How to Avoid Long Queues at Your Events

Dubai and in fact the entire UAE is a very vibrant and dynamic marketplace. The country is a center of all business activities in the region. Businesses and organizations are organizing several events, exhibitions, seminars and gatherings for networking, promotional and awareness purposes. It is very common to see long waiting lines outside these event venues, no attendee want to spend most of their time waiting in the long queues. This will ruin their experience, it will make them unhappy, and it will cause frustration. This led to unhappiness and also increase churn rate, which means that the longer the waiting time is more customers will abandoned the queues and will leave without attending the event. It also have other repercussions, such as it will annoy your visitors and customers, they will fail to participate or focus on the event at least for the first few minutes, in the worst case they will give you negative rating by any channel which is easily accessible to them. If you are collecting post-event feedback, you will get more negative comments and rating. Furthermore the unhappy visitors can also publish something over their social media and they can cause negative or bad publicity for you which could repel more people in attending your events in future and so on.

The negative impact of long waiting on customer experience is long lasting, it not only make your customers unhappy, but it will also impact your reputation and brand image. The first impression is always important, and if it is waiting for long time in crowded areas with very little or no clear indication of how long your customers and visitors might have to wait, is not a good first impression. Businesses often spend huge resources and money on many facilities they are offering but do very little about managing the queues. In this blog we will discuss how a fairly smaller investment in a modern queue management system can completely eliminate this problem.

Queue Management System for Events

A queue management system is a technological solution for a business’s queuing needs. There are a variety of different queue management systems available in the market, the best approach is to acquire a leading queue management system provider in Dubai, such as RSI Concepts and ask them to customize a queue management system according to your needs. There are ready-made solutions too, but they offer limited features and limited customization. Basically a queue management system is a combination of software and hardware components. The software is server side application with multiple clients who can interact with the system through intuitive UIs (user interfaces) and the hardware components vary from case to case. Different businesses have different requirement, for example if you are hosting an event for the first time, you might be needing self-service event registration kiosks, ticket/pass dispensing self-service interactive kiosks, digital signage, etc. If you already have self-service even registration kiosks, you might need only a few more or you can integrate your existing kiosks with the system. That is the beauty of the customized software and applications, they are very flexible to integrate with other technologies which save a lot of efforts and time too. These components will form a queue management system. In this blog we will discuss the key advantages and features of a queue management system that will help you managing your waiting lines for your events.

Improve Customer Flow Through Event Registration Process

The biggest problem at an event’s entrance is the crowd formation and the major causes of crowd formation are poor queuing management and delays at registration counters. Usually all event organizers encourage their customers to register prior to the event via online or email/call, etc. Which could prevent them of spending time at registration counters. However, the registration counters are always present because they are needed. A majority of the visitors would definitely failed to complete the registration beforehand, hence they would be needing registration counter. The manual registration counters are slower and cause several problems that is why most of the event organizers use interactive self-service registration kiosks. The self-service kiosks make the process quicker, eliminate the chances of errors, and improve customer experience. However, large footfall can cause congestion at those counters which passed on to the entrances and cause more queuing problems. A queue management system helps improving the registration process, you can directly integrate the registration forms within the queue management system or you can integrate a third-party registration management system with the queue management system.

Usually the registration area is also the same area where the entrances are, hence it could cause double problem, people can get lost or confused, the queues can tangled with each other and make situation more chaotic. A queue management system on the other hand can streamline customer flow by allowing customers and visitors to sign-up for the queue first, then they can register and then using the same ticket number they can enter the venue, the ticket number can be assigned with a QR code or Barcode which can automate the customer flow. Furthermore the digital signage help customers and visitors to keep track of their turn in the queues and guide them through the entire process. All this can be done fully autonomously without any help from the staff. This not only make process very efficient but it also help reducing the resource consumption of the process. The queue management system can automatically route the customers with integrated customer calling mechanisms through the digital signage and audio announcements. Each time a customer’s turn came they can go to the registration kiosk, scan their ticket and then fill in the form. The same ticket can be scanned on next steps to enter into the venue. This makes the process simple, automated and it significantly improve the customer flow.

Integrate Virtual Queuing Features to Improve Customer Experience

The virtual queuing is one of the most modern form of digital queue management systems. It offers multiple remote channels to sign-up for the queues, enable businesses to minimize the customer wait time which help improving customer experience. There are many way to offer virtual queuing features, mostly the virtual queuing involves the online and digital channels. The business can integrate the customer portals, mobile phone application, exclusive registration pages, and many more digital channels to offer more convenience and ease. The customers can sign-up easily from any of the available option. When they will sing-up for the queue and do the registration process, they will be issued a ticket number or token number. This e-ticket will contain the customers’/visitor’s number in the queue, and it will also provide a unique barcode or QR code which later serve as a gate pass for various steps.This also allow the visitors to utilize their smartphones or mobile devices to sign-up and register instead of waiting for the self-registration kiosks. The virtual queuing can be a great tool to minimize the wait time and manage the large influx at the entrances. Furthermore it can also help businesses to assign groups to different customers and visitors and let them enter as a group, in fact the entry could be individual but the customer call will call a range of the ticket numbers, which can also help speed up the process and reduce customer efforts and wait time.

Easily Manage Disruptions and Increase Customer Happiness

Interruptions, blockage or halted customer flow is a common thing in events with large venues. Especially when there is a sitting arrangements, the staff is deployed inside the venues to guide everyone to their seats and so on. All this requires time, in order to prevent congestion inside, sometimes the staff stop the visitors at the entrances, there could be other problems too, such as a dispute or disagreement, most of the time people lost their passes and they stuck at the security, sometimes the security searches cause disruptions, in short there could be so many things that can cause unexpected disruptions or delay in the customer flow. The queue management system have capabilities to prevent crowd by announcing messages, to inform people about the situation. The queue management system can also communicate with the customers and visitors who have used digital channels to sign-up for the queue. It is important to be transparent with your customers and visitors. Telling them the expected time to wait is not bad, it help them understand what is to be expected and prepare them for wait. However, the impact of these disruption can be reduced by rerouting customers to other entry points. The queue management system can do that automatically. The queue management system collects data form all touch points, it has AI (artificial intelligence) based smart algorithms which are capable to taking decisions in real time which can significantly reduce the impact of disruptions and help improving customer experience by rerouting them and providing them live updates at their most convenient communication channel.

Queue Management System Provides Business Intelligence Data which Improve Planning and Management

The queue management system provides in-depth business intelligence data. The data is collected from all touchpoints and also record historical system usage data which help the event organizing team to understand the customer behavior and flow and help them based their strategies upon concrete information and not on guessing work. The queue management system collects and store historical data from each and every touch point and throughout the customer journey. This data can help management understand the expected customer footfall and help them prepare themselves beforehand by allocating adequate resources and making plans for the registration and entrance areas which is the major cause of congestion and longer wait time. The queue management system provides in-built data analytical and processing tools which can help management identify the trends and predict accurately the number of expected attendees. Obviously as all other registration channels are integrated with the queue management system so it can also provide the number of people who have already been registered and by comparing this data with the historical data, it is easier to estimate the total number of expected customers and visitors at any event.

Furthermore there are always different types of customers and visitors, some are VIP or Premium Visitors, some are People with Special Needs, and some are different in many other ways, which require a different treatment and protocol.The managers can easily understand which type of user-group will show-up at what time with what numbers, and so on. This comparison will help management make a better policy and plan of actions for the event. In case of any interruption or delay the management can also view the live queuing data which can help them understand where and why the interruption happened, and help them resolving the problem more quickly. It also help them understand how many people are in queue, and how to divert them to other moving queues to minimize the impact of the interruption. The management can also alert people who are on their way or are present at the reception area with multiple communication tools and channels. Which help them improving the customer experience as well as reducing the frustration caused by such unplanned interruptions and delays.

Conclusion

Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are well aware of the importance of communication and engagement with their customers. Organizing and hosting events, exhibits, seminars, conferences and large meetings is a common theme for any business in the country. These events are used to promote brand and attract more customers. Whether you are B2B or a B2C business these events are vital for growth and brand image building. Apart from the benefits of hosting an event, the event organization and management is a double-edged sword for the organizing team. If anything goes wrong it could seriously damage the brand image and will hurt the reputation. There are several things and several moving parts which need highly proactive team to manage everything. The biggest challenge is always to handle the crowd and manage the queues. Every business tries to register attendees beforehand however, there would always be a large number of attendees who will register through on-site registration counters or interactive self-service registration kiosks. Furthermore usually as the start time comes closer the footfall start rising very quickly.

