Queue & Waiting Time Management

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

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

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

Queue Management System Manages Customer Flow and Organizes Queues

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

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

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

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

Queue Management System Automates Customer Journey and Reduces Wait Time

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

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

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

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

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

Queue Management Systems Collect Business Intelligence Data

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

September 11, 2021

The Ultimate Guide to Queue Management

In any service based industry in Dubai or anywhere in UAE the biggest problem every business and customer face is the long wait time and hard to manage queues. No one likes to wait. Whether you are a bank, a government office, a healthcare facility, an educational institute, a service provider or anything else, you will always find it difficult to manage the queues and your customers will always complaint about the long wait time. This not only ruin the customer journey and customer experience but it also destroys the brand reputation and the customer relationship. Which could have very bad consequences in long term and could jeopardize the future of the business or organization. It is difficult to completely eliminate the waiting, but it can be reduced, organized and managed to make the customer waiting experience more pleasant and their journey more satisfactory. For that a queue management system is used.

What is a Queue Management System?

A queue management system is used to manage the customer flow effectively, organize the queues, and reduce the customer wait time. This is the very basic definition of a queue management system. However, these days the business and organization in Dubai and all around the UAE are using the queue management system to transform the customer journey and customer experience. The main goal for any business of organization is to have satisfied customers. That is what a queue management system is used for. But it also provide other benefits, such as it increase employees’ work efficiency, it help improving profitability, reduces expenses and help improving customer relationship with the brand. The queue management systems are also a great source of valuable business intelligence which is vital for decision making and planning for the future. From the technical point of view a queue management system is a tool that help building and managing queuing processes, waiting line disciplines, customer routing, services channels, KPIs, feedbacks, statistical data and much more.

The digital queue management system consists of several different parts but all these parts can be classified in two main categories, the software and the hardware.

Queue Management System Hardware Components

A variety of hardware accessories and components can be added and integrated in a queue management system to achieve certain functionalities, however there are some essential queue management system hardware components:

Self-Service Interactive Sing-up Kiosk/Ticket Dispensing Kiosk
Digital Signage Screens
Counter Plates
Announcement System/Audio System

Some non-essential but popular components are:

Emirates ID Card Reader
RFID Reader
QR Code Reader
Payment POS and/or Cash Acceptance

There are a lot many other components that can be added to meet certain needs and unconventional requirements. Here are the details of all essential hardware components:

Self-Service Interactive Sing-up Kiosk/Ticket Dispensing Kiosk

The self-service interactive sign-up kiosk or ticket dispensing kiosk is used to allow the customers and visitors to sign-up for the queues. Usually a business is offering multiple services, and mostly certain counters are dedicated for certain services. Whatever the case is, a customer or visitor can select the desired service from the available services list and sign-up for that queue. Even if there is only one counter the self-service interactive kiosk is helpful for sign-up process, it saves time and automate the sign-up process. It also dispense a ticket bearing the customer number in the queue with estimated time to their turn or any other additional information or marketing content.

Digital Signage Screens

The digital signage screens are a very important hardware component of any queue management system. The screens are used to display the real-time queuing updates and other relevant information. It can also provide the list of the active counters along with the current ticket number serving on the counter. Businesses can also display the estimated time for the next few customers in line. Such information are very helpful in improving customer’s waiting experience. Moreover, the digital signage screens can also play multimedia content on it which keep the users engaged and also make their waiting experience pleasant.

Counter Plates

The counter plates are small digital displays that are placed on each counter. Usually these are small elongated LCD screens or LED displays, which display the counter number and also the active ticket number. Such information is very helpful for customer in finding their service counter.

Announcement System/Audio System

As the name suggest, it is a sound system used for customer calling and it can make announcements for the ticket number along with the counter number and any other required details. The audio announcement system consists of multiple speakers which are placed in different location to make the announcements audible for everyone in the waiting area. The announcements can be bilingual i,e English and Arabic or also in any other language.

Queue Management System Software Components

A queue management system software is an intelligent application and a well-crafted control console for the management. The software is used to implement policies, monitoring, and aiding queuing processes as well as it can also help improving various service delivery processes. The usually queue management system have a standard software application which is hosted on a server, it can be hosted in online hosting, cloud, or local/in-premises data center as well. The interactive kiosks, announcement system, digital signage and the agent computers are linked with the queue management system server application. The application also provide the administrative panel and control console. Here are some essential queue management system software components:

Administrative Control Panel
Agent Dashboard
Self-Service Interactive Kiosk User Interface
Digital Signage Controls
Reporting and KPIs Monitoring Module
Statistical Data Analytical Engine
Customer Feedbacks

Here are some popular queue management system software components:

Virtual Queuing Module
Appointment Booking System
Mobile Apps
QR Code Module

Here are the details of essential queue management software components:

Administrative Control Panel

The administrative control panel is basically a control console for the entire queue management system. The businesses can add and manage multiple branches. Multiple system users can be added as per the administrative hierarchy. The businesses can add head office users, higher level managers, branch managers, employees with various access levels, agents and other system users. The administrative control panel makes it easy to integrate the queue management system in the business and organization management and work flow.

The Agent Dashboard

The agent dashboard is the agent control panel. The agent can manage and control queues. They can utilize the customer calling functionality to call customers and make announcements. The service delivery related features can also be integrated in the agent dashboard to improve the service delivery process and quality. The system integration with other systems such as customer data base, sales system, CRM, etc. can be achieved via APIs which is a very secure and most efficient way for such data integration and synchronization.

Self-Service Interactive Kiosk User Interface

The self-service interactive kiosk user interface is the very first touch point of the customer. The customer generates their ticket number from the kiosks and sign-up for their queue. The interface can provide functionality to select from a list of available services as well as it can provide relevant information and any other functionality required for the sign-up such as scanning of the Emirates ID card or making payment for the service, etc.

Digital Signage Controls

The digital signage controls is a part of the administrative control console, it allows the management to run multimedia content on the digital signage screens along with the queuing information and other updates. The signage controls allow the management to perform basic digital signage functionalities to improve the user engagements and interactions during the wait time.

Reporting and KPIs Monitoring Module

The queue management system software has capabilities to monitor and capture data from each and every touch point of the customer journey. It also record valuable statistical data and measures various KPIs and other indicators. Which is very helpful for the management and make them able to make informed decisions on the bases of highly accurate data feeds from various sources.

Statistical Data Analytical Engine

The statistical and data analytical engine is also a part of the reporting module but it is a very useful component. It analyze the data and allow the management to extract the data in multiple format. It also help the management in creating reports with visual and graphical analysis and data presentations.

Customer Feedbacks

The customer feedback is a very important and essential part of business intelligence. It provides a direct window into the customer’s minds. The business can utilize the feedback to evaluate each and every aspect of the customer journey, the quality of the service and products, the employee performance and much more. The customer feedback along with other business intelligence highlights the areas of improvements and enables the management to take actions and make strategies for future improvement to maximize the customer satisfaction and quality of the service and products.

How to Choose a Best Queue Management System?

When it comes to the queue management system there are so many different vendors and systems available in the market. Businesses often get confused when they are selecting a queue management system. There are also some popular brands which advertise their systems with different brand names. However, there are certain things that a business should consider while selecting a queue management system to make sure it will be helpful in solving their problems.

Here are some key points to consider while selecting a queue management system or configuring/customizing a queue management system:

What are the Different Queuing Process Types?

The queuing process is basically managing the queues, streamlining the customer flow and improving customer journey. However there are certain service delivery mechanisms which are different for each business and that is how a business should chose a queuing process for their queue management system:

Single Phase Single Channel Queuing

When a business has single counter which serves each customer and a full service isdelivered through a single counter it is called single phase single channel queuing.

Multi-Phase Single Channel Queuing

When a customer will have to go to multiple counters to get a full service delivery and each counter serves a single step of the service it is called multi-phase single channel queuing.

Single Phase Multi-Channel Queuing

When a single service can be delivered at a single counter and there are multiple counters who can serve the same service it is called single phase multi-channel queuing.

Multi-Phase Multi-Channel Queuing

When a single service delivery requires a customer to visit multiple counters and for each step more than one counters are available it is called multi-phase multi-channel queuing.

How the Branch, Office or Facility Operates?

The capacity of the branch, office or customer service center is also important and it will help you selecting an appropriate queue management system which will meet your needs. Here are some important things that you should understand about the facility:

The Population of the Customers

The population of the customers or daily footfall is classified in two categories, one is limited and the second is unlimited. Facilities like boarding counters and clinic have limited number of expected customer or daily footfall. Facilities like customer service centers and banks doesn’t have a limited or pre-defined number of expected customers or daily footfall.

The Method of Arrival

The method of arrival is also important. Usually business operate on single arrival mode, it means that each customer will come individually. However some businesses are serving customers in group arrival mode. It means the customer will arrive there in form of a large group such as Immigration Services, HR Departments, etc.

The Infrastructure of the Facility

The infrastructure of the facility is also important. A business should consider the number of counters, space for the queues, capacity of the waiting areas, and size and shape of the facility. These things will help business in determining the type of the queue management system as well as the size and quantity of the components require for a cost-efficient queue management system solution.

What are the Benefits of a Queue Management System?

A queue management system can significantly improve the customer journey and provide several benefits which help businesses in improving profitability and ensuring steady growth. Here are some of the major benefits of a digital queue management system:

Reduce Customer Wait Time
Improve Customer Waiting Experience
Improve Customer Journey
Improve Customer Happiness and Customer Satisfaction
Improve Customer Loyalty and Reduce Customer Churn Rate
Organize Queues and Customer Flow Effectively
Automate the Customer Journey
Improve Employee Performance and Reduce their Workload
Improve Resource Management and Reduce Operational Cost
Improve Service Delivery Quality
Collect Customer Feedback
Gather Valuable Business Intelligence
Measure KPIs, Prepare Reports and Improve Future Strategies
Improve Revenue and Profitability
Bring Innovation and Get Competitive Edge

These are only a few benefits of a queue management system. When a business implement a queuing solution they can literally transform the entire customer journey and customer experience which will help them improving service quality and customer retention. The customer happiness improves customer loyalty and customer loyalty help business building good relationship with then and a positive brand image in the market. In a long term a queue management system can provide excellent ROIs.

Conclusion

A queue management system is considered to be an essential part of the service based industry. Especially in Dubai and all around the UAE where the competition is tough and the customers have too many choices, it is extremely important to stay ahead of your competition and ensure ultimate customer experience and customer journey. The happy and satisfied customers are more loyal to the brands and loyal customers can be a great asset for a business. The customer loyalty plays an important role in business growth. In this blog we have discussed the queue management and the queue management system. If you follow the above mentioned guide to understand the queuing process and to assess your queuing needs, you will be able to get a very efficient and cost-effective queue management system. RSI Concepts is a leading name in Queue Management System providers in Dubai, UAE. If you need any more help, feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this blog: Why should you adopt queue management systems?

