levels of customer experience and satisfaction.
  2. Resource Utilization: The resource utilization is a comprehensive analysis which includes multiple metrics and help businesses understand if the resources in hand were utilized with optimum efficiency. It also help identifying the overstaffing, understaffing and idle time. This data helps in strategic decision making and improving overall operational efficiency.
  3. Staff Performance: A queue management system can record several staff KPIs (key performance indicators) such as number of customer served, average service time for individual services, idle/off time or breaks and customer feedbacks. These metrics help businesses identify training needs and improve training and reward programs.

See Also: What are the Different Types of Queue Management System?

Service Performance Analysis
Service Performance Analysis

Predictive Analysis and Forecast

  1. Demand Forecasting: The queue management system can analyze historical data and identify patterns which help businesses accurately forecast customer flow at any day or time. This information is extremely crucial in resource planning.
  2. Wait Time Prediction: The queue management system can provide accurate measurement of expected wait time based on the current queue length, service delivery time, and available staff’s strength. The wait time prediction is important for customer experience and it can be provided to customer via signage, and other channels to set realistic expectations.
  3. Staff Performance Prediction: That is a bit complex metric, it consider the overall staff performance and their efficiency in individual service delivery along with historical data and demand forecast the queue management system can predict performance of available staff at any date or time which is important in human resource planning.

See Also: What Is Virtual Queuing? A Guide to Virtual Queues

Predictive Analysis and Forecast
Predictive Analysis and Forecast

Customer Feedback Data

  1. Post-Service Surveys: The queue management system can be integrated with customer feedback and survey system. Usually businesses use countertop interactive displays, QR Codes, and emails to collect customer feedback. The queue management system can link this feedback with a specific customer interaction which improves insights and analysis.
  2. Net Promoter Score (NPS): The Net Promoter Score or NPS is the single most effective metric to analyze the success of any business or organization. This is a simple and quick method to collect customer feedback. Queue management system can collect this feedback from interactive kiosk, countertop displays, SMS, emails, WhatsApp, etc.
  3. Customer Sentiment Analysis: The AI-powered queue management system can effectively analyze the tone, content, and context of the customer feedback or suggestion. It can also link it to a specific interaction which reflects in multiple reports, such as customer satisfaction and staff performance reports.

See Also: How to Set Up SMS based Queue Management System?

Customer Feedback Data
Customer Feedback Data

Queue System’s Operational Data

  1. System Utilization Data: This is a simple metric, it measures how effectively a queue management system is being sued such as up-time, down-time, usage patterns, and any other interruption.
  2. Transaction Logs: This includes detailed log of every interaction. The queue management system records entire transaction details such as customer arrival time, wait time, service start time, service end time, and all the actions taken by the customer service agents.
  3. System Access Logs: The queue management system keeps record of all user’s all actions. Such as who signed-in, when signed-in/signed-out, what user perform what action, and other system stats which are vital for audit and security improvements.
  4. Real-Time Monitoring: The queue management system provides live queuing data to the management. The live data indicates current queue status, active services, customer flow rate, live staff performance and it also indicates trends that help management take immediate actions or make adjustments to prevent crowd formation or congestion.

See Also: Paperless Queue Management System

Queue System’s Operational Data
Queue System’s Operational Data

Customer Engagement Data

  1. Queuing Policy Analysis: The queuing policy or queuing rules are the prioritization of different customer segmentation and impact of different channels on the overall queuing dynamics. For example, number of VIP or Customers with Special Priorities signed-up, their interaction details, number of virtual queue-based and appointment-based services and their impact, etc.
  2. Queue Type Analysis: The volume of customer inflow from various queuing channels such as physical, virtual or appointment-based service requests. The queue management system also help identifying the patterns and impact of all these different queue types on overall operations.
  3. Interactive Kiosk Interactions: The queue management system provides an intuitive UI for interactive ticket dispensing kiosks. It also records how customers are interacting with these devices, what they are choosing, what information they are providing or accessing through these screens and much more.
  4. Virtual Channel Interaction: A modern queue management system captures analytical data of customer engagement through various integrated virtual channels such as Mobile Apps, Customer Portals, Appointment Booking Portals, SMS, WhatsApp, etc.

See Also: 7 Features of Queue Management Software

Customer Engagement Data
Customer Engagement Data

These are some of the most common analytical data types a modern digital queue management system captures. Furthermore businesses can also customize a queue management system to capture more data types such as in some cases businesses also require biometric authentication or self-registration which involves payment, document scanning and much more. All these data types can also be stored in the central data repository where the AI-powered smart algorithms and advanced analytical tools can help businesses generate in-depth insights and reports.

How Businesses can Leverage the Queue Management System’s Analytical Data to Achieve Superior Operational Performance?

In today’s modern and highly competitive market landscape businesses tend to rely more on data for strategic decision making and policy building processes. The term data-driven and informed decision making is not a fancy phenomenon but an absolute essential for the business success. Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and broader UAE are well aware of the importance of data and its impact on performance, resource planning, cost-optimization and growth.

See Also: How Queue Management System Helps Maximizing the Efficiency?

Therefore the queue management system’s analytical data plays a pivotal role in customer service and customer experience management practices. Businesses always strive to achieve highest possible operational performance because smoother operations means satisfied customers, lower operational cost and improved brand reputation. One of the primary goals of deploying a digital queue management system is to elevate customer experience and optimize operational performance.

How Businesses can Leverage the Queue Management System’s Analytical Data to Achieve Superior Operational Performance?
How Businesses can Leverage the Queue Management System’s Analytical Data to Achieve Superior Operational Performance?

A queue management system can produce a wealth of analytical and business intelligence data which can be used to understand the customer flow, queuing process, staff performance and effectiveness of the service delivery mechanisms. The analytical data also help businesses evaluate various internal processes, workflows and strategies which is crucial to identify the strengths, weaknesses and areas of improvements. Here are some key areas which businesses can greatly improve by leveraging the analytical data generated within a queue management system for operational excellence:

See Also: How Queue Management System can Boost Productivity and Profitability?

Improve Staff and Resource Allocation

For staff and resource allocation businesses need a comprehensive understanding and information of customer flow, peak hours, peak days, different service demand at different point of time and the impact of various factors on the operational efficiency. This information and understanding ensures your branch has required staff and enough resources at any given point of time and day as per the expected demand and customer flow.

This also ensures maximum level of queuing efficiency which is a key to minimize customer wait time and maximize customer satisfaction. The real-time queuing data helps businesses to allocation resources with higher efficiency and efficacy. For example, you can assign more experienced staff to the complex services and vice versa or you can adjust the number of available service counters in real-time to deal with the incoming footfall. The analytical data also help businesses to prepare for unprecedented scenarios and conditions and enhance queuing management.

See Also: Streamlining the Waiting Experience: How Queue Management Systems Improve Patient Flow

Improve Staff and Resource Allocation
Improve Staff and Resource Allocation

Enhance Customer Experience and Raise Customer Satisfactions

The customer experience and customer satisfaction are the two most crucial and interdependent factors that differentiate a business from others. Hence offering an elevated customer experience not only raise customer satisfaction but also help elevating customer loyalty and overall brand reputation. The queue management system inherently reduce the customer wait time. It improves the service delivery mechanisms and boost staff performance which resultantly elevate customer experience.

Furthermore the queue management system increase customer engagement and help simplifying customer journey which are important to raise customer satisfactions. The queuing data, historical data, predictive analysis and staff performance insights help businesses effectively allocate resource to keep the wait time at minimum all the time. Furthermore the queue management system also has ability to identify different customer segments and profiles which is essential for delivering a personalized customer experience and it also help implementing the queuing policy effectively.