Therefore a proper digital queue management system is required to help the staff in managing the large footfall and solving the queuing problems. In this blog we have discussed how a smart digital queue management system can be used to improve your customer experience at events. If you want to know more about the subject or if you want our help to provide you with a highly cost-effective queue management system and self-registration solutions, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

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December 9, 2022

Key Tips to Improve Service Quality through Queue Management System

For any business the primary goals is to satisfy its customers, generate more revenue and grow. The service sector in Dubai and all around the UAE is very concerned about the rapid changes in the market trends, market behavior and technology advancements. The customer experience and service quality are the most important factors for any business’s success. However, each business will have to find a balance between the resources they have and the quality of service they provide. Investing a lot of resources in service delivery processes can surely improve the service quality but this approach could jeopardize the growth. That is why each business has to maximize the efficiency, productivity and performance in order to achieve the high quality of work with whatever the resources they have in hand. For that businesses adopt different methods and bring innovative solutions to maximize the operational efficiency and the quality of the work. This enable businesses to utilize their resources at maximum potential and achieve higher performance efficiency.

When it comes to efficiency and quality of work, for the service based businesses the service centers are the main customer facing channels. Customers tend to visit the service centers to avail various different services, for that the business have multiple counters in a service center to ensure maximum customers get served with minimum wait time. Sometimes there are some exclusive counters for some exclusive services, sometimes there are stepped services which require customers to go to multiple counters to get the full service and so on. There could be different service methods and work flows as per the business model and their practices. However, one thing in customer service centers is universal and very common, which is long waiting lines. The queue management is one of the most critical business function. Different service based industries have different footfall patterns, but all have some peak hours or busy days than the others. The customer footfall will be higher in certain hours of the day which could cause slow moving queues, long waiting time, and even crowed formation is common. That is why a digital queue management system is used to deal with these sort of problems. In this blog we will discuss how a queue management system improves the efficiency of the branch and how it improves service quality.

What is a Digital Queue Management System?

A digital queue management system is a modern solution to manage queues at the large customer service centers. The queue management system is a digital tool, it consists of two parts, one is software and the other is hardware. The major hardware components are interactive kiosk or ticket dispensing machine, digital signage and audio announcements system. The software is designed with highly advance AI (artificial intelligence) based smart algorithms which makes queue management system capable to continuously reading analytical data and take decision in real-time to maximize the efficiency of the queuing process. The queue management system software is usually hosted at a server, or online or at cloud. The agents gets their agent dashboard which provide them features to perform their queuing related tasks and it can also help them improve the service delivery process. The customer UI (user interface) is designed for the interactive kiosk.

However, some modern queue management system allow customers to interact with the system through multiple channels such as smartphone apps, online portals, and other channels. The administrative dashboard is for the management and staff and it is the main command and control system of the queue management system. Furthermore there are different types of software and hardware accessories that can be added to the system on the bases of needs of the business. The virtual queuing is the most modern form of the queue management system it is capable of reducing the customer wait time to literally none. There are several hardware accessories that can be added to the queue management system such as Emirates ID card reader, passport scanners, RFID Job ID Card Reader, Barcode & QR Code reader and several others. The software is capable of integrating with several systems and databases which allow the queue management system to offer more innovative features to enhance customer experience and to maximize the service quality.

Key Advantages of a Queue Management System that Help Improving Service Quality

The queue management system is used to deal with day-to-day queuing problems. However, the queue management system doesn’t only regulate the customer flow but it is a very capable tool which can help improving each and every touch point of the customer journey. The service quality doesn’t only depends on the capabilities of the service agent, in fact there are a lot of other variables which help businesses gradually improve the service quality. If a business is failed to manage the customer flow and the queues effectively the customers will have to wait longer, their waiting experience would be average or mostly below average, they will get waiting stress and they could reach counter in a highly uncomfortable mental state. After a long waiting time most of the customers just want to get everything done as quickly as possible, hence they make the job of service agent more difficult. Moreover when the queues are poorly managed the service agents also have a lot more work to do, they will get distracted from additional tasks to manage the queues, communicating with the customers in the waiting lines, and much more. Which effect their performance. All this led to a poor service quality. Here are the key advantages of a queue management system that help businesses improving the service quality.

Reduced Wait Time

One of the most crucial part of customer journey is the wait time and it could have profound effect on service delivery as well. As per industry standards and several international studies the average acceptable wait time for a customer is 5 to 13 minutes, depend on the industry. In traditional and manual queuing environment an average wait time could reach somewhere from 20 to 100 minutes on an average, depends on the footfall and industry type. However a digital queue management system can reduce the customer wait time by 30% to 70% depends on the industry. Furthermore the virtual queuing is a highly efficient queue management system which can literally reduce the wait time to zero. That much of reduction in the customer waiting time can have significant impact on customer happiness and customer satisfaction. Traditionally the queue management is not an easy task, it requires a lot of manpower and even then it cause a lot of problems which result in customer unhappiness and dissatisfaction, such as line jumpers, long waiting lines, dispute among customers, customer complaints about favoritism or poor management and much more. All these issues not only make your customers unhappy and frustrated but also have a toll on the employee performance.

A digital queue management system let customers sign-up for the virtual queues, hence they don’t have to physically wait in the lines. It offer customers freedom to wait comfortably in the designated waiting areas and help improving their experience. Furthermore the queue management system is a digital tool, hence the customers and visitors knows that the queues are managed by a computer operated program. This assure them there would be no line jumping, no favoritism and no mismanagement. Hence the customer complaints reduced to literally none. The queue management system automates the customer sign-up processes with the help of self-service solutions. Furthermore the self-service interactive ticket dispensing kiosk can be used to acquire some basic information about the customer’s needs. Which help queue management system to put them in the right queue. Furthermore the queue management system can divert customers from one counter to another in real time to ensure maximum efficiency. This entire process is automated, hence the wait time is significantly reduced. Since there is no human involvement the entire process is automated, the efficiency is high which improve customer flow and reduce wait time.

Improve Customer’s Waiting Experience

Reducing the customer wait time is a great advantage however, the improving the customer waiting experience could double their satisfaction. There are certain features that a queue management system offers which help businesses improve the customer waiting experience. The wait become more difficult if we don’t know how long we would have to wait. A queue management system captures analytical and system usage data, it also monitor several employee performance KPIs. The AI based smart algorithms can easily determine the expected wait time. Publishing the expected wait time help reducing the stress of the customers. Furthermore the digital signage keep displaying the live queuing information which also keep customers engaged and distracted from the waiting. The queue management system also allow businesses to publish multimedia content for information and entertainment to keep user busy. The multi-lingual audio announcement system keep announcing the next ticket number. These all things keep user distracted from the boredom of the waiting and keep them engaged which reduced the stress of the waiting and improve customer’s waiting experience.

Improve Customer Flow

The customer flow is of the major aspect of queue management. Usually in each service center there are several counters, there are several services and each service is different from the other. There are so many factors that can affect the customer flow. For example, some services take more time than the others, there are certain services which can be only offered by the exclusive counters, different service agents work on different pace, etc. All these factors can impact the customer wait time. The queue management system take account of all these aspects and it is capable of taking fully autonomous decisions in real time, which enable it to utilize the full potential of the service agents and maximize the productivity. For example, if a particular service is offered at 3 out 10 counters, two of the service agents are working at a good pace, one is relatively slower and takes more time to serve a customer than the peers. In such case the queue management system can sense the customer flow pace, and it can move more customers from the fast moving queues than the slow moving queues to maintain the balance which also increase the overall performance of the team.

Furthermore there are several services which are exclusive and there are customer groups which require different treatment as per the business policy. In such scenarios the queue management system can completely understand the customer route and ensures a smooth customer flow. The queue management system can automatically direct the premium or VIP customers to exclusive counters, it can direct the customers to the designated counters based on their service requirements. If a counter stopped, it can automatically divert and distribute the load at the other counters. These features are fully autonomous, the businesses can configure their policies as an instruction set for the system and the queue management system takes all the decisions in real-time based on the data it is capturing from different sources and touch points. The queue management system can also effectively improve the customer flow for the stepped services. A stepped service is a service that is distributed among more than one counters, the queue management system can not only ensures smooth customer flow but it also direct customers to the next steps. Basically the automation plays a vital role in maximizing the customer flow.

