If your business has considered intelligent queue management technology, it can be helpful to learn how the technology is being used in industries like yours. Here we look at transportation, retail, and amusement parks – three industries where waiting lines and queues play a key role in customer satisfaction and business efficiency.
Transportation
Whether at an airport, train station, or taxi stand, travelers often feel like they’re standing still more than getting somewhere. We have to face the facts, the lines aren’t going to go away anytime soon. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration is expecting continued growth in air travel. But just because demands on queues are becoming greater, it doesn’t mean they have to automatically become slower or more dreadful for passengers. Intelligent queue management can improve the passenger experience and the efficiency of queues by accurately assessing wait times, setting passenger expectations when it comes to wait times, and directing people to open or less-crowded queuing areas. In transportation, efforts to minimize wait times and maximize productivity also benefit from an intelligent queue management system that provides real-time notifications to managers when wait times fall out of compliance.
Retail
A customer’s experience in the retail queue impacts sales, customer satisfaction, and a person’s overall perception of a business. Retailers of all sizes can benefit from an intelligent queue management system that offers the ability to monitor and improve wait times, service efficiency, and customer satisfaction. Here are five essentials that retailers can monitor with intelligent queue management:
- Customer count. Know how many people are in a queue at any time of day so you can manage the current queue conditions and plan for the future, whether that means the same time the next day or the following year.
- Wait times. Know how long customers are waiting and if a wait is taking too long. Do something about these problems to reduce abandonment rates and increase profitability.
- Customer arrival rates. Awareness of the ebb and flow of the line makes it possible to act quickly to manage a rush of customers by opening up more lines. Real-time and historical data makes it possible to anticipate peak times and prepare for an influx of customers.
- Service point utilization. Know whether some service stations are getting more traffic than others so you can redirect customers to maintain flow and enhance the customer experience.
- Intelligent queue management systems alert managers when a line falls out of compliance, for whatever reason, so managers can manage issues before they escalate and, sometimes, before customers are even aware there’s even a problem.
Entertainment
Long queues and entertainment venues go hand in hand, whether stadium, amusement park, or theater. Real-time information is indispensable in these fast-paced, high-energy environments. Intelligent queue management technology dispenses the kind of details needed to keep people happy in these happy places. Knowing the queue counts means managers are aware of when more lines or more service resources are needed. In busy, chaotic entertainment venues, it’s crucial to keep people moving, and being able to monitor service rates is a critical piece of intelligent queue management. And though no one wants to dampen the mood at places that are meant to be pure fun, real-time data from queue analytics makes it possible to tell guests via digital signage, for example, how long it’ll take them to get on a ride. From there, guests can decide whether they want to stick around, move on, or whether they have time to send another person in their party to grab some food at a nearby concession stand while they continue to wait. However customers choose to respond to the information provided, the choice to be satisfied is then in their hands. Across industries, intelligent queue management systems can provide a powerful point of difference to benefit both businesses and customers. Learn more by downloading our complimentary e-book: Using Queue Analytics Technology to Improve the Customer Experience.
