Retail TouchPoints: Virtual Queues: The Waiting Isn’t the Hardest Part
Article Publish Date: Dec 21, 2021.
Article Abstract:
Throughout the 2010s, brick-and-mortar retailers worked hard to keep up with the evolving consumer landscape. Then COVID-19 arrived and accelerated the rate of change, challenging stores even more to keep up.
With the worst of the pandemic mostly coming to an end, the changes are more pronounced than expected. Before, people came to the store, looked at and selected items, purchased them and left. Today, customers may order online, come to your store to pick up their orders and never step foot inside your store. Consumers increasingly demand auxiliary services and an optimal experience if they do decide to come inside, and a 25-year-old customer’s expectations are different from those of a 65-year-old.
Amid all this change, retailers still must do everything they can to increase sales.
Over the years, virtual queuing has emerged as more than a way to tidy up messy lines. A digital queuing system enhances the customer experience — which will be invaluable in the post-COVID era — and increases customer sales. Customer waits may be inevitable sometimes, but that doesn’t mean they also can’t be profitable.
Virtual queues offer another piece of that puzzle and can help other pieces fall nicely into place.