Offer Virtual Queuing

The virtual queuing is the most modern and advanced type of queue management system. The virtual queuing allow customers to utilize remote channels and mediums to sing-up remotely for the queues. It means that the customers are not required to be physically present at the branch. The virtual queue management systems are integrated with multiple channels, such as queue management system mobile apps, online customer portals, company website, SMS, QR Code, WhatsApp, etc. All these channels improve customer experience by providing them freedom and control over their interaction and facilitate each customer journey step. Since the customers are signing up remotely, hence they can plan their visit to arrive only when their turn comes. They don’t have to sit in the waiting areas anymore. They can do whatever they want to do, this offer a great relief to the customers and doesn’t put any waiting pressure on them. Furthermore the remote channels also allow businesses to enable communication with the customers and send them alerts and notifications to keep them updated with the queuing status. Less wait time means no stress or frustration, the customers get served as they arrived. This has a great impact on customer interaction and make it easier for the service agent to deliver a satisfactory experience.

Reduce Employee Workload and Improve Efficiency

With the traditional queuing the employee works under high pressure and they have to deal with a lot of unwanted tasks such as managing the queues, answering to people’s queries, solving their disputes, and such activities. This can have a serious impact on employee efficiency and on top of that the business will require a lot of additional staff to ensure a smooth customer flow during the peak hours. However, with the queue management system the employee doesn’t have to deal with any of such task, the entire customer flow is managed by the queue management system. This reduce the work load of the employee, furthermore the queue management system automatically manages the customer flow which is also very helpful in evenly distributing the customer among all available counters. When employee work under balanced workload their performance automatically got improved and they tend to be more satisfied. Moreover the queue management system can also be integrated with internal systems and other business tools which enables it to help service agents with their pre-service and post-service tasks, and reduce the delay. Happy and satisfied employees tend to deliver better service and on top of that since the customers also arrive with a calm and stress-free mind, it is easier to satisfy them.

Collect Business Intelligence Data and Improve Decision Making Processes

As the queue management system is a digital tool it has capability to collect and record analytical and performance data. The queue management system can collect information about the footfall, the peak hours/days, different patterns, the data about the service usage, the employee performance data and even the customer feedback data which help management to take informed decisions and based their policies and strategies upon the analytical, historic and feedback data to maximize the customer satisfaction and service quality. For example the understanding of the peak hours, will let the management effectively utilize resources, the understanding of the wait time can help understanding the strength and weaknesses of the queuing strategies. The employee performance data will help the management and the HR to design effective training programs and improve employee performance and technical competencies. Furthermore the customer feedback data help the management to understand the customer’s needs, expectations and desires. It also help identifying the areas of improvement and enable the businesses to gradually improve the services and service quality.

Integration with Third Party Tools and Databases

The queue management system is designed on a highly adoptive and technologically advanced platforms. Which enables businesses to easily integrate in the internal IT infrastructure and the central information center. This enables the queue management system to send and receive data to and from all integrated systems, databases and the central information center. The integration also allow queue management system to offer more innovative features. For example the integration with the customer database allow queue management system to identify the customers at the self-service ticket dispensing kiosk via the customer ID, barcode/QR code, or even with the Emirates ID Card and so on. Integrating biometrics identification is also very common among the HR departments. The integration also allow the queue management system to facilitate the agent’s tasks. For example each agent have to prepare for the next service, this preparation require accessing certain information that are required for the service delivery, which can be automatically pushed to the agent dashboard if the queue management system is integrated with the relevant systems and databases and so on. All these features are possible because of the integration capabilities of the queue management system and directly or indirectly help improving the service quality and customer experience.

Conclusion

The service quality for any service based business is the crucial and extremely important. If a business failed to deliver the high-quality service they can’t retain customers for long. The customer retention depends on the service quality and customer experience. If the customers are happy and satisfied they tend to become more loyal with the brand. The loyal customers are a great asset for any business and are considered to be the key to success. Furthermore several studies and market researches shows that it is 5 to 25 times more expensive acquiring a new customer than selling to an existing customer. That is why the customer happiness, satisfaction and loyalty is crucial for the businesses. When it comes to customer service quality and satisfaction the queuing plays a crucial role. The traditional and manual queuing methods have completely failed the businesses that is why the businesses are actively seeking digital solutions to improve their queuing process. A digital queue management system is one of the most effective tool to manage the queuing process and it also have several other benefits too. The queue management system help businesses streamline the customer flow and automates several internal process which further help businesses reducing the customer wait time.

The wait time is one of the most crucial aspect of customer experience. The reduction in wait time have great effects on the customer experience, furthermore the queue management system also help improving customer’s waiting experience and the virtual queuing is capable of completely eliminate the wait time. Furthermore the queue management system help improving the employee performance and it can also support them with their primary tasks. The queue management system can significantly reduce the employee workload, which also help increasing the employee service quality. The queue management system also collect and provide highly valuable business intelligence data. The business intelligence data help businesses evaluate their ongoing strategies and policies and provide them valuable information which enable them to gradually improve the strategies and help them making informed and fruitful decisions. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to deploy a highly effective, cost-efficient and customized queue management system, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

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October 6, 2022

Waiting Line Problems and Solutions

All businesses face queuing and waiting line problems. In fact here in Dubai and all around the UAE the service based industry is struggling very hard to minimize waiting line problems. This is because the market is very competitive, people usually have a busy lifestyle and no wants to stand in waiting line for hours. Let us admit, we don’t want to wait in a queue even if we have time, and in case if someone had to reach somewhere or short on time, the waiting could get more frustrated. That is why the businesses invest huge number of resources and hard-earned profits into solutions that can solve their queuing problems. No matter what service you offer there would be a time when you will have to deal with long queues. Extended waiting time could destroy customer experience, it cause stress and frustration which later also impact on the service. It is extremely harder to satisfy an already stressed or annoyed customer. That is why we have decided to write this blog to provide our audience and customers a basic understanding of the waiting line problems and how a digital queue management system can solve them.

What are common Waiting Line Problems?

The waiting lines doesn’t only impact your customers but they also cause frustration in your staff. Extended and longer wait time is one of the biggest and most harmful problem any service based business face with their waiting lines. The long waiting time cause stress and unrest among the customers and visitors, people tend to start line jumping, crossing one another, which results in verbal confrontations and dispute among the customers themselves as well as with the staff. Furthermore with poorly managed queues, people usually end up at wrong counters, which cause additional issues. The long waiting line result in higher customer churn rate, when a customer leaves without getting service, they most likely will never return which cause business a great loss. The long waiting line put employees on their toes, everyone have to do multitasking in order to maintain the order and keep customers calm. Which put extra strain on employees and effect their efficiency and performance. Businesses will have to assign more employees to manage queues which increase their expense and further squeeze their profits.

The mismanaged queues and long waiting lines can directly or indirectly impact each and everything in an organization and impact their overall growth. Here is how a digital queue management system can not only solve their problems but it can also help businesses in improving customer experience, customer satisfaction, employee efficiency and productivity.

How a Digital Queue Management System can Solve Waiting Line Problems?

A digital queue management system is a technological solution to solve waiting line problems. It consists of two parts, the software and the hardware, these two can further divided into multiple categories on the bases of features and functionalities. A basic digital queue management system consists of the following components:

Queue Management System Software:

Queue Server Software/Application
Agent Interface
Administrative Dashboard and Control Panel
Customer Interface

Queue Management System Hardware:

Ticket Dispensing Kiosk/Printer
Audio Visual Announcement Tools
Digital Signage
Counter Displays/Plates

The operation is fairly simple. The queue management system is installed at the business premises. The server software/application could be hosted online, or at cloud on even in local in-premises data centers. The agent dashboard could be a well-crafted intuitive web-based interface which can be accessed by any computer with a web browser on it or it could be as simple as a push button. The ticket dispensing unit is usually an interactive self-service kiosk but a simpler ticket printer can be used at the reception to issue queuing tickets to the customers and visitors. The audio visual announcements system consists of a speaker system and a display which are installed at strategic places within the premises. The counter displays or counter plates are used to assign number/names of the counters. The counter displays also allow displaying more useful information.

That is a simplest form of a digital queue management system.There is a wide range of all sorts and types of digital queue management system available in the market. Some follows a bit more traditional queue management methods and some are modernized and offer more value to customer experience. Here is how a digital queue management system can help eliminating the waiting line problems:

Queue Management System: Organizes Waiting Lines

The queue management system help organizing the waiting lines which itself can solve a lot of common waiting line problems. All the customers are required to get a ticket. Their ticket number corresponds to their turn in the queue. Moreover the queue management system can also ask customers to choose their desired service which prevent confusion and ambiguities. Since the ticket number is already assigned to everyone, so the line jumping is completely eliminated. Everyone will be served on their turn only no matter where they stand in the queue. Usually when the customers are standing in waiting lines, they think that the line next to them might be moving quickly, which cause line jumping. However when the tickets are already given, then there is no point in jumping lines. Similarly when people are in waiting lines, they feel the staff is favoring someone, especially familiar customers, which cause unrest and stress and sometimes led to disputes between customers and the staff.

