There is one thing that is top of mind for just about every decision a business makes, and that is the return on investment. If you are going to add a new product or service, implement a new process, or add something to your tech stack, the determining factor for most companies is whether it will improve their bottom line; for instance, this consideration is critical because every business is based on results. Implementing something new to your business can feel like a leap of faith in this regard. If you are adding new technology to your digital infrastructure, it can feel like an inherent risk. However, certain software options can immediately and long-term increase your business's bottom line, making them well worth the investment cost. One of these software options is a queue management system.
A queue management system is an application businesses can implement to run virtual queues. This customer flow solution enables customers to check into lines from their cell phones, track queue times with accurate projections of waits, and then enter the place of business when it is time for their appointment to begin. This technology reduces the need for physical queues and ensures a smoother, more efficient waiting and appointment process. QLess is the virtual queue management system leader used by businesses in industries ranging from retail to healthcare. It is a popular tool that leading brands have used due to its ability to improve customer satisfaction and ensure a less congested, more efficient waiting room, but some businesses might have initial hang-ups because they want to know for sure there will be a return on their investment. Some businesses might not see the direct correlation between a smoother and more efficient customer experience and revenue generation. If that is the case, we’ve got you covered. Below, we’ll explore how QLess and an effective queue management system can directly impact your business’s bottom line and provide a return on investment.
The past several years have seen a transformation in how businesses think. One of the most significant shifts has been an increasing focus on the customer experience. This is now a huge emphasis of modern business. According to Smart Karrot, "89% of companies now compete primarily on the basis of customer experience." That is because providing an excellent experience to your customers is an essential component of growth in every industry. Happier customers mean better business results, as they are likelier to return to your business and spread positive feedback about your business. According to Adobe, "Focusing on the customer experience leads to 1.7x higher customer retention, 1.9x return on spend, and 1.6x higher brand awareness." Focusing on this aspect of your business leads businesses to have a large cohort of engaged, happy, repeat customers.
Investing in your customer experience is an investment in your business’s success, and that is why QLess stands out as an option that will yield results. QLess improves the customer experience by empowering the people that frequent your business. Whether it is a doctor’s office or DMV, the waiting experience can be stressful and tedious. With QLess, it is a much less difficult process, customers can check into appointments from wherever they are using the queue management software. They will automatically be placed in the right line, with wait time updates sent to them through the app or SMS. This means your customers can wait for their appointments from home, the local coffee shop, or a library. The decision is in their hands, significantly improving their waiting experience. If you can provide a positive customer experience instead of draining long waits, your customers will take note. Keeping your customers happy is how you build a profitable business, and by eliminating the need for crowded waiting rooms and long waits, you will immediately notice an improvement. The QLess waiting line management system drastically improves the customer experience, contributing to an enterprise’s bottom line.
One of the negative things that many businesses with an appointment model have grown too accustomed to is missed appointments. These harm a business, but most enterprises look at missed appointments as an unavoidable aspect of dealing with consumers that can be fickle. The impact of missed appointments can be dramatic. When employees block off their time, don’t accept other appointments, and the customer doesn’t show up, businesses lose a lot of money in opportunity costs. According to Risk Management Healthcare Policy, "The no-show rate in the healthcare industry ranges from 12-80%, costing the healthcare industry billions annually." For businesses that are losing money due to missed appointments and customer no-shows, a smart queue management system like QLess is a practical solution to this problem.
QLess allows businesses to message back and forth with customers, improving communication in a scalable way. The bi-directional communication features have several aspects that can help businesses cut down on missed appointments without needing a significant time investment. Businesses can schedule appointment reminders that are sent to customers and require confirmation. They can schedule multiple reminders to come to customers on specific dates and times, including the morning of their appointment. Text message reminders have been found to be more effective and receive more responses than emails or phone calls, so utilizing this form of communication goes a long way. With the communication features, staff can message customers individually for a more customized message or schedule mass messages for simple but efficient communication. Communication is essential for offering customers more personalized experiences and cutting down on missed appointments. Considering how impactful these can be on a bottom line, businesses will find it is well worth the investment to reduce the number of these no-shows.
Every business has strengths and weaknesses. That is all completely normal and par for the course, but accepting your weaknesses is not something any successful enterprise should do. Improving an operation is a long-term journey that requires a commitment to improvement. Nothing will ever be perfect, but identifying and changing your critical flaws is how you build something that will last. One of the key ways to do this is by employing data and analytics that will reveal to you what your business needs to change. Data and analytics show businesses the objective truth about where they are succeeding and where they may be coming up short. Many businesses employ data and analytics for aspects of their company, like sales and marketing, but customer experience data is also incredibly valuable.
