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Have you ever stood in a long queue and felt frustrated? Instead of being stuck there waiting for your turn, you would rather go home, grab a meal, go back to the office to catch up on some work, or simply get a flat white from the café next door. Waiting can be hard and uncomfortable, especially when the queue is long with no end in sight. However, according to Winter Nie in Waiting: integrating social and psychological perspectives in operations management, it is not merely the length of the “wait” that makes customers upset. So, what else can possibly make standing in a queue such a hassle? Without further ado, here are the little details you might have missed on what makes queueing hard, and how our queue management solution, SMARTQUEUE®, can improve customers’ waiting experience.
Why Do People Hate Waiting in Line?
1. Time-Wasting
Let’s face it, standing in a queue can be such a waste of time, which is why nobody enjoys it. The time that customers use to wait for receiving a service can be better spent on something else more productive, such as work or errands.
2. Unfair Queuing
Do your customers often encounter long lines behind counters? This type of queuing, amplified by poor queue management, often leads up to unfair queuing. Sneaky customers are able to cut in line and take someone else’s spot at the front of the line. Furthermore, without knowing when their turn is or how many people are ahead of them, customers are afraid to move from their position, even just for a second to grab a pen or a form, because they do not want to lose their spot. This unfair queuing system is quite frustrating for customers.
3. Lack of Entertainment and Reassurance
Waiting in a queue is a tedious task and without any interesting elements and reassurance of when they will acquire the service they need, being stuck in a queue is even more unpleasant. What customers need are queue status information and a distraction. Both will help relieve customers’ discomfort while waiting for their turn. Time passes by more quickly for those who are distracted by multimedia content, advertisements, or marketing commercials while waiting than those who have nothing to do at all.
How do these customer issues reflect on your business?
Every company should bear in mind that a long and unpleasant wait can damage a customer’s view of a brand and indirectly ask them not to come back ever again. Often multiple factors can poor queue control which then contributes to longer waiting times. Poor queue management and lack of efficiencies count as the major contributors. Not only does poorly management queues create a negative perception of the business, but it also widens the gap between their expectation and perception, which is a gap all businesses strive to close.
Rest assured, there is always an answer to all your queue management needs with SMARTQUEUE® Customer Flow Management Solution, A powerful queue management solution for creating outstanding customer experience through a pleasant and seamless customer journey at multiple touch points from the very first customer interaction with your business down to the last.
Here is How SMARTQUEUE® Can Help Improve Customers’ Waiting Experience
1. No More Time-Wasting
By installing SMARTQUEUE®, placing customers in a queue is now an automated process. Upon check-in, customers can be assured of their position on the queue and given the flexibility of waiting on or off-premises. Customers can wait in the waiting hall or run errands while waiting without missing their turn and get SMS notifications when their turn is almost due. This way, you can show that you respect their time and also significantly reduce their perceived waiting time.
2. Scrap the Unfair Queuing Systems
SMARTQUEUE® supports a virtual caller feature for staff to call, transfer, hold customer queue tickets and get information on queue status through a single interface, allowing staff to work in a more relaxed and pleasant environment. This feature creates more systematic queue management, which means no more sneaky customers cutting in line. Therefore, your business’ customer flow will be smooth. This efficient queue management system can positively impact your customers in the long run while optimizing the staffing levels in your business.
Additionally, with staff KPIs and SLAs being more transparent, managers can pinpoint any issues with certain queues or staff. With regular monitoring, customers can all served within targeted SLAs, preventing bottlenecks, and eliminating the risk of favoritism or unfair queueing.
3. Enhance Perception with an Abundance of Entertainment
With SMARTQUEUE®, you can display ticket number status while showing entertainment content such as advertisements, movies, music videos, or even a collection of your business videos—creating the needed distraction to maintain your customers’ mood and lessen perceived waiting time.
SMARTQUEUE®, the ultimate customer flow management, can be applied to various business sectors, including government institutions, banks and financial institutions, hotels, healthcare facilities, retails, recreational facilities, and more.
For more information regarding SMARTQUEUE® and its additional modules, please email Business Smart Solutions at info@bss.com.au
