In the modern day and age the customer behavior have changed a lot, now a days customers tend to consider experience more important than ever before. In fact there are several studies and researches conducted all across the world which suggest that a majority of the customer is willing to pay extra if they are assured they will get a better experience. This customer behavior compelled businesses to seriously think about the ways they are offering services to the customers. The service industry in Dubai and all around the UAE is a very competitive market.
There are so many options available to the customers which also lead to high market standards and high customer expectations. This means that the business will have to beat the competition as well as they will have to meet and exceed the customers’ expectations. The biggest challenge any business faces is long customer queues and unwanted service delays. These are the things that can ruin the customer experience and make them very unhappy.
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Unhappy customers tend to stop doing business with the brand and on top of that such customers also share their negative experience with their friends, colleagues and in social media which could be extremely bad for a business reputation and brand image. According to several studies if a customer is happy with a business they tend to share their positive feedback to up to 9 persons, if they are unhappy they tend to tell up to 15. Which means you can lost 15 possible prospects and the damage done to the brand image is topping on the cake.
Businesses often don’t realize the importance of words of mouth, most of the businesses think that is a thing of past, however, that is not the case, in fact in the modern day and age the word of mouth have become even more impact full, thanks to the social media and online channels, the impact of a positive or negative review/comment about the business can have much stronger impact on the business’s reputation than anticipated. That is why business adopt various modern technologies to improve their customer experience and to increase customer happiness. The queue management system is one of those and it is very helpful in dealing with the modern problems.
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What is the Most Effective way to Manage Customer Queue and Service Delays?
The customer queues, service delays and long waiting times are not new problems, in fact in the present day these problems become a more difficult challenge. So, businesses are using several methods and strategies to deal with these problems in the past. We have all witnessed the incredible development in technology and communication in the past two decade. The businesses and organizations have also adopted to modernized IT infrastructure and implemented several technologies over the time. The service based industry was proven to be more innovative and creative. The service sector have introduced several new customer relationship management technologies in the past two decades.
These technologies have completely transform the market. When it comes to queue management and customer experience at service centers, we have noticed that most of the business are still relying on relatively older technologies, or one can say the innovation and creativity was relatively slower in this particular area. However, things are changing rapidly and now more and more businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are embracing modern technologies based solution for their queuing needs.
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The digital queue management systems have completely taken over the market like a storm. We have witnessed very rapid adaptation all across the market in last decade and now businesses are more emphasizing on their queuing strategies. Because the queuing experience is the most influencing factor on overall customer experience at the branch and it can significantly impact the service delivery process and customer satisfaction. A digital queue management system have proven to be the most effective way to manage customer queues and to prevent unwanted service delays.
It because its ability to automate several customer journey processes and useful features for service agents which also help them speed up the service delivery process. Furthermore a modern queue management system comes with various other features that increase customer engagement, reduce their waiting stress, and improve their experience. The digital queue management system also comes with a powerful software which can be integrated with other enterprise tools, systems and central information center which enable businesses to include several innovative features to improve the system efficiency and efficacy.
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When it comes to acquiring a queue management system there are tons of different options available in the market which could make it very confusing for the managers and decision makers to choose the right queuing solution. Here are some features of a modern queue management system which will help you effectively managing customer queues and the service delays.
Features of Queue Management System
In Dubai and all around the UAE there are several companies who are offering queue management systems with different labels and branding. There are vendors who are also offering customized queue management system to meet your exclusive needs. No matter which solution or vendor you choose, here is a list of some most important features and advantages of a queue management system that you should consider while selecting a right queue management system for your business.
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Features to Automate Customer Sign-Up Process
Traditionally the customer signup process is the first part of customer interaction at your service centers. It should be welcoming, simpler and shorter. A modern queue management system offers a variety of sign-up methods, the most commonly used methods is a use of interactive kiosk. This interactive kiosk dispense tickets and it can also capture basic information which help queue management system improve the customer flow. The queue management system sign-up customers and visitors for the virtual queues, which allow them to wait freely and comfortably in the wait areas, lobbies and anywhere they want, hence the customers and visitors don’t have to stand in physical lines.
Since everyone get their ticket number there is no dispute or complaint by the customers. Everyone knows the customer flow is managed by the automated software system so no one complaint about staff favoritism, line jumpers, delays in their queues, etc. Furthermore the interactive ticket dispensing kiosk also allow businesses to integrate various software and hardware accessories to capture customer information such as Emirates ID card reader, passport scanner, Barcode/QR Code reader, RFID, etc. which makes it easier and more convenient for customers to provide their information.
