A queue. A line. A whole bunch of people waiting for your products and services. That’s a good problem to have, right? Not necessarily. It all depends on how you handle the traffic: queue management. In many cases, efficient, interactive queuing systems are the solution.
Let’s look at it from the customer’s point of view. There are few things people hate more than standing in line. Why? The people who study how we wait in line tell us it’s the anxiety and uncertainty we feel because we have no control over the situation.
The Problem: Traditional Queuing Systems
In a typical nightmare waiting scenario, you arrive, give your name at the front desk, maybe get handed a bunch of forms to fill out (which may or may not be pertinent to your reason for being there), and are told to get in line or wait until your name/number is called. You have no idea when that might be or how long it’s going to take.
Lack of control makes customers and patients anxious and irritable, a mindset they carry with them through all their interactions with your staff. Unmediated, unexplained waiting negatively influences customer perceptions of your brand. The impact on patient satisfaction has been well documented in the health care industry.
Self-Service Kiosks Put Your Customers Back in Control
Digital queue management solutions put each customer at the center of the entire process, from check-in to departure. Interactive kiosks engage customers immediately, capture pertinent information, use branch logic to determine the reason for their visit, and provide an estimated wait time. People can even opt to receive updates via text, empowering them to choose how and where they wait.
Advanced Kiosks’ QLINE queuing system streamlines your front- and back-end operations. It is a 100% cloud-based software-as-a-service solution, which means we manage the queue so your company can focus on what it does best. Qline supports an unlimited number of check-in stations, freeing your staff for higher-level tasks. It can be programmed to ask as many questions as you need your visitors to answer. Best of all, it keeps customers constantly apprised of their status in the queue via lobby display monitors and/or cell phone options.
Empowered, informed waiters are happy waiters. Qline keeps your queue happy.
Good Info for Them; Great Data for You
Qline continuously feeds your customers the info they need to wait in peace, but it supplies you with so much more. Whether a customer provides information verbally or via paper form, there is always room for data entry error – transposed digits, messy handwriting, etc. When customers input their own info via touchscreen keyboard, you are getting good, clean data right from the horse’s fingertips. (Well, you know what we mean.)
Clean contact data is worth its weight in gold, but that’s just a fraction of the stats Qline collects. The Qline queuing system helps you determine and plan for peak times, identify bottlenecks and personalize service based on demographic profiles. In this era of Big Data, Qline is a treasure trove.
Notifications for Managers and Admins
The Qline system is designed to keep both users and administrators happy and in the know. Managers can configure thresholds for wait times and receive notifications instantly whenever that limit is met. This ensures that the people responsible for customer service quality are always in the loop and have the data to identify patterns or problems. Administrators can use Qline-collected data to justify resource allocation and make necessary adjustments to scheduling or workload.
Integrated Hardware & Software: The Buck Stops Here
Are you ready to make the leap from old-school intake systems to digital queuing systems?
Sure, you could piece a solution together, but why? In-house engineering is an important part of the Advanced Kiosks Advantage. Our team engineers all our kiosk hardware and software, and we built Qline from the ground up to integrate seamlessly with all Advanced Kiosks products. It’s cloud-based SaaS designed to keep you out of the infrastructure business. Our bundled packages and simple pricing structure give you instant updates and world-class service. With Advanced Kiosks standing behind your entire queuing system, you can take care of any issue that may arise with just one phone call.
We have Qline subscribers in the healthcare, education, government, retail and communications industries. It’s a versatile, dynamic queue management solution. If you’re ready to join the ranks of satisfied Qline clients, give us a call today!
Written by Amy Robison, contributing author