See Also: Queue Management System for Trucks and Logistic Centers

Enhance Customer Experience and Raise Customer Satisfactions
Enhance Customer Experience and Raise Customer Satisfactions

Automation and Service Efficiency Optimization

The queue management system collect service time, customer wait time and service staff performance KPIs. These insights are vital in identifying the bottlenecks in service delivery processes. By identifying the bottlenecks such as services or queues that take more time, queuing policies and rules which are effecting other queues or causing delays can help businesses identify the root cause of any problem. This also help businesses revisit their polices, strategies rules, and even businesses can make adjustments in relevant processes, workflows and service delivery mechanisms to minimize the customer wait time.

On top of that the queue management system also provides comprehensive staff performance data which help management retrain staff to improve their efficiency for services, workflows or tasks for which they are taking more time to complete. The queue management system can also help automating various processes and workflows and it is capable of integrating with other third-party systems, customer databases, and central information system. This enables a queue management system to empower service agents too through dedicated service agent dashboards.

See Also: How Queue Management System Helps to Provide Better Customer Service

Automation and Service Efficiency Optimization
Automation and Service Efficiency Optimization

Data-Driven Decision Making

Businesses can leverage the historical data and various in-built analytical tools to understand and forecast future demands. This help management make more informed and data-driven decisions for staff allocations, service delivery enhancements, service counter expansion or resource allocation and customer journey adjustments. This also increase business’s readiness to deal with unexpected scenarios and conditions and make their management more proactive and keeps them ahead of service demands customer needs and market trends.

Businesses can also leverage the analytical data for performance benchmarking. The management can easily compare the performance of different branches, locations or departments, which help management identify the most effective and efficient practices. It also help them identify the areas of improvements which is crucial for decision making. Businesses can also standardize the high-performing processes and identify under-performing or poorly performing practices and processes.

See Also: Importance of Queue Management System for Government and Public Offices

Data-Driven Decision Making
Data-Driven Decision Making

Proactive Management and Preventive Measures

Things are moving so fast at any customer service center, businesses needs a proactive management approach to deal with modern queuing challenges. Furthermore the management should have a strong and effective preventive strategy which help them prevent crowd formation, congestion, and help dealing with unexpected or disruptive situations. Businesses can utilize the predictive analysis data to identify the peak hours, expected footfall and staff performance challenges which help them prepare for the future.

For example if a surge is detected during lunch breaks or during closing hours, businesses can effectively prepare their resources to deal with both scenarios by simply extending service counters during that time. The AI-driven in-depth analysis help businesses predict and identify the disruptions, due to planned or unplanned maintenance or staff planning scenarios or any external factor. This readiness help management to take preventive approaches and neutralize any such event even before it happens.

See Also: Why Small and Local Businesses Need a Queue Management System?

Proactive Management and Preventive Measures
Proactive Management and Preventive Measures

Conclusion

Leveraging queue management system’s analytical data and business intelligence can help businesses streamline their customer flow and optimize their operational efficiency. A queue management system is a very capable and smart solution which captures tons of analytical data. This analytical data covers all ranging from customer wait time to complete interaction details and further extending to staff performance KPIs and much more.

With this crucial data in hand businesses can make informed decision which help them optimize customer journey, customer experience and staff performance. For any business analyzing their existing workflows, business processes, strategies, polices and management approach is crucial. It helps them identify the strengths, weaknesses and areas of improvement. The data-driven management approach empowered by the analytical data of a queue management system not only help businesses dealing with current challenges but it also help them anticipating future demand and condition. This is what makes queue management system more superior and impactful in raising customer satisfaction and boosting operational efficiency.

The insight generated from queue management system’s analytical data is invaluable for smoother operations. In this blog we have discussed various types of analytical data which can be collected form a digital queue management system and their impact on various operational processes, decision making and management practices. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design and implement a bespoke AI-driven cost-effective queue management system for your business or organization, please contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment section below and we will get in touch with you soon.

See Also: Pros and Cons of Queue Management System


The Role of Self-Service Kiosks in Enhancing Customer Experience

Businesses are eagerly seeking ways to enhance and elevate customer experience. The customer experience very much depends on the staff performance and operational efficiency. Therefore businesses rely on technology to achieve their goals. The interactive self-service kiosk is a cutting-edge technology which can streamline operational processes and help elevating customer experience. Within the past decade the interactive self-service kiosk has evolved and developed a lot. With adding a few simple technology devices businesses can deliver full services through intuitive self-service experience. One of the biggest advantage of interactive self-service kiosk is that it doesn’t require any staff assistance.

This not only eliminate friction from the customer journey, but the inherent automation and digitalization greatly improve internal business processes. The interactive self-service kiosks can be integrated in a wide spectrum of industries ranging from humble information kiosk to delivering sophisticated business transactions, scanning documents and making payments, etc. These advantages are making interactive self-service kiosk more appealing for businesses. The customers also appreciate getting served quickly. No one likes waiting in long queues to sing-in or to get served by the staff, instead they prefer getting self-service through these self-service kiosks. The interactive self-service kiosks are reshaping the ways businesses used to serve their customers.

As per a study published in Forbes around 73% of the customers wants to resolve their problems by themselves. This is what is fueling this trend and more businesses are opting for customized interactive self-service kiosks. In this blog we will discuss the role of interactive self-service kiosks in enhancing the customer experience.

The Role of Self-Service Kiosks in Enhancing Customer Experience
The Role of Self-Service Kiosks in Enhancing Customer Experience

What is an Interactive Self-Service Kiosk?

By definition an interactive self-service kiosk is a standalone computer terminal, equipped with specialized software and hardware features which allow customers to perform certain tasks independently without requiring any assistance from the staff. A standard interactive self-service kiosk consists of a touchscreen, computer, printer, QR Code/Barcode scanner, Emirate ID Card Reader, and several other peripherals depending on its application. Typically when you go to a bank or at a government office, you find a ticket dispensing kiosk which asks you for the service you are interested in and dispense a token for the queue. The commonly used bill payment kiosks used for mobile top-ups and utility bill payments are a basic type of payment kiosks. The modern day interactive self-service kiosks have much wider spectrum of applications ranging from visitor registration to booking ticket and airport check-ins, etc.

See Also: Designing User-Friendly Self-Service Kiosks [Guide]

There are several more industry specific applications such as for government services, for HR services, for education, hospitality and healthcare, etc. In conclusion one can safely say that these interactive self-service kiosks can be customized for any kind of customer facing environment for the service sector. Here are some key features of an interactive self-service kiosks:

  • Intuitive User-Friendly UIs: The UIs or user interfaces of an interactive self-service kiosk are intuitive, user-friendly and loaded with on-screen prompts guiding customers through various tasks and navigating them through available services and information.
  • Touch-Screen Enabled: Nearly all present day interactive self-service kiosks are touch-screen enabled. The touch screens make them more user-friendly. The touch-screen optimized UIs enable customers to quickly perform their tasks with simple taps on the screen.
  • Multi-lingual Support: In Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other regions of UAE a lot of expats are residing, serving them in their preferred language along with English and Arabic can elevate their experience and raise customer satisfaction.
  • Easy Accessibility Features: The interactive self-service kiosks offer easy accessibility features for users with disabilities or special needs such as screen readers, adjustable font-size, multiple UI color schemes, and rotatable screens are common features.
  • Security and Privacy: The interactive self-service kiosks offer better security and privacy. The data communication between the terminal and server is secure and encrypted. The customers never have to share any details with the staff or service agents.
  • Customization and Scaling: The interactive self-service kiosks are highly customizable. Businesses can have customized features, peripherals and even design to align with their needs. Businesses can easily scale them up and upgrade them which increase their lifecycle.
  • Durability and Maintenance: The interactive self-service kiosks usually comes with industrial grade electronic components. In both indoor and outdoor environments, these kiosks can be operated for 24/7 without requiring much maintenance and servicing.

See Also: Self-Service Kiosks for Effective Queue Management

What is an Interactive Self-Service Kiosk?
What is an Interactive Self-Service Kiosk?