QLess has business intelligence features that provide an accurate look at the customer experience and show businesses what they need to do to drive improvement. QLess’ customer journey data shows businesses several core metrics that indicate how they are performing. The data from QLess shows businesses their median wait times, appointment no-show percentage, number of customers served in a day, and transaction time. This data can all be segmented and organized, so enterprises can view it according to appointment type, time, the employee that serviced the appointment, and more. The data is all reported back to businesses in graphs and charts that make the information they are reporting easier to understand which helps businesses spot notable trends and deviations. The value of this data is significant, it allows businesses to spot areas they need to change to create a smoother customer journey. Understanding your weaknesses plays a major role in improving them, and with this data, you can see where your enterprise may be letting customers down. Once you understand your weaknesses, you can start implementing changes that solve them. This will help trim the excess from your business and create a more efficient operation.
In the world of business, reputation is everything. What people say about you determines who will frequent your business, and if you have a negative public reputation, that will impact your bottom line. The customer experience is a big factor in defining your reputation, as a negative or positive customer experience leads most customers to make the effort to type and post a review. The importance of reviews is not to be taken lightly, and finding a way to maximize the number of positive reviews you receive is important. Customers’ opinions have a significant impact on the decisions of other customers. According to Trustmary, "93% of customers read reviews before making a purchase, and 58% of consumers would be willing to pay more or travel further to visit companies with good reviews." Negative reviews make a significant impact on swaying customers away from your business, while positive reviews are likely to bring customers in. Receiving these positive reviews will help your business attract the modern consumer's attention, who typically uses these to inform their purchasing decisions.
QLess has customer feedback features designed to help businesses court more reviews, these are automated pulse feedback requests sent via SMS to customers. These are sent in the form of text links, which redirect customers to Yelp or Google Reviews, where customers then have the option to fill in reviews. The review requests can be set up to automatically send to customers after their appointments. This immediacy ensures your business is top of mind and increases the likelihood that customers will fill in reviews. Receiving positive reviews is critical, by removing the arduousness of waits, you increase the likelihood that customers will have a positive experience, and by soliciting reviews with an automated request, you increase the likelihood that customers will share that positive experience in a review. Happy customers sharing positive feedback is a driver of business success, and with QLess, you can court a higher volume of these positive reviews.
Having smooth processes is what drives business success. If there are a lot of bottlenecks throughout the day and inefficiencies throughout your operation, you will lose money as a result. Efficiency and maximizing the time you have a day are important, the biggest onus falls on employees, who have to handle a surge of customers and manage a busy appointment calendar. Implementing tools that make these tasks easier will lead to a more efficient operation and higher employee satisfaction. QLess helps in this regard by increasing the visibility of employees’ day-to-day with an automated digital appointment calendar. The calendar is color-coded and organized by date and time. Employees can tap on their appointments, see the name of the customers, pull up relevant information on them, or message them with questions or updates. The calendar organizes the workday in a way that is clear and easy to understand, with certain appointments represented by certain colors and the ability to filter appointments by the employee responsible for them.
The virtual appointment scheduling calendar is a helpful tool that gives staff a clearer sense of what they need to do throughout the day, it leads to a more organized business where staff are aware of what is ahead, removing some of the chaos and stress from their job. This will not only drive a smoother operation but also ensure your staff is happier. The happier staff is, the better businesses perform. Fortune 100 companies with higher levels of employee satisfaction outperformed their peers in stock market performance by 2.3-3.8%. A more visible and digitized calendar that can be edited and changed gives businesses a tool that will increase efficiency and drive employee satisfaction. While the virtual queuing solution impacts the customer experience, a digital calendar will improve and streamline the employee experience, which is just as important.
Acquiring new customers is important, which is why so many businesses allocate such a substantial part of their budgets to sales and marketing, but what is just as important as this is earning customer loyalty. For any business to grow, you can’t just add customers, you have to keep them. Customer churn is an inevitable part of business, but minimizing the number of customers lost is crucial. Strong customer retention results lead to a growing business and loyal customers. The financial benefits of retaining customers are clear. According to Finances Online, "Acquiring new customers is 5x more expensive than retaining current ones, and a 5% increase in customer retention can double revenue."
While the product or service you offer will play a big role in driving retention, it is also incredibly important that the overall customer journey to receive that product or service is smooth and friction-free. QLess makes a broad impact here because it eliminates one of the biggest obstacles to a happy customer: long, in-person waits. According to a QLess survey of 250 US adults, "69% of respondents said they would frequent a competitor’s business if it had noticeably shorter wait times, and 76% of respondents said they have left a business due to a long wait." Customers have little patience for physical waits as an aspect of their customer journey, which is why a digital queue management system is so impactful. Customer journey management software like QLess removes what is likely the biggest roadblock to a smooth customer journey. Long physical queues are boring and impersonal. QLess has been found to reduce wait times for businesses by up to 97%, and customers can benefit from waiting wherever they please. This improvement to the customer journey is likely to drive retention and lower churn.