September 1, 2021

Why should you adopt queue management systems?

An efficient queue management system organize customer flow, improve service delivery processes and quality, help building good reputationand relationship with customers and improve overall profitability or the entire business.For every business the customer happiness and customer satisfaction is the top priority. The customer satisfaction is an umbrella term which covers the entire performance of the business including its each and every moving part. Business in Dubai and all over the UAE are adopting digital queue management systems for better performance and customer happiness. The UAE economy is rapidly expanding, the Expo 2020 is on the verge, which will attract more investors and we will see more businesses and startups. The competition here is already touch, customers have too many choices, and this phenomenon resulted in high standards and high expectations of the customers. Which compelled the businesses to take drastic measures in order to stay ahead of the competition. The customer satisfaction is the driving force, and it could impact everything. If you are having happy customers you will grow if not, you will eventually end up in big troubles such as slow growth, poor performance, declining brand reputation and lost revenue.

A queue management system is a key to success, it can completely transform the customer experience and customer journey and it can ensure highest customer satisfaction, which will lead to continuous growth, good brand reputation and higher productivity. Here are some key reasons why you should adopt a queue management system now, if you want to secure your business’s long term future:

Reason No. 1: Queue Management System Reduce Wait Time

The queue management system have amazing capabilities to reduce the wait time and improve customer journey. Usually without a queue management system there are long queues, people have to stand in lines, and sometimes people try to be ahead in the line by line jumping or crossing someone, which end up in disputes and cause delays in the customer flow. In such scenarios the business have to manage the queues manually, which requires more staff as well as requires more work from the server/agent. This means that the servers/agents could also get distracted from their primary task and had to manage other unnecessary problems. This results in unwanted delays and interruptions in the customer flow and results in prolonged wait times. Another huge factor is psychological, it is human nature that we have the fear of unknown, similarly when we have to wait in a scenario where we don’t know or estimate the end time, the wait gets more stressful and this amplifies the negative feelings in your customers too. If they don’t know when their wait time will end, they will feel more stressed while waiting, and when their turn will come they will be unhappy already, it will be very difficult for the agent/server to improve their experience at that time and make them happy.

While the agents/servers are also dealing with unwanted circumstances their efficiency and service quality also reduced. So the long wait time not only bother your customers and visitors but it also have negative impact on the employees and agents/servers. The long wait time could have double impact on overall customer journey and customer satisfaction. This is why businesses are very eager to reduce the wait time and service delivery time. Poor waiting conditions, long wait time, less than optimum employee efficiency will result in higher per service costs. Which also impact on the profitability and revenue. On top of that the bad customer experience will repel customers and promote negative brand identity, which makes it even harder for businesses to acquire new customers.

Reason No. 2: Queue Management System Offers Better Customer Journey Management

The queue management system offers a better customer journey by automating various steps and processes which reduce customer wait time, improve customer flow and also increase employee efficiency. Each and every business have its own distinctive culture and approach to address problems. Every business have different services and also different sets of targeted audience for each service. Some services are delivered in a single go from one counter, some requires a customer to reach to multiple counters to get a full service and so on. These factors contributes to make customer journey management more tricky and sophisticated. Along with all that business often have express counters or premium services for VIP customers and separate counters for aged, disabled people, etc. These all factors should be considered while preparing the roadmap of the customer journey. In Dubai, UAE and in fact all around the world businesses are also including employee’s factors too to further improve and optimize the customer journey.

A good queue management system should be able to process all these variables and then it should also be able to automate the customer journey to attain the highest efficiency levels. During the sign-up the queue management system can ask to choose the service, it can also ask to enter any other details which will identify the customer as ordinary, VIP or any other category. Then the queue management system should be able to route each customer to their counters. In case of multi-step service delivery, the queuing system should be able to direct the customers to the next counter and so on. The employee performance should be monitored and the task should be suggested as per their performance. For example an employee is very efficient at delivering service A, D and E however when they are assigned to the counters for service B and C they don’t perform well. Such data provide the management an insight on the employee performance and give them a chances to either improve employee performance or assign them tasks as per their expertise. Collectively all these things will significantly improve customer journey and customer experience which will result in maximum customer satisfaction.

Reason No. 3: Queue Management System Aid Customer Retention and Increase Customer Loyalty

The queue management system improve customer journey, customer happiness and boost employee performance which improve service quality, and these all will directly impact the customer retention and customer loyalty. Often customer retention and customer loyalty is interchanged but that is not true both are different, though most of the times both exhibit same response with certain changes. Anyway, the customer retention is to keep a customer who will do repeated business, however the customer loyalty is to make a customer your fan and not only have more repeated business but also get help from them in brand promotion. A customer might do repeated business but they are not necessarily happy or satisfied, there could be no other good alternate, or any other factor which is making them to do repeated business. However a loyal customer is the result of an ultimate level of customer satisfaction. The loyal customers are good brand advocate and tend to promote the business and its products and services. They will often defend the brand on social media, online or public places. That kind of clientele is the most valuable asset of any business.

The studies and market researches have shown that acquiring a new customer is nine to twelve time costly than selling to an existing customer. This could have a huge impact on your marketing budget and overall profitability. Acquiring new customers is not only expensive but it is difficult too, the communication and marketing not only require investment but a lot of efforts too. It is always good to have a strong foundation of the loyal customers. The loyal customers help promoting a positive image of the brand and improve brand reputation. A good brand identity and good brand reputation attract more customers. If a brand have a good reputation and positive popularity the marketing turnover is also good. Which means that the customer retention and customer loyalty have far greater impact on the ROIs of the business and also aid achieving marketing and growth goals.

Reason No. 4: Queue Management System Improves Employee Performance and Monitor KPIs

The queue management system is very helpful in improving employee performance by reducing their work load and automating various steps and processes of the customer journey and service delivery. Moreover the KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are also a great tool to assess and improve the employee performance. When the employee performance got improved it automatically improves the service delivery process, service quality and customer happiness/satisfaction. The queue management system can capture various APIs and statistical data. The employee KPIs are very important for optimizing the employee performance. The queue management system can monitor the employee, their on-desk time and off-desk time, average service delivery time, behavior and much more. The KPIs can also provide insight on the overall behavior and patterns of the employees, such as at which part of the day the employee perform better and when they slow down, how do they react in under more work load and how much customers they can serve in a single day.

These all are very useful information and help the management is identifying the areas of improvements and taking actions to improve everything. Moreover the employee KPIs are also used to analyze the employee performance and expertise on a particular service, for example an employee can serve 20 customers a day when they are appointed for service A while they can serve 45 customers in a single day when they are appointed for service D, etc. This type of data helps businesses to improve employee performance by smartly managing their tasks, workloads and arranging training session for them. The employee KPIs can also be integrated with other enterprise solutions and business tools such as Enterprise Performance Management System [Our Product Page LINK], HRMS, etc.

Reason No. 5: Queue Management System Collects Customer Feedback and Business Intelligence

Mostly the modern queue management systems comes with an in-built customer feedback collection tool. The customer feedback is very important it provides direct and unfiltered opinion of the customer and it also help building trust and good relationship with the customers. When customers know a business is eager to listen to them they get a very positive impression of that brand. They think the brand values them a lot and listen to their opinion to make changes to please them. This increase customer loyalty as well. Moreover the customer feedback is a single most reliable and accurate source of the business intelligence. Sometimes all the logics and numbers tells a different story but the customers behave completely opposite to what a business had anticipated. So, it is extremely important to understand your customers and audience, the customer feedback is the best tool to do that. It will provide you accurate information about the market trends, customer’s liking disliking, their expectations and it will also help you in evaluating all what you are doing to please your customers.

Here in Dubai and all around the UAE business often collect customer feedback but overlooked other business intelligence metrics. However in order to be able to make informed decisions and successful future strategies a business must closely monitor and analyze all the touch points, statistical and usage data. For example, which products or services are most popular, which features of a particular product or service are appreciated the most by the customers and vice versa. This will provide a foundation for the innovation and modernization. Business can plan new products and services, they can improve existing products and services and similarly business can improve various aspects of the customer journey only by analyzing the customer feedback, statistical and analytical data collected by the queue management system. The data collection is one thing but in order to be able to extract actionable reports is a completely different thing. A good queue management system always provide additional data analytical and processing tools along with in-built smart data analytical engine which help business to evaluate the entire operation and quality of services/products simultaneously.

Reason No. 6: Queue Management System Enables Easy System Integration and Remote Management

A queue management system enables easy system integration with secure web services or APIs to get it connected with the centralized information center and it provides features to remotely manage all of the connected branches from the head office. The system integration enables the queue management system to fetch and push data to other systems and tools. For example if a customer is required to sign-up by entering their customer ID the customer ID has to be verified too. In order to verify the customer ID the queue management system must have access to the customer data. Which might be stored in another system or database. So this verification can be done using system integration or APIs. Similarly if a business wants to include more hardware accessories such as Emirates ID reader, RFID, QR Code Reader, or any other accessory that can be added and linked to the central information center or to the relevant system by the system integration method.

The queue management system also allow simple and easy integration with self-service interactive systems, kiosks, web portals, mobile apps, appointment booking system, SMS, Emails, and much more using the system integration methods and techniques. This also enables the queue management system to provide a centralized and remote management. The head office can monitor and control all of the connected branches in real time. This makes it easier for the management to implement company policies throughout the network and monitor all branches and offices through a unified administrative dashboard. Furthermore the administrative dashboard also allows to add branch managers, servers/agents and other job roles to make the management easy and in-line with the internal structure of the business.

Conclusion

Here in Dubai and all around the UAE business are spending a huge chunk of their hard-earned revenue on customer journey transformation tools and systems. The customer satisfaction and happiness is extremely crucial for sustainability and long term growth. The customer happiness and satisfaction also help a business to build a positive reputation and good brand identity. A queue management system can easily reduce the customer wait time and manages the customer flow automatically. It can also automate various business processes and service delivery steps which further improve customer experience. The customer flow management and customer routing can also be automated with the help of a queue management system. The automation and digitalization improve the customer journey and reduce the work load of the employees which further improve the employee performance and their service delivery quality also get improved. Which results in happy and satisfied customers.

