While dealing with long lines and resolving issues resulting from long lines has been a concern for retailers since the dawn of modern retail, the COVID-19 pandemic has added a new dimension to dealing with crowded stores: public safety. Let's look at the many queue management systems and how they might be utilised to maintain social distance in a retail setting.
Virtual queues aren't entirely new, but the push for social distancing emphasises the many advantages they provide. It's not business as usual: running a store or a service during the continuing Corona crisis is unquestionably difficult. It's difficult to serve customers while keeping them and employees safe, but digital queuing can assist a lot.
The majority of countries have passed laws to combat the spread of COVID-19. One thing is sure: long lines and packed lobbies must vanish to ensure customer happiness while adhering to the new regulations. The technique of digital queuing (also known as virtual or remote queuing) allows businesses to serve their consumers quickly while staying out of harm's way.
Although it has remained a niche area, effective queue management has long been a topic of study in academia. MIT Professor Richard Larson, who drew inspiration from a waiting experience to pursue a career as a queuing psychologist, is one of the most frequently referenced researchers. In general, you'll find one or more of the following queue management systems in a retail setting:
Whether organised or unorganised, long lines hinder walk-in shoppers from visiting the store. They also reduce productivity and lead customers and employees to be too stressed. Customers can join the queue using a self-service arrival terminal or ticketing kiosk or sign in on a tablet. Scanning a QR code displayed in a store window and signing in with their mobile phone is also an option.
Patrons can be notified via an app, SMS, or a buzzer when it's their turn, and algorithms can help anticipate the approximate wait time. This cuts down on the amount of time the consumer spends in a busy, potentially contagious environment and saves them a lot of time.
While all of these choices contribute to a more enjoyable, effective, and – in times of social isolation – safe waiting experience, each has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. It's critical to choose the right product and fit and deploy a queuing solution that supports your brand.
There's an intriguing element to the experience of waiting in line: our perceptions of the time spent in line frequently differ from the actual time spent in line. We may mistakenly believe that a period is "longer" than it is or that another period is "shorter" than it is, although it is longer than the average waiting time. Most of this has to do with how we may pass the time while waiting. In a column for the New York Times, Alex Stone wrote:
"Occupied time (walking to baggage claim) feels shorter than unoccupied time (standing at the carousel). Research on queuing has shown that, on average, people overestimate how long they've waited in a line by about 36 percent."
Stone makes a compelling case for keeping customers informed about current wait times in the same article:
"Our expectations further affect how we feel about lines. Uncertainty magnifies the stress of waiting, while feedback in the form of expected wait times and explanations for delays improves the tenor of the experience."
Both of these problems can be solved with modern digital queuing solutions. Customers can spend their time at their discretion and avoid the annoyance of idle time by allowing them to spend their time freely between appointments and notifying them when their turn is approaching. Simultaneously, the solutions assist in increasing transparency by providing precise waiting time projections to the consumer, thereby significantly lowering the discomfort associated with uncertainty.
A specialised welcome agent who manages the reception process can be an excellent complement to the customer experience, especially in information-driven retail, where extended product consultations often precede the purchasing decision. In this position, the agent greets customers and inquires about their visit's objective as they enter the business. The customer is attended to immediately, and the agent can also provide visitors with a waiting time estimate. In addition, the welcome agent might serve as a gatekeeper by allocating priority based on the nature of the customer's request.
From the customer experience standpoint, this solution neatly addresses concerns such as transparency by clearly stating wait times and time management by allowing customers to bridge wait times by performing other tasks before returning. Employees benefit from the procedure because it reduces stress caused by unattended clients in the store and encourages conversational sales by giving sales agents plenty of time to prepare before interactions.
Using a dedicated human welcome agent rather than a queue-in terminal with a standard touch interface, which may be exposed to contact transmission risk, is better from a public health standpoint.
While most merchants who want to install and exploit a digital queue solution during the ongoing pandemic will opt for a specialised welcome agent, many actions and safeguards may be taken to reduce the risk of using shared interfaces like touchscreen kiosks.
Some touchscreens can be used while wearing protective gloves, potentially lowering the risk of contamination. In addition to placing hand sanitiser directly close to the screen, retailers can have their employees disinfect the screens at more frequent intervals. Using speech-to-text and text-to-speech technology, as well as gesture-based navigation, you may avoid touching the screen while signing in.
When considering self-service terminals as an entry point into the queue management system, the location of the kiosks within the store must also be carefully considered. Positions should be picked so that they do not cause bottlenecks in the flow of customers entering the store. This is a particular concern for mall store layouts because queuing outside may induce consumers to line up so that passers-by are forced to fall short of the recommended safe distance.
The benefits for businesses are plentiful: the information provided by such systems indicates how many people are in line at any one time, shows peak hours, and which services are in demand and when – and, of course, it assists employees in working efficiently. Customers familiar with the technology are more likely to comment on their experience. Therefore digital queuing systems can be utilised to collect feedback after each transaction.
Store traffic during peak hours will almost certainly become a more significant issue in the future, as retailers may face rules restricting them from allowing more than a specific number of people into the store at any given moment. This necessitates the prioritisation, management, and distribution of traffic throughout the day, and queuing systems, which include determining the customers' urgent needs, are an excellent solution to address this problem. This information can be extremely useful in tailoring product and service offerings to customer needs and allocating the appropriate staff during peak hours.
The retail business is overdue for a significant overhaul, and the COVID-19 problem appears to be speeding up the process. Retail businesses likely implement virtual queuing systems, particularly speciality retailers operating from smaller sites with limited space. Mobile devices will undoubtedly play an essential part in various purposes, including serving as personal monitoring devices, notification beacons, queue-in terminals, and communicating probable delays and rescheduling. In all of their numerous types, shapes, and forms, Queue management systems appear to be on the rise.
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