In every industry, from retail to education, digitization is coming. We have already seen so many changes within the past several decades, and the pandemic has exacerbated the technological tendencies of the average consumer. For a business to succeed now and into the future, it must be built to handle the tech demands of the modern consumer. Today, people want technology integrated with every aspect of their customer experience, they expect omnichannel options for everything from shopping to their doctor’s appointments. For your business to thrive over the next several years, implementing future-facing software that aligns with the tech preferences of the generations with the most spending power will be a differentiator.
The two generations that many industries focus on are Gen Z and millennials. These two generations encompass the ages of 10-41 and will be the dominant spending cohorts over the next few years. So what does this population like? The simple answer is smartphone technology as a core part of their shopping experience. 98% of Gen Z own a smartphone, and 55% of them use their smartphones for more than five hours every day. Meanwhile, 94.4% of millennials own a smartphone, and they use them for 3.7 hours every day. This is a highly mobile-driven cohort of people, and they expect that their usage of smartphones is reflected in their shopping experience. More than half of Gen Z use their smartphones in-store to augment their shopping experience and determine their purchasing decisions. Businesses that implement the QLess waitlist app will find that this meets the needs of their mobile-oriented customer base. Implementing the tech infrastructure today that benefits your business in the future is an important step toward digitization and will help appeal to Gen Z and millennial consumers.
One of the most important things for a business that wants to react quickly to change is business agility and flexibility. These determine how your operation can respond to the day-to-day chaos common in appointment-based businesses. If your business is rigid and lacks flexibility, responding to change and adversity will be difficult, causing wait times and operational inefficiencies to pile up. One aspect of the QLess enterprise appointment scheduling software is it enables businesses to become more flexible and respond to changes without causing delays. The QLess calendar management features allow businesses to adjust their virtual calendar to respond to changes. Not only does the calendar increase visibility, but it can also be altered and automated according to pre-set preferences. The line management features can blend customers with scheduled appointments with walk-in customers, prioritizing customers with appointments or obeying any other established line policy.
The flexibility of these features means that businesses can respond quickly to delayed or no-show customers. Businesses can temporarily move late customers that have messaged them to update their timing out of the line and move them back to the front when they arrive. They can simply remove customers that don’t appear likely to show up out of the virtual queue. The virtual line will automatically update the timing for other customers as these changes occur. One of the biggest causes of delays in lineups is a rigid calendar, the entire line is impacted if businesses cannot respond quickly to changes like customers being late or not showing up. That is why a fully digital queue that can be edited or automated can make a world of difference. It can improve an enterprise’s intake capacity by making the line more efficient and fast and allow companies to adjust rapidly to the inevitable delays and changes that happen every day in appointment-based businesses.
When running any operation, the most significant factor that guides decisions is the question of money. Any addition or subtraction is looked at based on balance sheets. If you want to build something sustainable, investing in solutions that will yield long-term results is incredibly important. That is why so many businesses have turned their eye to the impact of a queue management system.
A virtual queue management system like QLess can yield a return on investment in several key ways. This software allows customers to wait on their own terms, improving their experience and streamlining the customer journey. This leads to easier customer retention and better online reviews. The business intelligence features enable enterprises to spot core weaknesses, and calendar management creates a more flexible schedule and increases employee satisfaction.
For businesses seeking to implement a solution that will align with consumers' preferences and easily integrate with existing infrastructure, QLess is the answer. The queue management system is a valuable, versatile software that will provide a significant return on investment for businesses in a range of industries.
University students attend higher education institutions with the hopes of expanding their minds and preparing for their future. Unfortunately, all too often they got lost in a system that doesn't cater to individual student experience. Instead of feeling that the administration exists for the students, attendees quickly realize that they must conform to the needs of administrators in order to be successful. Scheduling appointments, registering for classes, even asking advisors for help all become nightmarish experiences filled with long lines, tired and impatient staff, and inadequate information.
Oftentimes, students will enter university fresh-faced, excited, and ready for success. Over time, however, ineffective university resources begin to take their toll. When simple tasks like registering for classes or dealing with financial aid eat up so much of their time, their desire to continue with their education slowly decreases. Students struggle to gain support from on-campus systems, which explains why consistently negative experiences with campus resources are one of the main sources of attrition; unfortunately, universities struggle to increase student satisfaction with limited resources. While student experience often ranks as a top priority for administrators, improving on-campus systems seems like an insurmountable task. A large student population means long lines--there doesn't seem to be a way around the problem. Fortunately, online appointment booking tools and an effective scheduling application both provide a modern solution to a large problem in higher education.
By using an electronic scheduling application like the one from QLess, academic institutions solve the problem of impatient students before it starts. Instead of expecting students to show up, wait in a line, and hope for the best, scheduling applications allow students to book an appointment ahead of time, eliminating the need for physical queues. In an age of ever-evolving technology, an electronic solution like a scheduling application can simultaneously push academic institutions into the modern age and improve the student experience.