The customer satisfaction improve customer retention and customer loyalty which results in significant cost reduction in new lead generation and marketing expenses. Along with that the positive band identity and good reputation also help attracting more customers and increase the revenue. The customer feedback and business intelligence gathering plays an extremely important role in identifying the areas of improvements and making new plans and strategies to improve everything. The system integration open ups new avenues to innovation and modernization and help future expansion as well. It also enables remote management and provide the head office with real-time updates and data. All these improvements and their impact can potentially increase your sales and growth by multiple times. A queue management system is an essential for long term success and steady growth. RSI Concepts is a leading name in queue management system providers in Dubai, UAE, if you need any help with designing and implementing a queue management solution or want to improve or upgrade an old queuing system, feel free to let us know. You can 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 blog: World’s First WhatsApp Queue Management Solution

September 1, 2021

World’s First WhatsApp Queue Management Solution

The queue management systems and solutions are considered to be a mandatory tool for any service based industry. Whenever a business will have to manage daily customers and guests, they need an effective and efficient customer flow management. Which is only possible with a digital queue management system. These days as the customers are more inclined towards a bit more digitalized and contactless user experience, the virtual queuing gain popularity. Businesses are getting amazing results after implementing virtual queue management system. When it comes to virtual queuing the biggest advantage is that is enables the guests and customers to sign-up remotely for the queues. However there are certain ways that a customer can sign-up. The most popular method is the smartphone applications, which have a lot many other advantages and benefits too. However, the most convenient method to enable remote sign-up is the WhatsApp. These days in Dubai and all around the UAE almost everyone have WhatsApp, in fact it is one of the most popular messenger app in the entire world.

How WhatsApp Queue Management System Works?

A queue management system is all about improving and managing the customer experience and the WhatsApp is the simplest method a business can offer to their customers. The WhatsApp Queue Management Solution is a queue management system integrated with the WhatsApp instant messaging application. The customers can sign-up using their WhatsApp, no need to print tickets, or call at the branch to reserve a spot, or access to the customer portals for appointment or anything else. Usually businesses encourages their customers to install their mobile apps on their smartphones, however, not everyone appreciate it. But with the WhatsApp queue management solution the customer can instantly sign-up for the queue, get live coverage and announcements on the WhtasApp without getting hustle of any app installation, or accessing a website or anything else. This makes the customer journey over simplified and yet very impactful. The customers get a great user experience and end up happy and satisfied with the brand.

The WhatsApp queue management is very simple and easy for the customers. All they need is to scan a QR Code, and the mobile phone will automatically open up a new WhatsApp window, which usually have a list of the categories, and then the customer can choose the appropriate category to sign-up for and instantly receive an e-token or digital token for the queue. The customers can get real-time updates of the ongoing queue and will be notified when their turn will be near and also when their turn will come. After the customers got served the businesses can easily collect customer feedback from the whatsapp.

What are the benefits of WhatsApp Queue Management?

The biggest advantage of a WhatsApp queue management system is that it significantly improve customer experience and customer satisfaction. There is also no need to download and install any new application which occupies storage space on the phone. The customers’ overall journey is reduced and their efforts are also reduced. Here are some of the best advantages and features of a WhatsApp queue management:

Remote Sign-up Facility
Real-time branch data and updates
Easy Sign-up using a QR Code
Reduced wait time and automatic customer journey management
The WhatsApp interface makes it easier for the customers and help reducing customer effort score
Completely contactless sign-up process
Customized notifications, reminders and alerts throughout the entire customer journey
Direct communication with the customers
Simple Information broadcasting such as branch timing, current queuing status, pre-signup requirements, etc.
Ability to check status of multiple branches, and on-demand status updates
In-built customer feedback system or integrated customer feedback system
Reduce customer wait time, improve customer flow and reduce workload of the employees result is improved employee efficiency
Easy branch management, crowd prevention and social distancing compliance features
Improved customer experience and smooth customer journey results in higher customer satisfaction
Simple and easy administration, automation capabilities and monitoring tools enable the business to have a close eye on the entire process
Customer feedback collection, KPIs monitoring and business intelligence gathering
Very Cost-effective queuing solution

These are the general features of a WhatsApp queue management solution. Moreover when a system is customized for a particular business or enterprise it could offer a lot more benefits and could be a great competitive advantage. The system integration also allows to integrate the WhatsApp queuing system with other business tools and enterprise solutions to enable a robust and swift control and command center at head-office or at the branch. The remote management makes it easier for the head office to monitor and improve the performance of the connected branches and make informed decisions on the bases of customer feedback and business intelligence.

Conclusion

WhatsApp is one of the most popular app in the world. In Dubai and UAE almost everyone have WhatsApp on their phones. The whatsapp sign-up process is very simple and convenient. The customer will have to scan a QR Code and they will be directed to the WhatsApp chat where they can chose the required service and sign-up for the queue. The customers are not even required to be physically present in the queue, they can wait anywhere. The WhatsApp queue management system also provide live queuing information and on-demand info requests are also available. This queuing method significantly reduce the wait time, improve customer flow, prevent crowd formation at the branch and reduce work load of the employees as well. The employee’s performance also got improved and consequently the service quality also improves. The WhatsApp queue management solution are a very cost-effective queuing solution and it can significantly improve customer happiness and overall business’s productivity and profitability. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system provider in Dubai, UAE, if you want to upgrade your customer flow management to meet the needs and expectations of your customers, feel free to get in touch with us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below.

Check out this blog: Top 10 Virtual Queue Management Benefits

August 15, 2021

How Queue Management Systems are helping Businesses Grow in 2021

The impact of the year 2021 was a complete shift in customer behavior, expectations, and market trends. Businesses are quickly adopting new technological solutions to deal with such changes. A queue management system is a great tool to transform customer journeys and to monitor each and every aspect of them. The businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are strictly following the health and safety protocols, the social distancing is a new norm. The number of active queues and customers inside the premises has significantly dropped, however, the facilities remained of the same size. Businesses will have to make the customer journey as quickly as possible to be able to serve an equal number of customers daily before the pandemic. Although this is a temporary situation and soon the businesses will resume as per their older states. However, the change in the customer behavior and market trend will be going to take a lot longer to reverse. Most probably it won’t reverse at all. In such conditions, businesses will have to have a better control over the customer journey and customer experience. Which is only possible with an efficient queue management system.

No matter what type of industry you operate in, almost all businesses want or have to keep their customers in lines and queues. It doesn’t matter how large or small your facility is, the important thing is to ensure a flawless customer journey and a satisfactory customer experience. Which is a key to success. Happy and satisfied customers tend to be the best advocate of the brand and help to promote a positive brand identity which improves the brand’s reputation and overall image in the market. This attracts more customers and it also helps to improve the conversion rates of the marketing activities.

Here are some key areas where queue management systems are helping business to ensure their steady growth in 2021:

Queue Management System Improves Customer Journey and Customer Experience

A queue management system can completely transform the customer journey and enhances the customer experience. The main concern of all businesses is to improve customer journey and their experiences through their branch or offices. A queue management system can automatically manages the customer flow and route them according to the predefined company policies and protocols. Managing the lines manually required more staff and it also cause problems, most of the customers complains about line jumpers and mismanagement and got unhappy with the staff, this ruins their experience. The manual management of the queues also results in more workload on the staff and slowly moving queues. This not only increases the wait time, but it also results in crowd formation and more pressure on the staff as well as on the customers and visitors too. The customer experience is ruined and the customer journey is prolonged. The customers left unhappy and unsatisfied. However a digital queue management system can prevent all these problems.

A queue management system organizes each aspect of the customer journey and improve customer experience at each touch point. The customers and visitors can sign-up for the queue using an interactive interface which is mostly an interactive touch screen kiosks. The customer can select the service they want to avail and sign-up for the required queue. Once they signed-up they are directed to a waiting area. In the waiting area the businesses can further improve their waiting experience by utilizing the digital signage screens comes with any standard queue management system. Usually these digital signage are used to display live queuing information, but adverts and multimedia content can also be played to increase customer engagements. The queuing information are also very important for the customers. So these digital

Queue Management System Helps Improving Customer Retention

The queue management systems are a great help to improve customer retention and customer loyalty. As the customer retention and customer loyalty both are linked with each other and both depends upon the customer journey and customer experience. A queue management system helps businesses and organizations to streamline their customer flow and to improve their waiting experience. This had a very positive impact on the customers and it also increase customer happiness rates. Customer happiness lead to improved customer loyalty, the loyal customers are the one who do repeated business with the brand and generate more revenue. According to several studies and market researches attaining a new customers could be 9 to 12 times more expensive than retaining an existing customer. This directly impact the profitability of the business.

Business always seek methods to retain their existing customers. As the customers who are happy with their brand are tend to be more loyal and only loyal customers are the one who promote a positive brand identity. The positive brand identity helps the brand to attract more customers easily. A positive brand reputation also improves the outcome of the marketing efforts and campaigns. Once a customer or visitors builds a positive image of the brand it is much easier and less costly to satisfy them for the business. Only by improving the customer journey and customer experiences a brand can significantly improve their customer retention rates with the help of a queue management system.

Virtual Queuing Boosts Customer Happiness and Productivity

Virtual Queuing is not a new type of queue management system in fact this form of queuing was there since more than 5, 6 years. However, due to the situation in 2020 the virtual queuing suddenly got attentions and businesses immediately rushed toward adopting this technology. The main concept of virtual queuing is to enable the customers and visitors to sign-up remotely and let them wait in the virtual queues without being physically present in the physical queue. This means that the customers and visitors will only have to come at the very time of their turn and they don’t have to wait inside the premises. This means there will be absolutely no wait time. Wait time is extremely important in customer journey and customer happiness. Studies have shown that around only 13 minutes of wait time is acceptable by any customer or visitor, any time longer than that start impacting customer happiness and customer experience. Which is why the virtual queuing is a very advanced and modern form of customer flow management and it boosts customer happiness.

Another reason why virtual queuing enabled queue management systems are gaining popularity is because the management can easily control the entire customer flow, they can limit the number of customers to be allowed inside the premises which ensure social distancing and health and safety of the customers and visitors as well as of the staff. Apart from that when an option is given to the customers they prefer not to wait inside the premises, instead customers only arrive at the very exact time of their turn, which will prevent crowd formation and make it a lot easier for the staff to manage the customers and visitors inside the premises. This reduce the work load of the employees and make them more productive. As the agents and servers are relieved from extra work, their productivity automatically raised, they would be able to serve more customers in a single shift. This enables the businesses to reduce the number of employees and make rest of the employees more efficient which definitely reduce the cost and increases profitability. The balanced work load also improve the capabilities of the employees and make them able to serve customers better, which also improves customer experience and increase customer happiness.

There are several methods and techniques used for virtual queuing, for example the customers can be allowed to sign-up from their smartphone applications, SMS, Email, Call, QR Code, etc. The queuing data and information can be provided on the customer portals, smartphone applications or temporary link which can be shared with the customers through SMS or Email or via Smartphone Apps. The customer calling and announcements can also be made through SMS, Smartphone Applications, Notifications, etc. This further enhances the customer experience and increase their satisfaction. It leaves a very good impression on customers and customers thinks that the brand really cares about them and is very serious in facilitating them and making everything convenient for them. This help business promoting positive brand identity and it improves brand reputation.

