In This Blog:
- What are the advantages of deploying virtual queuing?
- What industries benefit from virtual queuing?
What is a Virtual Queuing System?
A virtual queuing system is a queue management system that allows customers to virtually wait in a line until they are called by a company representative. Customers can wait for their turn anywhere they please – they do not need to be physically present in the line to be served.
All parts of the visitor flow and customer experience can be made virtual. A typical virtual customer journey using a virtual queuing system is as follows:
Pre-Arrival
The customer books an appointment via web-booking or phone call.
Arrival
When they arrive on premises, they check-in virtually via WhatsApp chat, by scanning a QR code or being assisted by staff.
While waiting, they will receive real-time notifications about their status and estimated waiting time.
After being Served
And after having been served, they register their feedback and rate their experience via an online survey, that is emailed or texted to them.
Virtual queuing management systems can be operated via mobile SMS, email or web application.
For more details, read our blog.
What are The Benefits of Virtual Queue Management systems?
Transparency of Information
Erase customer uncertainty about the length, speed and flow of your queuing management system by providing them with real-time notifications and alerts. These inform them about their place in line, how much longer the estimated wait is and where they need to go when the time comes. This helps reduce actual and perceived waiting times.
Engagement and Occupation of Customer Attention
Perceived wait times impact the customer’s queuing experience and their satisfaction with the business they have visited. By allowing freedom of choice and movement, customers can stabilize and manage their consumer expectations.
With virtual queuing you can categorize your customers, personalize the service provided to them, and target relevant product and service messaging and signage to their specific and unique needs. This added element of customization is beneficial in reducing wait times as customers feel supported and valued.
Increased Staff Productivity
Virtual queuing frees up staff that would otherwise have been directing, informing and greeting, to focus on the service they are providing. This increases productivity, service standards and customer satisfaction.
It also frees up time for staff to research the visitor, their service preferences, purchase history, and based on that work on customizing the service delivery, enabling cross and up-selling opportunities.
Reduced Estimated Wait Time
When customers are aware of where to go, and staff is aware of who is arriving to be served, everything moves a lot smoother and quicker. Productivity and satisfaction rise on both ends and the result is a win-win.
Increased Profits
Since customers are not using the on-premises facilities to queue and wait in line, this frees up space to be used for revenue-generating activities. These could include more displays, interactive kiosks, self service kiosks, service counters. This could also further enable the reduction of actual and perceived wait time.
Analysis, Reporting and Dashboards
Collect data from customer flows, staff performance, consumer feedback and branch analytics in real-time and have it analyzed and compiled into reports. This will allow a more in-depth understanding of the functioning and failings of management, and leave room for targeted improvements.
Identify problems and improve service delivery with Spectra reporting and dashboards solutions.
Seamless Integration
Virtual queuing systems seamlessly integrate with all your signage systems, kiosks, and entire existing IT infrastructure.
This makes for centralized and frictionless management, control, monitoring and implementation.
Feedback
Virtual queuing allows your business to collect valuable customer feedback, analyze it and have reports generated. This enables better and more data-driven business decisions, that identify areas in need of improvement, and implement effective change.
Industry Specific Benefits
There is a wide range of businesses and industry sectors that can deploy virtual queuing systems and benefit from the quality of service it provides their customers. It is an efficient and simple digital onboarding, destined to change forever the way consumers wait in line for your products and services.
Public Sector
Categories
Government agencies and services
Needs
Public services are frequently required and utilized. And they are often seen as setting the standard for other service providers. So it is a must for these offices to adopt virtual queuing to streamline visitor flows, better customize citizen journeys and enable them to avail of exactly the services they came to avail of.
Healthcare
Categories
Hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, laboratories, vaccination centers and other healthcare facilities
Needs
Healthcare facilities are essential and must be managed well so as to ensure staff, patient and visitor safety. The customer flows must be smooth, the waits virtual and remote and staff stress-free and free to deliver the best services they can.
These service areas are ideally kept clean and logical so all patients can navigate them correctly and easily. Simplicity and ease of onboarding is the key demand from a deployed virtual queue system.
Retail
Categories
Grocery stores, clothing stores, restaurants and other business stores
Needs
The goal is to enhance the brand and chain loyalty, encourage spending and organize the service areas. These are businesses that are likely to see heavy and consistent foot traffic. They also face the threat of losing dissatisfied clients to the many competitors in the market. Therefore it is essential to manage flow effectively so that customers are happy and served efficiently.
Banks
Needs
Bank branches are likely to see high volumes of visitors. They also need to monitor these numbers so as to predict and plan better for visitors, optimizing their branch space and staff allocation to increase satisfaction and customer retention. They need a queue management system that is a resourceful solution for all these needs.
Banking customers must feel valued by their chosen bank. They are trusting their money and financial assets with them and need assurance that they will be taken care of. The best indicator of this is how well the service delivery areas are managed.
Education
Categories
Primary and secondary schools, universities, vocational and other educational institutions
Needs
Registration, admissions and application season for educational institutions is chaotic as is, and needs virtual queuing systems to ease the stressful situation created.
The process needs to be eased for both students and parents, and they must be assured with swift digital onboarding that this is a process managed and monitored by a system equipped to ease their uncertainty and anxiety!
Airlines and Airports
Needs
Airports are high stress environments where time and accessibility is of the utmost importance. Passengers must be guided efficiently by the deployed queue management system, service areas must be kept distraction free and updates must be real-time so that flights are not missed.
An already stressful and time-sensitive experience must be simplified for the passengers, and virtual queuing systems should be simple, scalable and efficient way to achieve this.
Benefits
- Provide customers with personal touchpoints, both physical and digital
- Reduce visitor volumes in the waiting room, adhering to occupancy limits
- Reduce perceived wait times in the virtual queue
- Decrease frustration with informational transparency
- Enable customization of services using technology
- Increase ROI
- Reduce costs and increase profit margins for the business
- Data-driven planning and execution of new and effective policies
- Real-time actionable insights from customer feedback
- Optimize staff allocation
- Efficient service delivery
- Reduce customer and staff stress levels
