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How the HR should select a Performance Management System?

How the HR should select a Performance Management System

For any business the human resource is considered to be the backbone of the business. The HR is responsible for hiring skilled staff. The HR is also responsible for employee retention and employee happiness. Job satisfaction is a very positive factor and can boost one’s performance by many times. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the market is very competitive, the customers are also very savvy and there are other challenges too which makes it extremely crucial to make your employees productive and efficient. For that businesses uses multiple methods and tactics, most of the businesses use a performance management system. The main reason to use a performance management system is to measure and evaluate the employee performance and their impact on the high-level organizational objectives and goals. Basically the performance management system is used to make sure all the employees and departments are working in the right direction to achieve the high-level organizational goals and objectives.

How the HR should select a Performance Management System

The continuous performance monitoring and evaluation also help encouraging employees to perform well. The performance management system is also used to improve employee’s capabilities. It helps HR in many ways and it enable businesses to implement employee development programs which help them improving their employees’ professional skills and capabilities. The performance management system is also a great tool to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the employees which help businesses in effective and efficient resource planning and management. All these benefits can help businesses and organizations in achieving their goals and objectives and maximize the productivity and profitability of the business.

When it comes to implementing a performance management system there are several options available in the market. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the off-the-shelf and ready-made solutions are in abundance which also makes it difficult for the HR to decide which system they should acquire. Obviously each business have different needs and plans, so in this blog we will discuss how the HR should choose the right system for their needs.

What is a Performance Management System?

A performance management system is mainly a software which have in-built features that allow the businesses and organizations to execute the performance management tasks and strategy. There are two major parts of performance management. First part is called performance management system which is drawing a roadmap to achieve the goals. The second part is performance appraisal system which is basically measuring the performance and progress of each individual employee, teams, departments and management with the reference to the high-level organizational goals and objectives. Although most of the time the performance management system and the appraisal management system are interchanged and referred to as the performance management system only.

What is a Performance Management System?

The performance management system software can be hosted on cloud, online hosting or in local/in-premises data centers. The system is interlinked with the central information center as well as all necessary systems and tools via API based integration which enables it to synchronize, update and push data to and from other systems.

Here are a few important things that the HR should consider while selecting a performance management system:

Performance Management System Software Technology and Platform

For any performance management system the software technology and the platform is crucial as it will not only support businesses with customization and scalability but it also have huge impact on the cost. The performance management system must be built on a widely available technology. Hence the changes or customization should be easy. These days many performance management systems are utilizing open-source programing platforms which is very cost-efficient and easy to customize. Furthermore the performance management system should be able to provide easy and cost-efficient scalability. The performance management system’s software consists of user interfaces (UIs) and a core server application.

Performance Management System Software Technology and Platform

The server application is where all the source code and algorithms are stored and executed. Hence the software platform should be able to support multiple server technologies such as online hosting, cloud hosting, local or in-premises hosting solutions. This will enable the business to choose appropriate solution as per their convenient and doesn’t put extra strain on the expense by forcing them to opt for a particular hosting technology.

Exclusive and Intuitive User Interfaces (UIs)

For performance management system or in fact for any system it is extremely crucial that the users are able to use it without any trouble. The intuitiveness and simplicity improves user experience which improves the overall efficiency and efficacy of the system. For the performance management system as it should be utilized by different all of the employees who all have different level of IT proficiency and computer knowledge, so the user interfaces should be designed to keep the users in mind. In a standard performance management system there are several different types of user interfaces which are all designed for different user groups, for example the user interface (UI) for the employee would be very different from the user interface for the CEO or the top level executives.

Exclusive and Intuitive User Interfaces (UIs)

That is why it is extremely important that the user interface is easy to understand and intuitive. In some cases if training is required then the training should be provided to the staff. An employee or even a manager can only get the full benefits of the performance management system if they could use it easily.

Flexible Goals and Objectives Implementation

This is the most important part of any performance management system. The performance management system must have to be very flexible and user-friendly to enable the users to easily set goals and objectives in the system. At every managerial hierarchy till the individual employees the system administration (which is top level management) should be able to transmit the goals and objectives. In-built features should allow the board of directors and senior management to communicate the high-level organizational goals and objectives with the head of departments, directors, etc. and then they should be able to communicate those goals to their respective teams. For example the director operations should be able to set goals of the managers from the department and then they can do the same for the next level of employees and then the line managers, supervisors, etc. and at last the individual employees. This should be available for all business functions.

Flexible Goals and Objectives Implementation

In this way the high-level organizational goals and objectives can be effectively communicated to everyone in the chain and businesses can get better results. Furthermore a good performance management system always encourage inputs and feedbacks from the individual employees and lower level management, which help them understand the goals much better and when employee have their say in planning and strategic affairs they feel more compassionate about their work and become more loyal with their employer. This can help improving their performance too.

Strong Monitoring Tools and Dynamic Strategy Implementation Approach

Most of the time the high-level organizational goals and objectives never changed, they remain same for the entire year. However, due to unplanned and unforeseen circumstances the individual goals and plan of action can be changed to remain on course for the high-level organizational goals. This requires continuous monitoring of the performance and the progress. A good performance management system should be very flexible towards implementing strategy and plans. It should provide continuous performance data to the managers and supervisors and let them change or amend the goals at any time. This course correction help them dealing with unforeseen events, interruptions and unplanned events.

Strong Monitoring Tools and Dynamic Strategy Implementation Approach

Another upside is that it also provide continuous performance data to the employees as well and provide them with a chance to improve their performance to reach their goals and objectives. Furthermore it also estimate the impact of the individual performance on the overall performance of the team, department and the organization as well. Which also help encouraging the employees to perform well and it gives them a sense of importance which is good to improve employee loyalty and employee retention.

Continuous Employee Feedback

For any performance and appraisal management system the employee feedback is absolutely essential. It provides management a chance to evaluate the employees in a more accurate and better way and it also help reducing the communication barrier which is usually present among the junior employees and the management. The performance management system should have a dedicated in-built module for the employee feedback management. Where the managers should have ability to schedule one-on-one feedback sessions for any of their subordinate and also the manager who will be conducting the feedback session. The performance management system should also include online feedback features to conduct online surveys and feedbacks.

Continuous Employee Feedback

Furthermore the peer-to-peer, top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top feedback collection mechanisms should be available. These features can become very handy for the HR department and they also help understanding the problems and issues of the employees in greater depths.

Employee Appraisal Management & Reward Modules

The employee appraisal management is a very crucial part of the performance management. The employee appraisal is basically their performance during a particular time period. The employee appraisal management modules measure the employee performance on the bases of their progress towards the objectives, goals, and their contribution in the overall organizational goals and objectives. The appraisal management is the key component that is used to align all organizational resources with the high-level organizational goals and keep everyone on track to ensure the high-level goals and objectives will be achieved. The management by objectives is a modern appraisal method that involves employees in goal setting and strategy building process. Furthermore there are other methods too such as behaviorally anchored performance scales, 360 degree feedback, straight ranking appraisal, accounting appraisals, etc. and many more.

Employee Appraisal Management & Reward Modules

A good performance management system should not only support all these methods but it should also be able to allow the management to customize and configure their own methods and techniques. The appraisals play a crucial role in improving the overall productivity and profitability of the business. On the bases of the performance evaluation the performance management system should also help businesses to implement an effective reward program. The reward program help businesses in improving employee’s morals, encouraging them to perform even better in future. Furthermore the performance management system can provide accurate data on technical and behavioral competencies which help businesses to setup and plan training programs and it also help them in measuring the effects of the trainings and skill enhancement programs. This help HR to improve the overall operational and professional capabilities of the entire workforce.