Customer Feedback ModuleAids Progress and Development Process

The customer feedback is a very important indicator of the business progress and development. Business here in Dubai and all around the UAE often overlooked this tool and keep pouring huge amount of resources for development and improvement in various sectors. But the question arises how would a business know if their all efforts and investments are in the right direction? The most accurate and easier method is to ask your customers if they are happy with all what you are doing to please them or not? That is why the customer feedback plays a vital role in business’s growth and progress. Asking customers to opine on a certain aspect of the service delivery or customer experience is very simple and easy using a customer feedback module integrated with the queue management system. We have frequently witnessed small touch screens on the counters of banks, exchanges and retail stores. These are the simplest and easiest form of customer feedback. The businesses and organizations can also utilize these small touch screens or tablets to conduct small customer feedback surveys.

Linking the customer feedback system with a queue management system comes with several advantages. For example in such case the business don’t necessarily need to ask for identification information, as such information can be obtained from the queue management system itself, this enables the management to keep the customer feedback survey simple and easier which encourages more customers to share their opinion. As one of the most annoying thing for any customer is to fill in long forms or to fill in identification data before submitting their feedbacks. The identification of the customer is not always needed but most of the time it is very helpful. A simple NPS Score (Net Promoter Score), or CSAT Survey (Customer Satisfaction Survey) could provide enough information to let the business trace the discrepancies or I would rather say the areas of improvements in the customer journey.

Another advantage of the customer feedback module is that the management can conduct several campaigns to get a complete analysis of the entire customer journey including all touch points and business can also take reviews about their products and services. For example the business set a campaign to ask customer about the wait time only, the next campaign could be for the behavior of the server, another campaign could be to get NPS Score or to know the customers opinion about what is good or bad in a particular product or service and so on. These all campaigns’ data can be combined to produce comprehensive reports which can be included in the policy making and decision making process. This ensures the development and progress of the business will be in right direction in future and it also provide a very accurate analysis of all the efforts that are being done till date to improve customer journey and customer happiness.

Queue Management System’s KPIs Help Improving the Performance

Queue Management System comes with in-built KPIs monitoring tool. The KPIs are Key Performance Indicators, mainly referred to as the performance of the employees. Apart from the KPIs the queue management system can also measure and monitor other aspects of the customer journey. The employee performance management and their KPIs are very important for the management to ensure the ultimate efficiency of the entire branch. The employee performance in measured by several indicators some are generic and some depends upon the situation and work flow of the business. For example how much time is consumed by an employee to serve a single customer, this value is taken usually on average and it also records number of daily services. The queue management system also measure and records the work efficiency of an employee during the busiest hours and during the least busy hours and in between. Such information is very helpful in measuring and assessing the overall performance of an employee.

Moreover there are certain employees who perform well with certain services, means some agents are much better on certain services and when they are assigned the same they perform well comparing to other services, some employees perform well during the busiest hours and some perform better under medium work load. Such parameters are very important to manage human resource and the business can plan a setup to ensure the highest performance of all the employees all the time. The KPIs also include the customer feedback data associated with a particular employee, which also provide more details on the subject. The business can also record the idle time and operating time during the day and can track record of such details. The KPIs monitoring is also important for optimizing the cost per service delivery. When all the employees are provided the conditions where they can perform at their best the customer journey and customer experience automatically improved. Resulting in cost optimization and more customer retention.

Business Intelligence and Reports Help Making Profitable Policies

Another remarkable feature of the queue management system is the in-built data analytical and statistical engine that captures extremely useful data and stats. The queue management system can capture the various parameters and aspects of the entire customer journey such as number of daily customers, busy hours, busy days, etc. It also captures average service time for each service, the customer journey duration for different categories of the customers, such as regular or ordinary customers, VIP customers, or the customers with special needs and so on. It can capture the system usage information as well. The employee performance and KPIs are also included in the business intelligence and reporting to make the data more accurate and comprehensive. The customer feedbacks and data from other systems and business tools can also be included in these reports. Collectively the data is processed through the in-built smart algorithms and then several reports are compiled.

The major category of the reports are comprehensive or detailed reports, summary reports, trend reports and corporate or executive reports. These reports are designed for different levels of the management and are very helpful in analyzing the entire operation. On the bases of these reports and data the management can make more informed decisions and set up strategies to improve operational capabilities and efficiency, which directly impact the profitability and growth.

Read this: Why Performance Management System is a Necessity for Companies in Dubai

Conclusion

The year 2021 come with completely new challenges and business in Dubai and all around the UAE are eagerly seeking methods and tools to deal with the situation. The very top priority is to maximize the customer journey and customer experience to increase the customer retention which is considered to be the guarantee for the steady growth and profitability. Studies have shown that it is almost 9 to 12 times more expensive to get a new customer than retaining an existing customer and generating repeated business from them. This means the loyal customers can act as a strong foundation at which a business can aim for the growth and progress. Businesses are investing a lot in customer satisfaction solution, a queue management system is a complete tool to manage and monitor the entire customer journey and all its relevant factors. A queue management system can completely transform the customer journey by automating the customer flow and improving a lot of business processes that further accelerate the customer journey and ensure least possible wait time.

The wait time is the most influential factor in customer satisfaction and customer happiness, a queue management system can significantly reduce the wait time and it is also very capable of improving the wait time experience and maintain customer engagement. It also improves employee efficiency and other aspects of the customer journey which make customer experience better. Furthermore customer feedbacks, KPIs monitoring and business intelligence gathering makes a queue management system an ultimate tool to optimize the customer journey. The business can assess each and every aspect of the customer journey and then make informed decisions and strategies to improve them. The virtual queuing and smartphone applications further improve the customer experience, ensure social distancing and more control over the customer flow management and improve service delivery time and quality. A queue management system is the most cost-efficient and effective tool to transform customer journey and improve business growth rate. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system provider in Dubai, we are providing a complete range of customer satisfaction solutions and monitoring tools. 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 blog: 2021 Digital Branch Transformation Trends

August 4, 2021

What to Consider When Choosing a Queue Management System

Embracing technology and innovation is not always easy. Especially when it comes to a queue management system that is responsible for managing the customer journey and customer experience. A queue management system is also very capable of improving employee efficiency and operational capabilities, which makes it very important for any business’s success. Here in Dubai and other parts of UAE, there are so many different vendors and suppliers with a long list of customized and off-the-shelf queue management solutions, which makes it furthermore difficult for a business to decide which brand or system could meet their requirements. When installing a new queue management system there are several factors that have to be taken into account else there could be very serious losses in terms of resources and customers. Businesses and organizations have to deal with too many customers on daily basis, which requires an efficient customer flow management platform. Moreover, businesses also need data and business intelligence to make informative decisions for the future. That is why a queue management system is installed. A queue management system can assist in all these areas.

If the queue management system doesn’t have the necessary features it might not be able to improve things much, or in fact, it can worsen the customer experience and cause great troubles for the management and staff too. Customer happiness and customer satisfaction are extremely important for businesses and organizations and efficient resource management and cost optimization is also crucial. There are several factors that a business should consider while choosing a queue management system. Some of the most important factors are listed below:

1. What Types of Services You are Offering?

That is the first and most important factor to consider while choosing a queue management system. If you are offering a single service then only a few queues will be enough and you can have as many counters as you can. But if you are offering more services then more queues are required and customer journey management is required so each customer reaches the right agent/server. Usually in Dubai and all around the UAE when a business is offering multiple services, they are having multiple counters, some are dedicated for certain services, and so on. These all details are important. There are two types of service delivery methods, the first method is the single counter method, according to this method the full-service delivery is done through a single counter. The other method is for stepped services, which means a single service delivery requires the customers to get served in two or more steps, the customer will have to visit multiple counters as per the service type to get the full-service delivery.

That is why it is important to first understand your requirements by analyzing your services and services’ types. For a stepped service a different kind of customer journey management is required for a regular service type where a full service is delivered at a single counter a different kind of customer journey management is required and so on and so forth.

A Great Customer Experience is Must

The primary reason for installing a queue management system is to improve the customer journey and customer satisfaction. A queue management system should be able to add value at all touchpoints of the customer journey. Here the important thing which most of the businesses in Dubai overlooked is to understand the importance of pre-queue and post-queue customer experiences. The customer interaction starts before even arriving at the branch. Even the traffic on the way, the difficulty in the parking and weather too can contribute to customer experience. Although the impact of such things is indirect it directly impacts the customer’s mood, which later reflects in their behavior and experience. There are certain things that can’t be controlled, however, the pre-queue experience can be improved with the help of an appointment booking module or a smartphone application, etc. Virtual queuing is a great example of improving the pre-queue customer experience.

The virtual queuing, remote sign-ups, and appointment booking modules all are designed to improve customer experience and customer journey. The post-queue customer experience is usually asking for customer feedback or conducting a survey. Customer feedback and surveys are important and provide extremely reliable business intelligence data. Moreover, the customer feedbacks and survey builds trust and give an impression of importance and priority to the customers. Now once a customer is inside the branch and is waiting for the queue, the waiting area, the digital signage, the counter displays, the audio-visual announcements, multi-lingual queuing information and announcements, customer routing signs and various markers, and everything else that is somehow contributing to the customer flow and routing the customers will impact on the customer experience. The agent/server, the service delivery time, and the waiting time are extremely important factors to improve customer experience. A queue management system should be able to provide all possible facilities for the customers and visitors to improve their experience. Which will determine customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

In-built Virtual Queuing and Social Distancing Features

Due to the pandemic, customer behavior and requirements have changed. Each and every business in Dubai or anywhere else in UAE must have to comply with the government policies and social distancing laws to ensure the ultimate safety and hygiene inside the premises. These days’ businesses are eagerly seeking methods and ways to gain the trust of their customers and visitors. Virtual queuing is gaining popularity due to social distancing and COVID-related concerns. The virtual queuing allows the customers to sign-up for the queue remotely. It means a customer or visitor can sign-up for the queue without being physically arriving at the branch, and they can also virtually wait in the waiting lines. This way the customers and visitors are free to wait outside or in the parking lot or at home and only arrive when their number comes.

There are different methods to enable remote sign-ups and virtual queuing such as calls, SMS, email, online customer portals, websites, smartphone applications, etc. The remote sign-up issues a digital token number. The customer can wait outside while being present in the virtual waiting line. When their call has been made they can directly reach to the counter and get the service done. The customers don’t have to wait in the waiting area neither they would have to stand in physical queues. Virtual queuing is very helpful for maintaining social distancing as well. The queue management system should be able to manage the number of customers as per the company policy and capacity. The QR Code is also utilized for virtual queuing and social distancing, the customers can scan a QR Code which is placed strategically either at the entrances or any such place, the customers can scan the QR Code and a digital token number has been issued. The customers can wait outside and when their turn came they can come inside and wait or get served immediately as per the company policy.