As a queue management system is a digital system and everyone knows that all the tickets are issued by a computer program which is unable to distinguish between different persons, so they don’t have any concerns about favoritism or unfair treatment. That is why the customers trust it and knows that everyone will be treated fairly. This make waiting line more organized and also help reducing the work of the staff who usually engaged in managing waiting line and solving problems. Moreover the businesses can also utilize the queue management system to segregate different customers on the bases of their required services, their priority levels and much more. All businesses have different services and different priority levels for the customers. For example, usually at banks the retail customers and the corporate customers are served at different counters or service windows. Similarly for expecting mothers, people with special needs, or elderly people there could be different service counters and so on. The queue management system help organizing the waiting line according to the needs of the business.

Queue Management System: Reduce Customer Wait Time

One of the biggest advantage of a digital queue management system is that it has ability to significantly reduce the customer wait time. The customer wait time is single most influential factor in the waiting line and longer the wait time make your customers unhappy and in some cases very stressed. The longer wait time is also a major cause of the customer churn. The customers tend to leave when they feel they will have to wait for a very long time. This happens when the waiting lines are moving slowly, the queues are managed poorly, the staff is fully engaged with customers and the service agents are also busy in managing customer flow and solving other waiting line problems. Which distract them and cause further delay in the service. All these things add up to the waiting time. Studies have shown that on an average a customer is only willing to wait for around 14 minutes, this is the maximum limit, for several other businesses the average tolerable wait time is even less than that.

More wait time means more stress and frustration, if a customer reach to the counter in a stressed mood, it would be hard for the service agent to satisfy them. A digital queue management system can solve all these problems. It can streamline customer flow and lift unnecessary work from the service agents and other staff. Which allow them to focus on their primary tasks. Thus the service agent can have a better interaction with the customers and they can also minimize the service delivery time. Furthermore the well-organized waiting lines and queues also help reducing the wait time and improve customer flow. Smoother customer journey means better customer experience and higher customer satisfaction. Since most of the customer journey is managed by the automated queue management system this means there would be no delays, errors or complaints from the customer. The queue management system also ensures each customer arrive at the right counter and it can also support service agents in the service delivery process which maximize their performance. All these improved processes significantly reduce customer wait time and ensure a smoother and happier customer journey.

Queue Management System: Improves Customer Waiting Experience

Another most important aspect of customer satisfaction is their waiting experience. The human brain works in a very peculiar way. When we are waiting for something we feel like the time is passing slower than usual. When we are excited we feel like the time passes faster than usual. This phenomenon is called perceived time. In service industry the perceived time is always a problem for the managers. Even though a proper queue management system is in place, the average wait time is reduced and the service agent are performing well, still the customer complains for long wait time. This is due to the fact that they started to get bored after just 8 to 10 minutes. For that the queue management system offers multiple solutions. There are large digital displays used with the queue management system to publish the queuing information. The same can be utilized to play multimedia content or adverts or anything interesting. This can distract them from the waiting and keep them engaged.

Usually a standard queue management system comes with in-built digital signage tools which allow the managers to push content on the signage screens in the waiting area. The screen can be divided into two or more sections to display the queuing information and the multimedia content side by side. Furthermore the audio announcement system also helps engaging the customers. For each ticket the audio announcement system announces the ticket number and corresponding counter number/name and this announcement is made in multiple languages, usually English and Arabic in Dubai and all around the UAE. This also keep users distracted from waiting and increase their engagement. All these features help reducing the perceived wait time and improve customer’s waiting experience. The queue management system also comes with a smart software engine, which has capabilities to analyze the historical data and it can predict the expected wait time for each ticket based on the historic data and current queue status. Printing that time on the ticket is also helpful in reducing the perceived wait time and help improving customers’ waiting experience.

Queue Management System: Provides Valuable Business Intelligence Data

The modern businesses are heavily relying on data and information. The market trends, voice of customer, statistical data, performance data and such information are the backbone of the decision making process in the modern business environment. The waiting lines and the customer flow are one of the crucial factor for any service based business. It is extremely important to gather valuable business intelligence data from your queuing processes. A queue management system is a digital tool with an AI (Artificial Intelligence) based software. Its algorithms are programmed to collect data from each and every customer touch point and from all relevant internal business processes. The queue management system records customer journey details such as average wait time, busy hours of the day, and busiest days of the week or month and so on. Such data helps manager to form strategies to effectively deal with the waiting line problems and help them in improving the queuing process. The queue management system can capture and provide data in real-time the branch managers, head-office or any other concerned person can have real-time access to the ongoing queuing processes from anywhere through dedicated dashboards.

The queue management system can also capture the wait time for each service and each priority level of the customers along with the service delivery time. The in-built analytical tools can provide full details of each individual process as well as average wait time and service time. The same kind of data can be captured for the service agents. This data provides a deeper insight to the queuing process and relevant staff work performance. The managers can easily understand the strengths and weaknesses of their staff. For example, if a service agent performs well when delivering 5 out of 12 services and he/she slows down when working on the others, which mean he/she needs more training for the remaining services. The queue management system can also capture time between one service delivery and next customer call. Along with all these details a lot of the parameters are also captured and direct KPIs can be set and monitored for the performance.

The performance data helps the HR and the customer flow data helps the managers to build new strategies and plan resources accordingly to maximize the efficiency.Better resource planning, improved productivity and individual performance help businesses reduce the resources for the operational needs. Which help them reduce the expenses of the branch thus improve profitability. Satisfactory customer experience also help gaining their trust and drive customer loyalty which further add up to the profitability and growth. The loyal customers are a precious asset for any business, it is 5 to 25 times less-expensive to sell to an existing customer than acquiring a new customer. The voice of customer or customer feedback collection capabilities also help businesses getting in-sight to the customers’ minds. Which help them understand customers’ liking/disliking, demands, needs, problems, and also help them in product development process. All this business intelligence data can significantly improve various internal processes and have huge impact on customer experience and customer happiness.

Queue Management System: Offers Virtual Queuing and Mobile Apps

Waiting line problems are not new for the service sector. Businesses are dealing with waiting line problems since the very beginning. However the market trends have been changed. The customer behavior and their expectations have changed drastically. Especially in the past decade, the technology have integrated far deeply to our daily lives. Now a days if you are living in Dubai or any other part of the UAE you must be utilizing some kind of technological solution to interact with businesses, organizations and even with government entities too. The UAE government specifically is very advanced comparing to other government in the region. The UAE government is in a transition phase to replacing the traditional service practices with the modernized and digital e-Services. This is due to the advancements in the smartphones and their usability, these days the smartphones and mobile apps have become an essential part of our day-to-day activities. Whether it is communication, work or entertainment, the smartphones and mobile apps are helping us making our lives better. The queue management systems are no exception.

The queue management system mobile apps allow customers to utilize modernized queuing methods, which is more commonly known as virtual queuing. The virtual queuing is a modern and most efficient queuing method. It enables the customers and visitors to sign-up for virtual queues using remote channels and it has capabilities to completely eliminate the wait time. The customers and visitors can use queue management system mobile apps or any other remote channel such as SMS, Email, Call, Online Customer Portals, Appointment Booking Portals, WhatsApp, etc. to sign-up for the queue. An e-ticket or digital ticket has been issued which act as the queue number and allow customers to sign-up for the queue without physically arriving at the branch or standing in the waiting lines. The queue management system also allow the customer service agents and staff to communicate with the customers via digital channels such as WhatsApp, Customer Portals, SMS, Email, In-app Alerts & Notifications and much more. The customers always get updated queuing information through their preferred communication channel along with the expect wait time.

This allow them to plan their visit as per their convenience and arrive only when their turn comes. The virtual queuing and queue management system mobile apps literally reduce the wait time to zero and offer a more personalized customer experience. No wait time or very low wait time in itself is a remarkable achievement. Furthermore the queue management system mobile apps and the online appointment booking portal also help customer gaining access to the valuable information which help them plan their visit more conveniently. Customer can view live queuing information at all branches, hence they can sign-up for the branch with less customers and so on and so forth. The queue management system mobile apps also provide branch locator which allow customers to view real-time location maps and traffic updates and let them plan their visit according to their convenience. Such features can significantly improve customer experience and help businesses obtain higher levels of customer happiness and customer satisfaction. The virtual queuing also reduce the workload of the staff and help improving their performance too.

