Across industries, queue analytics and people counting solutions are relied upon by businesses that prioritize service efficiency and the customer experience. The idea is to monitor the numbers and flow of customers in service queues and throughout a facility in order to improve business performance.
Typical queue analytics systems monitor customer activity and transform it into useable data. These insights are then used to address key performance indicators that impact business performance. The question is, are you leveraging the analytics to take decisive actions? Here are four examples of the types of decisions you should be able to make:
1. Open or close service stations to precisely meet customer demand.
Without the help of queue analytics, managers can only hope to keep pace with the ebb and flow of customers while in the midst of a million other tasks. Often by the time you realize there is an issue, such as a backup of customers or an over-abundance of open registers or service stations, it’s too late. Wait times are out of control or agents are under-utilized. With queue analytics, you can have access to predictive and real-time data to alert you when wait times are entering an unacceptable range or when a slow down of customer arrivals will allow you to divert staff away from their service stations, on to other tasks.
2. Close off areas when maximum occupancy is reached.
Restaurants, airline member clubs, swimming pools, and countless other venues have strict limits on safe or otherwise appropriate occupancy levels. Exceeding such levels puts your business at risk, not to mention public safety and customer enjoyment. With automated people counting, you can take decisive action to close areas or limit access once maximum occupancy is nearly or finally reached.
3. Stop customer abandonment sooner.
When customers begin to abandon a queue or shopping area in unusually high numbers, it pays to know what’s happening. Managers and employees can take decisive action to address customer service or other issues that cause customers to abandon a transaction, shopping area, or other service area before the abandonment hurts business performance.
4. Pinpoint service rate issues and step in as needed.
Queue analytics can give you powerful insight into the service rate of your staff. Service slowdowns can cause wait times to creep up and customers to renege. When these rates of service fall outside acceptable range, you should know about it. Perhaps a staff member requires additional training or support that you would not have otherwise realized. Or maybe customers are experiencing issues that take more time to address. Whatever the reason, when you are aware of the issue, you can bring solutions before your business performance suffers.
Knowledge is power. How many other decisive actions can you take with the insights from your queue analytics and people counting systems?