The interactive self-service kiosks are built on very flexible technology platform which enable businesses to customize them as per their needs. Upgrading and customizing them is crucial for growing businesses and the interactive self-service kiosks are excellent at it. It is due to their reliability, features and higher ROI these interactive self-service kiosks can offer a variety of benefits for both businesses and customers:

  • Elevated Customer Experience: The interactive self-service kiosks have ability to significantly raise customer satisfaction with enhanced and elevated customer experience. The multi-lingual support, customized and innovative features and easy-of-use make them ideal for customers.
  • Boost Operational Efficiency: With interactive self-service kiosks the customer footfall can be divided between the kiosks and the service agents which boost staff performance. The interactive self-service kiosks also automate and optimize internal process to boost operational efficiency.
  • Operational Cost Reduction: The interactive self-service kiosks divide the workload of the staff, and minimize the human errors from the process which effectively reduce operational cost. It also help management in making informed decisions for better resource management.
  • Business Intelligence Data: When it comes to informed decisions, the business intelligence data plays a crucial role in data-driven decision making. The interactive self-service kiosks can collect a wealth of behavioral, statistical and analytical data which empowers decision making.
  • AI-Powered Smart Solution: The interactive self-service kiosks are good at integrating AI-powered smart solutions such as AI Chatbots, Virtual Assistants, Voice Commands, smart algorithms, personalized customer experience, management and security, and advanced data collection.
  • Competitive Advantage: The early adopter of customized interactive self-service kiosks can gain a great competitive advantage by offering easy access to information and services through intuitive and easy-to-access 24/7 available channel.

These are some of the key features and benefits of interactive self-service kiosks. Businesses can customize them to offer innovative features. Moreover the IoT and third-party system integration enable these kiosks to seamlessly integrate within existing information infrastructure of the business.

See Also: How Interactive Kiosks are Enhancing In-Store Engagement and Sales

The interactive self-service kiosks are built on very flexible technology platform which enable businesses to customize them as per their needs.
The interactive self-service kiosks are built on very flexible technology platform which enable businesses to customize them as per their needs.

How Interactive Self-Service Kiosk Enhance Customer Experience?

The digital touch-points are playing a crucial role in reshaping customer experience management practices. Businesses are realizing that the customers are more inclined towards digital interaction. The smartphones, websites, online knowledgebase, online customer portals and such technologies are completely transforming customer experience management. The interactive self-service kiosks can be a game-changer for businesses because these technology marvels has ability to deliver some of the most complex services with excellent efficiency and convenience. Which is making them popular among customers and consumers in general. Here are some key factors to understand the role of interactive self-service kiosk in enhancing customer experience:

  • Personalized Customer Experience: The interactive self-service kiosks can tailor customer experience based on their preference, past interaction, demographics, and other aspects. Which enable them to deliver highly personalized customer experience making customer feel valued.
  • Faster Service Delivery: The interactive self-service kiosks are customized as per business needs and their internal process. By leveraging the power of automation and utilizing the intuitive multi-lingual UIs businesses can enable faster service delivery and gain higher customer satisfaction.
  • Increased Accessibility: Businesses can deploy customized interactive self-service kiosks at their service centers and at multiple other places, which raise accessibility. Further options can be included to support users with special needs and for a certain customer base.
  • Accuracy and Consistency: The interactive self-service kiosks always deliver a consistent customer experience, with superior accuracy. As there is no human staff involved in the process so the accuracy and privacy of the customers is raised significantly.
  • Increased Customer Engagements: Businesses can effectively increase customer engagements by providing personalized experience, recommendations, instructions and even multi-media content which raise customer engagements and help delivering satisfactory customer experience.
  • Integration with Loyalty Programs: Businesses can easily integrate loyalty programs and customer portals within these kiosks. Offering secure and quicker sing-in such as via Emirates ID, 2FA-OTP, Biometric, QR Code or via mobile phones can greatly improve customer experience.
  • Real-Time Customer Feedback: The interactive self-service kiosks can collect customer feedback through general and customized surveys and feedback campaigns. Customers can also be provided features to submit their suggestions right through the interactive self-service kiosk.
  • Cash and Digital Payments: In some cases the customers also have to make some payments for the service they need or for their subscriptions. The interactive self-service kiosks support multiple payment options such as cash deposit, credit/debit cards, and digital payments modes.
  • Analytical Data Collection: An interactive self-service kiosk is a very power tool which can collect valuable analytical data. The customer behavioral and system usage data along with other analytical data help businesses analyze and improve customer experience.
  • Access to Customer Support: The interactive self-service kiosks offer various supports such as FAQs, knowledgebase, well-structured information and even direct access to customer support via call center, Chatbots, and virtual assistants.

The interactive self-service kiosks are rapidly transforming the service sector. Businesses are leveraging these smart technologies to enhance and elevate customer experience and to optimize their operational efficiency. These interactive self-service kiosks tend to deliver higher ROI over a longer period of time and on top of that due to their ability to customize and upgrade, an interactive self-service kiosk can remain relevant for many years.

See Also: 8 Benefits of Using Digital Kiosks for Your Business

How Interactive Self-Service Kiosk Enhance Customer Experience?
How Interactive Self-Service Kiosk Enhance Customer Experience?

Conclusion

For a long term and sustainable growth every business knows the importance of customer satisfaction is paramount. Businesses and organizations operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah and other regions of UAE are always seeking innovative and creative ways to elevate their customer experience. The market landscape is highly competitive and the customer demands and trends are always changing. Therefore businesses eagerly seek technology-oriented solutions which not only serve the purpose but are also capable of evolving alongside business needs. The interactive self-service kiosks are a game-changing technology which can not only deliver excellent customer experience but are capable of boosting operational efficiency, effectively cutting cost and raising a business’s profitability.

Unlike any other digital solution, the interactive self-service kiosks represent an historic shift in ways and practices businesses were used to of delivering customer service. The customer service plays crucial role in customer satisfaction. Similar to any other digital solution its success based on the customer experience it can deliver, the interactive self-service kiosks have proven to be most effective tool to elevate the customer service by delivering exceptional customer experience via self-service. One of the biggest advantage of interactive self-service kiosk is that businesses can customize them as per their needs and industry. Which make them ideal for any customer facing service center. Businesses and organizations have witnessed significant rise in customer satisfaction and loyalty after deploying interactive self-service kiosks.

In this blog we have explored key features and benefits of interactive self-service kiosks and how these kiosks are playing a crucial role in transforming customer experience management. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to design and deploy a bespoke interactive self-service kiosk for your business or organization, 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.

See Also: Security Challenges and Solutions in Payment Kiosk Systems


The Role of AI in Custom Software Solutions

In today’s modern and technology-driven market landscape businesses rely on various software solutions in order to maintain maximum operational performance. When it comes to software solutions there are two distinct types of solutions, the commercial off-the-shelf solutions (COTS) and customized software solutions. The COTS are ready-made applications designed for masses, however the customized software are tailored to cater to specific business needs. This is why businesses are shifting their focus towards customized software solutions. The AI (artificial intelligence) is a very powerful technology which is far superior then conventional software applications. That is why businesses are rapidly adopting modern AI (artificial intelligence) based solutions.

When it comes to custom software development, the AI (artificial intelligence) has a lot of potential. The AI is a most modern form of application which is usually implemented where traditional software applications fell short and require human intelligence. There are two major types of AI, the narrow AI which is used to enhance certain tasks. The other type is general AI which is often used in language models, customer services, and it has a wider spectrum of applications. The AI (artificial intelligence) integration in custom software development help automating various sophisticated and complex processes which help driving efficiency and performance. In this blog we will discuss briefly how AI can elevate the impact and efficiency of the custom software solutions.

The Role of AI in Custom Software Solutions
The Role of AI in Custom Software Solutions

How AI is enhancing the Custom Software Solutions?