Perhaps the most instantaneous result of an effective scheduling application is the elimination of physical lines, without an electronic tool, students often run into long lines at every on-campus location. While long queues are frustrating at any juncture, they're particularly irritating during key points in the year. When students struggle to register for class, change programs, or ask advice about their courses due to long lines, attrition begins to develop. Instead of forcing long queues that lead to general frustration and discontent, a scheduling application assigns students a specific time with which they can complete their necessary necessary business. When each student knows the time and date they can sign up for new courses, registering for classes becomes a breeze. Even signing up to see an advisor becomes a stress-free task--each person is assigned an appointment time, eliminating the pressure on both the student and the administrator. By bypassing lines and allowing individuals to address their issues at a specified time, students no longer waste their time waiting for help. They gain more time to study, hang out with friends, or even just relax, all of which will contribute to higher student satisfaction.
While a scheduling application gives students more free time, it also tailors the university experience to a new generation. Current and incoming university students have grown up with technology. They're well-versed in mobile applications, and they actually prefer to handle most of their business electronically. Academic institutions, like any business, attract the most customers when they know their audience and tailor their services accordingly, for a mobile generation, mobile scheduling applications should be the norm.
The QLess scheduling application not only provides a mobile platform for students to access information from anywhere, it also sends text alerts to inform students of their appointment times. By creating a smartphone-friendly design, this scheduling application speaks to a main tenet of a new generation--consistent and reliable mobile communication. It ensures that students have simplified access to important academic information, and it lessens the possibility that they'll forget their appointment time and fail to show up.
While human error always stands as a distinct possibility, electronic scheduling applications allow students to feel comfortable an at-ease in their academic environments. By using technology they are already experts in, academic institutions create easy communication and connections between administrators and students. Students who feel comfortable in their academic environment are more likely to complete their university education, rather than cave to the pressures of campus life.
When students are constantly filtered into long lines and told to wait their turn, the personal element of higher education disappears. Students want to feel like their individual needs have significance, especially in an institution with the social weight of a college or university, many students accrue heavy debt in order to gain their degree. For instance, the desire to feel like their individual experience matters isn't misplaced. Difficulty gaining access to basic information and meeting essential needs for the future of their education is understandably frustrating.
Although electronic scheduling applications simply increase the organization and staff productivity on college campuses, they also allow each student to feel like they're receiving personalized attention. A specific appointment time communicates that each individual is important enough to receive focused attention, in which only their specific questions and needs matter. Simple as it may sound, a scheduling application can make all the difference in creating what feels like an individualized learning environment, despite the fact that each student receives the same time and attention to discuss their needs.
If students have a problem with campus systems, they want to make their opinions known; unfortunately, when it's difficult to even get a meeting in the first place, students don't feel that their concerns are being heard. Even if every individual problem can't be addressed immediately, allowing students to provide feedback on their experience can greatly improve student satisfaction with on-campus life. University processes may not change immediately, but allowing students to feel heard and appreciated subtly communicates that their opinion matters.
A scheduling application allows students the opportunity to address their concerns, without eating up the essential time of administrators. Instead of sitting in an office and listing off every complaint, students can fill out electronic surveys, effectively and quickly communicating the elements of the campus system that don't work for them. Feedback provides a two-fold opportunity for growth within the university. First, administrators hear student concerns quickly and easily, allowing them to adjust future processes to fix the most common problems. Second, students get their frustrations off their chest, lessening their irritation and providing hope that things will change in the future. A scheduling application allows universities to listen and react to the needs of their students, without decreasing the productivity of their staff. Students have a hand in the improvement of their education, and it doesn't come at a cost to either students or administrators.
Academic institutions are designed to push students towards graduation; unfortunately, the decision to leave university altogether is a common one. While each individual leaves their academic institution for their own reasons, dissatisfaction with campus resources often appears as one of the major sources behind drop-outs. Although it sounds like a no-brainer, it's worth stating that students who are satisfied with their college experience are far more likely to stay in school and eventually graduate.
An effective scheduling application increases student satisfaction with on-campus services. Students express their concerns, gain personalized attention, and generally improve their ability to function within a university setting. With a scheduling application, graduation seems like an achievable goal, rather than a faraway possibility. When students believe that they can graduate, they're much more likely to work towards that goal. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the work in front of them, students see a clear path towards reaching their degree. Sometimes a little hope and a plan is all it takes. Happy students who believe they can graduate are more likely to graduate. A scheduling application brings that goal to the forefront of their minds, encouraging students to stay in school and earn their degrees.
Using a QLess scheduling application can change the life of university students everywhere. By eliminating physical lines and cutting down waiting times, scheduling applications allow students to feel like they're experiencing the personalized education they deserve; in addition, the mobile platform results in easy use for a tech-savvy generation and an opportunity for instantaneous feedback on campus services. Happy students are much more likely to stay in school, and to spread positivity about their academic institution, both online and in their personal life. If you want to increase your graduation rates, you need to learn more about QLess systems today. If you think our system might be the right fit for you, contact us now. We'll answer all your questions about QLess solutions. For more on improving campus operations and retention rates, read about how we've created college campuses without lines.