Employee Appraisal Management & Reward Modules

KPIs, OKRs, KRAs, and other Matrices

The performance management system have in-built performance measuring matrices. These matrices are used to track, monitor and measure the performance of the entire business along with all its business units, departments, teams, and employees. The KPIs are Key Performance Indicators which are used to measure the performance of the individual employees, teams, departments, and even the entire business. The KPIs are used to communicate what is needed from an employee and quantify their work to assess the performance. While the KRAs or Key Result/Responsibility Areas are matrices that are used to measure the employee performance in terms of the expectations from their job role. Majorly the KRAs are used to clearly communicate the job role of the employees and give them a perspective of what the business is expecting from them and what should be their contribution.

KPIs, OKRs, KRAs, and other Matrices

The OKRs means Objectives and Key Results and it is a fairly new performance management method. The OKRs are reviewed more frequently (usually at the end of each quarter) and they are transparent both horizontally and vertically. The OKRs are different from KPIs as the KPIs provide the measure of the effectiveness of the existing processes, the OKRs mainly address the change and growth and it measures how far a business have progressed in in a certain time period in pursuit of their goals and objectives. These are some matrices that any good performance management system should have. These matrices and a lot many more such matrices improve the efficacy of the performance management system.

KPIs, OKRs, KRAs, and other Matrices

Performance Management System with Remote Access Enabled

A good performance management system must also have capabilities to provide access to the employees remotely if needed. These days in general our dependence on the smartphones and mobile devices is increasing.  In fact most of the people use their mobile devices as their primary device to access the internet and do regular tasks. Furthermore businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE usually have many branches and most of the time employees are deployed off-campus or at project sites. This means that all of the employees wouldn’t have access to the computer or they won’t be able to come to the head-office to access their performance management system dashboard. Sometimes the higher management and stockholders also want to access the system from remote locations such as if they are at home, or at a business trip or if anything urgent came up while they are not at the office, etc.

Performance Management System with Remote Access Enabled

That is why having the facility to provide remote access via mobile and smartphones could be a great advantage. Businesses can also integrate special purpose interactive kiosks with the system which can provide access to the performance management system from remote locations and make it possible for all employees to access their dashboard any time and from anywhere. Such features are very helpful in improving the effectiveness of the system and help businesses improve their performance in all sectors.

Performance Management System Cost – Customized VS Off-the-shelf Solution

Obviously the cost is one of the major factor. Whenever a business planned to acquire a new system or tool the cost is always an important anchor point. The ROI is calculated on the bases of the cost and the returns a business gets from the software or system. There are two types of performance management systems on the bases of their cost and usage agreements. Some companies are providing ready-made or off-the-shelf performance management systems which can be acquired on the rental bases or at different subscription plans. In both cases the scalability is expensive and the business must have to pay for the plan or package they have opted for. Usually these plans and packages are designed for general purpose hence most of the businesses end up paying for unwanted features and tools as well.

Performance Management System Cost – Customized VS Off-the-shelf Solution

The data is stored in the service provider’s storage and business have no control over it. Another big disadvantage of off-the-shelf solutions is that they are hard to customize and sometimes businesses have to wait for a long time to see the new features in the updates. If any customization is done, it remains limited and it is also very expensive and in some cases it is not permitted at all.On the contrary the custom-build performance management systems provide full control and freedom. The business usually acquired a software development company like RSI Concepts or they hired a team of programmers and developers. In any case the business have full ownership rights over the software and it’s all resources. This make scalability a non-issue and business can include as many employees, departments, branches and everything whenever needed without paying hefty charges or upgrading fees.

Performance Management System Cost – Customized VS Off-the-shelf Solution

Furthermore the full ownership frees the business from dependency on a single vendor and businesses can move to a new vendor or service provider without losing anything or going through the migration problems. This make customized performance management systems more superior and cost-efficient. In the long term the cost to benefits rates are excellent and the business have more control and freedom over their performance management system.

Conclusion

The performance management system is a very critical component of any business’s management. Businesses use a digital performance management system to plan and execute strategies as per their goals and vision. However, when it comes to selecting an appropriate performance management system the HR department had to be very careful. The performance management system could have a significant and long term impact on the business’s growth and productivity. In this blog we have listed some basic features which will help the HR department to choose the best solution for their performance management needs. A performance management system help businesses to set realistic goals and help them implementing strategies to achieve those goals. It significantly improves communication.

The performance management system also help employees’ in understanding their job roles, the expectations from them and the importance of their contribution in the overall high-level organizational goals and objectives. The feedback and planning tools help businesses including the employees in planning and strategy building phases which increase their trust and improve their relationship with the business.A performance management system is absolutely necessary for any business. Each business grows, some grow faster and some at a slower pace but eventually each business grows and their internal business processes become more complex and sophisticated. A performance management system ensures the business sustain that growth and with the growth it also improves it workforce, operational capabilities while ensuring higher productivity and performance.

RSI Concepts is a leading performance management system provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you need our help to provide you a high-quality performance 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.

Check out this: Employee KPIs and Performance Management


Why Queue Management Systems Are Essential In Supermarkets

Why Queue Management Systems Are Essential In Supermarkets

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

Why Queue Management Systems Are Essential In Supermarkets

How a Retail Queue Management System Works

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

How a Retail Queue Management System Works

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

The Impact of Wait Time on Supermarkets & Retail Customers

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

The Impact of Wait Time on Supermarkets & Retail Customers

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

Retail Queue Management System Improves Resource Management

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

Retail Queue Management System Improves Resource Management

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

Retail Queue Management System Measures Cart Abandonment

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

Retail Queue Management System Measures Cart Abandonment

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

Retail Queue Management System Help Improving Customer Experience

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

Retail Queue Management System Help Improving Customer Experience

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

Conclusion

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

These traits of a retail queue management system make it essential for the supermarkets and retail businesses. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you with your queuing needs, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: How to Develop a Custom Property Management Software?


How to Develop a Custom Property Management Software?

How to Develop a Custom Property Management Software?

The Dubai and several other part of UAE are considered to be the most attractive places for real estate investments. Thanks to the government policies and supportive measures the real estate industry is booming, despite the fact the past few years were not so good due to the pandemic, the Dubai specifically and several other parts of UAE have witnessed record high sales and rental stats. Where the market is rapidly growing more and more investors are investing into real estate and property management, it means the competition for a property management and real estate business is very high. There are tons of ready-made off-the-shelf solutions for property management which provide very advanced features for landlords, tenants, hotel guests, management and all staff as well. However, if you really want to stand out of the crowd then you must have to do what others are not doing. That is why any good real estate business would chose to develop their own custom property management software.

How to Develop a Custom Property Management Software?

The customized property management software allow businesses to build the system as per their existing business processes. The off-the-shelf property management systems are designed for a large user group, which means all of the users will eventually end up changing their business processes and methods as per the software, else they will have to do a lot of manual work or in some cases they can’t even do it manually due to the magnitude of the work. However, a custom property management system is tailored to aid the existing business processes and methods, it doesn’t impose any change as it is completely designed as per the needs, so it can significantly boost the performance and productivity. That is why for real estate and property management businesses a tailor-made custom property management software is always the best choice.

How to Develop a Custom Property Management Software?