Before we discuss the role of AI in customer software solutions, let us first understand the customer software development. In today’s modern and digitally transformed market landscape, businesses tend to utilize multiple software applications and IT infrastructure in order to optimize their operations. There are two major categories of software, one is the COTS or commercial off-the-shelf solution and the other is custom software development. The biggest difference between a custom software application and a COT solution is that the COTS are designed for masses and are usually industry specific. Whereas the custom software development is a process to designing and developing bespoke software solutions that resonate with the business needs.

Both custom software development and the COTS have their own advantages and disadvantages, the customer software development stands out because of its ability to fully align with the business needs. The custom software solutions are designed exclusively for businesses and have a particular user group. The custom software solutions are exclusive, hence has ability to offer a better competitive advantages. Furthermore the custom software address even the smallest challenge or problem a business. On top of that the custom software solutions offer easy customization and flexible third-party integration capabilities. Because of all these features businesses tend to rely more on custom software development which is also making the role of AI more crucial and important for software industry. Here is how AI is enhancing the custom software solutions.

See Also: Why Off-the-Shelf Solutions Fall Short: Advantages of Custom Software Development

How AI is enhancing the Custom Software Solutions?
How AI is enhancing the Custom Software Solutions?

Benefits of Integrating AI in Custom Software Development Lifecycle

The AI or Artificial Intelligence is rapidly reshaping the IT industry, which is not only impacting our work lives but also personal lives. The AI plays crucial role in custom software solutions, even at software development lifecycle. When AI aided tools and analysis techniques are used during custom software development, it can potentially be the great catalyst to innovation and exceptional efficiency. The AI at software development lifecycle empowers software developers and help them design more efficient, impactful and user-centric applications. The role of AI is not limited to software development lifecycle, it also plays crucial role in custom software designs. When AI-powered algorithms integrated within the customized software applications, it help making them more efficient and effective.

  • AI Enhance User Experience: The AI has capabilities to analyze large volume of data which help understanding user behavior. Understanding user behavior is extremely crucial for designing software applications which can deliver exceptional user experience.
  • AI’s Predictive Analysis: The AI or Artificial intelligence is capable of performing exceptional predictive analysis which help software developers predict future trends and customer demands. This analysis help designing customer-centric software applications.
  • Boosting Efficiency: The AI-powered tools help software development teams to avoid repetitive tasks, it also help them streamlining and expediting the software development process. The AI-powered frameworks and development tools accelerate the development processes.
  • AI Enhance Performance: The AI powered tools help software development team overcome many challenges that are associated with traditional development techniques. It enhance communication, avoid repetitive work, and help the team to efficiency allocate resources.
  • AI-Powered Code Assistants: Now a day’s AI-powered code assistants and programming tools are redefining the software development. These tools empowers developers, boost their skills, enable accelerated programing methods, perform debugging, and ensure highest coding standards.
  • Testing and Maintenance: The role of AI is not limited in designing and coding, but it effectively does testing, and also help development team in maintenance with its remarkable predictive algorithms, it empowers preventive maintenance and enhance scaling of the applications.

AI-powered tools and integration of various AI applications drive innovation and make customized software more customer-centric, intuitive and efficient.

See Also: Leveraging Big Data in Custom Software Development

Benefits of Integrating AI in Custom Software Development Lifecycle
Benefits of Integrating AI in Custom Software Development Lifecycle

The AI’s Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) Tools

We all know well about Siri, Alexa, ChatGPT and Google Assistant, these all are AI-powered applications. And these all applications heavily rely on Natural Language Process (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. There are so many open source AI platforms such as Meta’s (Facebook) Llama, Keras, Rasa, Amazone Sagemaker, and ApacheMXNet are most popular and widely used platform which makes it a lot easier to integrate customized AI models and wider array of use-cases in your custom software solutions. These tools help businesses build innovative and intuitive features which enhance user experience efficiency. By leveraging the true potential of AI in managing custom software applications, collecting and analyzing analytical data businesses can build exceptional software applications.

  • Increase User Engagements: The AI’s Natural Language Processing (NLP) help creating Chabots and virtual Assistants in your customized software solutions. These tools help engaging users and customers and make your software application more automated and efficient.
  • Sentiment Analysis: Another remarkable feature of NLPs is that their unparalleled capability to understand and identified customer sentiments in user-generated content and customer feedback which help businesses improve features of their custom software solutions.
  • AI-Powered Data Mining: The AI’s ability to collect, process and analyze large volume of data from multiple different channels is remarkable. The AI with its NLP and ML can accurately identify hidden insights, patters and correlations which help improving customer experience.
  • Machine Learning (ML): The Machine Learning (ML) is a subset of AI, which help businesses build predictive models, identify fraud, rectify errors, and learn about user behavior to fuel continuous improvements in custom software solutions which is essential for customer satisfaction.
  • AI Strengthens Cyber Security: The AI plays a crucial role in cyber security, it has ability to improve the software management tools. The AI-powered custom software solutions can integrate additional security and monitoring layers powered by AI algorithms to mitigate cyber threats.

When AI-powered algorithms and tools are integrated in the custom software solutions, it can offer a spectrum of benefits. The user engagements can be increased effectively, while making the application experience seamless and more user-friendly. The data mining and analysis tools help identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your customized software applications and help you make continuous improvements and enhancements for elevated user experience and efficiency.

See Also: Custom Software Development for Enhanced User Experience

The AI’s Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) Tools
The AI’s Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) Tools

The AI Provides Business Intelligence Data and Help Making Informed Decisions

For any business whenever they are planning to implement a new software solution, they have certain objectives in mind. For example, for an ERP businesses aim to effectively manage resources to drive superior performance. In case of a CRM businesses aim to deliver satisfactory customer service and experience to achieve higher customer satisfaction. However, these all decisions require a lot of insights, technical knowledge along with professional skills. For any business making informed decision could be a game changer, because every strategic decision could have long-term impact on business growth. Therefore businesses rely on business intelligence data to empower their decision making process.

The business intelligence data consists of customer feedbacks, internal data, statistical and analytical data collected from all available or most relevant channels and data sources. This help businesses identify the need of new features or solutions. It basically help identifying the flaws in existing business processes and workflows which help improving them.

  • Business Intelligence: Whether the AI is implemented at a single software solution or at the organizational level it help collecting and analyzing business intelligence data. The AI powered algorithms precisely identify patterns, trends, and are capable of uncovering hidden insights, correlations, and it produces actionable reports. These actionable reports not only help making informed decisions but also help analyzing the impact of those decisions.
  • Scenario Analysis: Businesses often failed to utilize the scenario analysis methodologies or even if they do it they do it incorrectly. The AI has tremendous potential, with its abilities to understand historical data, collect user generated data, statistical and analytical data mining, and its ability to converge all data sources from a variety of channels to a single repository makes scenario analysis much more precise, effective, impactful and cost-efficient.

For any business informed decisions are the key to success. The data-driven decision making is becoming mainstream. It is due to the rapid changes in the market, dynamic competitive landscape and every increasing customer demands. Businesses need to be more proactive, responsive and informed in order to meet all those challenges. The AI can play a crucial role in improving operational performance and can provide a great edge over competition.