Customization, Scalability and System Integration

Any good quality queue management system must have the ability to scale easily in the future. As the customers’ demands, expectations, and market trends are ever-changing, it is wise to have a system that can evolve with the evolving needs. Most of the queuing solutions are customizable, however certain limitations are there which are either due to the technology used to build those systems or either could be due to the sales policies of the vendor. Whatever the reason is if any such limitation is there it will be harder and very expensive to update, modify or change any such queue management system. It is important that the queue management system supports and aids the relevant business processes and IT infrastructure. Customization and scalability are also very important as businesses are expanding and adding new branches all the time, so the queue management system should be able to be supportive for expansion. Sometimes such expansions also require certain changes in features or functionalities of the queue management system which could be very costly, so it is important that the queuing solution you are choosing is already ready to support the expansion, this will save you a lot of time, hustle and cost.

Another very useful feature of any IT solution is its capability and compatibility to other solutions and systems this is often referred to as ‘system integration’. Usually, the businesses are using multiple systems and want to integrate them with each other for certain reasons. Such system integration not only makes the management process simpler but it provides more room for innovation, automation and results in ultimate efficiency. Usually, businesses and organizations are interested in the system stats, reporting, customer feedback, loyalty program, KPIs (key performance indicators), reporting, and customer data integration. All these are not necessary but important. The important thing is that the queue management system you chose should be able to support such types of data sharing & synchronizations. System integration can boost the efficiency of the queue management system and the overall operations.

Reporting and Business Intelligence

A queue management system is a customer journey transformation tool. It can capture data from various important touchpoints and also other relevant data. Which could be a great help for the businesses. The businesses can easily track records of the busy hours, days and weeks or any such detail. The queue management system can also track the record of wait time which is extremely important for customer experience and customer satisfaction. The time required by various steps of the customer journey can be measured. The queue management system can also measure various KPIs (key performance indicators) which are related to customer flow, agent/server’s performance, and much more. These details are very helpful for the business to understand the performance of their business practices and methods. The business can also easily evaluate and measure the performance of the employees and agents. These details are very helpful for businesses to make future strategies and help them easily identify the areas of improvement.

The queue management system can also collect customer feedback directly from the customers. The customer surveys, happiness meters, and NPS or net promoter score are a great measure of the overall performance of the entire queuing process. Businesses can also collect feedback about the behavior of the agents, facility, products, and services, and much more using the queue management system’s in-built customer feedback module. The reporting should be compiled in a dedicated administrative dashboard with the capabilities to link them to other systems and solutions to streamline the data. Moreover, a good queue management system must have in-built data analytical and statistical engine which should be able to process the raw data into well-prepared compiled reports. These reports should offer different formats such as detailed reports, summary reports or trend reports, and so on. These formats are very helpful for various levels of the management and the policymaker or strategy builder can utilize any convenient type of report while making decisions and making policies.

Real-time Updates and Remote Management

Mostly the business in Dubai and all around the UAE have various branches and the upper-level management resides in the head office or headquarter. This raises a need for real-time monitoring and remote management of the system. Any good queue management system must have remote management and real-time update capabilities. The real-time updates enable the head office to view all the connected branches live and they can access the queuing data in real-time. All the data is stored at a centralized database which is either residing inside the central database of the business or hosted on a cloud. This enables the higher management to monitor all the branches in real-time which makes the management very easy and convenient. Remote management enables the head office to push company policies instantly on all branches or selective branches and it also provides the ultimate control over all the connected branches.

The queue management system must have dedicated dashboards such as the customer interface, where the customers interact with the queue management system, the agent’s dashboard where the agents interacts with the system, and the administrative dashboard where the branch managers or top management interacts with the system. This requires a proper workflow and user authentication mechanism which authenticate each user and provide them with the level of control they are entitled to. The user authentication and access control also make the system more secure and error-proof.

Conclusion

A queue management system is a necessity these days for business. Especially in the service-based industries where the business is dealing with daily footfall. There are certain features of trait of a good queue management system that are must have when implementing a new queue management system. For example, the first and most important thing is that the queue management system should be able to improve the service delivery process and customer experience. We always recommend our customers a tailor-made queue management system as it provides more flexibility and control over the business processes and doesn’t require or push any change for the existing business processes and internal infrastructure. Moreover, a good queue management system should be able to scale and upgrade easily and should have support for future expansions.

Usually, the business has a main head office and several regional offices or branches a good queue management system should be able to provide the head office facility to get real-time updates from all the connected branches and also the remote management, which enables the businesses to push company policies instantly to all branches and make the management and control easier. The reporting and business intelligence collection are vital for doing improvements and identifying the areas of improvement. These features not only transform customer journey and customer experience but also help businesses to improve the overall operational efficiency and help increasing revenue and profitability. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to install a new queue management system or want to upgrade your existing queuing solutions feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: 5 Signs Your Business Requires a Queue Management System

July 31, 2021

5 Signs Your Business Requires a Queue Management System

Every business has its own set of challenges, needs, and ways to handle problems. This sets them apart from others. Businesses in Dubai and all across the UAE invest heavily in improving their products, services, communication, brand promotion, and infrastructure, but often overlook the importance of queue management. This is why most of the customers and visitors end up unhappy or unsatisfied after having an interaction with their brand. When a customer or visitor arrives at the business they want to get served instantly, only a few customers are willing to wait, the majority of them get annoyed if they have to wait for a long time. People usually don’t like being stuck in busy and crowded places. People don’t like to wait which impacts the customer experience. A bad customer experience will harm the business reputation and identity. If people are getting bad experiences more often they will start talking about it with their friends, family and colleagues, even some customers also post on social medias. Which is very bad for a business’s reputation and it could completely ruin a brand.

The queue management and customer flow management and customer journey management problems are not new neither these problems are associated with only certain types of businesses. All types and size of business and organizations are facing queue management and customer flow management problems and having difficulties with managing customer journey. Businesses often assume that their sales are going up, the growth rates are good, so everything is perfect, but in reality that is not the case, there could be hundreds of factors that could give a pump to your sales for the time being, but in longer run if you are oblivion to the problems your customers and visitors are facing, eventually you will end up with a very bad reputation and your revenue and sales will decline.

How a business will know if they need a queue management system? Here are the 5 signs that your business requires a queue management system:

Sign No. 1: Crowded Waiting Areas and Long Queues

That is the very first and most visible sign. If your service centers or offices are reporting crowded waiting areas and long queues you must need a queue management system. When a large number of customers and visitors are waiting to get served by the agent/server, then that means there is some problem. People who have to wait for long time get frustrated and sometimes leave without getting the service. Customer and visitors who have to wait for long time are most likely to have a bad experience with the service agent as well. If you are having long queues in the customer service center that means your customers and visitors will have to wait for a long time and they will also face all problems related to waiting in long line such as line jumpers, customer getting lost, customer ending up at wrong counter, etc. All such problems are causing negative impact on customer experience and customer journey which will eventually ruin your brand reputation as well.

Sign No. 2: Customers Complaints

Some business and organizations in Dubai and all around the UAE thinks that the queues and customer waiting in long lines is a natural mode of customer flow, however there is a threshold between acceptable and unacceptable waiting conditions and wait time. And it gets unacceptable when your staff getting complaints and start noticing unhappy customers who are talking about long wait time or complaining about mismanagement and such things. The customers and visitors will also express their opinion with the service agents. But such customers will be less in number, and in fact there will be only a very few who will ever bother to go through filling a complaint by due process. Mostly the customer will either verbally complaint to the staff who are managing the queues or to the service agents. Only a very few of those verbal complaints will make up to the top management and mostly the staff and employees will try to deal with them by themselves or either discuss with their supervisors and that is it. This is another reason why business often failed to understand the severity of the problem.

Sign No. 3: Increased Customer Churn Rate and Lower Customer Retention

The long queues and crowded waiting areas always increase customer churn rate. The customer churn rate is the measurement of the customers who made their mind to purchase or acquire a service and arrived at the branch but leave without doing so. There could be several reasons but almost 90% of the time the customer churn is caused by the long waiting lines and crowded waiting areas. There are studies suggesting that acquiring a new customer could be 8 to 22 percent more costly than retaining an existing customer. If you start noticing lower customer retention rates, or if you are not getting repeated business from your existing customers, you should have to worry. Because the lower customer retention will impact your profitability it will increase the cost of new conversions. Increased customer churn rate and lower customer retention also earn negative brand reputation. The customers who have already reached to the business but leave without purchase or getting served are the most annoyed customers, the customer who don’t do repeated business are also unhappy and unsatisfied.

Sign No. 4: Poor Employee Performance and Unbalanced Workload

If you start noticing that your employees are performing poorly or serving less customers than anticipated. Or if you employees are serving less customers than before, or if your employees are also complaining about the work load and the management is also noticing unbalanced work load, some employees are busier than the others and other such issues, then you should seriously consider a queue management system. Mostly business in Dubai and all around the UAE invest heavily in employee training and employee performance management solutions, however very few business take steps to improve employee performance. It is a general believe that if an employee is performing bad then they must need more training, however this is not applicable all the times. Sometimes the employees are skilled enough but they are lagging support they need. That is why sometime the employee too complaint about the unbalanced workload or request for assistance from other employees and so on. It is extremely important that your all employee work at their full potential and are happy and satisfied as this will directly impact on customer experience and service quality.

Sign No. 5: Lack of Business Intelligence Data

Business intelligence data is a broad term used for a variety of different data types which are relevant to the businesses and are very helpful in decision making and future planning. In Dubai and all around the UAE the markets are very competitive and the customers are very up-to-date. It means the market trends and customer’s expectations are also continuously evolving. In order to deal with such scenarios business often require to update their policies, strategies and business processes. When it comes to customer journey and customer satisfaction related policies and strategy the business require very precise and accurate data to understand and evaluate their current business processes and current strategy. Which is not possible without having a system in place. It is very hard to track customer churn without having a record of the customers and visitors who have signed up for the queue. It is impossible to track the service delivery time accurately without any system in place. The employee KPIs (key performance indicators) can’t be measured manually with optimum precision and accuracy. There are so many different variables that impact customer satisfaction and customer happiness, which all are required when making a decision or making policies and planning for future.

How a Queue Management System can Help?

A queue management system can streamline customer flow and help the employee in managing queues. The automatic queue management and customer flow eliminate the human intervention which rectify all major problems and significantly reduce the wait time. The queue management system facilitates various business processesand automate customer journey which reduce the workload of the staff and employees. The employees can easily focus on their primary tasks and all their efforts which was consumed in managing customers and queue will be preserved. This way the employee can provide better quality service and their capacity to serve customers in a single shift also increased. Which help the business in reducing the staff and improving branch profitability.