A well-developed workflow management system simplifies business processes at colleges and universities tremendously. As a business, these institutions provide education and degrees to their customers, also known as their students. Although colleges and universities stand as one of the most essential business organizations in young adult life, technological systems on-campus are often not on par with the fast-paced, technology-driven environment of the day. As incoming students reflect more expertise in current technology, so should their places of education. A workflow management system can change life at your university, both for your students and for your administrators.
In a school environment, multiple departments and individuals work together to contribute to the larger education machine. While some units identify prospective students, review applications, and send out offers of admissions, other divisions focus on registering current students for classes, organizing appointments with advisors, and assisting students with on-campus problems. Each of these individual systems work together to contribute to the overall goal of the organization--educating students and pushing them towards graduation, hence the need for workflow management.
A workflow management system simplifies all these processes. It's a software that automates some elements of your workflow management, taking the pressure off of your staff members and increasing the happiness of your students. By creating a streamlined network for all your most essential campus processes, a workflow management system allows each student to feel valued and supported, and each staff member to increase their productivity and efficiency.
A workflow management system creates an at-ease campus environment; not only that, it also brings your institution into the future. Easy-to-navigate education processes attract students, allowing your campus to continue running like the well-oiled machine that it is. Keeping your campus in the dark ages of technology not only hurts your students, it hurts your entire business. A high-tech workflow management system is a necessity your school can no longer do without.
Whether fair or unfair, students expect a lot of of their colleges and universities. An individualized learning experience is the standard, but most students would settle for consistent help from their on-campus systems. Unfortunately, high enrollment rates, a limited amount of resources, an overworked staff, and a surplus of tasks to complete often leave students feeling confused and overlooked. The more difficulty students experience navigating their education process, the more impatient they become. If enough time passes, the decision to leave school altogether becomes an easy one.
They're not getting the help they need to prepare for their future, why would they stay?
Consistently negative experiences with student services are one of the primary sources of attrition among college students. When students don't get the help or services they need, they drop out of classes, refrain from attending courses, or even leave the school altogether. As an organization that seeks to prepare young adults for their future, the current attrition rates are unacceptable.
Thankfully, a workflow management system presents a wonderful solution. By simplifying student access to on-campus services, a workflow management system decreases frustration and confusion among the student body. With a system like the one from QLess, you can decrease attrition rates by as much as 50%. A workflow management system improves student satisfaction and increases retention rates by allowing each student to feel like their needs are being met.
While a workflow management system improves the lives of your students, it also leads to increased productivity of your staff. A higher education environment already deals with a lack of resources, but a larger problem presents itself in an ineffective use of the resources that do exist. Oftentimes, staff stretch themselves far too thin trying to meet the needs of all students, despite the lack of time or effective organization systems to do so. Advisors overbook themselves attempting to sort out class schedules, and the Registrar and Admissions offices are overrun with impatient students. While it's undeniably unfair to the students, it's equally as frustrating for the staff.
Workflow management systems streamline campus processes and effectively allocate your staff resources. By eliminating the need for physical lines and relying on technology-based systems for organization, workflow management systems allow your administrators to gain a clear view of the tasks they need to be completed. Instead of surprise assignments and a frustrating amount of work for staff members, each administrator focuses on their assigned tasks, increasing their overall productivity. Not only does it result in increased happiness for your employees, it also ensures that all your resources are used effectively, lowering operational costs and saving money in the long run.
In our technologically advanced world, physical lines and in-person wait times just aren't practical anymore. Many of the problems that develop in university settings stem from a general lack of organization. Without a workflow management system, students are forced to go to an office, wait in line, and generally waste their time in an attempt to progress in their college experience. At the same time, administrators have little control over the time and attention needed to help each individual student. With a finite amount of resources and an infinite amount of potential questions, administrators are unable to prioritize and organize accordingly. With that lack of organization, both staff and students waste their time, and neither leaves feeling happy.
A workflow management system sorts through the chaos in your offices and eliminates the inconveniences of poor organization. Instead of arriving at an unspecified time in a physical office, students are assigned an appointment time with which they can ask all their questions. Interactive virtual queuing simplifies the process if your student does need unexpected help, and mobile reminders ensure that each student arrives at their specified appointment time. Most importantly, all these processes are completed inside the system, without assistance from your staff, allowing them to save their abilities to actually help students and bypass the errors that often accompany in-person scheduling.
An effective workflow management system changes your on-campus life immediately. Improved allocation of resources, clear processes for students, and increased organization all lead to instantaneous changes in your business systems. However, workflow management systems also provide information on what needs to change in the future. As a completely automated process, workflow management systems collect valuable information on your student and staff patterns. Student wait times, staff efficiency, student needs--all these and more can be found within your workflow management system.