See Also: Custom Software for Improved Business Efficiency

The AI Provides Business Intelligence Data and Help Making Informed Decisions
The AI Provides Business Intelligence Data and Help Making Informed Decisions

The Role of AI in Improving Key Business Functions

The AI or Artificial Intelligence will play a crucial role in future in software development industry. In today’s digitally dominate world, businesses rely on various different types of software applications to effectively and efficiently operate different business functions. The AI has huge potential to improve each and every business function which makes it an essential tool for long-term business success. Here are some key business functions and the role of AI in improving them:

  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM): The customer relationship management (CRM) is one of the most crucial business function. The AI can enhance customer relationship management methods and CRM software. The AI can help improving customer interaction and customer service. It can effectively analyze customer data to help building targeted marketing campaigns and communication material for better brand perception. The AI-powered Chatbots and Virtual Assistants can offer instant service and assistance to elevate customer satisfaction.
  • Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): The ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning software is a centralized information center and a framework for business operating software. The AI can empower management by reducing the efforts, maximizing the efficiency, eliminating repetitive tasks and offering highly accurate predictive analysis. The AI can effectively automate several internal process and workflows which help managers focus on more productive and crucial tasks. AI-powered predictive analysis and forecast eliminate human errors and empower decisions.
  • Cyber Security: The data is like the bloodline in modern enterprises and businesses, hence the cyber security is the top priority. Business value cyber security not only to protect the data but also to safeguard their brand image and reputation. AI-powered management frameworks and tools have capabilities to respond to cyber threats in real-time. The AI algorithms can detect the fraudulent activities and suspicious user behavior with high accuracy. These features level up cyber security and help mitigating cyber threats with a proactive and preventive approach.
  • Human Resource (HR): The Human Resource (HR) is responsible for hunting right talent and retaining the productive staff. It is also responsible for ensuring elevated performance and optimized operational efficiency. The AI-powered HR tools can effectively screen resumes and help finding the right talent. Furthermore the AI have huge application in employee performance management and appraisal processes. The AI can effectively identify the obstacles and factors hindering staff performance and effectively elevate HR team’s efficiency.
  • Marketing and Communication: The marketing and communication are main catalyst in driving revenue and growth. For marketing and communication businesses must have right customer personas and segmentation. This is a very complex and sophisticated process. The AI can effectively analyze historical data, customer preference, past interactions, and demographics to create most effective user groups for marketing and communication. This not only reduce efforts and save costs but also make these campaigns much more profitable.

The role of AI is not only limited to above mentioned business functions,  but it also have wider application in almost every business function such as manufacturing, warehouse & facility management, financial services, other vital internal business processes. That is why businesses are eager to explore the potential of AI in various business functions. No matter how and where you implement AI-powered solutions, the AI is proven to drive superior efficiency, performance and accuracy.

See Also: The Cost of Custom Software Development: Factors to Consider

The Role of AI in Improving Key Business Functions
The Role of AI in Improving Key Business Functions

Conclusion

In the technology-driven market landscape the AI or Artificial Intelligence is not a futuristic concept anymore, but it has emerged as a reality and absolute necessity to meet with the present day challenges businesses are facing. A modern business or enterprise rely on various software solutions for their daily operations. Hence businesses are on a regular demand to upgrade, improve, and enhance their software and IT infrastructure. The need of implementing a brand new software application is very common, businesses tend to revamp and upgrade their tools every year. This is crucial to stay competitive and to maintain maximum operational performance. When it comes to implement a new software application businesses have two ways to move forward. They can either chose the commercial off-the-shelf solution (COTS) or they can go for a custom software solutions.

The custom software solutions tend to be more effective, impactful and high-performing comparing to COTS or commercial off-the-shelf solutions. The custom software development enable businesses to effectively design applications which accurately meet their needs and fits-in seamlessly in their existing IT infrastructure and environment. The application of AI (Artificial Intelligence), Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) is huge in custom software solutions. The AI elevate custom software solutions from the software development lifecycle to implementation, maintenance, security and even during the improvement processes. The AI has remarkable ability to process large volume of data, above that it has capabilities to collect and analyze data form various resources and channels with absolute accuracy and remarkable efficiency. This is what makes AI an essential component of present day custom software development.

The role of AI in custom software solutions is set to grow even further in coming future. As we all are becoming more accustomed to various AI tools and applications in our daily lives, it is expected to have the similar pattern in the work as well. People are getting more used to of such applications, the software developers, the end-users and decision makers, everyone is getting more familiar with the AI tools. In this blog we have discussed briefly the role of AI in custom software solutions and its benefits along with its impact on key business functions. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help with your next AI-powered custom software development project, 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.

See Also: Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Your Custom Software Development Project


Developing Secure Custom Software in a Cyber Threat Landscape

Businesses tend to rely on various software-based solutions and digital technologies in order to achieve higher operational efficiency and performance. The custom software development is a method to tailor-made software solutions as per business’s unique and exclusive needs. Businesses can also invest in custom software development to level up their defense against the increasing cyber threats and growing security concerns. The cyber security has become the biggest concern for present day businesses and customers alike. The custom software development enable businesses to incorporate various innovative and personalized features to align the app with their needs. Similarly businesses can also incorporate advanced security measures and protective features to elevate the security of their software application.

The custom software development offers more flexibility and control in designing and development process which enable businesses to incorporate a range of security features throughout the development process. This help businesses to deal with increasingly sophisticated and ever evolving security threats. The cyber security is crucial to protect digital assets as well as any business’s reputation. If a small data breach occurs which compromises even least important internal data, even this could have done staggering damage to the business’s reputation. Because the customers will instantly loose trust if they find their favorite brand got data-breach. In this blog we will discuss how custom software development helps elevating the security and strengthen businesses against cyber threats.

See Also: What is custom software development?

Developing Secure Custom Software in a Cyber Threat Landscape
Developing Secure Custom Software in a Cyber Threat Landscape

Understanding the Cyber Threats Businesses are Facing Regularly

The cyber threats businesses had to deal with are evolving, from phishing, to DDoS attacks, malwares, SQL Injection and highly sophisticated ransomware, these all are a few of most common threats. With the passage of time the techniques and tools used to perform such attacks have become highly sophisticated and advanced. Moreover there are cyber-attacks related to IoTs and in some cases there are insider attacks. The insider attacks are mostly unintentional where an employee or contractor who have access to sensitive data got attacked. Whatever the case is the cyber threats are increasing greatly and becoming more challenging day by day. Apart from these there are several other cyber threats that businesses need to handle such as cross-site scripting, identity-based attacks, and much more.

See Also: Custom Software Development for Enhanced User Experience

For example, where the cloud is transforming digital landscape, the security challenges are paramount due to distributed ownership, authority and various other aspects. All these threats are increasing the chances of getting compromised. Furthermore as the AI is rapidly progressing and infusing into almost every digital technology it could. The malicious actors are also seem to exploiting the AI to enhance their attacks. In such situations the custom software development can provide an extra layer of security due to its flexible approach towards structure, technology platforms and control over each and every aspects of the software development and operation. The custom software development also enable businesses to utilize proven coding practices, frameworks, platforms and software stacks to boost security.

See Also: Why Off-the-Shelf Solutions Fall Short: Advantages of Custom Software Development

Understanding the Cyber Threats Businesses are Facing Regularly
Understanding the Cyber Threats Businesses are Facing Regularly

How Custom Software Development Help Boosting the Security of Digital Assets

The custom software development empower businesses in building software solution from ground up, where this enable businesses to incorporate innovative features, it also help building better security features. The bespoke approach always offer better flexibility and control which enable the developers to introduce more security features and build multiple layers of security to deal with the exclusive and unique challenges and vulnerabilities. Here are some key aspects of custom software development which help enhancing and improving the security of the applications:

Custom Software Development: Secure Coding

The secure coding doesn’t represent a framework or tool but in fact it is a practice and technique which complies the programmer’s decisions while creating source code and building the software applications. Although the secure coding techniques ensures that the programmer or coder minimize the possibilities of having vulnerabilities in the software program. As industry standard or best practices you can effectively implement the OWASP Secure Coding Standards or SEI CERT Coding Standards within your custom software development project. Secure coding doesn’t mean using specialized programming languages, for example, the secure coding mandates “default deny” permission approach, and it means all the permissions are denied until specified otherwise.