But the question is how to develop it? Most of the time the biggest hurdle that any business owner or manager faces is the hesitance about developing a custom software as it involves technical details, programing, source codes, etc. That is the reason we are writing this article to help our audience understand how they can have an excellent custom property management software in Dubai, UAE.

Make a Plan! And Set Goals

Without a good plan you can’t get what you want and the project could get very messy. Here by good I don’t mean a high-level professional IT plan type of plan, but just a simple plan which covers all important aspects. Being a business owner or a manager you will have to do some research. Talk with your sub-ordinates, sales teams, accounts, operations, and all heads of the departments and ask for their feedback. Draw a map of the existing business processes and work flows, a simple flow chat would suffice. Enlist the features you are currently needing and also think about some things that you might going to need in future. Try to take feedback from your customers about all the user interfaces you are providing them and you want to provide them. Have a detailed look at your competitors and industry leaders. This will draw the blue prints of your custom property management software.

Make a Plan! And Set Goals

Think about what you want to achieve by implementing this property management software. For example, you think currently your customer service and complain mechanisms are lagging, and you want to improve that area and so on. Try to compile everything in a single document, this document can be later used as the requirement to be shared with the IT Company who will be developing the custom property management software for you. You don’t have to worry about technicalities, just try to keep it simple, as simple as any ordinary person can understand and make sense of it. This can serve as your plan very well.

How to Find a Software Development Company in Dubai?

Finding a good software development company in Dubai, UAE is very tricky. There are hundreds if not thousands of custom software development companies in Dubai and in entire UAE. However, there are only a few who could deliver. As you already have a document and your goals are documented, you can share it with different software development companies in Dubai. The search/Google is the best place to begin with. Search for the software development companies in Dubai, make a list. Ask your friends and colleagues and if anyone of them suggest any company add it to your list. It is safe to have at least ten custom software companies in the list to start. I will explain later how you can short list and finalize one of them. But at the initial stage it is good to have at least a list of ten companies. Then start with their website, go through their website, try to find their customers, look up for testimonials and their business partners. Check their blog and see how active they are at their blog. It is very simple. Now rearrange your list and put which you think is good at top and arrange them all.

How to Find a Software Development Company in Dubai?

From now on I will list the scrutinizing process in steps, try to follow them as per the order:

  1. Contact the listed custom software development companies via Email or Contact Form
  2. Ask them to sign the NDA (Non-disclosure Agreement)
  3. Share your requirement document with them and let them revert back to you
  4. Schedule a short call or an online meeting to initiate the process
  5. They will definitely ask you several questions, try to answer them all
  6. At this stage you would know which one of them are more interested and capable
  7. Make your list shorter and cut it to at least five
  8. Ask those five custom software development companies for a meeting and presentation
  9. In this meeting try to evaluate the representatives, their presentations, and discussion, etc.
  10. Ask them to submit their initial proposals, offers, credentials and also ask them for references to their existing customers
  11. Evaluate those offers on the bases of technical and commercial aspects, try to contact their customers and ask them for their opinion and experience
  12. Take at least three out of these offers and negotiate the technical and commercial proposals
  13. Ask them to share project plan and full technical scope of work
  14. Ask them to offer you guarantee, warrantee, maintenance and SLAs and compare them
  15. Now you can easily chose any one of them
  16. Sign Agreements and Kick Start the project

Here in UAE we always find customers who are unhappy from off-shore service providers, which is why we always recommend our readers and customers to go with a company who is based in Dubai or anywhere in UAE. It is very difficult to set disputes with the off-shore company. A well-reputed custom software development company like RSI Concepts will always deliver good projects. Such companies always help and support their customers and they are also bound by the local laws, hence the customer’s rights are well protected.

How to Execute Custom Property Management Software Development Project?

Any software or IT system development project is executed in several phases. All software development companies in Dubai, UAE or in fact all around the world works on the project in different phases, because that is the most practical and efficient way of doing it. Before even starting the project you should ask the software development company to provide you a detailed scope of work and a project plan. If you already have experience or if you are totally new to custom software development, here are some important steps that will help you in executing a custom property development software project:

  1. Step 1 – Wireframe: Any software development project starts with a wireframe phase. The custom software development company provide a wireframe which is a demonstration of the user interface (UI) and it also explains the user experience (UX) in great details. You can ask the software development and design team to make amendment at this stage. As it is easier and usually there is no additional cost of making changes at this stage unless you are asking for a big change or you deviate from the original scope of work. The wireframe explains each and every screen of the software so be careful at this stage and make sure you get everything as per your need and expectations.
  2. Step 2 –UI Design: Once the wireframes are finalized the next step is to design the user interface. The user interface will be the final look and feel of your custom property management software. Since it is a custom property management software development so the business will have the full ownership and rights over it. It is good to ask the design team to make it aligned with your brand and use your logo and branding to design the UI and UX.
  3. Step 3 –Development: After completing the UI/UX designs the project now enters into the development phase. This is the stage when the custom software development company will write the source code, build algorithms and functionalities in your custom property management software. Mostly the software development companies share the progress after completing the development phase but some companies also provide regular updates and share the incomplete software too. For example, if the tenant management module is complete they ask you to test it while they are working on the other modules in parallel. The better approach is to let them finish the complete software and then test it this will save a lot of time and hustle.
  4. Step 4 –UAT: After completing the development phase the project enters into the test phase. In the testing phase both the custom software development company and the business does the testing. At UAT (user acceptance test) stage you must have to check each and every functionality to make sure everything is as per the previously agreed scope of work. Any feedback or changes can be made at this stage, but it is better to stick with the actual scope of work.
  5. Step 5 –Launch: At the UAT stage the project is still in the test environment, after passing that stage the project is deployed in a live environment, whether it is a cloud, online server, or local/in-premises server. The launch also have two stages. First stage is beta launch. In the beta stage the customer property management software is made available to a selective audience which includes users from all user groups. At this stage businesses can take feedback and suggestion and make amendments too if needed. After the beta launch is successful a training program is executed to make all employees familiar with the new software and then the project is fully commissioned and made available to everyone.
  6. Step 6 –Post-Launch: The post-launch includes all the marketing efforts and an active user feedback collection campaign. This provides businesses an idea about the effectiveness of the custom property management system. Businesses can also collect feedback and suggestion and consider them in future updates or revised versions of the software.

How to Execute Custom Property Management Software Development Project?

These steps are a general overview of the software project execution. Businesses and the software development company can establish a different understanding and project plan to ensure better results. However, it is better to do one thing at a time and complete the entire project in multiple phases and stages.

What are the Important Features of a Property Management System?

The features of any software determines its usability and the value it can add to the user experience. For a customized property management software it can have and it should have all the necessary features that a business wants and that are required to help business in achieving their short term and long term goals. A custom property management software have different application in slightly different industry sectors, hence for each the features and specification could differ from one another. Here are some application of a property management software:

  • Real Estate Management
  • Residential Facility Management
  • Industrial Facility Management
  • Hotel Management
  • Shopping Mall Management
  • Centralized Information Center
  • Multi-branch & Multi-location Management

What are the Important Features of a Property Management System?

There are many more but the common thing is that each property management software have similar kind of user groups so each one have almost similar user interfaces. Apart from the user interface there are several other modules that are common too. So, here we will list some key features and modules that can benefit all different types of property management software.

