How to Choose the Right Queue Management Software

No one likes to wait in line, but we all expect it as part of life. But the advent of queue management systems is making the wait for service at our banks, local restaurants, doctors’ offices, and even public facilities like the DMV more efficient and less stressful for everyone. Leading businesses are adopting digital queuing at an increasing rate primarily because a queue management solution improves your customers’ overall experience, provides unique real-time insights into customer data, and boosts brand reputation—all of which work together to increase sales and market share.

Why Your Business Needs Queue Management Software

Queue management software has much to offer businesses across industries. Here are some of the benefits your business can expect to see after implementing queue management software.

Better Customer Experience

When we need service, we expect to wait for it, but how we wait is what matters. A bad customer experience waiting for service can change your customers’ opinions about your business, even if they love your brand.

The opposite is also true. For small and independent micro-businesses, positive word-of-mouth is critical for keeping the doors open, which is why you should integrate a virtual queue management system. Not only will you move buyers through the line faster, but you can also offer more personalized service, both of which make customers feel good about their purchasing decision and more likely to tell others. Those friends of your satisfied customers become new customers who also feel great about their experience and, well, you see how this works.

Reduced Customer Churn

Customer loyalty stems from great experiences wherever they first interact with your business, whether that means your website, your social media, or your brick-and-mortar location. Reinforce their positive first impression with virtual queuing so they feel good about their wait for service. The less time they spend waiting, the greater their perceived value. You’ll keep customers instead of spending money on acquiring new ones, which can stretch resources you may not have.

Improved Service Speed

Digital queuing does more than move buyers through the line faster to get service; it also improves the speed with which your employees deliver. As individuals check in with their mobile devices or at a kiosk, they’re inputting the reason for their visit, so workers know what each customer needs before interaction. Employees focus more intently on the person in front of them, and customers concentrate on the specific reason for their visit.

Greater Efficiency

Effective and efficient service is the backbone of any successful operation, and staffing the right number of people to manage customer traffic is key. With virtual queue management, you can understand at a glance when traffic is heaviest and what services customers most need. When you use this information to staff appropriately, you’ll have smaller crowds to manage—and because data is stored in a centralized location, management can access the dashboard from any mobile device so they’re always in the loop.

In-Depth Reporting and Analytics

Virtual queue management gives you the metrics you need to continuously improve customer experiences. You’ll learn about their buying trends and their preferences for targeted messaging delivered right to their phones, and you can identify peak traffic periods so you can be sure you have enough staff to meet demand. More importantly, you can see average wait and service times to more accurately determine bottlenecks and solve for them in real time.

Sales Growth

Managing customer traffic through digital queuing increases sales because it gives you greater insight into the customer journey. By tracking click-through rates, you understand more quickly what buyers need and/or want and can deliver more valuable offers to their mobile devices.

Queued customers buy more because they’re not waiting in line for service. They could browse your website after clicking on an offer they just received or shop your store for additional items that catch their eye.

Boosted Brand Reputation

By offering faster response times with virtual queue management, you’re creating scalable positive customer experiences. When buyers are happy with the product and/or service they received with your business, they’re more apt to spread the good word, bringing additional customers to you.

Transitioning a customer into a brand ambassador is the most efficient and cost-effective way to market and grow your business. You will have the up-front cost of delivering exceptional service through digital queuing, but it pays long-term, invaluable dividends.

How to Choose the Right Queue Management Software

When evaluating your options for queue management software, it is important to consider each platform’s features and functionalities and how they fit your brand, your business, and your customer journey.

Centralized Management

With a virtual queue management system, you can monitor activity from across the country or across the sales floor. You’ll gain deeper insight into team and individual employee performance to better determine how to continuously improve service delivery. You can also interact directly with customers to better understand their pain points and how to solve them.

Customization

Unlike some digital products that only fit one use case, you won’t need to design processes around your virtual queue management system. It is tailored to your needs and scales as your business grows.

Digital queuing also meets your customers’ needs by analyzing their behavior and delivering select offers and promotions while they wait. By the time buyers are standing in front of workers, your employees know the reason for their visit and what they need.

API Integrations

Digital queuing does give you data for greater insight into business operations and customer behavior, but no one system can do it all. When you implement a virtual queuing solution, it should work with programs and systems you’re already using.

Your solution should integrate easily to create a seamless experience for employees and customers and deliver improved business performance data.

Real-Time Notifications

The not-so-secret sauce of virtual queuing is real-time notifications about sets of data so you can accelerate response to customer demand by allocating appropriate resources. In short, you’re troubleshooting in real time and solving potential problems before customers even notice they exist.

Customers receive timely updates and reminders about their wait while not being tied to a physical location, which means they can do just about anything while they wait, like run errands or relax nearby. Interacting with staff about the reason for their visit so employees are ready when their turn for service is called makes buyers feel understood and appreciated, increasing their positive opinion about your business.

Mobile Queuing

Mobile queuing doesn’t require customers to download any new apps. They can check in for service remotely, freeing them from having to report to your location to be placed in the queue. And because customers can wait anywhere, they have greater control over their time.

Reporting Tools

Data is king in the digital age, and having information about various aspects of business performance puts the power of transformation almost literally at your fingertips. Understanding employee service times and customer traffic patterns gives you the insight you need to better manage your staff, reduce wait times, and deliver the service(s) customers need.

Your virtual queue management solution delivers data about customer patterns for a more personalized experience while they wait. Instead of scrolling on their phones and ignoring ads that don’t cater to them, they’ll receive offers and promotions for your products and services they actually want and need.

Workload Management

Using a digital queue is great for managing expected traffic, including appointments, but what about walk-ins? Virtual queue management software systems offer centralized dashboards that can help you staff appropriately by assessing where workers are needed and moving them to those areas. This way, you always have appropriate staff in place to maintain the high levels of service your customers expect.

Direct Communication with Customers

Understanding what your customers need so you can deliver is invaluable. With digital queuing, you can survey customers while they wait for faster responses to their pain points. Your buyers want a more authentic experience with your brand, and getting to the heart of what they need and solving for it creates a connection between you.

Putting Virtual Queue Management to the Test

If you’re ready to improve your customers’ experience, increase their brand loyalty, and make your business run more efficiently, see a demo today.