The digital solutions and technology is evolving businesses, markets and customer’s demand. These days the general consumer in UAE is very familiar with the digital experience and interaction. The digital have become a part of our daily lives. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the internet penetration and the usage of smartphone is very common, almost 99% of the population is connected with the internet. That is why all types of businesses have started adopting digital solutions to enhance their customer experience and customer journey. Same is applicable to banks and other financial institution too. The banks need to improve the branch performance and branch efficiency as well as they also aim to control the expense. This means the digital solutions are being adopted for two major reasons, one is customer satisfaction and the other is to achieve strategic business goals.
The year 2022 comes with new challenges, the general customer behavior and trends have been completely transformed. Banks always have large daily foot fall, they need to optimize resources to keep the expenses under control and they must also have to improve their service quality as well. Several market researches and studies have shown us that the customer do care equally about the experience and journey they are getting from a business. So the product/service quality and customer experience is equally important. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE there are several banks, in fact in each alternate street there is a bank branch, in such scenarios the competition gets higher, the customer’s demands and expectations also raised, and the customers always have option to switch.
Digital Bank Branch Transformation
Without any digital system in place, the employees and the customers both could face very difficult situations. For employees, it is always a big challenge to manage and control the visitor’s and customer’s flow. The management also faces problems while improving the customer journey without any digital system or tool. Moreover the digital system organizes everything and provides in-depth data insights, which help business to monitor and manage the several business processes effectively. For a bank branch there is always limited number of counters, some are dedicated to exclusive services and some are for all services or queries. It is very difficult for the sales staff and customer service agents to keep the customers disciplined and organized. The line jumpers, small fights, angry customers and complaining visitors are a common sight in every bank branch. However, the banks with an effective queuing policy, an efficient queue management system in place and satisfied staff can easily boost your rankings and reputation.
Branch Transformation with Queue Management System
For any bank the biggest challenge is to effectively manage the daily customers and visitors. Most of the times during busy hours the bank branch can be overwhelmed hence crowd formation, unorganized lobbies, disputes in the queues, unhappy customers, busy staff, and a lot other such problems could occur. All these problems led to increased wait time and longer customer journey, on top of that the negative perception a customer builds about the bank or its branch could be very bad for brand image and reputation. Such problems could have a very negative affect on the growth of the bank in the longer run. That is why most of the banks in Dubai and all around the UAE are adopting digital queue management systems. A queue management system is a combination of software and hardware tools, which allow the bank branch to effectively and efficiently control and manage the queues, which results in better customer flow and quicker customer journey.
Reduce Customer Wait Time with QMS
The most common complaint any customer have from a service provider is the long wait time. For banks the long waiting time is also very bad, it annoys the customer and repeated bad experiences could repel the customers too. Manual customer flow management is very difficult for the staff as well as for the customers and visitors. However, with the help of a digital queue management system the customer flow management and virtual lines can literally transform customer experience. The queue management system have intelligent algorithms and software which automatically controls the customer flow, once a customer signed-up for service the queue management system can automatically put them in appropriate queue. In fact during the waiting time a queue management system can also take decisions in real-time, for example, if a customer need service AA, which is being offered on four counters, the queue management system have ability to analyze the customer flow and the service agent’s performance and then it can divide the customers between the counters to make sure maximum performance can be achieved. This could save a lot of time.
Basically when a customer or visitor signs-up for a queue, the queue management system issues them a ticket or token number, which is their unique queuing ID or place in the waiting line. Hence all customers knows there could be no line jumper, and there is not a chance that any service agent could be able to favor someone, hence a lot many disputes can be prevented and on top of that it also provide a peace of mind to the customers and visitors. The queue management system also reduces a lot of workload of the staff and it can also improve staff efficiency. Without a queue management system the service agents and staff have to control and manage the queues as well, which distract them from their primary task. However, with the queue management system the staff can focus entirely on their primary tasks, which boost their efficiency and performance and also help improving the customer experience.
Improve Waiting Experience and Reduce Perceived Wait Time
Have you ever experienced waiting in a queue or on a busy highway that the line we are in looks slower than the adjacent line? This is the trick of our brain, and this phenomenon is very common. People tend to perceive the waiting time more than what it actually is. The brain just thinks that the adjacent line is faster, in reality it could be even slower. However, this same phenomenon is applicable in the customer queues and customer flow management. When people are waiting for their turn, within a few minutes they start thinking that more time have passed however, in reality less time had passed. This is called the perceived wait time. The perceived wait time is always more than the actual wait time. With the manual queuing the chances are the perceived wait time could be much longer than the actual wait time. However a digital queue management system have ability to reduce the perceived wait time by increasing customer engagements.