Web Interfaces of a Custom Property Management Software

The web interface is the most common feature of property management software and such systems. The web interface is designed to allow users to easily access the system using a simple web browser. The web interface should have a few key features that will make it more efficient and user friendly:

  • Intuitive User Interface with adequate helping material such as (tool-tips, help icons, etc.)
  • Allow online access from outside the organization as well
  • Should have responsive and cross-platform compatibility features
  • Simple and easy to understand navigational structure
  • Ability to prevent user from accessing unauthorized information and functions
  • Ability to offer different color schemes and allow users to arrange their dashboard

The web user interface is a very important aspect of any software tool. For property management software the web user interface should be very user-friendly. A good user interface (UI) can speed up different tasks and have significant positive impact on user’s performance. The web user interfaces are designed for both the internal and external uses. Internally the employees, sales teams, customer support and service teams, maintenance teams, management and all other business functions use it and externally the interface is made available via online for the customers.

Web Interfaces of a Custom Property Management Software

Smartphone Applications and Mobile Interface

These days the smartphone applications are getting very popular and more common than ever before. Businesses are offering mobile applications and continuously trying to improve them. The biggest reason of the popularity of the smartphone applications is that users can get a very personalized experience. Here are some key features that your smartphone application should have:

  • Dedicated interface for different user groups (landlords, owners, tenants, maintenance teams, office staff, management, etc.)
  • Compatible with Android and iOS Mobile Phones
  • Single Time Sign-in with additional security features
  • Ability to download, upload and scan documents through the device camera
  • Online Payment Features to allow users to make instant payments
  • In-App alerts and news along with Push-notifications
  • Real-time access to the central information center
  • Ability to search for content, information and communication
  • Ability to look up for branch or office with navigation
  • In-built communication module (chat with staff, complaint center, feedback and suggestions, etc.)
  • Appointment booking and integration with queue management system

These are some of the most commonly used features in a property management software mobile app. Businesses can add more innovative features to enhance the user experience and to improve the productivity.

Smartphone Applications and Mobile Interface

Internet Interface or Website

The internet interface or website of a property management business is available for everyone to access via online. It has to be perfect as it had significant impact on the overall digital brand identity of the business too. Although some property management businesses consider websites separate form their core property management application, however a property management business’s website is also just an extension of their core property management software as it heavily rely on it. Whether you already have a website or are upgrading your website along with your custom property management software, it is better to have the following features in your website:

  • Simply Navigational Structure and Well Organized Menus
  • Multimedia content such as Photos and Videos of the property, hotel room, etc.
  • Smart search with multiple filters to facilitate the property searching
  • Real-time data synchronization and updates from the central information center
  • Simple and user-friendly user interface and design theme
  • Customer centric content and provide additional information along with all listings
  • Dedicated search result page and property listing pages
  • Responsive and cross platform compatibility
  • Super-fast page loading speed on both desktop and mobiles
  • Simple user registration and dedicated user dashboard to improve personalized user experience
  • Integration with CRM and complaint management systems
  • Visible contact information, appointment booking module and simple contact forms
  • Online payment gateway integration to provide multiple online payment options
  • Simple and easy sharing features with social media integration
  • Online chat module or WhatsApp integration
  • Ability to download and share the property in PDF format

These are just a few most important features of a property management business’s website. You can also add more features and request your website development company to help you adding more interactive and engaging features on your website.

Internet Interface or Website

Customer Portal

The customer portals are designed for providing customers service and information. The modern day property management system offer a variety of features that can help improving customer experience and customer journey. Your custom property management software should have all key features to facilitate customer interactions and to make them happy. Here are some important features that your customer portal should have:

  • Simple and easy online registration
  • Multiple channels to communicate and share documents, contracts and details
  • 24/7 easy access to the information center, customer support and complaint centers
  • Dedicated maintenance module to expedite the maintenance request processing
  • Simple and easy in-app communication and customer feedback module
  • Good payment gateway service integration to provide multiple easy payment methods
  • Preferences and customization to provide a personalized customer experience
  • Similar user journey and user experience across all platforms and channels
  • Online Directory for various departments and concerned staff members

Businesses can should offer all the important features that they think could help their customers and improve their experience. The customer experience is crucial for customer satisfaction which is a key to long term success.

Customer Portal

Sales Team Portal

A dedicated sales team portal can help property management business in boosting sales and revenue. The portal allow simple and easy management of the sales staff. It also record various stats and KPIs which can help management in monitoring and improving the sales department. Each business have different methods and internal processes. That is why a custom property management software can help businesses improve their sales department’s efficiency and performance as it supports their existing processes and help them make improvements. Here are some key features of a sales team portal for the property management software:

  • Real-time data synchronization and integration with central information center
  • Instant notifications, alerts and facility to set reminders and follow ups
  • Smart property visit scheduling module to increase customer visits
  • Sales Performance and Target Comparison and other Performance Matrices
  • In-built features to share contracts and process documents to expedite the process
  • Integration with CRM module and ability to push feedback and surveys to the customers
  • Ability to send customized notifications, reminders and alerts to the customers
  • Ability to communicate and share files with other team members through the dashboard
  • A full-fledged document processing and work flow management module

Each business have different requirements and establish different processes over the time. So, the custom property management software development will allow them to make the software as per their needs which will improve the performance and productivity of the sales department.

Sales Team Portal

Maintenance Requests and Complaints Management

Each property management business knows that this sector receives a huge number of maintenance requests and complaints too. That is why businesses often use a separate complaint management system or they use CRMs and other specialized tools to handle and manage customer complaints and maintenance requests. Most of the modern property management system have maintenance requests but not the complaint management module, or in some cases both are merged and treated as the same, which is not right. A good property management system should have separate maintenance requests and complaint management modules. Here are some key features that you should consider while developing a custom property management system:

  • Dedicated and separate Maintenance Request Management and Complaint Management Modules
  • Facility to segregate the maintenance requests on the bases of priority and importance
  • Facility to segregate different types of customer on the bases of their categories (regular, VIP, Premium, Residential, Commercial, etc.)
  • Automatic complaint distribution mechanism and notifications/alerts for the concerned staff
  • Automatic customer feedback or review collection after completing the maintenance
  • Intuitive complaint management module with ability to forward and escalate the complaints
  • Complaint escalation and forward should trigger pre-programmed alerts and notifications
  • Direct communication with the complainant and ability to share their contact details through the dashboard/portal
  • Active customer feedback collection and ability to close the loop

For any property management system or facility management system proactively managing the complaints and maintenance request is extremely important. It requires a strong communication network and the custom property management software allow you to automate various processes, set alerts and notification which makes it a lot easier and quicker for the staff to deliver good quality service.

Maintenance Requests and Complaints Management

Dedicated Modules for Each Business Function

A custom property management software allow businesses to create dedicated modules for each business function (sales, marketing, operations, maintenance, procurement, maintenance & service, etc.). The businesses have full control over the work flow, data sharing and administrative mechanisms. The customization allow them to make the software as per their needs, hence after commissioning the custom property management software the business or any of its functions doesn’t need to make changes to their processes and routines. In fact the software help them to improve their current processes and methods they follow. This could significantly boost the overall productivity and profitability of the business. As in case of a ready-made or off-the-shelf solution the businesses always have to make adjustments and even big changes in their internal and external business processes and methods they are following, which in long term also impact on their strategy. So, it is crucial that the new software is just helping and making improvement in the existing processes.

