Queue Management & Customer Flow | Retail Case Studies

If you’ve ever rented skis, you know the rule: Get to the rental shop early or wait in line—sometimes for hours. The same was true at Steamboat Sports, where most of the shop’s rental customers would arrive between 8 and 9am, followed by another rush after the slopes closed.But in 2019, Covid changed everything. “We could no longer operate as we were,” says Cody Lechner, senior manager of rental operations for Steamboat Sports. “With social distancing rules, we needed to limit the number of people inside the store at all times.”Steamboat Sports decided to reimagine their approach to customer service. “We needed to streamline service procedures and spread out customer arrivals through the day,” he says. “It was really an opportunity to improve operations in ways that would benefit our customers and our business.”Guests that wait in long lines are less likely to use the service again, to recommend the business in online reviews, or to respond positively in satisfaction surveys.And unhappy customers made it more difficult to retain experienced technicians, which translated into increased hiring and training costs.The company needed an online queue management system that would meet customer expectations of speed and service, help the business run more efficiently, improve productivity via better capacity management, and create a better work environment that employees would return to year after year.