Conclusion

For any service sector the customer waiting lines are always a big challenge, especially when the footfall is high the customer waiting lines could drastically impact customer experience. A bad customer experience can repel your customers. Furthermore the businesses also have to allocate more resources to deal with the waiting line and queuing problems. A digital queue management system not only help businesses is solving all waiting line problems but it also add value to customer experience and raise the levels of customer satisfaction. The queue management system also help businesses optimize and improve staff efficiency and performance which also results in better customer experience. As it is a digital tool so it can effectively capture valuable business intelligence data which can be help businesses and management in decision making and strategy building processes. The queue management system not only solve waiting line problems but it also help improving various internal processes and overall productivity of the service center. The virtual queuing, integration with third-party tools, mobile apps and such modern features help businesses and customers in many ways.

Here in Dubai and all around the UAE there are many different types of queue management systems available in the market. It is crucial to choose an appropriate queue management system with the correct set of features to maximize your service center’s performance. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about waiting line problems and their solutions or if you want our help to deploy an effective and cost-efficient queue management system for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

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August 11, 2022

How to Reduce Queues in Banks?

Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the banks have exceptionally higher standards and service quality comparing to the other countries of the region. In fact the entire service based industry in the country is considered to be the best in the entire MENA region. The overall infrastructure of the banking industry is very high-tech and advanced, however, the queue management is one of the most overlooked part of the banking sector. The queue management systems are very common, in fact almost every branch of every bank would have some kind of digital queue management system. Most of the time banks and other businesses don’t fully understand the queue management systems. Usually business owners and bank managers think that the queue management system is just a tool to improve customer flow and minimize the wait time. But in reality a queue management system is much more than that. In this blog we will briefly discuss what a queue management system is, how it can help to reduce the queues and what other benefits a bank can get from a queue management system.

A queue management system is a combination of intelligent software and some hardware components. The software is basically a server which hosts all the intelligent algorithms, source codes and various user dashboards. The hardware is mainly used to interact with the customers. In a simple queue management system setup the first customer interaction happens on an interactive kiosk machine which take some basic information and dispense a ticket bearing their number in queue and also estimated time to their turn. Then there could be several digital signage displays who continuously display the live queuing information and also used for customer calling. The ticket numbers are announced on the signage as well as via an integrated audio system which is installed all over the place. Modern queue management systems also have customer feedback collection tablet or small screens which are usually placed at the counters. That is how a basic queue management system works. However, there are a lot more features that can be added to maximize the efficiency and to improve customer experience. The primary goal of a queue management system is to reduce the queues at the bank branch to minimize the customer wait time and to streamline the customer flow.

Queue Management System Reduces Customer Wait Time

The prolonged customer wait time can destroy their experience and make them unhappy. Long wait time means slow customer flow and slower service delivery, which results in long queues and crowd formation at the bank. A queue management system allows banks to digitally and autonomously manage their queues and customer flow which help reducing the customer wait time and prevent crowd formation to reduce the queues in banks. A bank offers several services and it have several counters to enhance customer experience and to improve service delivery. Usually in banks the average customer wait time is almost 20 minutes and in some cases it can reach up to 40 minutes and beyond. No one wants to wait that long, this makes customer unhappy and eventually a bank can lose its valuable customers due to poorly organized customer flow and queues. A queue management system have in-built AI (artificial intelligence) powered software and intelligent algorithms which makes it able to effectively manage the queues to minimize the wait time.

A queue management system can collect customer information and other required details about the service they need and it can route them through the shortest possible customer journey. The queue management system can perform several analysis and take decisions in real-time to maximize the bank branch’s efficiency and performance. For example, the queue management system can recognize the dedicated counters for certain services and it can automatically route the customers to the most relevant counter to ensure they instantly get served. The queue management system can also help service agents to prepare for the service delivery by informing them in advance about the next service and it is also capable of pulling up the required information from other connected systems to facilitate the service delivery process. Such features can significantly decrease the customer wait time. When the customers have to wait less, they are directed towards the right counter and the service agent also take less time to deliver the service, the overall wait time for every customer gets reduced. Less wait time means smaller queues and less chances of crowd formation.

Queue Management System Automates and Optimize Customer Flow

Smart management of customer flow and customer routing is a key to reduce wait time and to enhance customer experience. The queue management system can offer a variety of features and automation options to allow the bank manager to automate the customer routing and customer flow based on their policy and strategy. Furthermore it is also capable of automatically managing the customer flow based on the real-time data it collects from various touch points. Bank manager can leverage the customization to further improve the efficiency. The queue management system can take customer information or the information of the service they are requesting for. This information can be used to set the route of the customer, for example, if a customer needs Service A which is offered by the counters 1, 4, 7 and 11. Then the queue management system will automatically monitor all these counters and it will direct customer to the immediately available counter. This can save a lot of time and it improves customer flow.

Some services require customers to visit multiple counters for full service delivery. Those kind of services are called stepped services. The queue management system can automatically manage customer flow between different counters and ensures each customer reached to the most quickly available counter to avoid any time delays and idle counter time. Which can also save a lot of time and reduce the overall customer wait time. The queue management system can also monitor the employee performance in real-time. It can detect which employee is taking how much time for a single service delivery and which employees are best at delivering which services, this data is analyzed by the in-built smart algorithms and accordingly the queue management system keep routing customers through the most efficient route. Furthermore there are always some exclusive customers such as corporate customers, VIPs, Premium Account Holders, and customers with special needs. A queue management system can also effectively manage the flow of such customers to enhance their experience.

Queue Management System Improves Employee Performance

Employee performance is a crucial part of the queuing process. If the employee will perform well they will be able to serve more customers in a single shift. This also means that the average customer wait time will be reduced. For example if an average service delivery time is 10 minutes and the same employee start taking 11 minutes for the same service and if you have 20 customers ahead of you, your wait time will be increased by 20 minutes. That is why the employee performance is a crucial part of queuing process. With poorly managed queues and traditional service delivery methods the average service delivery time is very high therefore the employees can’t delivery high performance. However with the queue management system a lot of business processes can be digitalized and automation further improve the efficiency of the internal business processes. For example the queues and the customer flow is managed automatically by the queue management system hence the employees don’t have to spend time on queue management.

Since a lot of steps can be automated with the help of a queue management system the employee get more time to focus on their primary tasks which increase their performance. Furthermore the queue management system can also provide additional information about the customers and their needs even before they reach to the counter. This helps service agents in preparing for the upcoming service and save a lot of time. A queue management system can also be linked/integrated with other organizational systems and tool or with the central information center which enables queue management system to automate certain service delivery processes. If the queue management system have access to the other systems and databases it can also pull the required data and information for the service before even the customer arrives at the counter, and help service agent in quicker service delivery. The quick service delivery significantly improve employee performance and make them able to deal with more customers in a single shift.

The queue management system help reducing customer wait time, it facilitates service delivery process and help service agents to deliver more qualitative and quantitative work. The queue management system frees employees from unnecessary work and allow them to focus on their primary tasks. Which not only make the employee comfortable and happy but it also help them perform better. The queue management system can monitor and capture various employee performance KPIs which help employees which can be used for self-assessment and also by the HR to create employee development and training program to further maximize the employee performance over the time.

Queue Management System offers Virtual Queuing

One of the most modern and most effective way to reduce queues in banks is the virtual queuing. The virtual queuing have gained huge momentum in the market since past 2, 3 years. The virtual queuing is embraced by various industry sectors in Dubai and all across UAE. Basically the virtual queuing allow customers and visitors to use mobile channels to sign-up remotely for the virtual queues. It means the customer doesn’t have to physically be there in order to secure their position in the queue. Furthermore the virtual queuing can utilize multiple digital communication channels to keep the user updated and informed about the ongoing queuing activities. This allows the customers to arrive only at the time when their turn will come and prevent any congestion or long queues at the bank. The virtual queuing offers multiple sign-up channels which make process simpler and convenient for the customers and it also offer real-time updates and alerts so no customer misses their turn.This way banks can significantly reduce queues at the branch.