Dedicated Modules for Each Business Function

Work Flow Management and Administrative Hierarchy

For any property management businesses the work flow and administrative hierarchy is very important. Each businesses have different internal structure and over the time they tend to develop and evolve into a very unique and distinctive eco-system. A stock or off-the-shelf solution can never meet the needs of a growing organization. So, a custom property management software is always remain superior in this regard. It provide more flexibility and control over internal processes, assigning and defining job roles and setting up administrative hierarchy. This enable businesses to gain full control over their strategic and tactical processes and enables them to alter anything anytime as per their needs without making any change or customization in the existing system. It also makes regular administrative tasks simpler and easier. With just a few clicks a manager can appoint someone on a job role, or even assign them additional charge of two positions. Within a few clicks, a business management can change the access and control of any employee. Such things are very helpful for the management and keep them focused on their primary tasks and goals.

Work Flow Management and Administrative Hierarchy

Business Intelligence Data Collection

Collecting valuable business intelligence data is extremely crucial in the modern data driven world. For any business it is crucial to have a good understanding of their customers, the market trends, and of course their own weaknesses and strengths. Make sure you custom property management software is capable of collecting valuable business intelligence data and system usage information. That is not all, the data collection, system stats, user activities and such details could be very helpful in certain scenarios. Businesses do whatever they can to improve their customer’s experience and to make them happy and satisfy. Businesses also invest heavily in systems and solutions which can help them to boost the performance and productivity. Here is a short list of some key data points that every property management business should consider monitoring and recording:

  • Login activity and task activity record
  • Workflow and approval records
  • Performance matrices and employee KPIs
  • Customer happiness and customer satisfaction matrices
  • All kind of trends and customer purchase patterns
  • Customer and visitors details and their demographics
  • Performance matrices for each department and business functions
  • Ability to conduct customer feedback surveys and ability to process the feedback data
  • Accounting and Finance KPIs and performance matrices
  • Customer support center and complaint management department’s performance data
  • Website analytical and social media statistics

These are just a few key areas which will help you to focus on more details which you can ask your software development company to include in the reporting and analytical modules. This data can help management and heads of the departments to make better strategies and take informed decisions.

Business Intelligence Data Collection

Future Scalability and Maintenance

The custom property management software should be able to handle scalability. The problem the off-the-shelf solutions is that as the business grow and its needs grow the cost increases, whether it is just adding more users or up-scaling the server and IT infrastructure, the cost also keep increasing as the needs increase. However, in case of a custom software the business holds the full ownership rights and the customer property management software developer will have to transfer each and every bit of source code, resources and any other ingredient they use to build the software application. Which provide businesses a great advantage and allow them to scale as much as they want without bearing additional cost. Moreover, the business doesn’t get dependent on the development company and they can easily do the maintenance at in-house or they can acquire the services of another third-party. This not only provide more control but also keep the cost under control.

Future Scalability and Maintenance

Conclusion

In Dubai and in fact all across the UAE the property management and real estate business is booming. The market is very competitive and the customers are very savvy. In such conditions a business will have to offer excellent services and a unique kind of customer experience which can help them retain their customers and build their reputation and credibility in the market. There are several options available for the property management software however, having a custom property management software which is tailor-made as per the needs and requirements of your business could be game changer. It can boost efficiency and performance without disturbing any existing business process or methods a business is currently following. It can also integrated easily with the existing systems and tools. The customer property management software is much more flexible, offer great control and independence and it is also much more cost-efficient with greater ROI in the long term.

RSI Concepts is a leading customer property management software development company in Dubai, UAE. The purpose of this blog was to give our audience a better understanding of how a custom property management software is built. If you want to learn more about the topic or if you want us to help you building your property management software, please feel free to reach us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: Why Queue Management Systems Are Essential For Modern Businesses?


Al Shams Media City Freezone acquired UAE’s leading QMS & Feedback System from RSI Concepts

Sharjah Media City (Shams) Free Zone is one of the newest free zones and was established in early 2017 to particularly support and facilitate media businesses. The Sharjah Media City (Shams) Free Zone is also known as Shams Free Zone, and since day one it is enabling hundreds and thousands of entrepreneurs to grow and thrive. The Sharjah Media City Free Zone is also popular due to its super-fast and super-convenient business setup process and excellent customer support. The Sharjah Media City Free Zone made the business setup process super convenient and very customer-friendly. The free zone has great customer support and online services to further improve customer experience. The Sharjah Media City (Shams) Free Zone is a customer-centric organization and it is always actively seeking ways to further improve the customer journey and customer experience. Very recently Sharjah Media City (Shams) Free Zone has decided to commission a queue management system to streamline their customer flow and to obtain some feedback from their customer and visitors.

Queue Management System

RSI Concepts was being contacted to provide a very efficient and effective queuing solution and customer feedback system. The requirements were very clear and the objective was to achieve the highest possible customer satisfaction by providing them the most convenient customer journey and an excellent customer experience. The complete solution consists of two parts, one is RSI Queue Management System and the second component is RSI Customer Survey and Feedback System. RSI Queue Management System (QMS) is a state-of-the-art customer flow management system with advanced features and tools. The system enabled Sharjah Media City (Shams) Free Zone to significantly improve their customer experience by reducing the customer wait time and improving the customer flow management. Our Queuing System also helps improving employee efficiency by reducing their efforts for customer flow management along with capabilities to integrate with other systems and corporate tools.

RSI Customer Feedback and Survey System is designed to allow the organizations and businesses to measure as per the NPS Standards. The NPS or Net Promoter Score is known to be the best indicator of performance and quality. Moreover, the customer feedback system has the capabilities to customize the questionnaire which further enables the management to collect various different types of feedback from customers and gather valuable business intelligence. Direct customer feedback is very crucial along with other indicators to measure the quality and performance. Businesses are investing heavily in implementing systems and solutions to improve customer experience and customer satisfaction. But there should be a mechanism to monitor and measure the impact of those all efforts, the customer feedback, and in-built queue management system statistical and analytical data collection tools are a great way to measure the usefulness of all the efforts to improve customer experience and customer journey.

Sharjah Media City (Shams) Free Zone is using Zoho CRM (Customer Relationship Management Software) to track and identify a business or company along with features to create sales and leads. The data synchronization and integration can significantly improve the work efficiency of a system or software. It allows businesses to innovate new ideas and to achieve specific goals.

Here are the remarks of our Project Manager, Mr. Shehzad Asghar:

“The Sharjah Media City (Shams) Free Zone is such a great organization with highly professional and disciplined staff. The complete project execution was seamless, in-time, and very smooth. Thanks to the management and team at the Sharjah Media City (Shams) Free Zone, due to their support and cooperation the entire project execution was done very smoothly. The final testing reveals that the outcome may surpass the expectation in a year or two. Overall the Queue Management System and Customer Feedback Systems are very effective in improving customer experience and gathering business intelligence.”

Indeed Sharjah Media City (Shams) Free Zone is a huge contributor in supporting local businesses and entrepreneurs. The free zone is adopting high-tech solutions to meet the ever-changing needs of the customers. Implementing RSI Queue Management System and RSI Customer Survey and Feedback System is another leap forward. We will hope to expect more such collaborations with Sharjah Media City (Shams) Free Zone in near future.

Check out this blog: Qualities of a Good Mobile App for Queue Management System


Why Queue Management Systems Are Essential For Modern Businesses?

Why Queue Management Systems Are Essential For Modern Businesses?

Businesses want to improve productivity, turnover, and employee performance and cost efficiency all while improving the customer happiness and customer satisfaction. Customers never like to wait in long queues, they want instant services. However, the queues are inevitable in reality. This means the businesses and organizations will have to deal with queues. Here in Dubai, and in fact all around the UAE the market is very competitive and the customers simply have too many choices. One bad experience is enough to make your customer switch to a competitor. Another important factor is that the UAE is one of the most modern and advanced society, people living here are mostly highly educated and the market norms and standards are very high. That is why it is crucial for a businesses to sustain its customers by any mean. The market trends, customer’s preferences and competitors are all important factors to consider for a long term strategy. Now a days, a regular or ordinary customer place their experience equal to the quality of the product or service they are obtaining. That is why the customer experience had become an absolutely necessary aspect of customer satisfaction strategy.