See Also: Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Your Custom Software Development Project

Here are a few crucial areas to consider and understand for secure coding:

  • Security by Design: The security by design refers to the two areas, one the security is the top priority during the entire software development life cycle. Second it refers to prioritizing the security over the design aspects. For example, the CSS and JS needed to be secured in case of web-based software application.
  • Strong Passwords: The password and login credentials are the most common area users got exploited. Therefore including two factor authentication and adopting encrypted password storing methods could greatly enhance the security. Implementing strong and long password with enabling protection on wrong attempts and two factor are essential for present day software.
  • Access Control: Often the developers doesn’t realize but the access control can significantly elevate or compromise the security of your software application. It is a standard to have implemented the “default deny” approach which means all the permissions will be denied until granted. This could make data protected and access to it difficult for the malicious actors.
  • Error Logging: The error logging and error handling are the two most effective practices to improve the software security. The errors refer to the bugs in the system and the bugs result in vulnerabilities. Hence closely monitoring the bugs, error logs and managing the errors could lead to great improvements in software and strengthening its security.
  • Environment Configurations: If your custom software is managed in multiple environment such as production and development or staging environment. It is crucial to align both and always keep both up-to-date. The software, frameworks, operating systems, services, and everything should be up-to-date and all the patches should be applied to date.
  • Threat Modeling: Threat modeling is a multi-stage process involving various techniques, tools and mainly the deeper analysis of the software. The objective of threat modeling is to identify the areas or aspect of your custom software which are more susceptible to exploitation. This will help you upgrading the software and enabling highest security measures within your application.
  • I/O Validation: The input/output validation is crucial for every custom software application. It is crucial to deploy encoding methods at the outputs and strict validations at the inputs throughout the custom software development lifecycle. The inputs and outputs are the two crucial areas hence need to be secure and well protected.

The secure coding practices are essential to elevate the security of your customized software applications. The software development team has to choose the right platforms, software stacks and above all the mindset to prioritize the security throughout the entire software development lifecycle.

See Also: The Cost of Custom Software Development: Factors to Consider

Custom Software Development: Secure Coding
Custom Software Development: Secure Coding

Custom Software Development: Strong Data Encryption

The data encryption is something that has become almost essential in present day. It is crucial to utilize encryption algorithms at various levels. This helps ensuring strong encryption at both stages, data in transit and data at rest. The data in transit means the data in transmitted into server and user interface/device and the data at rest means the data that is being stored at the server or at the user device. Furthermore the end-to-end encryption is also widely used in modern software development, it ensures the data/information transmitted between two terminals, devices or server and client is encrypted and only the recipient has the decryption key.

See Also: Top Trends in Custom Software Development: What’s Shaping the Industry?

The encryption is implemented by a very sophisticated encryption algorithms and mathematical operations which generates a random encryption key and that key is so complex that it could take trillions of years for a classical computer to test all the combination to unlock it without having the right encryption key. Therefore the encryption can provide a great protection against even some advanced level cyber-attacks. There are several encryption methods and strategies which can be implemented during the custom software development lifecycle.

See Also: Why the Custom Software Development is Good for Your Business?

Custom Software Development: Strong Data Encryption
Custom Software Development: Strong Data Encryption

Custom Software Development: Third-Party Tools and Resources

It is a common practice in the custom software development to use the third-party tools, resources, libraries and elements to expedite the development process. However, where this speed up everything it also increase the vulnerabilities. Using third-party tools, resources, libraries and other design elements could compromise the security of your customized software application. Most of the time developers tend to find free resources online at various forums and website – which often are posted by other developers and are not properly optimized for security. This is why using such resources, libraries and tools could make your application vulnerable for cross-site scripting, malware attach, SQL injection, etc.

See Also: Leveraging Big Data in Custom Software Development

It is always important to carefully inspect the third-party components, codes, resources and elements. Moreover it is crucial to carefully consider the front-end and back-end related tools to ensure perfect alignment and no loophole. Both the design and algorithms should be carefully inspected before using them and after integrating them a critical review/testing should be done with security in mind. Furthermore it is important to understand the vendor of these components to ensure regular upgrades, patches and protection support by the vendor.

See Also: The Impact of Cloud Computing on Custom Software Development [Full Guide]

Custom Software Development: Third-Party Tools and Resources
Custom Software Development: Third-Party Tools and Resources

Custom Software Development: Insider Threats

The insider threats are always a concern for any enterprise. Most of the times it is not attentional, sometime employees, contractors or the people who have access to the software get attacked by cyber criminals and resultantly enable them access to the sensitive data of the organization. Traditionally the employees or contractor who have access to the system either access it outside of the organizational network or either their computer got attacked by malware. These malwares can silently stay on a computer quietly transmitting data to their source from a hidden backdoor. When the cyber-criminal acquire enough information they try to access the organization’s data.

See Also: Common Mistakes to Avoid in Custom Software Development Projects

Businesses often focus on outsider cyber-threats while undermining the importance of insider threats. With the custom software development you can build various checks and controls to prevent or effectively minimize the insider threats. You can also customize your software application to further reduce the impact of an insider attack, whether attentional or unintentional. You can have multi-factor authentication, personalized profiles with limited access to data and much more. The custom software development offer more space to minimize and handle the insider threats.

See Also: Guide to Custom Software Development

Custom Software Development: Insider Threats
Custom Software Development: Insider Threats

Conclusion

As the internet and digital solutions are integrating within modern day business landscape the need of security and number of cyber-attacks is rising. Businesses of all industries, sizes and types are in a constant pressure of dealing with the cyber-security. These day’s businesses are heavily relying on digital solutions and software application in order to effectively run their daily operations. These software solutions where boosting efficiency and productivity are also causing various security threats. These software applications are evolving day by day, the cloud computing, IoTs, AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning), and integrated information infrastructure have completely revolutionized the software solutions.

Where these software solutions are becoming more advanced and impactful the cyber-attacks are also evolving and becoming much more sophisticated and impactful. The cyber-criminals are utilizing cutting-edge technologies and state-of-the-art tools to exploit the vulnerabilities for their malicious intent. We have witnessed some large-scale world-wide cyber-attacks involving malware, ransomware, and other sophisticated attacks. This poses a serious threat as any such data breach could potentially ruin a business’s reputation and brad image. Therefore businesses are now taking interest in custom software development which provides more control and flexibility at the software development cycle and enable businesses to incorporate highly advanced security features.

See Also: Benefits of Investing in Custom Software Development for Your Business in Dubai

The custom software development lifecycle enable businesses to adopt secure coding practices which involves prioritizing the security from the very first step up-till the end of the development lifecycle. The custom software development allow businesses to implement strict password policies, implement multi-factor logins and secure authentication. Furthermore the custom software development allow the developers to take necessary measures and build features which not only help preventing the data-breach but also help them to contain and minimize the impact and effect of the any such data-breaches.

In this blog we have discussed briefly about the cyber-threats a business is facing on daily-bases and we have also discussed how the custom software development can help businesses to make their software and application more secure and well-equipped to deal with present day cyber-threats. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to build a highly secure and effective customized software application for your business or organization, 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.

See Also: Custom Software Development Progressive Web Apps – Beginner’s Guide

See Also: Custom Software Development for Healthcare Industry

See Also: Which one is better Standalone VS Integrated Software?

See Also: The Risk of Poor Performance Management and How to identify it?

See Also: The Beginner’s Guide to Queuing Theory


Self-Service Kiosks for Effective Queue Management

We all are accustomed to queues, whether we are at a bank, at a bus station, or at an airport, the waiting lines are common. However, for service sector the customer waiting lines and customer flow management is one of the biggest challenge. Think of waiting in a poorly organized queue, you are not sure of how much more time you have to wait. There are people who are jumping the lines, which makes you more anxious. Suddenly you notice the next queue is moving fast, which further frustrate you. Even in some cases you end up waiting in wrong lines, and have to go back to the correct line. All these are common issues with traditional manual queuing practices.

Therefore businesses tend to deploy modern digital queue management systems. The modern queue management systems usually use interactive self-service kiosks for ticket dispensing and customer registration. However, businesses usually doesn’t leverage the full potential of an interactive self-service kiosk. Mostly businesses use interactive self-service kiosk to welcome and greet customers. Typically these kiosk allow customer to choose the right service they need and that is it. The queue management system analyze the customer choice and print a ticket accordingly. This also help queue management system to automatically route customers to the right service counter.