The virtual queuing can offer multiple innovative features which not only help reducing customer wait time and queues but also help improving customer experience. The customers can easily sign-up using customer portals, online/website, mobile application, appointment booking portals, SMS, emails, phone calls, QR Code and many more. Furthermore the virtual queue management system also provide detailed information in mobile app, appointment booking module and other channels which help customers plan their visit as per their convenience. The customers can view the peak hours, expected wait time at any hour, day or date based on the historical data collected by the queue management system. The can also use mobile apps and online portals for branch navigation. This allow them comparing multiple branches in reach and let them chose the one with the lowest wait time. Hence the customer can plan their visit with more freedom. Since the customers are instantly served when they arrive, this prevent crowd formation and queuing issues at the bank branch. It also help improving employee performance and enable branch managers to smartly utilize resources for maximum efficiency.

Queue Management System Collects Business Intelligence Data

Modern problems need modern solutions. There was a time when businesses and customers are not as that concerned about the wait time, in fact a long waiting line with first come first serve queuing was enough to gain higher levels of customer satisfaction. However, world have changed now, especially Dubai and other cities in UAE are some of the most modernized societies in the entire GCC. The information technology is deeply rooted into a business success. This means the data and information are the most crucial aspects of a successful strategy. The queue management system is one of the most effective tools to collect valuable business intelligence data and deeper understanding of customers and their preferences. A queue management system can collect statistical and analytical data from each and every touch point of the customer journey and in addition to that it can also collect customer feedback data, employee performance data and offers various other information. The data can be analyzed with in-built analytical tools and bank manager can easily extract actionable reports from this data which help understanding the customers, their preferences, liking/disliking and much more. Such information can be very helpful in building new strategies and evaluating various business processes.

Conclusion

Let us admit no one likes waiting in long queues, and we all want instant service from our beloved businesses and brands. When it comes to the banks, the queue management and crowd prevention is some of the most important tasks. Actually everything revolves around the customers, and customers can only satisfied when a business meets their expectations and facilitates their interaction. That is why the queue management systems are used, they not only streamline the customer flow but also help improving performance and collect valuable business intelligence data. The virtual queuing is one of the most effective strategy to reduce queues in the banks. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you designing or deploying the most effective and efficient queue management system as per your bank’s needs. Please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

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June 10, 2022June 10, 2022

How to Improve Queue Management at Your Restaurant?

Restaurants are always eager to improve queue management. Being a restaurant owner or manager you should know that no one like to wait in a queue when they are hungry, the hungrier customers get the more annoyed they become. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the market is very dynamic and competitive, mostly people live in high-rise buildings and the mostly the cities are very congested. This results in so many similar businesses in a close proximity. Especially in Dubai and all around the UAE mostly a common consumer can find multiple restaurant and eating options in a close proximity. Another bigger difference between restaurant customer and a common retail customer is that the retail customer wants to leave as quickly as possible after making a purchase, however, for restaurant customers they want to sit for longer, to have a meal, to socialize and to spend time with friends or companions. That is why queue management for the restaurants is even more important. If a customer enters in a restaurants or fast food outlet or café, and they found it is fully packed, most probably they will consider going somewhere else where they can easily get a table.

Furthermore the customer experience is equally important. A restaurant owner or manager might think if people are waiting in queues to have their dinner they are successful however, that is not the case, the people who are getting bad experiences are tend to leave the business. Let say you a restaurant customer is hungry and they have to wait for at least 10 minutes, they will become annoyed and most probably they will sit with a negative mindset, in such customers are more likely to post a negative comment or opinion online, and sometimes if a customer starts with a negative interaction and at the end the food is failed to satisfy them, they might post a negative review in social media or Google or they might tell other about their bad experience, which will not only harm your brand identity but it will also repel them. This could have a very negative impact on the business in long term. It will increase customer churn rate, and it will also harm your reputation. For a restaurant whose customers are mostly from the surrounding areas, having a negative brand reputation could be catastrophic. In this blog we will tell you how you can improve your customers experience by improving your queue management.

Improve Customer’s Waiting Experience

A standard queue management system comes with a digital signage or HD TVs. These displays are used to provide queuing information and to run multimedia content. Restaurants can utilize this these large displays for multiple purposes such as they can provide estimated time for the waiting customers and they can run adverts, promotional content or even entertainment media just to keep the customers busy and distracted from the waiting. Studies have shown that more than 85% of the customers would be happy to pay extra if they are getting a good customer experience. Keeping customer engaged and entertaining them improves their waiting experience. Furthermore the restaurants can play sports, news and music channels to distract their customers. If the customers get engaged with the TV they will going to feel less stress of the waiting time. Hence their experience will improve. Restaurants can offer small eateries, appetizers, etc. to further keep customers happy and engaged.

The restaurant staff always know the habits of regular customers and over the time they also become able to estimate how much time someone will going to take hence they can tell the waiting customers how much more time they might have to wait. The problem is when the staff lied to keep the customer waiting, it is important to be truthful. First thing you are just telling them estimated time as no one can know if the customer will leave after finishing the meal or will they order some drinks or maybe tea or something. So, the customers will also understand that fact. Second thing is if a customer know how much more they will have to wait, they will remain more calm and understanding. Without any clear indication of how much time one have to wait, they easily get stressed. So, providing your customers with an estimated wait time can also improve their experience.

Queue Management System Provides SMS Alerts

Restaurant in Dubai and all across the UAE uses token systems, these tokens are physical devices which are being provided to the customers when they place an order. The restaurant staff have control to notify the customers. When their turn came, the electronic device starts beeping or ringing and alert the customers hence no customer misses their turn. The problem with these devices are that they have limited range, and usually the customer will have to physically present at the restaurant all the time. However, the queue management system have in-built SMS alert system. Which offers more freedom and convenient to the customers and allow them to roam wherever they want whether it is window shopping, or they are going to buy something, they can do so without any fear. Whenever their turn will come they will receive an SMS. A queue management system can also be programmed to send multiple SMS and reminders as well rather just a single SMS. Such features and convenience improve customer experience and increase their loyalty.

Integrate Virtual Queuing and Pre-Orders

The virtual queuing is one of the most modern form of queue management. A virtual queue management system comes with features that allow users to sign-up for virtual queues through remote channels which means the customer or visitor is not required to be physically present in the waiting lines. However, the restaurant can utilize the features of a virtual queue management system to further facilitate their customers and to minimize the wait time. Almost all restaurants take reservations and bookings. The customer reserve their table so they don’t have to wait at the restaurant and they can get the table immediately as soon as they arrived no matter if the rest of the restaurant is full or empty. Usually people reserve tables and then arrive at their time of reservation hence they don’t have to wait. However, the virtual queue management system can enable restaurants to offer pre-order facility through the connected channels. Restaurant can utilize their website, mobile application, email, SMS and call center to take reservations and pre-orders.

Restaurant can encourage their customers to utilize online mediums such as website and mobile application which are very convenient and also doesn’t put extra work on the employees. The restaurant can publish their entire menu on their website and mobile application and they can also update it on daily bases. This allows the customers to not only reserve a table but also order their meal. Such orders can automatically sent to the relevant staff with the time of the reservation and as soon as the customer arrives at the restaurants, they immediately get their food. The customer don’t even have to wait on the table. Another upside is that the average customer service time decreased significantly. Because usually customers can take somewhere from two to fifteen minutes to place the order and if it is a big family or a group of friend, they usually take more time to place an order. This time eventually adds up to the waiting time.

But with the help of virtual queuing all this time can be utilized to serve other customers, this also increase productivity of the restaurant and increase their capability to serve more customers in a single day at the same number of tables. The virtual queue management systems help improving customer experience as well as it also help generating more revenue while ensuring a great ROI in long term.

Queue Management System for Walk-in-only Restaurants

Allowing your customers to reserve a table online and pre-order facility offers great user experience however, not every restaurant wants to do that. In Dubai and all around the UAE there are certain restaurants especially the fast food restaurants which always have long queues during the busy hours. For such restaurants and fast food businesses a queue management system can be a great help, by issuing tickets the restaurant can turn tables more quickly by reducing the delay between first customer and the next customer. The queue management system can keep announcing the next in line ticket number and also inform them about their table, which provide them enough time to get ready as soon as their turn came. Furthermore these restaurant can also apply first-come first-serve policy which also help next customer to quickly find their table and prevent unnecessary disputes and management issues which impact customer experience.

Queue Management System can Collect Valuable Business Intelligence Data

The modern businesses are data driven. The technology is integrated deeply in our daily lives. Not only in Dubai, UAE but all around the world the information technology has become an essential part of a business. Restaurant owners or managers know very well about their peak hours. However, sometime they face unexpected scenarios, it is because without a quantifiable data all they are doing is just making assumptions. However, a queue management system can record each and every customer and relevant statistical data. Which provide restaurant owners and managers with a very accurate and quantifiable business intelligence data. The restaurant owners and managers can easily learn various trends form this data which can help them in making strategies and plans and make them ready for all situations.