Why Queue Management Systems Are Essential For Modern Businesses?

The customer satisfaction is mainly based on customer experience, whether it is with your product or services, staff, customer support team, sales team, or even through digital channels. That is why it is important to improve customer experience at all the touch points. In our today’s topic we will cover only the customer experience at the business premises or at the branch. The customer experience includes each and everything from signing up for the queue to getting the service or making the purchase and even afterwards. The waiting time, long and poorly managed queues are major causes of customer dissatisfaction. Studies have shown that in general a customer can wait for 8 to 12 minutes comfortably, after that the customer starts getting annoyed, anxious and stressed. This wait time is even lesser for certain businesses. That mean either the business will have to find a way to serve the customer before that safe waiting time limits or the business will have to find a way to increase that limit.

Why Queue Management Systems Are Essential For Modern Businesses?

A queue management system is the best solution to that problem, it can not only help businesses to reduce the wait time but it also help businesses to increase that limit by engaging customers and improving their waiting experience during the customer journey.Here is how a businesses can utilize a queue management system to increase customer tolerance to the wait time while reducing it simultaneously.

What is Queue Management?

Most of the time people line up to avail a service at a business. This happens when the counters or servers are less and the customers are more. That is the case almost all of the time at many businesses. Such queues are mostly unstructured and not properly managed. Which results in several problems that both the customers and the staff also faces. The queue management is the process or technique to manage those queues with more efficiency, efficacy and flexibility which facilitates both the customer and the staff of the business. Basically the queue management’s primary aim is to enhance customer experience, reduce their stress and improve the customer journey. In parallel to that the queue management also improve staff performance and productivity. This altogether improve the overall profitability of the business by making customer satisfied and loyal. Happy customers also help improving brand reputation and credibility.

What is Queue Management?

What is a Queue Management System?

A queue management system or QMS is a tool that is used to effectively and efficiently manage the customer queues. The queue management system is used to manage the waiting time, customer flow and customer experience. It also collect valuable business intelligence data for the businesses which help them improve the customer experience and customer journey. The queue management system also provide advanced monitoring and management features which can be applied at multi-branch setup and help the main branch or head-office to gain a better control and monitoring over all connected branches. A queue management system is a mixture of software and hardware. The software is usually an application with multiple interfaces for different group of users. The hardware usually consists of an interactive kiosk or a ticket dispensing machine, which dispense the queue numbers for the customers. There is a digital display which is used to provide queuing information and update in the waiting area.

What is a Queue Management System?

Almost all modern day queue management systems use audio announcement system which announces the next ticket number and the counter where their turn came. Along with that it also depends on the needs and requirements of the business. Some businesses also include a lot of other software and hardware features. The queue management systems can easily integrated with the central information center of the business as well as with other enterprise solutions and business tools. This capability significantly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the system and also allow the businesses to introduce innovative features and customization which can help them further improve customer experience and various internal business processes that can impact customer experience.

What is a Queue Management System?

The queue management systems are built on a very widely available hardware technology which makes them compatible with millions of hardware peripherals and interactive devices. Businesses can use a variety of hardware devices to introduce new features which please their customers and simplify their journey. Here in Dubai and all across the UAE mostly the simpler versions are used and major focus is at the software side, however, the interactive ticket dispensing kiosk can have a variety of hardware devices such as Emirates ID Reader, Barcode & QR Code Reader, Smart Card Reader, Document Scanner & Printer, Payment Gateway integration and POS, Biometric, Facial and Retina Scanners, Passport Scanners, and many more. These all hardware accessories are used to introduce new features to queue management system and help businesses in further simplifying the customer journey and improving the customer experience and customer happiness.

What is a Queue Management System?

What Makes Queue Management System (QMS) Essential for Modern Businesses?

Managing queues and customer experience is a very sophisticated task, it requires a lot of resources and planning. The manual work requires a lot of human resource, planning and still it is not as that effective. Improving customer waiting experience, customer journey and customer satisfaction need a lot of information and data analysis. Manually it is nearly impossible to gather all that data and do that kind of analysis with accuracy. Whenever there will be manual data collection, human will involve and common errors and mistakes will be inevitable. That is why a queue management system is essential not only to effectively manage the queuing process but it is also absolutely necessary for monitoring and collecting data which can later help in improving strategies, business processes and customer experience.

What Makes Queue Management System (QMS) Essential for Modern Businesses?

Here are a few reasons which makes a queue management system an essential for modern businesses:

Reduce Customer Wait Time

One of the most impactful factor on customer happiness and satisfaction is the wait time. No one wants to wait, everyone wants to get served as quickly as possible. A queue management system streamline customer flow, segment customers into different groups/categories as per their needs, direct them to the right counter and completely automate the customer flow process. As soon as a customer get served on a counter, the next one is automatically called via audio & visual announcements. And that is not all, an efficient queue management system can also be helpful in various other steps of the customer journey. For example via agent portal or agent interface a queue management system can help reducing the agent’s efforts, which keep them more focused on their primary tasks. Hence they can deliver even better customer services which makes your customer happy and satisfy.

Reduce Customer Wait Time

The automatically managed waiting lines, doesn’t cause much complaints as everyone knows the queue is controlled by the computer so everyone knows everyone will be treated equally, no one can line jump, and no agent or staff can favor anyone, etc. Such complaints are common in manual queues, even though the businesses put a lot of efforts to reduce them, people would still have such complaints in case of manual queues. That is why the digital queue management eliminates a lot of problems, makes customer happy and also enable staff to serve more customers in a single shift. Which in result also reduce the average customer waiting time.

Reduce Perceived Wait Time and Improve Waiting Experience

The perceived wait time is always higher than the actual wait time. Have you ever noticed, during the rush at the high way or at a grocery store the waiting line next to you felt faster than that of yours. However, when you switch it the reverse happens! It is just a perception of human brain. Sometimes we think the time is moving slower than it actually is. This is mostly due to boredom, waiting or lack of interest. The same happens at your business too. Your customers might think the time passed is more than the actual time passed. Another factor that contributes to increase perceived wait time is the absence of any other engagement, or one could say distraction. A queue management system provides the both, it actually reduces the actual wait time and it also help reducing the perceived wait time. A standard queue management system uses large display screen, these screens are used to display the queuing information. Businesses can use those screens and enable audio and visual announcements which can easily distract the customer from focusing on being waiting in a long queue.

Reduce Perceived Wait Time and Improve Waiting Experience

Businesses can also use another trick which is mentioning the estimated time to turn at the ticket. With the help of a queue management system this can be done easily. These features and a lot many other such features help businesses in reducing both actual and perceived wait time. When the actual and perceived wait time is reduced and during that wait time the customer is engaged with regular audio announcements, large bright display screens in front of them and with the estimated time to their turn, they feel more comfortable and in fact they can tolerate more wait time comparing to the situation without all those features.