As the customer flow and the entire customer journey can be managed through the queue management system it is easier for business and organizations to implement new rules and policies. The queue management system manage and route customers and visitors as per these policies and pre-set configurations, which further improve customer experience and reduce the customer journey. This increase customer happiness and customer satisfaction and reduce customer complaints. A better environment and good management reduce the customer churn rate. Once customer start getting good and happy customer experience they become more loyal to the business. Loyal customers are easy to retain and business can easily get repeated business from their existing customers. The loyal and happy customers are tend to be good brand advocate and they promote the business which improve brand reputation and help business in promoting a positive brand identity.

A positive brand identity, loyal customers and efficient operation attracts more customers and also improve conversion rate form marketing efforts. Altogether these all factors increase the profitability and revenue. Another great advantage of a queue management system is that it provide intensive business intelligence data. It can capture data from all touch points, KPIs and system stats also provide great business intelligence data. These days most of the modern queue management system also collect customer feedbacks through an in-built customer feedback and survey module which also provide great insight on customer journey, customer experience and their needs and expectations. The business intelligence is extremely crucial for policy making, strategy building and identifying the areas of improvements. The management can easily take good decision on the bases of such data.

Conclusion

Business and organizations in Dubai and all across the UAE are very keen to improve their products, services, quality, communication and what not, but unfortunately mostly the queue management is over looked. In fact most business believe that having long queues and crowded waiting areas is a normal way of the customer flow. However, the long wait time, poorly managed queues could have the most devastated impact on customer experience. A bad customer experience results in lower customer retention and lower customer satisfaction. Unsatisfied customers results in negative brand reputation and distrust among the targeted audience which also results in poor conversion rates of the marketing efforts. Whereas the positive brand identity and good brand reputation build trust, help businesses in improving customer retention and higher conversion rates.

If you are witnessing long queues and crowd in your waiting area, which means the customer flow is not good. If you are getting more complaints from the customers and visitors and your customer churn rate is increasing and customer retention and repeated business is decreasing that means your valuable customers are going to the competitor. If employees are showing signs of unbalanced workload and performing less than expectations, it means they are not satisfied and/or having too much workload. If you are finding it difficult to understand your queuing situation and business processes or if you are finding it difficult to identify the areas of improvements, it means you are lacking sufficient business intelligence data. For all those problems there is only one solution and that is a queue management system. RSI Concepts is a leading name in providing most efficient queue management systems in Dubai and all around the UAE. Feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: Qualities of Top Queue Management System

July 28, 2021

Importance of Display Devices in Queue Management System

A queue management system is a very powerful customer experience and customer journey transformation tool. Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are heavily relying on queue management systems to manage and improve their customer flow and customer satisfaction. There are several different parts and features of a queue management system however the display devices are one of the most important components of any queue management system. No matter what type of queue management system or queuing you are using the display devices will always dominate. The human brain reacts well to visuals than any other information. The display devices provide helpful information, data and help customers in routing them throughout the entire customer journey. That is why display devices are extremely important. A queue management system is a combination of a lot much different software and hardware components, which is why learning about those components will help you selecting the most suitable queue management system for you.

Let’s begin with a list of the digital display devices used in a standard queue management system:

Interactive Touch Screen Kiosk
Digital Signage Screens
Counter Plates
Digital Signs (for directions and routing the customer flow)

All the above-mentioned display devices are used in a standard queue management system. There are different types of queue management systems available in the market. Here in Dubai and across the UAE there are two classifications of queuing systems, first is generic which can be used in any scenario, the second one is dedicated or purpose-made queue management systems. No matter which type of queuing solution you want to use the display devices will be a part of it.

Here are the details of all display devices and their application:

Interactive Touch Screen Kiosk

The very first interaction of a customer or visitor with the queuing process is the sign-up for the queue. The ticket dispensing kiosk is usually a touch screen, which lists a number of services and the customer or visitor can chose any of the list as per their needs. The customer/visitor registration and many other tasks can also be done at the queue management system’s interactive kiosk. Usually the smaller kiosk are used such as 14 Inch, 15 Inch and even smaller are also popular in Dubai and other emirates of UAE. However, for certain applications where the user interface requires to offer certain features and functionalities bigger screens can also be used. The main objective of the interactive kiosk is to minimize the customer efforts and to make the process automated and more managed.

Usually TFT LCD screens are used with different touch panels. There are different touch panel technologies such as IR touch, ultrasonic touch, and capacitive touch and so on. All have different applications, the capacitive touch is the most accurate and highly responsive. Whenever some data entry or slightly longer than usual customer interaction is required, capacitive touch is the preferred choice. The capacitive touch is very sensitive and it also have in-built multi-point touch capabilities. It entirely depends up on the application, for example if the customer or visitors are required to choose an option from a pre-defined list, then the IR touch or any other touch will also work and suggested as the capacitive touch is more costly than any other touch technologies.

The interactive touch display devices are critically important, as they will be the very first interaction of the customer with the brand. If that display fails to satisfy the customer the customers will be unhappy, unhappy customers are harder to satisfy and they could get annoyed quickly, they will be impatient while waiting and will be less understanding with the servers/agents. This will impact the overall customer experience and will have a very negative effect. So, the interactive touch screen kiosks should have excellent display devices and high-end technology that work flawlessly and meet the expectations of your customers and visitors.

Digital Signage Screens

Once a customer or visitor signed up for the queue the very next interaction they will have will be with the large display screens. Usually these screens are used to display the queuing information and provide live updates and status of the ongoing queues. These screen also help with the announcements and customer calling. The very common mistake that business made with these screens is either they install less screens or even if they install adequate number of screens the displays are out of range, too far or too close. Here the business will have to think critically to choose appropriate places for digital signage screens. The screens should not be too high, neither too low, instead should be on medium height somewhere around 8 to 10 feet. The quantity and the size should also be reasonable.

Remember these screens will be viewed by each and every customer and visitor so the display quality should be good, the screen size and placement should be appropriate. The cabling, media players or any other device which is linked with the screen should be hidden or if it is placed in view then it should be installed nicely and cleanly. These are minor things which most businesses don’t consider but these things have psychological effects on customers and visitors, these minor things will impact the impression of the business in minds of the customers and visitors. Moreover the customers and visitors will focus on these display devices throughout their entire waiting time in the waiting area. So, these screen has to be of good quality, proper size and should be placed on strategic positions where each and every person in the waiting area should be able to view at least one screen without any difficulty.

The digital signage screens not only provide queuing information but they keep the customers and visitors busy and engaged which improve their waiting experience. Business also use large display screens to display queuing data alongside multimedia content or adverts. The multimedia content, adverts and videos boost customers’ interest and make their waiting experience more relaxing and engaging. If a person remains busy then they feel less stress while waiting for something. Several studies have suggested that an average customer starts getting bored after just 13 minutes of wait time. So the multimedia content can be very helpful in improving the waiting experience and as it also displays the queuing information and announcements, so it is easier to announce next ticket.

Counter Plates

Counters plates are equally important for all scenarios. It doesn’t matter if you have 2 counters or 80 counters the counter plates are still very important. Some businesses often use static signs or markings for the counters, however the counter display devices or dynamic digital displays can be very helpful for the management as well as for the customers and visitors. As most of the modern day queue management systems automatically manage customer routing and direct customers to different counters as per the predefined policies, the digital dynamic display devices as counter plates can further help in improving the process.

The agents or the queue management system can push several different information on digital displays or digital counter plates which can further improve customer flow and reduce the chances of any confusion or delay. The agents can push simpler instructions on the digital display devices as well, such as displaying a message ‘please wait a moment’ when the agent accidently hit the next button, or in case a customer who got served had another query or immediately return to clarify something and so on. The agent can display a very simple message such as ‘welcome’ which suggest that the next customer can come now and a lot many such things which help improving the customer experience.

Digital Signs and Markers

Digital signs and markers are also very important for managing customer journey and routing customers. Not all queue scenarios are simple, some are complex, in fact if a business has more than 20 counters, then the customer flow management could get complex, implementing and installing a queue management system could also be trickier. Then there are certain scenarios where some counters are dedicated for certain services or tasks, and there are certain scenarios where a single service delivery require a customer to visit multiple counters, sometime all those counters could be in a single hall or area, but mostly in different areas. These all real-life situation makes it difficult for the customers and visitors as well as for the management and staff.

That is why dynamic digital signs and markers are used which can direct customers and visitors through different steps of the customer journey such as corridors, stairs, lifts, etc. The purpose of using dynamic digital display devices is that these devices can be controlled through the queue management system software either from the agent dashboard or either from the administrative dashboard. So, it is easier to manage situations in different scenarios. Businesses can manage different scenarios for example if they want to change the customer journey in any way they can easily do that by setting up customer route and pushing new direction on the digital display devices, signs and markers.

Conclusion

A queue management system is a very powerful tool to transform customer journey and to improve customer happiness. Customer satisfaction ensures more customer loyalty and customer loyalty help building brand reputation which is necessary for a steady growth. A queue management system have very direct and long term effects on a business. It help increasing customer retention, building brand reputation, improving conversion rate and generating revenues. That is why it is extremely important for a business to choose a right queuing solution and in order to do so, you must have at least basic understanding of the components and operation of a queue management system. The display devices are the most important part of any queue management system, whether it is interactive touch screen kiosk for the sign-up and/or registration process, the digital signage, counter plates or digital signs, all display devices are very helpful in managing customer flow and facilitating them throughout the customer journey, which enhances customer experience and increase customer satisfaction. RSI Concepts is a leading name in queue management system providers in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more or if you want to improve your queuing process feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: Qualities of Top Queue Management System

July 28, 2021

Qualities of Top Queue Management System

A queue management system is a vital component of a customer satisfaction strategy. Everyone living in Dubai or any other part of UAE has experienced a queue management system at any point in their life. The main objective of any queue management system is to improve customer experience and increase customer satisfaction. The simplest process of a digital queue management system is that a customer or visitor prints a ticket and then waits for their call and then gets served. However, it is not that simple at all. There are certain features that segregate one queue management system from another and similarly those features distinguish a top queue management system from an ordinary queue management system. The studies have suggested that an average customer start getting annoyed after only 13 minutes of waiting, which is why business are investing heavily in queuing solutions to reduce the wait time.

As the technology is advancing the market is witnessing major changes in the customer behavior and market trends. It is extremely important to keep up with those changing trends and demands from their customers. Earlier the queue management systems was only used to handle long lines, instead of waiting in lines customers can wait comfortably in the waiting area, but now things have changed, now a days the customers expect from the business to serve them instantly, no one wants to wait in the waiting area either. This is why the queue management systems has also evolved with tons of new features and technological solutions that help business to improve the customer journey and customer wait time. In this blog we will cover some important qualities and features of a queue management system that will make it the most efficient and most impactful.

