Embracing technology and innovation is not always easy. Especially when it comes to a queue management system that is responsible for managing the customer journey and customer experience. A queue management system is also very capable of improving employee efficiency and operational capabilities, which makes it very important for any business’s success. Here in Dubai and other parts of UAE, there are so many different vendors and suppliers with a long list of customized and off-the-shelf queue management solutions, which makes it furthermore difficult for a business to decide which brand or system could meet their requirements. When installing a new queue management system there are several factors that have to be taken into account else there could be very serious losses in terms of resources and customers. Businesses and organizations have to deal with too many customers on daily basis, which requires an efficient customer flow management platform. Moreover, businesses also need data and business intelligence to make informative decisions for the future. That is why a queue management system is installed. A queue management system can assist in all these areas.
If the queue management system doesn’t have the necessary features it might not be able to improve things much, or in fact, it can worsen the customer experience and cause great troubles for the management and staff too. Customer happiness and customer satisfaction are extremely important for businesses and organizations and efficient resource management and cost optimization is also crucial. There are several factors that a business should consider while choosing a queue management system. Some of the most important factors are listed below:
1. What Types of Services You are Offering?
That is the first and most important factor to consider while choosing a queue management system. If you are offering a single service then only a few queues will be enough and you can have as many counters as you can. But if you are offering more services then more queues are required and customer journey management is required so each customer reaches the right agent/server. Usually in Dubai and all around the UAE when a business is offering multiple services, they are having multiple counters, some are dedicated for certain services, and so on. These all details are important. There are two types of service delivery methods, the first method is the single counter method, according to this method the full-service delivery is done through a single counter. The other method is for stepped services, which means a single service delivery requires the customers to get served in two or more steps, the customer will have to visit multiple counters as per the service type to get the full-service delivery.
That is why it is important to first understand your requirements by analyzing your services and services’ types. For a stepped service a different kind of customer journey management is required for a regular service type where a full service is delivered at a single counter a different kind of customer journey management is required and so on and so forth.
A Great Customer Experience is Must
The primary reason for installing a queue management system is to improve the customer journey and customer satisfaction. A queue management system should be able to add value at all touchpoints of the customer journey. Here the important thing which most of the businesses in Dubai overlooked is to understand the importance of pre-queue and post-queue customer experiences. The customer interaction starts before even arriving at the branch. Even the traffic on the way, the difficulty in the parking and weather too can contribute to customer experience. Although the impact of such things is indirect it directly impacts the customer’s mood, which later reflects in their behavior and experience. There are certain things that can’t be controlled, however, the pre-queue experience can be improved with the help of an appointment booking module or a smartphone application, etc. Virtual queuing is a great example of improving the pre-queue customer experience.
The virtual queuing, remote sign-ups, and appointment booking modules all are designed to improve customer experience and customer journey. The post-queue customer experience is usually asking for customer feedback or conducting a survey. Customer feedback and surveys are important and provide extremely reliable business intelligence data. Moreover, the customer feedbacks and survey builds trust and give an impression of importance and priority to the customers. Now once a customer is inside the branch and is waiting for the queue, the waiting area, the digital signage, the counter displays, the audio-visual announcements, multi-lingual queuing information and announcements, customer routing signs and various markers, and everything else that is somehow contributing to the customer flow and routing the customers will impact on the customer experience. The agent/server, the service delivery time, and the waiting time are extremely important factors to improve customer experience. A queue management system should be able to provide all possible facilities for the customers and visitors to improve their experience. Which will determine customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
In-built Virtual Queuing and Social Distancing Features
Due to the pandemic, customer behavior and requirements have changed. Each and every business in Dubai or anywhere else in UAE must have to comply with the government policies and social distancing laws to ensure the ultimate safety and hygiene inside the premises. These days’ businesses are eagerly seeking methods and ways to gain the trust of their customers and visitors. Virtual queuing is gaining popularity due to social distancing and COVID-related concerns. The virtual queuing allows the customers to sign-up for the queue remotely. It means a customer or visitor can sign-up for the queue without being physically arriving at the branch, and they can also virtually wait in the waiting lines. This way the customers and visitors are free to wait outside or in the parking lot or at home and only arrive when their number comes.
There are different methods to enable remote sign-ups and virtual queuing such as calls, SMS, email, online customer portals, websites, smartphone applications, etc. The remote sign-up issues a digital token number. The customer can wait outside while being present in the virtual waiting line. When their call has been made they can directly reach to the counter and get the service done. The customers don’t have to wait in the waiting area neither they would have to stand in physical queues. Virtual queuing is very helpful for maintaining social distancing as well. The queue management system should be able to manage the number of customers as per the company policy and capacity. The QR Code is also utilized for virtual queuing and social distancing, the customers can scan a QR Code which is placed strategically either at the entrances or any such place, the customers can scan the QR Code and a digital token number has been issued. The customers can wait outside and when their turn came they can come inside and wait or get served immediately as per the company policy.