With QLess systems specifically, we provide a real-time dashboard that consolidates data from multiple offices. At a glance, you have a general idea of what's happening in all areas of your campus. In addition, surveys within the system provide even more information about student satisfaction and necessary changes. Improving your business is a constantly evolving process, workflow management systems provide valuable insights to ensure that you can provide the best resources to your students for years to come.
We don't need to tell you that colleges and universities need students to stay afloat. Enrollment and retention present a major challenge for higher education institutions. That explains why many student administrators list student retention and student experience as their top priorities. While students may drop out when dissatisfied with their education, the ripple effect extends much farther than a single loss. Unhappy students spread information online and within their communities about the ineffectiveness of the school, giving other individuals the message that your institution isn't worth attending. While an individual drop-out can already present a hefty loss, consistent dropouts can negatively affect your application and enrollment rates over time.
An effective workflow management system leads to increased student happiness and higher retention rates over time, but it also allows your students to talk positively about your institution. Not only are you saving money on attrition, you're also building a strong reputation that will draw more students to your school over time. Reputation matters, both for the present and for the future. Workflow management systems support your ability to meet your student's needs, building a strong reputation as an institution that cares. With a reputation like that, who wouldn't want to apply?
Workflow management systems are a necessity in the modern age. It increases the happiness of your students and staff, leading to higher productivity and increased retention rates. In addition, it organizes your office with little effort from your staff and provides valuable insights into how you can improve your processes in the future. If you're ready to build a strong reputation, meet your students' needs, and save money for your business, you need to take the QLess approach. Learn more about how our electronic queuing system can enhance your education systems today. Please contact us for more information about our system.
Waiting rooms have been an essential aspect of hospitals, doctor's offices, and other healthcare facilities. But it doesn’t take much thought to realize the idea is counterintuitive. Crowding individuals with ailments in congested areas while they wait for assistance is not ideal. This was only further emphasized as a person-to-person airborne pandemic struck the world. Patient queue management software can be the solution to remedy this.This experience caused many healthcare professionals to have to re-evaluate their waiting procedures. There were concerns about pandemic transmission in waiting rooms and the overall healthcare experience. Amid virus anxiety, would patients sit with others even with a mask on?For a while, there were no true means of eliminating the waiting room. But in recent years, to address these concerns, many healthcare providers have been implementing patient queue software like QLess. This software aims to help reduce patients’ anxiety and create a waiting room experience that meets customers' expectations. The healthcare industry is crowded, and consumers abandon providers that can't meet their needs. According to Medical Economics, 69% of patients would switch providers for better services. Patient queue management software is an impactful solution that can de-congest waiting rooms and provide a safer, more patient-friendly experience. In a time where consumers easily switch businesses, the patient experience is vital. Below, we will break down what patient queue management is, how a virtual queue management system creates safer spaces, and why this is so important for patients and healthcare organizations.
Before we go any further, it is important to fully understand what patient queue management software is. The idea is relatively straightforward, and it has changed the healthcare sector. Why not have a virtual waiting room to manage customer flow instead of a physical one? Patients can access this virtual waiting room from their phones, computers, or on-site kiosks.With key features that enable customers to track the actual wait times for appointments, monitor the progress of the line they’re in, and communicate with staff, patients have a drastically changed experience when using healthcare services. Some organizations still hesitate to embrace and implement digital technology into the patient experience. But data indicates that customers already rely on digital technology and expect organizations to accommodate that reliance. According to a poll from Healthfully, 80% of consumers want the ability to use technology to manage their healthcare experience. Furthermore, the average consumer uses tech constantly throughout their daily lives. The average U.S. adult spends more than seven hours a day on screens, according to Exploding Topics. Healthcare organizations should prioritize implementing helpful tech solutions like patient queue management to avoid customer alienation. Patient queue management software has substantial benefits that enterprises should not overlook. With features that allow customers to enter virtual queues from their phones, patients can remotely wait in the virtual waiting room and monitor their queue times. Implementing virtual queues doesn't mean healthcare organizations need to eliminate waiting rooms. It simply gives patients the ability to choose.
The million-dollar question that healthcare organizations might have is whether or not waiting rooms are such a bad thing. Waiting rooms were the only option for healthcare services before technology advanced enough to make them less necessary. So how bad could it be? By implementing software to eliminate waiting rooms, might healthcare organizations solve a problem that doesn’t exist? The answer to this question is a firm no. Waiting rooms pose a genuine risk to older patients' well-being. A 2012 study of elderly residents of long-term care facilities published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal showed that a visit to an emergency department is associated with more than a threefold increased risk of acute infection. While this vindicates the need for patient queue software, it is also common sense. Requiring sick and injured people to share a room for extended periods increases patient risk. The pandemic highlighted that the prior waiting room model is untenable during an airborne virus outbreak among those visiting emergency rooms and doctors' offices. Healthcare providers adapted by spacing chairs, having customers wait outside, and mandating masks. While they may have curbed the virus from spreading, they reduced operational efficiency and didn't enhance patient satisfaction. It is not insignificant that waiting rooms also have extremely long patient wait times. The longer customers are cramped in a waiting area, even if socially distanced, the more at-risk they are. Similarly, the more unhappy they will be. This is why it is incredibly important for enterprises to be very conscious of the state of their waiting rooms.