Here are some qualities of top queue management system:

Virtual Queuing

Due to the COVID 19 pandemic the customer behavior, market trends and needs have been changed completely. Customer expects a bit quicker and contactless type of queuing experience from their brands. Whether it is a public office, government office, bank, hospital or any other place where the daily footfall is high, the customers expect the business and organizations to offer a better, quicker and safer queuing experience. This suddenly give rise to the virtual queuing and businesses who were not using or not needing any queue management system before are now using queue management systems. The virtual queuing enables a queue management system to manage customer flow through virtual waiting lines. It means that a customer can sign-up for the queue remotely and doesn’t required to wait in an actual physical queue or line. This also enables the customer to wait outside the premises and come only when their turn came. There are many different methods used for virtual queuing, the most common are remote sign-up through SMS, Calls, Email, Appointments, Smartphone Apps, QR Codes, etc.

The customer sign-up using any method and then they can either wait outside the premises or come at exactly the same time when their ticket number is being called. As the customer identifier or ticket has been issued prior to their arrival and their place is secured in the queue so the customers don’t have to wait physically in the line instead they can wait outside to minimize the contact and interaction with other people. The virtual queuing is not only give confidence to the customers and visitors but it literally completely remove the need of waiting in the waiting area or inside the premises, which means the customers and visitors can get served immediately after their arrival. It improves the customer experience and also maximize the employee efficiency which has double effect on the overall productivity of the branch and increase profitability.

Automatic Customer Journey Management

Although this is a basic feature of modern days queue management system in Dubai, UAE. But this feature has enhanced a lot in past few years. Any queue management system provides some level of customer journey automation, but a top queue management system should enables the management to configure the customer journey and to make them able to implement the new or temporary company policies instantaneously. This feature is very important in today’s queuing. As businesses often require to change their policy or to change the customer routes. It could be either due to a temporary scenario or a special occasion or for a certain need. But business often require to modify their queuing policies. A top queue management system should be very flexible and helpful for the management in dealing with such scenarios. The customer journey automation is also mandatory to minimize the customer wait time and to improve the customer flow.

The automatic customer journey feature enables the queue management system to automatically route the customers and visitors to their dedicated counters/server and agents. For example, usually a business is offering multiple services in a single branch having multiple counters. Even in some cases a single service delivery require a customer to go to several counters. Certain agents and servers are trained for certain services and some agents perform well for certain services. This is why in order to maximize the operational efficiency and to maintain the ultimate customer experience the business require a queue management system that can handle all these variables automatically.

Queue Management System Smartphone Apps

Smartphone apps have been integrated too deep within our society. In Dubai and all other emirates of UAE the smartphone apps are very popular. The government is stressing on the importance of going green and digitalization. There are tons of government services that are being offered through the smartphone apps. Another reason of smartphone apps getting popular is that in the entire UAE almost everyone owns a smartphone and have access to the internet. People love to spend time on their smartphone, in fact there are certain clusters of society who spend more time on their smartphones than on the laptops or traditional computers. Which makes them even more important for the marketers and business belongs to the service based industry. A queue management system smartphone app added value to both the customers and the management.

The queue management system smartphone apps enables the customer to sign-up remotely from their mobiles, it improves the virtual queuing and help management to minimize the wait time which enhances customer experience and improve customer journey. The smartphone applications can offer a lot of features which enhance customer experience and customer journey. The customers can book an appointment from the apps. The customer can search for the nearest branch, and also find data for those branches which help them planning their visit. The customer can learn about the busy branches, current queuing details and much more. The real-time updates, notifications and support for virtual queuing also add value to the customer journey and customer experience.

Dedicated Agent Dashboard

Dedicated agent dashboard is very helpful in improving employee efficiency and making service delivery process easier which also impact customer satisfaction and customer journey. The agent/server can monitor and control the queues from this dashboard. Each agent will have to login to their dashboard at the start of their shift, this way the queue management system will be able to identify the agent/server and then the system can collect stats, capture various data inputs, and measure KPIs (key performance indicators). The dashboard can capture different types of data such as the agent’s progress, how many customers are being served. How much time consumed for each service delivery, what is average time for a single service delivery. What services are delivered quickly and what services took longer. Comparison can be done. The services can be easily identified at which the agent/server is good and vice versa. This way the management can manage the agent’s position and their tasks to improve efficiency.

The agents can also utilize the dashboard to aid their service delivery process. The agent dashboard can offer a variety of standard and customized features which can be designed to aid the service delivery process. For example the customers data can be pushed to the agent dashboard easily or from the agent dashboard to customer repository or it can be linked to the centralized information center. This could save a lot of efforts which reduces the service delivery time, improve customer experience and increase employee efficiency. The agent/server dashboard can be completely customized to add features and functionalities that can facilitate the service delivery process and it also collect important statistical data which help the management in decision making and planning for the future strategies.

Real-time Monitoring and Remote Management

Any top queue management system must have this quality. The real-time monitoring and the remote management is very helpful for the management. The queue management system allows the top management at the head office to be able to access any or all connected branches. The head office can push new policies, extract data, assign new job roles for the staff and branch management and they can also control various other aspects of the queuing process. Which is very helpful for the head office and it also prevent any additional work and cost of manually implementing company policies and strategies to each location. In order to enable this feature the queue management system must have a dedicated server or server side application. This queue management system server connects with all branches and mostly all the computing and processing is done at the server. This enables remote monitoring for the head office as all the data and stats are being stored at the server which can be accessed from the head office.

This connectivity also enabled the remote management. The head office can remotely monitor and manage the entire organization from the head office. The head office management can access any branch at any time and monitor the live feeds from the queuing process. The head office can push new rules and policies to any branch or to the entire organization. The head office can extract statistical data, KPIs and they can generate reports from any branch. The real-time monitoring and remote management provides a great advantage to the top management. Everything can be accessed remotely which save a lot of time and efforts as well. If the head office has data from all the branches they can understand the trends, customer behavior, agent/server performance and much more with more clarity and accuracy.

Customer Feedback

Any queue management system these days is incomplete without customer feedback features. The Dubai and all other parts of UAE have a multi-cultural societies which comprises of people from each and every nationality and ethnicity. This is why the UAE market acts and behaves slightly differently and are considered to be more customer/consumer friendly too. The economy is growing rapidly, the competition is increasing day by day. Businesses are investing a lot in innovation and modernization, in fact businesses keep updating their IT infrastructure after a few years only. This makes things tougher for the marketer and the management. It is extremely important to understand your customers to ensure a sustainable and continuous growth. The customer satisfaction and customer retention are crucial for growth.

A Customer Feedback system is the only tool that can provide a very direct and unfiltered customer opinion. I think whoever is living in Dubai or any other part of UAE for some time must be familiar with the small touch screens, or tablets or kiosk placed next to the serving counters. Which ask the customers and visitors to provide their feedback. A top queue management system must have this quality. These days all modern queuing solutions comes with an in-built customer feedback module. Which enables the business to collect vital business intelligence. The customer feedback data is critical for improving your products and services, enhancing customer experience and customer journey. The business can also accurately measure several different KPIs with the customer feedback module. Which are very helpful for the management in making decisions and taking actions to improve customer interaction. The customer feedback also build trust among the brand and its customers and it improves business’s reputation.

Business Intelligence Gathering

Business intelligence is not a particular data, in fact it is a blend of several data feeds coming from various touch point throughout the entire customer journey. Any top level queue management system must gather and provide business intelligence in the form of actionable reports. This requires a very smart software engine with capabilities of data analytics and data processing. Collecting data is extremely important, but creating actionable reports from that data is also equally important. If a queue management system is collecting tons of data but failed to provide comprehensive and summary reports in an easy-to-understand formats, it could cause problems rather solutions. The top management or head office can rely on the business intelligence to form their future strategies and policies. The reports, stats, KPIs, system usage data and other indicators will help the management to identify the areas of improvements whether it is the customer journey, or agent/server, or product/service quality itself, the business should be able to easily identify and rectify the problems by relying on these reports and statistical data.

A good queue management system should be able to meet all those needs. There should be customizable reporting module, which allows the management to extract data and generate reports as per their needs, rather only daily, weekly or monthly reports. The data should also have to be presented in several visual formats which are easy to understand for the top management. These days we are also witnessing that modern queue management system allows intensive system integration and data synchronization with other enterprise tools and software. Which makes it easier for the management to prepare and compare data from various sources. Such features are very helpful or the management in taking actions, making new policies and identifying the areas of improvements to ensure ultimate customer experience.

Conclusion

A queue management system have transformed into a powerful customer satisfaction solution instead of a simple customer flow management tool. Each business and organization have different goals and objectives but still the basic remains the same. Everyone wants to improve customer journey and customer experience to achieve higher customer retention and customer satisfaction rates which ensures steady growth and high profitability. A queue management system must have above mentioned features in order to help business and organizations to achieve their goals and objectives. Virtual queuing, customer journey and business process automation, integration with other enterprise solutions and business tools, customer feedback collection, real-time monitoring, remote management, reporting module, business intelligence collection and KPIs are the basic necessity of any modern day queuing solution. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system provider in Dubai, UAE. If you need to improve your customer experience and customer journey, feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you.

Check out this: 5 Techniques to Integrate Customer Satisfaction Survey with Queue Management System

June 20, 2021

Queue Management Challenges 2021

As the year 2020 had a huge impact on everyone, the customers are expecting a bit more digital experience. The year 2021 brings new challenges for queue management and queuing systems as well. Businesses in Dubai and all across the UAE will have to adopt digital solutions in order to meet the expectations and needs of the customers. The customer interaction should also be improved by adding digital interactions and experience. Nowadays the price has become a secondary factor when it comes to the customer loyalty, instead, the experience and interaction is the most important factor in customer loyalty. If you are offering a good price but not a good interaction your customers will soon leave you. Investing in customer experience projects and strategies such as queue management systems is a long-term investment, it could literally double up your revenue in three to four years. However, if your customer journey and customer experience are slightly less than the average you will immediately witness a decline in revenue, and customer retention will become harder. This scenario results in a lot of challenges for the queue management systems as well.

Here are some challenges for a queue management system in 2021 and their reasons:

Challenge No 1. The Impact of Pandemic

The customer experience was earlier ruined by the crowded waiting areas and long queues. Businesses have to find innovative ways and solutions to manage such scenarios. After the pandemic of the COVID-19, this has completely changed, now businesses not only have to handle the queues but they must have to deal with the social distancing and health and safety regulations as well. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the governments have very strict policies and regulations, which are great for the health and safety of the public and society but for the business, it becomes even harder to manage the customer flow under such circumstances. The queue management systems earlier were programmed to automate customer journey and customer flow, now they must have to manage and control the number of customers allowed to be in the queue in order to implement social distancing.