Customization, Scalability and System Integration
Any good quality queue management system must have the ability to scale easily in the future. As the customers’ demands, expectations, and market trends are ever-changing, it is wise to have a system that can evolve with the evolving needs. Most of the queuing solutions are customizable, however certain limitations are there which are either due to the technology used to build those systems or either could be due to the sales policies of the vendor. Whatever the reason is if any such limitation is there it will be harder and very expensive to update, modify or change any such queue management system. It is important that the queue management system supports and aids the relevant business processes and IT infrastructure. Customization and scalability are also very important as businesses are expanding and adding new branches all the time, so the queue management system should be able to be supportive for expansion. Sometimes such expansions also require certain changes in features or functionalities of the queue management system which could be very costly, so it is important that the queuing solution you are choosing is already ready to support the expansion, this will save you a lot of time, hustle and cost.
Another very useful feature of any IT solution is its capability and compatibility to other solutions and systems this is often referred to as ‘system integration’. Usually, the businesses are using multiple systems and want to integrate them with each other for certain reasons. Such system integration not only makes the management process simpler but it provides more room for innovation, automation and results in ultimate efficiency. Usually, businesses and organizations are interested in the system stats, reporting, customer feedback, loyalty program, KPIs (key performance indicators), reporting, and customer data integration. All these are not necessary but important. The important thing is that the queue management system you chose should be able to support such types of data sharing & synchronizations. System integration can boost the efficiency of the queue management system and the overall operations.
Reporting and Business Intelligence
A queue management system is a customer journey transformation tool. It can capture data from various important touchpoints and also other relevant data. Which could be a great help for the businesses. The businesses can easily track records of the busy hours, days and weeks or any such detail. The queue management system can also track the record of wait time which is extremely important for customer experience and customer satisfaction. The time required by various steps of the customer journey can be measured. The queue management system can also measure various KPIs (key performance indicators) which are related to customer flow, agent/server’s performance, and much more. These details are very helpful for the business to understand the performance of their business practices and methods. The business can also easily evaluate and measure the performance of the employees and agents. These details are very helpful for businesses to make future strategies and help them easily identify the areas of improvement.
The queue management system can also collect customer feedback directly from the customers. The customer surveys, happiness meters, and NPS or net promoter score are a great measure of the overall performance of the entire queuing process. Businesses can also collect feedback about the behavior of the agents, facility, products, and services, and much more using the queue management system’s in-built customer feedback module. The reporting should be compiled in a dedicated administrative dashboard with the capabilities to link them to other systems and solutions to streamline the data. Moreover, a good queue management system must have in-built data analytical and statistical engine which should be able to process the raw data into well-prepared compiled reports. These reports should offer different formats such as detailed reports, summary reports or trend reports, and so on. These formats are very helpful for various levels of the management and the policymaker or strategy builder can utilize any convenient type of report while making decisions and making policies.
Real-time Updates and Remote Management
Mostly the business in Dubai and all around the UAE have various branches and the upper-level management resides in the head office or headquarter. This raises a need for real-time monitoring and remote management of the system. Any good queue management system must have remote management and real-time update capabilities. The real-time updates enable the head office to view all the connected branches live and they can access the queuing data in real-time. All the data is stored at a centralized database which is either residing inside the central database of the business or hosted on a cloud. This enables the higher management to monitor all the branches in real-time which makes the management very easy and convenient. Remote management enables the head office to push company policies instantly on all branches or selective branches and it also provides the ultimate control over all the connected branches.
The queue management system must have dedicated dashboards such as the customer interface, where the customers interact with the queue management system, the agent’s dashboard where the agents interacts with the system, and the administrative dashboard where the branch managers or top management interacts with the system. This requires a proper workflow and user authentication mechanism which authenticate each user and provide them with the level of control they are entitled to. The user authentication and access control also make the system more secure and error-proof.
Conclusion
A queue management system is a necessity these days for business. Especially in the service-based industries where the business is dealing with daily footfall. There are certain features of trait of a good queue management system that are must have when implementing a new queue management system. For example, the first and most important thing is that the queue management system should be able to improve the service delivery process and customer experience. We always recommend our customers a tailor-made queue management system as it provides more flexibility and control over the business processes and doesn’t require or push any change for the existing business processes and internal infrastructure. Moreover, a good queue management system should be able to scale and upgrade easily and should have support for future expansions.
Usually, the business has a main head office and several regional offices or branches a good queue management system should be able to provide the head office facility to get real-time updates from all the connected branches and also the remote management, which enables the businesses to push company policies instantly to all branches and make the management and control easier. The reporting and business intelligence collection are vital for doing improvements and identifying the areas of improvement. These features not only transform customer journey and customer experience but also help businesses to improve the overall operational efficiency and help increasing revenue and profitability. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to install a new queue management system or want to upgrade your existing queuing solutions 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 soon.
Check out this: 5 Signs Your Business Requires a Queue Management System