If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught retailers and consumers anything, perhaps it's not to take the in-person shopping experience for granted. More than ever, customers demand — and deserve — efficiency, flexibility, timeliness, value, and priority. Retailers must meet these new expectations or risk losing business and falling behind their competitors.
One thing that hasn't changed post-pandemic is the frustration felt from long lines, endless waits, and stressful visits. The stakes may even be higher now because customers have become more adept at not needing a brick-and-mortar experience.
For decades, retailers have worked to enhance their queue management, with varying success. The pick-a-number system, for example, once sufficed at bringing some order to the
queue, but in today's retail environment, it simply isn't effective. Modern consumers and modern businesses require a modern solution.
Digital queue management platforms offer that solution. The concept is simple: Customers check into the queue by scanning a QR code, entering details at a computer kiosk, sending a text message, or giving info to a greeter. They then receive updates on their smartphones on their place in line, estimated time to service, and when their turn is coming up.
Perhaps most importantly, customers in a digital queue aren't forced to wait in a physical line or waiting area — they are free to shop in other parts of the store, go for a walk, get a cup of coffee, or anything else instead of idly standing near the counter. Giving shoppers control over how they wait can transform the customer experience and deliver multiple benefits, highlighted below, to retailers.
Efficiency
The pandemic exacerbated what already was a struggle for retailers before 2020: a shortage of qualified workers. Stores needed to figure out how to do more with less. Employees that are pulled away from other duties — including serving the customer at hand — to manage a physical queue or undefined waiting area simply aren't as productive as today's retail environment needs them to be.
Digital queuing brings much-needed efficiency to customer waits. Employees can focus solely on the customer in front of them and provide better, faster service. As a result, more customers can progress through the queue in less time. And because customers are not as displeased by a long wait, they treat staff better, which contributes to employee satisfaction and increased retention.
Personalization
When customers enter a digital queue, the system may ask them what service they require from the retail staff. This simple question opens a range of personalization options that boosts
the customer experience. For example:
- Employees already know what the customer needs so that, at the time of service, they can immediately address the problem and not waste the customer's time.
- While the customer waits, the system can ask follow-up questions so that employees understand the problem even more and, thus, are better positioned to provide outstanding service.
- Customers can indicate any unique needs (e.g., highly technical questions, non-native language speaker, and so on), which alerts the staff to bring a specialist in to help with service.
- The system can send personalized offers and advertising directly to customers smartphones while they wait and after they leave the store. After each visit, retailers can send satisfaction surveys and respond quickly to customers who had a poor experience in an effort to keep them coming back for more.
As already stated, virtual queuing empowers customers to decide how they want to wait — and this is a type of personalization consumers rarely encounter in retail settings. You're acknowledging to customers that their time is important, and you're doing everything you can to value that time.
Data
How customers wait reveals much about their retail behavior. Digital queue management solutions capture this behavioral data—and other key queue metrics—that you can use to
inform operational strategy. Metrics that can be tracked include:
- Which services customers need.
- How they most often entered the digital queue (e.g., QR code, SMS, kiosk).
- Average wait time before service.
- Average time until a customer abandoned the queue and left the store.
- Offers promoted to customers while they wait.
- Repeat uses of the digital queue.
You can also extract employee data from a digital queue management system. For example, you can determine which employees are most efficient at the time of service and make
staffing, training, and hiring decisions based on that information.
ROI
With the customer retail experience so closely tied to the bottom line, the ROI of digital queue management inevitably comes into question.
Can a top-flight queuing system deliver a nice return, both tangible and intangible? The aforementioned efficiency offers the best evidence of ROI. If you're seeing more customers in less time and with fewer employees, you are saving money and can devote key resources elsewhere. And if customers are making purchases instead of abandoning their carts, that is also helping the bottom line.
But ultimately, improving the customer experience provides the most ROI — even if it's sometimes difficult to measure. Customers who feel valued, even if they occasionally need to wait for service, come away with a positive impression of your brand.
Customers who leave your store disillusioned and stressed out might never return, instead taking their shopping dollars to a competitor. Digital queue management gives retailers another way to communicate with customers — and inspires them to become repeat customers.