9 Proven Benefits of Online Queue Management Systems
Having a good queue management system in place makes the job easier for everyone in a customer-facing position.
It’s not only about keeping queues organized; there are a lot of less obvious advantages to employing virtual queuing.
If you’re still on the fence whether you need queue management software (spoiler: you do), we’ve created this list of perks and benefits of a QMS.
Here are 9 proven benefits of online queue management systems:
1. Reduce wait times
2. Improve service quality
3. Increase customer loyalty
4. Streamline communication
5. Achieve staff satisfaction
6. Improve staff efficiency
7. Utilize customer data
8. Reduce operational costs
9. Increase revenue
1. Reduce wait times
Waiting in line is one of the most commonly cited reasons for customer frustration. 73% of shoppers would abandon their purchase if they had to queue for more than five minutes.
An advanced queue management system helps combat that, by improving the queuing processes and flow.
Here’s how it works: visitors check into line using a tablet mounted at the entrance of your location. They choose an appropriate service, enter their personal data and contacts, and then join the queue.
The beauty of virtual queuing systems is that visitors don’t have to physically stand in line. The system keeps track of everyone’s position in a queue, and updates both customers and employees on the progress.
Queue management systems also benefit you by allowing to intelligently direct a customer to the right queue, based on their service needs. This way, if a customer picks the wrong queue by mistake, you can quickly change it for them.
This highly intuitive flow helps reduce wait times by more than 50% and completely eliminate the anxiety typically associated with queuing.
2. Improve service quality
Whether the waiting experience is good or bad colors the perception of the entire service interaction.
Automated queuing systems benefit your customers by giving them the freedom to check their queue status at their own convenience. This lets customers use their time for something other than standing in line.
As a result, your customers will have a much more positive outlook on your business.
What’s more, you can significantly up your service game by utilizing input fields that appear during sign-in. In-depth customer segmentation and identification allows you to personalize your services.
If you better understand your customers and their specific needs, you can turn every interaction into an opportunity to build a lasting relationship.
3. Increase customer loyalty
Reducing wait times is a small but meaningful improvement to your service. If you don’t implement a smart queuing tool, you risk losing your customers altogether.
74% of customers would shop in a competitor’s store if they perceive the queue time to be quicker. By solving the issue of long waits, you make sure your customers don’t decide to go to your competitors.
The pathway to improved customer loyalty and retention lies in reducing the amount of complaints.
One of the benefits of the Qminder queue management system is being able to reduce customer complaints by as much as 97%. It really pays to get an intuitive queuing platform that everybody can pick up.
4. Streamline communication
What do queuing systems have to do with communication? Simple.
Firstly, online queue management systems allow you to provide service to each customer in their own language. Upon sign-in, visitors pick their preferred language, reducing confusion and letting you know how to approach them.
Secondly, the integration of virtual queue systems with digital signage informs your visitors of their queue status in real time. They can monitor the waitlist on a screen, keeping track of their position in a queue and the expected wait time.
Lastly, an intelligent queue management system provides its users with the ability to contact visitors by phone. You can send out automated SMS notifications, alerting visitors of their upcoming turn.
Alternatively, you can use this communication channel to exchange text messages with your customer. Tell them about any delays or changes in your service, or use this opportunity to get valuable feedback.
5. Achieve staff satisfaction
Without an intelligent online queue management system, service agents are required to manage customers manually. This leads to poor time optimization and queue mismanagement.
More importantly, queue management systems benefit both your customers and your staff by reducing frustration.
Smarter staff allocation ensures that everybody is in their place, working on their intended tasks.
No longer having to manage traffic and deal with paperwork, your team will feel their work becoming more purposeful.
With the queue system taking care of sign-ins, employees can dedicate their freed-up portion of time on delivering highly-satisfying experiences.
In other words, as your employees grow happier, so do your customers.
6. Improve staff efficiency
Not having to constantly manage the till can improve employee productivity, and vice versa. 100 unhappy employees cost $390, 000 per year due to lost productivity.
Having more time works wonders for completing urgent, attention-demanding tasks.
A proper QMS, equipped with data-tracking tools, can even breed healthy competition between employees. Qminder’s Used Details page is a good example of that.
User Details lets each user see the amount of visitors they served, and their overall performance over time (the number of visitors and the average service time).
The page also shows, in an illustrative way, how each team member stacks up to the rest. The closer you are to the right, the bigger is your contribution.
Such a quick way to see how far ahead or behind each employee is! This also helps see, at a glance, which employees should be rewarded and which should go through additional training.
(If you’re an employer, remember: carrots are more effective than sticks!)
7. Utilize customer data
We’ve covered personalization through customer data before. To add to that, cloud-based queue management systems deliver on comprehensive reporting and tracking KPIs.
The array of gathered data helps you better gauge your service situation: customer waiting times, average wait and service times, the number of customers, individual employee performance, and more.
A QMS lets you not only gain valuable insights into your customer service processes, but also access data for each queue in each location. Custom reports based on benchmarks allow you to make quick decisions across all of your branches.
After all, you can’t improve what you don’t measure. Or, to put it in a more positive light, what gets measured, gets managed.
8. Optimize operational costs
Reducing wait times, improving productivity, and increasing customer satisfaction — all of these benefits of a queue management system result in saving costs and improving operational procedures.
As you collect data, you can identify and eliminate service bottlenecks, which further saves you money on your bottom line.
For example, a QMS report can help you understand whether you’re properly utilizing your workforce. If a service line has several clerks but only a few people join it, you might restructure your service layout.
Not to mention, having your databases online saves you a lot on wasteful paperwork, unlike ticket machines and take-a-number systems.
That’s why Qminder’s logo is green — because it’s a green solution.
9. Increase revenue
Cutting the costs of queuing is only one side of employing a queuing system. The other is boosting revenue.
When you give your customers the flexibility to use their time more wisely, chances are, they will spend it window-shopping or browsing your store.
Therefore, by giving them back their time, you get an ample opportunity to cross-sell and upsell to your visitors. This is an enormous but oftentimes overlooked benefit of an intelligent queue management system.
Impulse purchases are a big factor in waiting. People in a queue tend to pay more attention to their surroundings — especially so if they don’t have to constantly check time and their queue status.
By taking advantage of that and smartly utilizing customer data, you can offer your clients products and services that meet their needs. It’s a win-win for both sides.
The Qminder online queue management system helps you minimize wait times, personalize your services, and keep your team spirit high.
Gain access to a wealth of real-time customer data while delivering on a faster, more enjoyable waiting experience.