However, an interactive self-service kiosk can do much more, in this blog we will discuss how a self-service kiosk can boost the performance and impact of your digital queue management system. Furthermore these interactive self-service kiosks are very flexible with customization, which makes them ideal companion for bespoke queue management systems.

Self-Service Kiosks for Effective Queue Management
Self-Service Kiosks for Effective Queue Management

The Evolution of Interactive Self-Service Kiosks

The interactive self-service kiosks have started as humble vending machines. However, with the passage of time these machines started improving. The real evolution kick started with the advancements in the touchscreen technology. Later on various multination manufacturers have started investing in R&D which gives rise to various specialized peripherals and internet connectivity. This have completely transformed the interactive self-service kiosk industry. Now a days if you are living in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi or any other region of UAE, you would be familiar with these interactive terminals. Whether it is for mobile top ups utility bill payments, or smart airport check-ins these interactive self-service kiosks are popping up everywhere.

See Also: Bank Branch Transformation with High-tech Queue Management System

The primary reason of wider adoptability of interactive self-service kiosks is their ability to deliver unmatched customer experience. The customers also enjoy the convenience, control and easy access offered by interactive self-service kiosks. Furthermore with the rise of IT and communication technologies, smartphones and social media, everyone has become more familiar with technology. Businesses have started investing more resources in digital technologies and digital customer experience management. The interactive self-service kiosks can offer multitude of features such as:

  1. Customer Identification – Bio Metrics Scanning, Emirates ID Card Scanning, Facial Recognition, etc.
  2. Customer Registration – Data Input, Document Scanning, Passport Scanning, Barcode/QR Code Scanning, RFID, etc.
  3. Payments – Cash Deposit, Change Return and Cash Recycler, Coin Acceptor, Credit/Debit Card, POS, Online Payment Gateways, Contactless Payments, Digital Payments, etc.
  4. Multi-Lingual Intuitive UIs – The self-service kiosk UIs can support any language regional or international which enhance customer experience
  5. Printing & Scanning – Apart from Ticket printing, interactive self-service kiosks can print and scan QR Codes/Barcodes, Receipts, Vouchers, Documents, Stickers, and even identity cards
  6. Security and Authentication – The interactive self-service kiosk can utilize OTP SMS, Email-based verification, Facial Recognition, Biometrics and several other ways for secure and instant authentication and identification

These all features enable an interactive self-service kiosk to quickly identify a customer and collect as much data as needed. A typical sing-in using Emirates ID, Biometrics or Facial recognition can take less than a minute from greeting customer to dispensing their ticket number for the queue. This is what makes them more effective and efficient. When the customer arrives at the service counter, their details and other information relevant to their query are already made available for the service agent. Such innovative features help boosting the performance and impact of a digital queue management system.

See Also: What are advance components of Queue Management System?

The Evolution of Interactive Self-Service Kiosks
The Evolution of Interactive Self-Service Kiosks

How Interactive Self-Service Kiosk Makes Queue Management More Effective?

The interactive self-service kiosks are widely used with modern day’s digital queue management systems. A queue management system is a tool businesses utilize to streamline customer flow. It is a combination of software and hardware exclusively designed to implement the queuing policies. This provides businesses great advantage in managing visitors. The customers and visitors sign-in to a queue management system via interactive self-service kiosk. The kiosk allow them to choose the service they need, which help the system to direct them to the right service counter. The interactive self-service kiosks has become a standard in modern queue management systems. It is due to their ability to offer multiple features which further enhance the efficiency of the queue management system.

See Also: How a Queue Management System Can Transform Your Business Operations

Personalized Customer Experience

When a digital queue management system is equipped with an interactive self-service kiosk, businesses can collect valuable information. This information could range from simple language and service selection to a full-fledged customer registration process. The interactive self-service kiosks comes with touch screen interfaces. These intuitive UIs (user interfaces) are designed to simplify the customer journey. Customer can choose the language of their choice. Further they can choose the service from service list, which allow the queue management system to put them in right waiting line. This prevents any confusion or mistake which are common in manual queuing methods.

Businesses can also integrate various identification methods, such as Emirates ID scanner, passport scanner, RFID, Biometrics, etc. This allow them to quickly collect valuable data. Furthermore the queue management system can also relate the customer with the customer database and fetch all the available details. This ability enable businesses to identify the customer persona, and help them deliver a personalized experience at service counters. The interactive self-service kiosk management software provides service agent dashboards which help agents in various tasks. Furthermore these kiosks can be integrated with other system, pushing relevant information beforehand to the service counter, enabling quicker service delivery. These features greatly enhance customer experience and make queuing more effective and efficient.

See Also: Difference in Wired and Wireless Queue Management System

Personalized Customer Experience
Personalized Customer Experience

Reduction in Customer Wait Time

The primary objective of a queue management system is to streamline customer flow, enhance customer experience and reduce customer wait time. The customer wait time is one of the biggest reason of poor customer experience. As the interactive self-service kiosks has ability to understand customer needs by allowing them to select the relevant service. They can also prevent common human errors by effectively eliminating confusion from the system. The customers can directed to their relevant service counter, they are assured the just treatment and they get the highly accurate estimation of their time to service. All these features help reducing the frustration and improve customer experience. In a government service sector or a multi-channel service environment these interactive self-service kiosks are even more effective.

An interactive self-service kiosk can take as much information as needed to expedite the service delivery process. The customers can scan their documents, or input their data via interactive touch screens. The kiosk management system help customers achieving their tasks with easy-to-understand on-screen prompts and guides. The customers can scan QR Codes, Barcodes, payment slips, etc. which greatly improve the service delivery mechanisms and reduce per service delivery time. Because all these information are relayed directly to the customer service counters, which greatly help service agents. It speed up the service delivery and help reducing the wait time collectively for everyone. This also help enhancing the performance and productivity of the service staff, as they can focus more on their primary tasks. Furthermore the interactive self-service kiosks can share the work burden by automating data collection and by enabling customer to input their data by themselves. These features can greatly reduce the customer wait time and help improving the entire queuing process.

See Also: Key Tips to Improve Service Quality through Queue Management System

Reduction in Customer Wait Time
Reduction in Customer Wait Time

Digital and Cash Payments

One of the biggest advantage of interactive self-service kiosk is its ability to collect payments. There are several businesses who require customers to make payments or pay for their remaining dues. Whatever the case is an interactive self-service payment kiosk can greatly improve the queuing process. They customers who are opting for the queuing token can also make payments at the same self-service kiosk. Above all the interactive self-service kiosk can instantly update all the relevant systems and databases which means the payment will instantly reflect at the service agent’s dashboard. This expedite the service delivery process and also prevent customers from getting into the hustle of making payments through a different channel.

Similarly the self-checkout kiosks are also interactive self-service payment kiosks. In a typical retail environment we all experience long queue, especially at the weekends and during the peak hours. However, the number of cash counters or service counters are limited. This is where an interactive self-service payment kiosk can be deployed as an alternate service channel. These kiosks are specialized as per business needs and are equipped with necessary devices or peripherals which enable a self-service checkout. Whether it is scanning the items, scanning their RFID tags, or acquiring product information, all can be provided through these specialized interactive self-service payment kiosks.

With an alternate service channel in place, the footfall at traditional counters can be reduced. This help reducing the wait time of all customers while significantly improving the queue management system.

See Also: Beyond First-Come, First-Serve: Innovative Strategies for Queue Management

Digital and Cash Payments
Digital and Cash Payments

Conclusion

The interactive self-service kiosks have completely revolutionized the traditional queue management systems. The modern digital queue management system vastly rely on these kiosks for customer sign-in and ticket dispensing. However, an interactive self-service kiosk’s abilities are not limited to ticket dispensing. In fact it is a technology marvel offering a wide spectrum of innovative and intuitive features which resultantly boost the queuing performance. These interactive self-service kiosks offers various features such as Emirates ID and passport scanning, RFID, intuitive touch screen UIs, payment options and much more. All these features are designed to automate various workflows and processes which effectively reduce the service delivery time. Once the service delivery time is optimized it will impact on the wait time or all customers, effectively reducing it.