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Features to Increase Customer Engagement
Customer engagement is very important in order to improve their experience. The human brain works in a strange way, when we stressed, frustrated, unhappy, bored, or waiting the brain perceives the time is passing slower. This phenomenon is applicable to the customer waiting time at the service centers. When customers are waiting in the waiting area, there is not much activity and they are bound to sit there they tend to feel the wait time is longer, this is called the perceived wait time. The perceived wait time is always higher than the actual wait time in traditional waiting environments.
However, a queue management system can help reducing it significantly. The queue management system collects historical data including both system usage and analytical data which enables it to estimate the wait time on the bases of historical and analytical data. The queue management system can print the estimated wait time on the ticket, which can be a great relief for the customers. As no knowledge of total wait time also add up to the customer’s stress.
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Furthermore the queue management system also offer large displays or digital signage. These digital signage are used to display the queuing information. They show what is happening inside the branch and what are the active tickets and counters. It also make announcements of the upcoming ticket and their respective counter and it can also use to make announcements. The digital signage module is integrated within the queue management system as a simple add-on or in-built feature. It not only display the queuing information but it can also display multimedia content. The multimedia content can be adverts, information about the processes, company achievements or it can run media for entertainment.
These digital signage are placed on strategic position to maximize the visibility for the customers and visitors in the waiting area, moreover more than one digital signage can be used if needed. There is multi-lingual audio announcement system which also keep distracting customers from the waiting and help reducing the stress of the waiting. These features increase customer engagement and make their waiting experience more comfortable and relaxing.
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Features to Automatically Categorize Customers and Automatically Control Customer Flow
The customer categorization is an important part of any queuing environment. Businesses always have different policies for different user groups. For example, if take an example of a public office, there might be people coming with some disability, there might be expecting mothers, there might be senior citizens, there might be VIP customers or premium customers, etc. All these scenarios require different response and expect different experience from the organization. Furthermore a business offers a variety of services usually different counters offer different set of services for example, if we take an example of a bank account there is a counter which offer services to the individual customers, another is to offer services to corporate customers, maybe another counter for premium customers and so on.
This requires the queue management system to be able to identify and categorize customers in different categories and groups. Which can be done easily by taking customer’s inputs during the sign-up process and the queue management system software can perfectly implement the queuing policy automatically.
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Features to Support Popular Queuing Methods
Now a day’s all modern queue management systems support almost all queuing methods. There was a time when the vendors were designing different queue management system for different queuing methods, however, that is not the case. Now a day’s all modern queue management systems come with an administrative control panel which allow businesses to control every aspect of the queuing including the queuing methods. Here are some commonly used queuing methods:
- FIFO: The FIFO stands for First in First out, this queuing method means that the customers who arrived first will be served first. The customers who arrived later will have to wait longer as per their turn based on their arrival.
- Priority Queues: The priority queues are not for all industries usually these queuing models are used by special industries where the longer wait time could have negative impact such as healthcare, where the customers/patients are prioritized on the bases of the severity of their health condition.
- SPT: The SPT stands for Shortest Processing Time, this method is usually used by the businesses who have different processing times for different customer needs. The queue management system automatically controls the customer flow to prevent crowd formation.
- SIRO: The SIRO stands for Service in Random Order, in this method the customers are selected randomly from the queue. This method is not liked by most of the customers and it could cause additional problems for the service staff as well.
Different queuing methods are followed by different industry sectors. However, now a day’s businesses are using mixed or hybrid queuing methods as well. The queue management system allow businesses to configure the customer flow policies easily which allow them to implement a particular queuing method at any time as per the needs.
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Features to Support Virtual Queuing
Virtual queuing is not a new form of queuing but it recently gain huge popularity all across the UAE. The biggest advantage of virtual queuing is that it can significantly reduce the wait time, in fact it can reduce it to literally none. This is because the customers are allowed to sign-up remotely. The customers are not required to be physically present at the business to sign-up for the queue. The virtual queuing offers a variety of very convenient channels to let customers and visitors sign-up for the queues and it issues them virtual tickets or e-tickets. The customers can sign-up remotely by using any supportive channel such as SMS, Call, Email, Online Booking, Website, Queue Management System Mobile Apps, WhatsApp, Customer Portals, QR Codes, etc.
All these channels are easy to access and allow customers to plan their visit in a way that they arrived only when their turn comes. This way they don’t even have to spend any time in the waiting areas, they will instantly get served when they will arrive. Furthermore the virtual queuing also enable businesses to enable a direct communication channels between the service agent and the customer and it can provide live queuing information through the supportive channels along with reminders and alerts which can significantly enhance customer experience.