Virtual Queuing Literally Reduces the Wait Time to None

The virtual queuing is not a new technology, in fact it is present since a long time, but since past two to three years the virtual queuing caught the attentions of the businesses in Dubai and everywhere in UAE. Businesses are adopting to virtual queuing on a rapid pace. The virtual queuing has ability to literally reduce the wait time to none. It done so by introducing advanced features such as remote sign-up channels, virtual queues, mobile or remote communication and such features. The customers are free to sign-up for the queue using a QR Code, an online link, SMS, email or even the business website and some advanced queue management systems also offer appointment booking modules as well. Such module ad features enable customers to sign-up for the queues without being physically present at the premises.

Virtual Queuing Literally Reduces the Wait Time to None

This means they are enrolled in the waiting line virtual without being physically present, hence they can easily plan their visit to arrive at the business only when their turn comes. Hence there will be literally no waiting time at the business. The virtual queuing also allow businesses to communicate with the customers using SMS, online links, mobile apps and other digital channels which enhance customer experience and increase their satisfaction.

Automatic Customer Flow Management Improves Customer Experience

A queue management system has a very intelligent software engine, which can be programmed as per the needs and situation. The businesses can use these features to setup a customer flow plan. Each business offers multiple services and each business deals with different categories of the customers who are attributed with different levels of priorities. For example, for certain services a business could have exclusive counters. For certain customers a business could have exclusive counters, such as for premium or VIP customers a business have policy to prioritize them at highest then there could be a dedicated counter for people with special needs and so on. All these variables can be programmed in the queue management system and it can automatically control the customer flow and customer journey for each customer category by automatically segregating them as per their priority or any other attribute.

Automatic Customer Flow Management Improves Customer Experience

Furthermore businesses also have different types of services, such as some businesses offers some services which can be delivered through a single counter, some services are meant to be delivered by multiple counters, such services are called stepped services. A queue management system can efficiently manage each type of customer flow as per the programming or setting at the admin panel. Hence the businesses doesn’t have to appoint additional human resource to guide and help customers, in fact the queue management system can do the job. This not only make the customer journey hustle free but it also save a lot of resources to the business.

Reduce Employee Work Load and Improve Employee Performance

With the manual queuing the employees are always engaged and distracted with so many other things. They could easily deviate from their primary tasks, which cause delays and poor performance. The employee feel under pressure, they feel more workload and their performance decreases. With the queue management system in place, the employees don’t have to worry about managing the queues, or solving disputes between the customers or listening to their complaints, in fact they can completely focus on their primary tasks. This also reduce the workload of the employees they feel working under a balanced workload and the feel much lighter and comfortable which not only boost their performance but also increase their work quality which eventually results in happy and satisfied customers. Moreover the queue management system can also be integrated with other systems and central information center of the business which enables them to further assist the agents and server in task closing and preparation of the next gig. Which also reduce their workload and improve their performance and quality of work.

Reduce Employee Work Load and Improve Employee Performance

Collect Valuable Business Intelligence Data (Stats, KPIs, Feedback, etc.)

A queue management system is a digital system and is capable of capturing statistical and system usage data from each and every touch point of customer journey. Which allow the businesses to get a deeper insight to the customer experience and customer journey. It also provides them a window into customer’s mind, and help the management in understanding customer’s liking, disliking, there preferences and much more. The management can also utilize the business intelligence data form the queue management system to understand the market trends and also for product development. The queue management system not only collect stats and system usage data but it is very capable of collecting various KPIs, such as employee KPIs and other important matrices. The queue management system can accurately track and monitor employee performance. The business management can assess employee’s performance and they can learn about their strengths and weaknesses, their performance and they can even set notifications and alerts in case of poor performance. Which are very helpful in taking timely actions and improving employee performance.

Collect Valuable Business Intelligence Data

The queue management system can also collect customer feedback and make the feedback process very simple and easier for the customers. Which results in increased turnover and high quality customer feedback data. With the ability to integrate it with other systems, tools and database the businesses can develop features to even manage the feedback by performing analysis and generating report and they can also use the queue management system to close the customer feedback loop, which not only eliminate the need of a separate customer feedback management system but also makes the process a lot easier and more convenient for the management and the relevant staff.

Queue Management System Increases Productivity and Profitability

A queue management system is not just a queuing system but it is a full-fledged branch transformation tool. It can help businesses at many fronts. It help them automate several business processes, boost employee performance and their quality of work. And a queue management system can collect and gather valuable business intelligence data which can be used by the businesses to track and monitor performance of various functions and employees and also help them make informed decisions. The Queue Management System is absolutely necessary tool for the modern businesses. It boost their productivity and capabilities to perform well. The automation and digitalization reduce the human resource and also eliminate the need of acquiring various other separate tools and systems which in itself is very cost-effective and reduce help businesses in managing the expenses.

Queue Management System Increases Productivity and Profitability

Moreover the customer happiness and customer satisfaction help businesses retain the customers, and improve their brand image. A good brand image attracts more customers and also reduce the marketing and branding expense. All those direct and indirect impacts of a queue management system are very cost-efficient. A queue management system boost a business’s performance, productivity and profitability and ensures a long term growth.

Conclusion

Every business wants its customer to be happy, satisfied and loyal to them. Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE invest millions in systems and solutions to achieve this goal. However, keeping the cost low, obtaining maximum efficiency and productivity and at the same time ensuring your customers are happy and satisfied. But how a business can achieve this? This is a very difficult question but it has a very simple answer which is a Queue Management System. A queue management system not only manages customer flow and reduce customer wait time but it does a lot more than that. It help businesses understand the customer behavior, customer journey and the customer experience. A queue management system significantly reduce the customer wait time, it improves their waiting experience and at the same time it boost employee performance and increase overall productivity of the business. A queue management system in the long term is a great solution to achieve highest performance, unmatched productivity and great ROI by significant improvement in profitability and cost reduction.

RSI Concepts is a leading brand in queue management systems in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about eh subject or if you want our help to improve your customer experience and boost your performance, productivity andprofitability, feel free to let us know via 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: Employee KPIs and Performance Management


Employee KPIs and Performance Management

Employee KPIs and Performance Management

Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are proactively seeking ways to improve productivity and employee efficiency. The market is very competitive and the customer’s expectation are high. In such situation it is crucial to perform well at all touch points to make sure the customer have satisfactory experience. Apart from customer satisfaction, the businesses also need to improve performance in other functions such as production, finance, purchase & supply chain, HR, etc. That is why the employee KPIsand performance management system is critical. Moreover businesses are always seeking ways to prepare themselves for the disruptive events and unprecedented scenarios. The performance management system gets them ready by highlighting their capabilities. Businesses also need to solve the problems and obstacles that their employees are facing on daily bases. By rectifying the most obvious problems, an enterprise or organization can gain significant boost in the employee performance.

Employee KPIs and Performance Management

The performance management system is crucial for any business or organization to achieve its long term goals. These goals are flown from top to bottom and dictates individual, team and department goals which altogether contributes to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. The goals and objectives often interchanged however, they are entirely different. The goals are a stated in broader terms, set for longer period of time and also influenced by the vision and mission of the business. For example the goal of a business could be to become the number 1 service provider in the UAE. That is a goal and it is not quantifiable. However, in order to achieve this goal the objectives are set such as to achieve raise in customer satisfaction by 20%, customer retention by 15% and customer churn rate should be reduced by 30%, and all these goals are quantifiable.

Employee KPIs and Performance Management

Similarly these goals are propagated downwards to the individual employees and the teams. Hence the KPI or Key Performance Indicators are set accordingly. These KPIs will measure the actual and precise amount of growth and progress towards the individual and high-level organizational goals and objectives. The KPIs are a critical part of the performance management.