We’ve established that waiting rooms might inadvertently put customers at risk, but what do your patients think of them? Customer satisfaction is vital in healthcare, as it's still a business, and unhappy customers can easily switch providers. The waiting room is a defining step in the patient's journey before receiving service. So it is worth asking if increasing patient satisfaction in the waiting room experience is necessary or if customers are okay with the current status quo. Data shows that consumers distrust crowded waiting rooms and dislike the experience they provide. A QLess survey of 250 U.S. adults showed that 59.4% of consumers associate congested waiting areas with unsafe conditions. If customers feel unsafe in the waiting room, chances are they will not enjoy their overall experience. A contributing factor in this situation is that the average waiting room is just not a pleasant place to be. Typical healthcare waiting rooms present sterile environments with white walls, fluorescent lighting, outdated magazines, and a T.V. This is hardly a positive environment, and according to Fierce Healthcare, unpleasant waiting rooms are a bigger issue for customers than long wait times. Rather than investing in more comfortable chairs or a higher-definition television, enterprises should focus on the real problem. Customers just don’t like waiting rooms either way. Patients prefer waiting from home or nearby cafes to congested waiting areas. Giving the consumer the option to skip the waiting room altogether is the best solution to a longstanding problem.
The healthcare industry is about more than just improving patients’ well-being, although that is the primary objective. The modern consumer isn’t satisfied with just receiving excellent quality of care. The experience for patients along the way is not nearly as important. Healthcare organizations that want to survive in this new age of experience-centric care will do well to improve their waiting room. According to Forbes, 60% of Americans have had a negative healthcare experience in the past year, and 52% of those people will tell others about their negative experiences. Curating a positive waiting experience without risk and discomfort is important in building a patient-friendly healthcare organization. This will help create loyal customers and position healthcare companies to succeed.
It is clear that there is a need for change in the waiting room experience. Customers don’t feel safe, and there is an established correlation between emergency waiting room visits and further infections. The problem has only gotten worse in recent years. A 2022 study by Yale showed that emergency room crowds had reached crisis levels and posed significant patient safety risks. The same is true across Canada. The crowding is due to an overstressed system, not necessarily management failure. De-congesting the waiting room is incredibly important for both safety and satisfaction. Let’s explore how patient queue management software can lead to less crowded waiting rooms while providing efficient patient flow.
The primary feature that QLess offers that is designed to help de-crowd the waiting room is its remote check-in software. In a typical waiting room without a patient queue management solution, individuals have to check-in in person. They arrive at the front desk, inform staff they’ve arrived, fill in a form, and take a seat, waiting to hear their name called. This requires physical presence throughout the waiting process. Remote check-in software lets customers wait for their appointment without physically arriving until it begins. How this works is that customers will receive a link when they register for an appointment. They can access this link via mobile devices, computers, or an on-site kiosk. When their appointment is scheduled, they can tap the link and check in. Once they’ve checked into their appointment, the patient is automatically placed in a virtual queue. The queue displays the number of customers ahead and the projected wait time based on data tracking and machine learning, accounting for the line's size and wait times at different parts of the day. Customers can be queued based on appointment type or healthcare professional they're meeting. They can track their progress through an app or website and know when to be there. This means lines can move smoothly without customers needing to be in the waiting room until the end. This also lines up with what customers prefer. In a QLess survey of 250 consumers, 57.2% of respondents indicated they are likelier to patronize a business if they have early insights into wait times. QLess virtual queuing system's remote check-in feature eliminates the need for customers to enter waiting rooms until their appointment begins. They can choose whether they are comfortable in that environment and wait on their own terms.
Long wait times in healthcare have been a persistent issue and seem unavoidable due to the nature of the industry. Demand often exceeds the ability of facilities to provide efficient service due to the need for proper care and attention for each patient. This is why patients wait an average of over 18 minutes at physicians’ offices, according to PartnerMD, and 145 minutes at the average emergency room, according to Autoinsurance.org. Patient queue management software can’t entirely solve the issue of long waits that are endemic to the healthcare industry. However, it can provide organizations with a tool to increase staff productivity, manage customer flow, and improve overall efficiency, positively impacting wait times.