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Features to Boost Employee Performance and Productivity
A queue management system itself is a great support for the employees and service agents. Manual queue management requires a lot of resources, it have several problems and it can keep both customers and employees stressed all the time. When queues are management manually the employees will have to spend a lot time and effort on unnecessary tasks such as regulating the queues, listening to customer’s complaints, resolving disputes, etc. Which keep them distracted from their primary tasks and reduce their performance and productivity. A queue management system manages all these things automatically thence the employees can focus on their primary tasks.
Furthermore the queue management system also controls the customer flow automatically which ensures every employee works under a balanced workload which also improve employee performance and productivity. The queue management system can also support service agents in pre-service and post-service tasks which also help improving their performance. The queue management system can monitor and track various employee KPIs which help the management in resource management and training programs which eventually boost employee performance.
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Features to Integrate with Third-Party Tools and Other Databases
This is one of the most important feature of a queue management system in the modern highly integrated business environments. The system integration ability allow queue management system to push or pull data from the connected system or database. Usually the queue management system is integrated with the customer database which help the businesses to identify the customers during the sign-up process and it also help businesses to capture the customer feedback after service delivery. The service agents will have to perform several pre-service and post-service tasks, which usually require them to pull information from certain data repositories and increase their readiness for the service delivery.
A queue management system can also help if it is integrated with the relevant systems, similarly for the post-service activities the queue management system can save a lot of time and efforts which not only improve employee efficiency but it also help reducing the service delivery time and reduce service delays. The queue management system can also capture a wealth of analytical and performance data which can be synchronized with other enterprise tools and systems and help management in various decision making tasks.
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Ability to Capture Valuable Business Intelligence Data
The modern business strategies are heavily relying on data inputs and feeds. A queue management system software is a very powerful tool, it can capture the analytical and system usage data from each and every step of the customer journey. Which help the management acquire a deeper understanding of the customer journey, it helps them identifying the bottlenecks and hurdles in the customer journey and provide them business intelligence data to take more informed decision to sort out those problems. A queue management system is not just a queuing management tool in fact it is a complete digital transformation package for a service center.
The queue management system can also capture customer feedback with its in-built feedback tool or it can also be integrated with the third-party customer feedback systems. This allow businesses to capture more user information along with their feedback which can significantly improve the quality of the feedback data.
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The queue management system also capture several employee KPIs and other performance data which help management in resource planning, designing employee development and training programs and can be used for other HR activities. The business intelligence data captured by a queue management system can be very helpful in decision making and strategy building processes. Furthermore the businesses can also evaluate the impact of the changes they made which is a great help. Businesses can also utilize this business intelligence data to improve various internal processes. A queue management system software is a server application which is deployed on a server either online or at cloud on at local network.
This allow businesses to connect all branches and enable the main branch or head office to monitor and track the queuing processes from all connected branches in real-time. In a multi-branch scenario the businesses can also restrict the access of a branch data to its manager while the head office can receive all updates from all connected branches.
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Low-cost Scalability and Maintenance
The queue management systems are digital solution consists of various software and hardware components. The hardware that is usually used within a queue management system is easily available in the market, which is why it is inexpensive and easy to maintain. In fact once a queue management system is deployed the hardware barely needs any maintenance or replacement for years. Which is why the maintenance is relatively low-cost. Low-cost maintenance also reduce the operational cost and results in a better ROI over the longer period of time. The queue management system software is a server side application with multiple dashboard such as User Interface, Agent Dashboard, Management Dashboard and Administrative control panel.
Furthermore the software is deployed on a server hence doesn’t require much maintenance. If it is hosted online or at a cloud the server maintenance is the responsibility of the service provider which also reduce the maintenance cost. Furthermore the system can be easily expanded to multiple branches with relatively low licensing fees and cost of the additional hardware. All these features significantly prolong the lifecycle of a digital queue management system adding value to ROI.
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Conclusion
For any service based business the long queues, crowd formation and service delays are inevitable. One time or another the business will have to face such problems. However the growing businesses and businesses with high influx these problems are more common. Any business would want to avoid such problems as they not only harm the customer experience but also the brand perception which is very bad for the long term growth and sustainability. That is why businesses always seek ways to introduce efficiency and productivity to their internal processes to maximize the performance. In order to solve the problems of having long queues and service delays a digital queue management system is the best solution.
It help automating several customer journey steps, it manages the queues and customer flow automatically, it have in-built crowd prevention features, it help balancing the workload of the employees and significantly improve their efficiency and it simultaneously reduce the operational cost of a branch while improving the branch efficiency, productivity and customer experience. Which is why a digital queue management system is the best solution to solve queuing problems and to prevent service delays.
RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you implementing a highly cost-efficient and effective queue management system at your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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