The human brain reacts strangely when there is something which is unknown, most of the time the fear is the strongest emotion towards the unknown. When it comes to waiting in the queues, if the customers and the visitors don’t know how long they will have to wait, it start irritating them, and they become anxious and depressed also. Which ruin their experience. However, with the help of queue management system the intelligent software engine is capable of estimating the wait time for each ticket on the bases of past stats and real-time data from the system. Hence the estimated wait time can be printed on the ticket or token. Furthermore, there are large display screens installed at strategic locations within the branch which remain visible to everyone. These digital signage displays live queuing information, summary and on-going activities, which also keep customers engaged and reduce the anxiety of the waiting.
All modern day queue management system also have audio announcement system as well. The audio announcements can be made in multiple languages. These features keep the customer engaged and busy, hence the effect of waiting time can be minimized, which improves customer waiting experience. If customers reach to the counter with a calm and cool mind the chances of having a great and satisfactory interaction are high. A queue management system increase customer engagements, reduce actual and perceived wait time, balance workload of the employees and boost their efficiency, and consequently provide excellent customer experience and customer journey.
Branch Transformation with Virtual Queuing
The virtual queuing is a relatively newer trend. The virtual queuing is a modernized form of queue management which allows the customers and visitors to sign-up for the virtual queues using remote channels and mediums. The biggest benefit of virtual queuing is that it can literally reduce the wait time to none. Technically the customer is not required to physically arrive at the branch to sign-up for the queue or to wait inside the bank branch. The queue management system can utilize remote mediums and channels to provide live coverage and updates of the on-going queuing process. This allow the customers and visitors to keep track of their turn and also provide them enough information to let them plan their visit in a way that they don’t have to wait in the bank. The virtual queuing gained popularity during the 2020 and 2021 due to the strict social distancing laws and public health concerns. However, now a day’s businesses and banks all around the world are still utilizing virtual queuing methods to enhance their customer experience.
Third Party System Integration Help Improving Customer Journey
Each bank have a sophisticated digital and IT infrastructure which consists of several layers of enterprise systems and business tools. Some of these tools and systems are used to aid the employees during their daily job roles, and some of them are used for security purposes. There is always one central information center which is connected with almost all other tools and systems. The modern queue management system such as RSI Queue Management System can be integrated with the central information center as well as with any other third-party systems using APIs or Secure Web Services. The integration allow two independent or even dependent systems to share data between each other. The integration allow banks to further improve customer journey and customer experience. Banks can also add innovative features to facilitate various business processes and customer journey steps. These features can help improving customer journey and customer experience reducing the wait time and simplifying the customer journey. However, the modern queue management system’s features also help improving employee efficiency.
Collect Business Intelligence Data
A queue management system is a perfect companion to monitor and track customer journey. The queue management system is capable of collecting system usage and statistical data from each and every touch point of the entire customer journey. Furthermore the queue management system can be used to measure various KPIs (key performance indicators) which can be used later for strategy and planning making purposes. The queue management system can also provide data about the popular products/services and most requested support queries and much more. Such information can be very helpful for planning and understanding the current market trends, customer persona and much more. The queue management systems both traditional and virtual can also have ability to collect direct customer feedback using various channels and techniques. The customer feedback data is a crucial part of business intelligence and it can provide very accurate and important information that help businesses to take informed decisions, set future course and achieve their goals. For banks such data is very crucial to measure the branch performance, making plans to improve customer experience and building strategy for long term future goals.
Conclusion
The year 2022 is dominated by the digital interaction and digital experience. Businesses from Dubai and all around the UAE are also investing huge amount in digital experience and digital interaction with their customers. In fact the market have evolved so rapidly that it is quite hard for several businesses and industry sectors to keep up with the pace. The customer expectations have also become very high. Now a days the customer expect from their favorite businesses/banks and brand to offer modern features and digital interaction. When it comes to banks and their branches the customer’s expectations have become slightly higher. A well-organized customer flow and simplified queuing process can offer best customer experience. The customer experience and customer journey is the key point in any business’s success. If its customers are happy and the employees are performing well, it is just a matter of time and the business will definitely achieve its goals and objectives.
In this blog we have discussed how a queue management system could transform a bank branch. If you want to learn more about the subject or looking for a reliable queue management system provider in Dubai, UAE. Please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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