There are two key ways this software helps with this. Firstly, the patient queue management system completely automates the queue process, so enterprises don’t need to oversee it themselves. The software has configurable policies, like no walk-ins or a maximum 5-minute late policy for appointments. Then, the lineup can be completely automated, with the artificial intelligence-based system drastically more efficient and organized than a standard physical queue. QLess’s patient queue management software also has smart calendar features that give staff a better sense of their day. The entire appointment calendar is displayed for them, showing the customer, appointment type, and more. The calendar is color-coded and organized and can be segmented, so employees have a heightened understanding of their daily workflow, increasing overall efficiency. By reducing wait times, healthcare organizations can reduce the time people need to spend waiting for appointments. The remote check-in features allow customers to wait from wherever they please, but inevitably there will still be some customers that prefer to wait for appointments in waiting rooms. With automated queue management and smart calendar features, the QLess patient queue management system ensures waiting times are trimmed, resulting in less crowded waiting areas.
Communication in the healthcare process is incredibly important. Customers strongly desire communication from end-to-end in the healthcare process, and having better communication can lead to safer waiting rooms. With better communication, enterprises can create safer waiting rooms in several ways. Having customers that indicate they might be contagious wait remotely will reduce infection risk, and enabling customers to message staff if they are running slightly behind but still keep their appointment will lead to fewer delays. While this type of communication could lead to a safer, less crowded waiting area, many enterprises are ill-equipped to offer this level of communication. Customers expect communication, particularly through digital methods. According to Forbes, 80% of consumers surveyed said they prefer to use digital communications with their healthcare providers, and 43% said they want to engage digitally with their healthcare providers before, after, and during their visits. But many enterprises lack the digital infrastructure to provide this level of communication that customers are hoping for, even if it can make customers happier and lead to safer waiting rooms. The QLess patient queue management system empowers healthcare organizations with bi-directional communication features that improve the connection between customers and staff. With the QLess features, organizations can drive a more communicative approach to healthcare. They can individually message customers and receive responses, schedule messages to entire groups of customers, and create automated messages triggered at different parts of the patient journey. Better communication means less confusion, as late customers or no-shows often trigger chain reactions that lead to extended delays. With better communication, there are fewer bottlenecks, which means lines move faster and waiting rooms are less crowded. This also improves the patient experience, as enterprises can answer patients' questions digitally during busy times when they might not have the time to respond face-to-face.
One of the most significant ways healthcare organizations have pivoted away from the standard waiting room model is by leaning into virtual healthcare. The pandemic made face-to-face appointments a near-impossibility at many practices, and to combat this, many organizations pivoted to virtual healthcare options like telehealth. Providing medical care virtually remains important even after the peak days of the pandemic. According to McKinsey, virtual healthcare remains hugely impactful, with 46% of consumers using telehealth now compared to 11% in 2019.Telehealth leads to less congested, safer waiting rooms for obvious reasons. With the option to schedule remote healthcare appointments, customers don’t need to visit healthcare offices at all. If customers have a mild but contagious illness, healthcare organizations can schedule virtual appointments to ensure they don’t spread their illness. Ultimately, the fewer in-person visits, the less crowded waiting rooms will be. But many organizations might buckle under the weight of managing an entire virtual calendar without the proper digital solution.
QLess has virtual service features that enable healthcare organizations to provide a positive patient experience remotely. QLess is integrated with Zoom and Microsoft Teams, two popular video meeting platforms, and enables organizations to put customers in mixed queues that accommodate in-person and remote patients. How this works for remote patients is they would schedule an appointment online and select a virtual appointment. They will then receive a QLess link and be placed into a virtual queue when they check in for their appointment. They will then be able to monitor their wait time, see who is in front of them, and receive a Zoom or Teams link when their appointment is ready to begin. Virtual appointments are a crucial part of the post-pandemic world. The QLess patient queue management platform enables enterprises to integrate remote patients into their virtual queues and digital calendar, creating a smooth appointment process and easier virtual appointment management.
The waiting room is a longstanding problem in the healthcare industry that most organizations have neglected to address. The concept of making ill or injured patients wait for long periods in a congested room is one that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, although there haven’t been other options for organizations until recently. Now that QLess for healthcare and other patient queue management systems exist, the need for waiting rooms has been drastically reduced. These digital solutions enable enterprises to create a virtual queue where customers don’t have to be physically present to wait in line or in the waiting room. The customer can check in, monitor their status in line, and communicate updates with staff, all from their phones or computers. This means they can wait outside the office, from their home, at a nearby park, or wherever else they’d prefer. Customers can still wait in waiting rooms if they want to, but QLess allows them to wait remotely, helping to drastically reduce congestion in healthcare offices. Reducing risk in the waiting experience should be an important objective for all healthcare organizations, and it resonates with customers. Consumers strongly dislike the typical waiting room process that has been the norm in healthcare for ages. With QLess’s queue software, healthcare businesses can meet the needs of the experience-oriented patient while creating a safer, more positive waiting process.