Importance of Employee KPIs in Improving the Performance

For any business the employees are the greatest asset, it is not only about hiring the right people but it is also about putting them in right places where they can perform well and groom to raise their level of expertise and skills, in order to enhance their performance over the time. That is why it is absolutely necessary for any business to have high performing employees. That is why the employee KPIs are also crucial for business success. A business’s success is a very broader term, it is measured with so many different scales and matrices. However, for any business their success is to achieve their high-level organization goals and objectives. The employee KPIs help managers to obtain higher performance form the available resources to maximize the efficiency which results in success and is considered a key to get desired results. For any business the simplest form to achieve their goals is to simply maximize the performance and minimize the operational cost. Which is only possible when the employees are working at their maximum potential and are able to produce the desired or expected outcomes.

Importance of Employee KPIs in Improving the Performance

The KPIs can not only simplify the evaluation process but it also help businesses in measuring and monitoring both the quality of the work and the quantity of the work as well. The KPIs can be implemented using a performance management system or software, which not only measures the KPIs but also automates the process of collecting the data and on top of that it also allow the managers to easy analyze the data and prepare actionable reports from it. This way the managers can easily learn about the strengths and weaknesses of the employees, they can train them, encourage them or motivate them to boost their performance. Furthermore the employee KPIs are also used for self-assessment, which also increase competitiveness and motivate the employees. That is why the employee KPIs are so crucial for achieving the high performance from the employees which is a key to long term success.

Importance of Employee KPIs in Improving the Performance

Employee Performance Management System

The employee performance management is totally different from just taking a few KPIs. In fact the KPIs are just a part of the overall organizational performance management. The performance management’s primary goal is to increase employee engagements and build a strong relationship between the employees and the business and higher management. It gives employee confidence, it motivates them and it boost their moral which results in higher performance. The employee performance management is a very complex and lengthy process which is being executed over a longer period of time to gradually enhance the employee performance and improve the overall productivity of the business. Measuring all those matrices manually and collecting that much of data is not possible. That is why businesses and organizations use Performance Management Software, or Enterprise Performance Management Systems. The Performance Management System or Software is integrated with different enterprise systems and business tools, in fact it is linked with the central information center of the organization which allow it to gather performance data and measure all sorts of matrices, KPIs, OKRs, and other performance indicators.

Employee Performance Management System

Here are some key features of a performance management system:

  • The user interface and user experience of the system should be very customer friendly
  • The system should have in-built templates and helping materials to help management with initial set up
  • The entire operation should be automated, the data integration and even the basic level of analytical process should be done automatically to facilitate the users
  • The features to aid the employee performance management process and support both employees and the managers with communication, interactions and meetings
  • Features to easily set up goals and objectives and ability to blend and modify goals during the performance management cycle
  • Highly customizable and intuitive feedback collection module to aid, upward, downward, or peer to peer feedback
  • Data sharing, distribution and protection features to allow easy access to the data and to prevent the sensitive data from unnecessary exposure
  • Comprehensive features to aid data analytical, historical stats analysis, comparison and other data processing techniques
  • Flexible design and scalable infrastructure to support customization, upgrade, and scalability in future

Employee Performance Management System

These are some key components of a performance management system. There are several off-the-shelf employee performance management systems and tools branded with different names. However, we always suggest our employees to go for a customized or tailor-made performance management system. Because the customized tool can provide more accurate data and can be very helpful for the users which also enhance the efficiency of the system.

Employee Performance Management Process

The employee performance management process begins with communicating the job roles of the employees. This will tell them what they should do and what the business is expecting from them to deliver. The job role is the day-to-day tasks which require a certain level of competencies both technical and behavioral competencies. The next step of the performance management process is to set quantifiable/measurable, specific, achievable, realistic, and time bound. These goals will then communicated with the managers, H.O.D.s, Line Managers and other senior staff. That top level and senior management then define goals and set up KPIs. Basically the very first step of an employee performance management process is planning. The HR and/or the senior managers sit together, they set the high-level organizational goals, then they set the goals for teams and departments and then they set individual goals.

Employee Performance Management Process

When employees are also engaged in setting goals and making pans their feedback is taken, they feel more empowered and connected to the business. It also give them a sense of personal attachment with the goal and in such situations people tend to perform well. By increasing employee engagements businesses can boost their performance and it also help improving employee retention rates too. Employee engagement is crucial for improving the performance. The feedback is a very important factor in performance management. The employees who receive feedback at least once in a week from the manager are tend to show performance improvement of 8% to 15%. The performance management is not a one-time job, it is a continuous process and it keep improving the employees and their performance. Here is a quick summary of how the performance management starts:

Set Goals and Objectives

The goals and objectives are the most important part of performance management, if the goals and objectives will be realistic and achievable they will encourage employees to perform better to achieve those goals. The high-level organizational goals and objectives are set as per the mission and vision of the business. Then the strategy and planning department make plans to achieve those targets. The same goals and objectives further divided into department, teams and then the individual goals as well. There are several different methods followed to build goals and demands however, the most commonly known methodologies for goals and objectives are SMART and 5As.

Set Goals and Objectives

Strategy and Planning

The goals are based on the vision, desire, projection and expectations, however, the goals doesn’t define themselves and doesn’t tell how business can and should achieve them. For that businesses made strategy and plans. For example if the goal of the business is to become the number one service provider in their niche. Then they need a strategy and a plan to become the top leader in the market. For example, the business might need 30% increase in the customer satisfaction, in order to achieve that 30% the business will have to improve the service delivery process, the customer waiting experience and the customer sales staff and a lot many other things. That is how the strategy and plans are built. The same applied to the departments, teams and even individual employees as well.

Strategy and Planning

Set Up KPIs and Performance Matrices

Once the strategy and plan is made, the management should set measuring matrices and performance indicators which will tell how successful or unsuccessful the business was during the performance cycle. There are several different types of the performance matrices however, here are the few most commonly used performance matrices:

  • Key Performance Indicator – KPI
  • Key Responsibility Areas – KRA
  • Objective and Key Results – OKR
  • Balanced Score Card – BSCs

Businesses can easily measure and monitor performance at any level using the above mentioned matrices. The KPI or Key Performance Indicator is the most widely used performance indicator.

Set Up KPIs and Performance Matrices

Real-time Monitoring

The best thing about a performance management system is that it enable businesses to monitor performance in real-time. The managers can monitor the performance of their subordinates in real-time. Which provide them advantage of making quick adjustments, make course corrections and prepare for the unexpected scenarios. As soon as an employee deviates from their expected path, or their performance slows down, the manager can immediately know about it. This provide enough space for the manager to take appropriate action to resolve the problems and to boost the performance. The employee performance management system also enable the management to effectively and efficiently handle unexpected situations and identify the areas of improvement. This help businesses in dealing with the challenges employees are facing and also help businesses gain their trust.

Real-time Monitoring

Conclusion

Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are facing several challenges which require them to perform at maximum operational efficiency to ensure customer satisfaction and cost-effectiveness. The employee KPI or key performance indicators are used to measure the performance of the employee, the performance management system is used to deal with challenges and obstacles your employees are facing on daily bases. The main objective is to increase employee engagements, boost communication and encourage feedbacks. The performance management system is capable of monitoring employees directly and it can also be linked with other enterprise systems and solutions. The main objective of the performance management system is to effectively communicate the job role, individual & high-level goals and closely monitor the performance of the employees. This can significantly boost the performance of the businesses. RSI Concepts is a leading name in Employee Performance Management System (EPMS), if you need any help or want to learn more about the subject, 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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