Furthermore a queue management system can easily get integrated with other business tools and systems which enables it to improve the data quality. For example, if the orders can be relate to the time and number of customers a restaurant can easily understand the ordering pattern and trends. There are so many other possibilitieswhich make queue management system a great tool for collecting valuable business intelligence data.

Conclusion

Restaurants and fast food businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE have started realizing the importance of the queue management system and its impact on customer experience. For any business the customer experience is very crucial. A bad customer experience will repel your customers and it will also harm your brand reputation. A good customer experience on the other hand can not only increase customer loyalty but it also help improving brand reputation. Here in Dubai and in fact in the entire UAE the market is very competitive. The customers always have multiple options available. On top of that now a day’s customer put experience almost equal to the service or product quality. That is why restaurants are adopting digital queue management systems. A queue management system helps reducing the customer wait time and it ensures a smooth customer flow. Furthermore a queue management system can also improve customer’s waiting experience by offering them a variety of engaging features.

Restaurants can also adopt virtual queue management system and utilize its features to increase their sales and revenue. The virtual queue management also offer remote sign-up, pre-order and multiple other features which enhance customer experience, reduce wait time and increase overall productivity. With the help of a queue management system the restaurant and fast food businesses can serve more customer in a single day which increase their sales and improve their operational capabilities. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or want us to help you with your queuing problems, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

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September 15, 2021

Queue & Waiting Time Management

Queue and waiting time management is a crucial part of the service-based industry. Businesses and organizations in Dubai and all across the UAE are eagerly seeking ways to improve their queue management and customer wait time management. Basically, the customer journey and customer experience are what will decide if a customer will do business with the brand or not. If a customer has a bad experience they will most probably avoid that brand, if they had a good experience they will prefer to deal with the same brand again and again. This is what is called customer retention. Customer retention is based on customer loyalty, customer loyalty heavily relies on the customer journey and customer experience. The customer journey and customer experience are heavily depending upon the queue and waiting time management. It might look like a long shot but it isn’t. These all factors have cascading effects and act like dominos, one’s fall leads to the fall of the next and eventually, the entire structure falls apart. That is the reason why queue and waiting time management is so important.

The cost is also an important factor, it reduces profitability. If businesses are adding up new counters and hiring more staff, it is easy to understand that this will have a cost and running expense also. If businesses are not adding more counters they will fail in reducing the wait time, as a result, the customer churn rate will increase, the customer retention will decrease and customer loyalty will decrease. On top of that, the business will lose its reputation. A negative brand identity is very bad, it affects everything. It directly impacts the cost of acquiring new customers and the businesses will end up investing a lot in the marketing and brand identity building efforts. However, a simple queue management system can save it all. The queue management system not only makes the queue and waiting time management easy but also has other benefits such as improving customer journey and experience, collecting customer feedback and business intelligence data, etc.

Here are some benefits of a queue management system and how it can help businesses and organizations in the queue and waiting time management:

Queue Management System Manages Customer Flow and Organizes Queues

The entire service-based industry in the world is investing a huge amount of hard-earned revenue and resources to improve customer experience and customer journey. From interior and lighting to wait for time and agent’s behavior everything contributes to the customer experience and customer journey. Businesses and organizations in Dubai and all around the UAE are eager to improve customer journeys and customer experiences. The wait time has a huge influence on customers’ experience. Several studies have shown that an average wait time threshold is 10 to 13 minutes only, which in most cases is even more than the service delivery process. Any time longer than that will start impacting customers negatively. As much as the waiting time increases from the threshold limit the customer experiences a decline. That is why the reduction in the wait time is the top priority. Obviously instant service delivery requires a huge number of active counters, which requires a large number of trained employees, and that cost is not realistic. The businesses should optimize the number of counters and the wait time to achieve a balance that can provide optimum customer waiting time and also ensures maximum profitability.

A queue management system is a very capable tool, it controls and manages the customer flow. The sign-up and customer flow are digitally controlled. There is no human factor involved. This makes the process very efficient and agile. The customers and visitors also don’t have many complaints. As the system is controlled by the computer so customers and visitors also tolerate much more. The well organizes customer flow reduces the wait time and also help the employees to focus on their primary tasks, which is service delivery and related jobs. This expedites the service delivery processes as well and further help to reduce the wait time.

Queue Management System Reduces the Actual Wait Time and the Perceived Wait Time

Another advantage of a queue management system is that it also help improving the ‘perceived wait time’, the perceived wait time is always longer than the actual wait time. For example, when a customer is sitting in the waiting area, they might think they are waiting for too long, however the actual time spent is not that long. This is something that involves human psyche. Our brain tend to perceive time slowly if waiting in a bored environment. A queue management system includes large digital signage screens. These screens can play multimedia content which can divert customers form waiting time. This improves customer engagements. Moreover the screens also display live queuing information and ongoing activates along with audio announcements, which also keep the user distracted, active and engaged and the perceived wait time get reduced. Thus the queue management system not only reduce the wait time but it also help improving the waiting experience.

Queue Management System Automates Customer Journey and Reduces Wait Time

The queue management system are very helpful in automating the customer journey and customer routing. Most often in Dubai and all around the UAE businesses are offering multiple services through multiple counters. There are two major factors that can improve customer flow and customer route, one is the smart load management for each counter, and the second is automatic customer journey and customer routing management. Each business has different methods and businesses practices, the queue management system helps implementing company policies easily. If a business has multiple branches the head-office can implement the company policy instantly throughout the entire network. The customer routing and load management could also be configured as per the company policies. Each employee works differently some are more capable some are less. Some perform better is busy hours some couldn’t. These all things impact the customer journey and customer wait time. In case of stepped services, where a single service delivery requires a customer to reach to several or at least more than one counter is a bit more difficult to manage manually, however with a queue management system the customer routes and journey can be managed automatically as per company’s policies. This saves a lot of time and accelerate the customer flow.

For example, a business have five counters with ten different services. The first two counters are only exclusive for the top two services and top two of the remaining services can be delivered by any counter and rest can be delivered through the three other counters. That may sounds like a very complex scenario but it isn’t. Usually businesses divide their counters and services to improve customer experience, employee efficiency and profitability. Let say the two agents out of the five are more trained and experienced so assigned to deliver complex services or for VIP or Premium customers. The remaining staff is sufficiently trained for all other services. If the customer journey and customer journey and customer routes are managed manually, it could be a big hustle for both the customers and the employees as well. This is where a queue management system significantly improves productivity and profitability. The entire process can be automated, the customer journey can be cut short, the wait time will be reduced and the employee performance will be increased. This will result in better resource management and due to automation only a limited amount of human resource will be needed which will increase the profitability.

Queue Management System Help Managing the Queues and Reducing Wait Time by Improving Employee Efficiency

The employee efficiency plays an important role in customer wait time. If your employees are efficient and proactive they will be able to work efficiently and they will also be able to deliver good quality of work which will increase customer happiness and customer satisfaction. Without a queue management system the employees will have to manage the queues and customer flow manually. They could easily get distracted from their primary tasks. They could easily get overloaded during the busy work hours. The employees will fail to perform at their maximum efficiency. Which will further increase the customer waiting time. There are other aspects too such as when queues are managed manually customers have too many complaints about the mismanaged queues, employees, line jumpers, etc. Customer could easily end up in wrong queues which will again create problems for both customers and the agents. Such things will keep the employees busy in managing and calming the customers and visitors, which will reduce their performance and efficiency. The employee will be exhausted during the initial few hours of their shift, which also impacts the customer experience and increase wait time.

With a digital queue management system the employees don’t have to worry about such things. They can easily focus on their primary tasks. The queues, customer flow, and the entire customer journey will be managed by the queue management system which itself reduces the wait time a lot. Moreover the employees will have more time to perform their pre-sale and post-sale tasks, which will reduce the service delivery time which results in less waiting time. Moreover when the employees work under a balanced workload they don’t stressed out and they remain more focus, sharp and active at their tasks. These factors not only increase employee efficiency but they also help improving the customer journey and customer waiting time.