One of the biggest advantage of interactive self-service kiosks is their ability to customize according to the business needs. This makes them ideal for literally any industry, whether you are a banks, hospital, university, government agency or an airport, you can customize these kiosk as per your exclusive needs. An interactive self-service kiosk not only boost queue management system but it has ability to collect valuable analytical data based upon user’s interaction. This data further help businesses to analyze their policies, workflows and customer journey, which resultantly help improving the queuing process and customer experience in the long term.

In this blog we have discussed how an interactive self-service kiosk can effectively boost the performance and impact of a queue management system. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to build a bespoke interactive self-service kiosk and queue management system for your organization, 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.


Impact of Queue Management on Customer Satisfaction in Retail

For every retail business managing higher customer influx or long waiting lines at cash counters is one of the most challenging task. Long waiting lines not only results in unpleasant customer experience but also have toll on your staff performance which eventually further undermine the customer satisfaction. As UAE is a very diverse and vibrant country and retail businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other regions of country knows their customers comes from all around the world, which demands a highest possible standard of customer service to ensure customer satisfaction. The UAE is also home to multiple retail chains, with thousands of small, medium and large retail businesses operating all across the country.

Why Retail Businesses Need a Modern Queue Management System?

The competition has risen to the sky and due to this competition and higher customer demands the queue management at retail businesses have become more challenging than ever before. The traditional queuing techniques have become ineffective and retail businesses are needing modern digital queue management systems to overcome such challenges. A modern queue management system is not just a token machine but it is a highly sophisticated and smart software-based solution which synchronize various software and hardware components and provide more control over customer flow which help businesses in delivering a satisfactory customer experience.

The importance of customer satisfaction is paramount in retail industry as the customers usually have multiple options in their easy reach and the long waiting time is one of the biggest cause of the customer churn. Furthermore the operational efficiency is another big concern at retail businesses which is hindering customer experience and costing businesses a lot in precious sales. This also have negative impact on businesses image and reputation. The customers who felt poorly at any retail store tend to avoid it in future which can have devastating effects on overall business’s success and long term growth. In this blog we will discuss how a modern queue management system can help retail businesses transform their customer journey and help them achieve higher customer satisfaction.

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

Why Retail Businesses Need a Modern Queue Management System?
Why Retail Businesses Need a Modern Queue Management System?

What is the Role of AI in Modern Retail Queue Management Systems?

The modern queue management systems heavily rely on smart algorithms and sophisticated AI (artificial intelligence) which help collecting and analyzing valuable analytical data in real-time. Before we discuss the technology it is also important to understand the waiting psychology. When customers are waiting in the long queues, they got confused and frustrated, one of the biggest confusion is the perception of waiting time. The perceived wait time is always higher than the actual wait time. It is due to the natural psychological reaction our brain has when we are waiting without having much control on wait time. This frustrates us and it feels like we have spent more time than what we actually did. This is the wait time perception and this have huge impact on customer satisfaction.

The modern queue management system helps retail businesses to streamline queues, with the help of physical stanchions, belts, and digital signage, the customer can get distracted from waiting, while without any worrying of line jumpers or getting any sense of confusion. Furthermore the retail queue management system is equipped with modern AI (artificial intelligence) which gets live feeds from CCTV Security and specialized surveillance cameras. This camera feed is relayed to an AI (artificial intelligence) engine which analyzes the video in real-time and provides feedbacks on estimated wait time and even it is capable enough to analyze the staff performance in real-time and alert branch manager if any interruption occurs. These features greatly enhance the decision making abilities of the management and help them elevate the customer satisfaction.

See Also: The Concept of Queue Management and Crowd Control

What is the Role of AI in Modern Retail Queue Management Systems?
What is the Role of AI in Modern Retail Queue Management Systems?

The Queue Management System Drives Automation

One of the biggest advantage of a modern queue management system is its ability to drive automation and digitalize various internal workflows. Several workflows and human resource management tasks can be digitalized and automate using the queue management system. The queue management system comes with a server-side software application. The queue management software provides advanced administrative controls which empower the management and help them take quick and accurate decisions which help streamlining the customer flow and help minimizing the customer wait time especially during the peak hours. Here are a few features which help retail businesses to enhance customer satisfaction:

  • Virtual Queuing: The queue management system offers interactive kiosks and integrated smartphone applications. The customers can use these to sign-in to the virtual queues, which gives them freedom to roam around the store while waiting in a virtual queue. This minimize the stress of waiting and help improving the customer experience.
  • Integration of Self-Checkout: The self-checkout retail kiosks are a great tool to enhance customer experience and elevate satisfaction. The queue management systems are very flexible towards integration and help businesses integrate self-service checkout kiosks which enable customers to checkout without requiring any help from staff resulting is expediting the service delivery.
  • Dynamic Lane Control: The queue management system infused with the people counting technologies and AI (artificial intelligence) can automatically monitor and count the volume of customers in real-time. This allow the queue management system to automatically open or shut service lanes as per the needs. The staff can also be notified if a new lane or service counter had to be open to ensure a smooth customer flow.

The modern queue management system not only help minimizing the customer wait time but it also help improving the decision making and overall operational efficiency. The queue management system at retail businesses are effectively improving the staff performance but empowering management with more advanced data collection and analytical tools which help them in improving their decision making.

See Also: How Queue Management System can Boost Productivity and Profitability?

The Queue Management System Drives Automation
The Queue Management System Drives Automation

The Queue Management System Boosts Operational Efficiency

The queue management system is a very smart application it has various sources and tools which enables it to collect valuable analytical and system usage data. The modern queue management software are infused with AI (Artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) which makes it even more effective and impactful. The queue management system also helps management implement their queuing polices with more precision and accuracy. It offers valuable features for self-service while enabling accessibility for enhanced customer experience. The modern queue management system can be integrated with various sensors that physically track the volume of customer flow and when infused with AI integrated people counting and tracking tools it can even track the movement of the customers within the premises of your business and help you understand the customer flow.

These insights are valuable and help management understand the customer flow which highlights the areas of improvements. The ability to offer virtual queues and automated lane controls further empower the management in their human resource planning. The queue management system not only collects data in real-time but it also keeps the data repository helping management track various patterns with at most accuracy and help them understand the customer flow at any given day or time of the day. Furthermore during busy occasions or any festivity or during the seasonal sales the management can accurately understand the customer influx and customer flow which help them effectively and productivity utilize the human resource in hand to achieve the higher operational efficiency.

See Also: What are the Different Types of Queue Management System?

The Queue Management System Boosts Operational Efficiency
The Queue Management System Boosts Operational Efficiency

Conclusion

The queue management have evolved tremendously over the past two decades, from humble paper pencil to the modern day queue management systems which are empowered by the most modern and sophisticated AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) technologies. The modern day queue management systems offer flexible customization which makes them ideal for various industries and applications. Especially in the retail industry where the customer demands are high, the markets are extremely competitive and the customer wait time is one of the biggest concern for businesses, a modern queue management system has become absolutely essential.

The queue management systems that are designed and customized for the retail industry are equipped with specialized software and hardware components that ensure smoother customer flow, optimum staff performance and elevated customer experience. Features like advanced analytical data collection, virtual queues, dynamic lane control, AI-based customer flow tracking tools and advanced administrative controls help management not only enhance customer satisfaction but it also help them boost the operational efficiency. The management can effectively utilize the human resource in hand with better productivity which directly impact operational performance and results in elevated customer experience.

In this blog we have discussed how a modern queue management system can be leveraged to enhance customer waiting experience while effectively boosting productivity and overall operational performance. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to implement a bespoke queue management system for your retail 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.

See Also: What are the Basic Components of Queue Management System?