Another most important factor is that businesses all around the world are actively seeking methods to cut costs. In such scenarios, expensive solutions or bulky upgrades are not an option for most businesses. This means that the queue management systems must have to be very cost-efficient and very effective to deal with social distancing and such scenarios. A queue management system will have to provide additional features and functionalities to aid the management in handling such situations at the same time it has to be very cost-effective too. If we talk about the long-term gains, queue management is an excellent customer happiness solution, as for the short-term gains, leading queue management system providers in Dubai such as RSI Concepts are offering great deals and support for local and international clients.

Challenge No 2. Customer Expectations

Customer expectations is a very important trend to keep an eye on. There are so many factors that influence customer expectations. The more notable are the competitors, the overall market trends, for example, in 2021 all sorts of businesses, public and private sectors, government offices, and everywhere else where ever you go, the social distancing is a must. This lead to a new trend, now a day’s people expect from their brands and service provider to offer certain solutions and systems in place which will help them to implement social distancing and such stuff.

Apart from social distancing, even before that in Dubai and all across the UAE businesses and institutions who are facilitating visitors and customers are always having one or another kind of digital queue management system. This trend led people in expecting a digital queue management system wherever they go. If their brand is not offering a digital queue management system then they will perceive it negatively and they could think that the brand is outdated or old hence they should consider other businesses who are offering better services, etc.

Another important factor is the competition. If your competitors are offering a digital queue management system at their branch, then your customers and visitors will also expect a digital queue management system there and so on and so forth. That is how customer’s expectations are formed and businesses should have to consider those trends and customer expectations when making future strategies and taking decisions.

Challenge No 3. Customer Journey

The year 2021 is the year of digitalization, everything is getting digital. The things that can’t get completely digital are getting partially digital with heavy involvement of digital systems and solutions. That is not all, businesses have changed their practices and methods too. The queue management systems have to adapt to all those changes as well. Businesses are moving towards digital interactions and inventing ways to be as contactless as possible, however, in most cases a completely digital customer journey is not possible. Now a day’s queue management systems are integrated with various other systems to expedite the customer flow and to improve the customer journey. Most of the queue management system providers in Dubai are focusing on innovating new ideas and personalized queue management systems for certain industries.

The general consumer market is leaning towards online and eCommerce. However, the service-based industries that can’t completely go digital are partially digitalizing their services and service delivery mechanisms. For example, virtual queuing is partially digitalizing the customer journey and queue management. The online appointment is helping the health care industry and so on. As per the regulations and laws, only a certain percentage of customers and visitors can be welcomed at a given time. This means that the businesses would not be able to let more people inside the premises to wait in the waiting area. The customers will have to wait outside. In order to deal with this problem the queue management systems adapted to virtual queuing, online appointments, smartphone apps, and such features to help both the business and the customers too.

Challenge No 4. Customer Experience

Another toughest challenge that a queue management system has today is the customer experience. Despite all those factors that are not only changing the customer behavior but also demand a completely different approach to handle customer flow, maintaining the customer experience is a very challenging job. This is why the queue management systems have to adapt to the new trends and requirements very quickly. All the customer touchpoints, interactions, and relevant business processes that were being handled through the queue management systems should be reworked and redesigned. The modern queue management systems in 2021 are not only a ticket dispensing and customer calling setup but in fact a complete customer happiness and customer experience management tools.

The customers are very sensitive these days, especially about their interaction and experience at public places. As the market has shifted rapidly so there is too much confusion among the marketers and businesses, everyone is trying to catch up. In such situations, things could easily go wrong, so it is important to focus and work in the right direction. This demands critical thinking and a better understanding of customer behavior and demands. Although it may sound difficult it is not. These days the most important thing any customer wants is the quickest service delivery, the least wait time, and better human interaction. Well, this is what a customer always wanted. But these days, it is extremely important to focus on these factors to improve customer experience. An advanced queue management system should be able to help management in dealing with such situations.

These days, the overall market trends and the behavior of the general population are changing. The working from home, online schools, eCommerce, and a long list of online services which before that we never thought could go online, have completely shifted the market trends. Now the customers are very comfortable with the digital experience, in fact, prefer digital over traditional methods. So including digital fragments into your business process along with the personalized interaction or human interaction could really boost the customer experience which will increase customer happiness and satisfaction.

Challenge No 5. Virtual Queuing

Virtual queuing is also a modern customer flow management technique. The virtual queue management system is a queuing system that allows the customers and visitors to sign-up for the queue even before physically appearing at the business. There are so many different methods and approaches to attain virtual queuing functionality. Virtual queuing not only allow remote sign-up but also provides the queuing information and various other data directly to the customer using various different mediums, the most commonly used methods are SMS and Smartphone Applications. This data and live status updates are very helpful for the customers as well as for the business.

The virtual queue management systems are gaining popularity in Dubai and also all around the UAE. Virtual queuing can significantly reduce the customer wait time and in fact, it can completely eliminate the wait time. The customers and visitors are already provided with live updates and queuing information so they can come at the exact time when their number is called. Virtually there will be no wait time at all. The virtual queue management systems also reduce the workload of the staff and servers/agents. Which further improves their efficiency and service quality. The customers and visitors can have an excellent user experience.

Virtual queuing can be a little bit challenging if not planned properly. However, at RSI Concepts, we have a highly experienced design team and business analysts. Our virtual queue management systems can not only provide a personalized experience but also provide a very flexible control panel and data collection module for the management.

Challenge No 6. Integration with Other Systems and Tools

In order to cater to the needs of the businesses under today’s circumstances, a queue management system will have to be able to synchronize and integrate with tons of other enterprise solutions and business tools. For example, in order to include a virtual queuing module the queue management system will have to be linked with the Smartphone Applications, QR Code module, Customer Portals, Intranet, ERP, and Sales System too (if required). These are just a few commonly used types of integration. There are several others that are required to ensure the desired customer experience.

Integration is usually done via Secure Web Services or APIs. Integrating one system with another could be tricky but integrating one system with three or four or even more different systems and synchronizing data between all of them could be very challenging for a queue management system. Sometimes there have to be some intermediary applications to make sure everything works as per the plan without any technical problem. These apps should be designed and developed along with the customization of the queue management system as well.

As each and every business has certain business processes and unique methodologies and practices. So the queue management system also has to be very flexible in order to support the businesses in improving their efficiency and productivity without forcing them to change their business processes and methodologies. This could be even more challenging when the queue management system will also have to integrate with various other systems and corporate tools.

Conclusion

As the year 2020 has completely changed everything the customer journey and customer experience that we were experiencing earlier have been completely changed. The pandemic and resulting circumstances have changed every aspect of our daily life. When social distancing is required the digital and online services are the best solution. However, there are still so many businesses that can’t conduct business online. People will still have to visit the business or a local branch to get the service done. The trends have been shifted and the general behavior of the customers has been changed completely. This means that in order to maintain a better customer experience and customer journey, the queue management systems should also have to evolve.

This brings a lot of new challenges for the queue management systems in the year 2021. The new digitalized features and virtual queuing are not new to the queue management system industry. However, earlier multiple different digital services were provided in different types of queue management solutions. But now a day, all those features have to be provided in a single queue management system. The business should also have to maintain the best customer experience, which is also very challenging for the queue management system. This blog was to highlight those challenges and to let our audience have a better understanding of the market trends and the new advancements in the queue management system market. At RSI Concepts we have specialized in queue management systems and various other customer happiness and customer satisfaction solutions. If you need any help or want to get a quote, feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: What are the 7 advanced features of QMS?

BLOG OF RSI CONCEPTS

Category: Queue Management System

Queue Management System Manages Customer Flow and Organizes Queues

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

Queue Management System Automates Customer Journey and Reduces Wait Time

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

Queue Management Systems Collect Business Intelligence Data

Conclusion

What is a Queue Management System?

Queue Management System Hardware Components

Self-Service Interactive Sing-up Kiosk/Ticket Dispensing Kiosk

Digital Signage Screens

Counter Plates

Announcement System/Audio System

Queue Management System Software Components

Administrative Control Panel

The Agent Dashboard

Self-Service Interactive Kiosk User Interface

Digital Signage Controls

Reporting and KPIs Monitoring Module

Statistical Data Analytical Engine

Customer Feedbacks

How to Choose a Best Queue Management System?

What are the Different Queuing Process Types?

Single Phase Single Channel Queuing

Multi-Phase Single Channel Queuing

Single Phase Multi-Channel Queuing

Multi-Phase Multi-Channel Queuing

How the Branch, Office or Facility Operates?

The Population of the Customers

The Method of Arrival

The Infrastructure of the Facility

What are the Benefits of a Queue Management System?

Conclusion

Reason No. 1: Queue Management System Reduce Wait Time

Reason No. 2: Queue Management System Offers Better Customer Journey Management

Reason No. 3: Queue Management System Aid Customer Retention and Increase Customer Loyalty

Reason No. 4: Queue Management System Improves Employee Performance and Monitor KPIs

Reason No. 5: Queue Management System Collects Customer Feedback and Business Intelligence

Reason No. 6: Queue Management System Enables Easy System Integration and Remote Management

Conclusion

How WhatsApp Queue Management System Works?

What are the benefits of WhatsApp Queue Management?

Conclusion

Queue Management System Improves Customer Journey and Customer Experience

Queue Management System Helps Improving Customer Retention

Virtual Queuing Boosts Customer Happiness and Productivity

Customer Feedback ModuleAids Progress and Development Process

Queue Management System’s KPIs Help Improving the Performance

Business Intelligence and Reports Help Making Profitable Policies

Conclusion

1. What Types of Services You are Offering?

A Great Customer Experience is Must

In-built Virtual Queuing and Social Distancing Features

Customization, Scalability and System Integration

Reporting and Business Intelligence

Real-time Updates and Remote Management

Conclusion

Sign No. 1: Crowded Waiting Areas and Long Queues

Sign No. 2: Customers Complaints

Sign No. 3: Increased Customer Churn Rate and Lower Customer Retention

Sign No. 4: Poor Employee Performance and Unbalanced Workload

Sign No. 5: Lack of Business Intelligence Data

How a Queue Management System can Help?

Conclusion

Interactive Touch Screen Kiosk

Digital Signage Screens

Counter Plates

Digital Signs and Markers

Conclusion

Virtual Queuing

Automatic Customer Journey Management

Queue Management System Smartphone Apps

Dedicated Agent Dashboard

Real-time Monitoring and Remote Management

Customer Feedback

Business Intelligence Gathering

Conclusion

Challenge No 1. The Impact of Pandemic

Challenge No 2. Customer Expectations