Queue Management Systems Collect Business Intelligence Data

The queue management systems collect business intelligence data to identify the areas of improvements and factors which are impacting the queues and customer waiting time. The businesses intelligence is a collective data coming from various feeds and sources. The data is then processed and compiled up in actionable reports. On the bases of this data the businesses can easily identify the areas of improvements and the factors which are consuming the most wait time in the customer journey. This enables the businesses to setup and configure their queue management system and tune up their other policies and strategies to ensure the improved queue management, better customer flow, lower customer wait time and better customer experience. There are different types of business intelligence data. The three main sources of business intelligence data is the queue management system’s usage and other stats, employee KPIs and the customer feedbacks. The queue management system has ability to capture data from various points and various levels. It can accurately measure each customer’s journey, service delivery time, wait time and much more. The employee KPIs are very helpful in assessing and evaluating the employee performance. The customer feedback provide deeper understanding of the customer journey, their expectations, needs and on-going market trends.

Collectively these all various sources form the business intelligence. Which is processed by in-built software engine and tools. Later the data is extracted in the form of various reports. The queue management systems provide different types of reports meant for different audience. These reports and customer feedback help businesses to identify the areas of improvements. For example the queue management system pointed to a particular service which takes longer than usual time. The businesses can plan to modify the service delivery mechanisms or practices in order to make it faster. Let say an employee is very good at certain services and not so efficient at others, the business can identify this by using the KPIs, and then they can either plan training for that employee or make sure that he remain appointed on the services with good efficiency. Such things are helpful for businesses to plan for future strategies, make policies and take actions for better queue management and lower waiting time.

Conclusion

The queue and waiting time management is a most important aspect of customer journey and customer satisfaction. If the customers are not happy and satisfied with the service they have or their experience throughout the entire customer journey, they will immediately leave the business or organization. If they had a good experience they will stay and become a loyal customer. The loyal customers are a very precious asset of any business the entire business success can be based on the customer loyalty and customer retention. It is nine to twelve time more expensive to acquire a new customer comparing to selling to an existing customer. The queue management and waiting time dominates the entire customer experience and customer journey. No matter how good your services or products are if your business practices and service delivery methods are not good and customers are leaving unhappy and unsatisfied, they will eventually switch to others. A digital queue management system have completely revolutionized the queue and waiting time management.

A queue management system automate various aspects of the customer journey, it can effectively manages the queues without getting affected by the quantity of the incoming customers and visitors. It manages the customer routes and automatically control the customer journey. It effectively distribute customers among the relevant counters and reduce the workload of the employees. Collectively these all factors results in huge reduction in the customer waiting time and excellent queue management. Moreover the queue management system also collect crucial business intelligence data to evaluate and assess each and every customer touch point. The queue management system can also effectively manage the employee performance. This help the management to further take steps and make policies to ensure the smoothest customer journey and a satisfactory customer experience. RSI Concepts is a leading name in queue management system providers in Dubai, UAE. If you need help with your queue management or branch transformation and customer journey management, feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you.

Check out this: Impact of a Queue Management Software on Staff Productivity

January 19, 2021

5 Tricks to Quickly Serve Customers Using Queuing System

In the modern world not only attracting more customers is difficult but sustaining the existing customers could also be a hectic job. A digital queue management solution and a queuing system could help you in both. We are living in a very advance society in Dubai, UAE. The technology is bringing innovation and convenience in all areas of life. The standards and lifestyle of common people are way too higher than any other part of the world. This lead to a trend of very higher expectations, which makes the customer satisfaction way too difficult. The customers are too sensitive and the competition is high, people don’t think twice to reach out to a new service provider. This makes it extremely important to serve your customers as per their expectations and make them happy.

The queue management solutions and queuing systems are helping out organizations and businesses to enhance customer experience and to increase customer satisfaction. An intelligent queuing solution when coupled with a sensible strategy could do wonder for the organizations and businesses. In this blog, we will discuss 5 tricks to quickly serve your customers using a queuing system.

1. Implement a Suitable Queuing System

Implementing a suitable queuing system could increase its efficiency by double. Businesses should only implement a specifically designed queue management system which could serve their specific needs. There are so many queue management systems available in the market. In order to choose a suitable queue management system for your business you first need to determine the following:

How many customers do you serve on daily bases?
How many customers do you serve in busy hours?
How many counters do you have?
How much space do you have in the waiting area?
Do you provide full service at a single counter? Or at multiple counters?
What are your objectives and goals for implementing a digital queue management solution?

These answers are very important in determining what type of queue management system will work better for you. It is always better to implement a customized solution. You can always consult a professional queue management system provider in Dubai, UAE such as RSI Concepts to assist you in implementing a suitable queuing system for your specific needs. An efficient digital queue management system can reduce the wait time and improve service delivery efficiency.

2. Offer Mobile Apps and Remote Sign-ups

Mobile apps and remote sign-ups are a great way of reducing the wait time. The mobile apps will allow the customers to remotely sign-up for the queue even before arriving at the branch or office. The smartphone applications are a very capable tool, businesses can use them to not only reduce the wait time but to also reduce the workload from the serving staff, which automatically results in quicker service delivery time. The smartphone apps and remote sign-ups allow the management to effectively handle the visitors and on-site customer flow. Which also results in the more managed queue and hence results in quicker service delivery.

3. Direct Customers and Visitors to the Right Person

The queue management systems also allow the management and staff to distribute the workload as per the expertise and ease of the serving staff. This leads to reduce wait time and due to the limited scope of the services, the staff also remained focused and serve better. This could significantly reduce the delivery time and make the service delivery process quicker. Routing the customers to their relevant counters the management can easily manage them in the premises. Routing also helps to maintain a great user experience and increasing customer happiness by reducing the wait time and service delivery time.

In case if complete service delivery is done through multiple counters, then having this feature helps a lot. The queue management system can automatically route each customer or visitor to the appropriate server, which reduces the wait time, allow efficient customer flow management and it also helps to reduce the workload of the servers, which also results in good customer experience and reduced service delivery wait time.

4. Automate the Customer Routing via Queue Management System

Automation always saves time and increase efficiency. By automating the customer flow and customer routing you can further improve the service delivery and reduce the time. But this is only applicable to certain scenarios. For example, your service delivery is done through multiple counters. In that case, the queue management system should be intelligently programmed to route the customers to the counters having less load. This will also reduce the wait time and it will improve service delivery efficiency. Another example of such scenarios is that, if a business is offering multiple services and there are different counters or a set of the counter is assigned to each service, in that case, the counter with less customers, should be utilized to distribute the customer flow from the busy counters to reduce the wait time and the service delivery time.

5. Gather Statistical and Usage Data and Measure KPIs

Another very useful feature of a digital queuing system is that it provides very detailed business insight. The businesses can collect system usage data, which can help the management in making decisions to further improve the service delivery mechanisms. The detailed statistical and analytical reports allow the management to gather valuable business intelligence. Some of the advance queue management solutions also allow integrating some customer/visitor feedback collecting tools. Which also provide great first-hand user feedback. The businesses can easily get information such as:

Daily footfall
Peak Hours
Peak Day
Busy Counters
Most Used Services
Average Time consumed by each service delivery
Agent’s performance
Remote Sign-up, In-premises Sign-ups, Kiosk Usage
Average Wait Time
Direct Customer/Visitor Feedback

These are only a few stats that are available by default in most of the digital queue management systems and solutions. There are so many other things which can be added to improve monitoring and business intelligence in any queuing system. Collectively these all inputs help management in taking decisions to improve the service delivery time, reduce the wait time, and improve customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

The queue management systems are becoming a necessity in all type of service-based industries. Whether it is a bank, a public office, retail sector, transportation, hospitals and clinics, hospitality sector, HR Departments, libraries, educational institutes, or any other industry which provides services through their counters, and the customer or visitor should have to visit a branch or office to avail the service. Each and every customer support sector requires efficient customer flow management, which is only possible if you have implemented some digital queue management solution.

Reducing wait time, improving service delivery, increasing customer happiness is the key to success these days. If you are operating in Dubai, UAE or any other GCC country, you should be aware of two things; one the competition and second the customer’s expectations. The higher living standards, tougher competition, higher government standards, each and everything ensures a high-quality product or service to the customers. The United Arab Emirates is also known for its higher acceptance level for innovation and technological advancements. Collectively these all factors not only push the organizations and businesses to continuously improve their products and services but these factors also raised the expectations of the customers.

If you want to grow you should be able to meet the customer’s expectations. You should be able to provide a unique customer experience in your branch or office and you should also have to ensure quickest service delivery which is only possible if you use an efficient queuing system to manage your customer flow. It is always good to consult with a professional queue management system and solution provider, such as RSI Concepts. Feel free to reach us out through the below comment box, or contact us through our Contact Us page.

Check this out: Benefits of Queue Management using Mobile Apps