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.
Many businesses have busy seasons. Owners and employees can dread the overwhelming volume, customer agitation with lines and wait times, and stress that comes along with it. From flu season at healthcare facilities to Black Friday and holiday shopping for retailers, to back to school time for colleges, busy seasons are a difficult hurdle for many industries. If you're tired of the same old method of standing in long lines and appointment scheduling, it's time you took a look at the QLess SMS queue management system. This system will result in great customer service from employees, transfer high satisfaction rates to your consumers, and make the busy season seem like a breeze to get through.
How the QLess System Can Work for Your Company
The QLess SMS queue management system is a new technology that is sweeping the nation and completely replacing old ways of appointment scheduling and the take-a-number system. It takes the stress off of staff so they can focus on one customer at a time and provide great customer service. It also clears away customers from lines, crowded wait areas, and lets them wait where and how they want to. That means no more clogged healthcare waiting rooms with potentially contagious people and no more long lines for retailers and universities.
The Healthcare Application Appointment Scheduling
Doctor's offices and urgent care clinics during the winter flu season can be a nightmare. Patients don't want to wait for hours to be seen at a walk-in clinic, and they certainly don't want to catch a virus while waiting for their doctor's appointment. Long wait times and other sneezing patients can breed agitation and frustration that is eventually reflected on the staff. Even if patients are kind to employees, they can still get overwhelmed and overworked which leads to poor customer service on the whole. The QLess SMS queue management system can let patients wait at home, in their car, or at nearby businesses if they don't want to wait in the traditional healthcare waiting room.
For walk-in clinics, patients can join a virtual queue on their mobile device, the business's website, or through onsite kiosks. For doctor's offices, patients can easily use the appointment scheduling feature online or with the app to make their appointment. All patients receive notifications on their cell phones about their updated wait time and place in line. If there are unexpected delays, healthcare workers can easily send alerts straight to the patients' phones. The staff also has access to a real-time dashboard that lets them see the patients' information, the reason for their visit, and other helpful data for managing the crowds. This easy-to-use system leads to better employee productivity and great customer service.
Great Customer Service in Retail Higher Education Great Customer Service with Added Benefits
We're all familiar with the crazy lines, crowd rushes, and unreasonable customers that can go along with Black Friday and the entire holiday season at the mall and other retail stores. Expecting your employees to deliver great customer service under these circumstances is a strained hope at best, losing a few good employees along the way is more likely. The QLess SMS queue management system can also be a major game-changer in retail stores to help you get through the busy season. Forget about filling the wait areas with little upsells you hope customers will pick up, with QLess, your customers can join the virtual line and continue to browse throughout your store until their phone alerts them to the service desk. Clerks are less stressed and customers can continue to shop for things they didn't even know they wanted. Back to school time for colleges and universities is a headache for students and all types of staff in admissions, financial aid, academic advising, and even the university bookstores. When staff gets busy, great customer service is pushed to the wayside in an attempt to handle the volume, students can get overlooked, miss appointments, and be less likely to take advantage of the school's services that can help keep them on track for graduating.
The QLess system takes a huge load off of staff with managing crowded wait areas and scheduling appointments. It can also optimize the workday for advisors through FlexAppointments by automatically filling in scheduling gaps, leading advisors to be more productive at providing great customer service to students; in addition to the great customer service you can achieve during the busy season with QLess, you also get added benefits and features that you could never achieve with a take-a-number system or old school appointment scheduling process. When customers are actively waiting in the virtual queue, your business has the option to send alerts about your current or upcoming promotions. You're almost guaranteed to get a great read rate because they're already looking at their phones for wait time updates, and when the customer leaves the queue, you can gauge how great they thought their customer service was by sending a short customer satisfaction survey.
Valuable Data & Analytics
Those customer satisfaction surveys are stored in the QLess system along with other pertinent data like customer transaction types and completion times, no-show and walk-out rates, outcomes, customer preferences, and other metrics. The data is arranged into graphs and reports that you can download and save to help identify areas for improvement in your business. You can also use the information to tailor future promotions to suit your customers' wants and needs. Or, create employee incentive programs to encourage great customer service.
The QLess SMS queue management system is a technology that will give your business an edge over the competition and help cement a stellar reputation. You'll get more positive online reviews, which will help keep customers returning and bring in new ones. It's easy to set up and easy to use for business owners, staff, and customers. Contact QLess today to request your free business demo.
The experience of dining in a restaurant begins for the client as soon as they hear about your company. The next step is the process, whether in person or online, of reserving a table. Next is the waiting time, being seated, waiting for food, and finally, eating dinner. One common thread is that much of the process involves waiting.
Long wait times for tables can clog and complicate the dining process. Customers leave after their meal dissatisfied with their service or don't dine altogether.
What is a Restaurant Queueing System?
Systems like QLess utilize innovative technology to simplify and streamline the queueing process. It works on three basic levels:
Using QLess instantly improves the dining experience of your clientele, thereby improving profits and growth. It comes in the form of an easy-to-use system and mobile phone app, as well as an in-store kiosk.
Reduces Walkaways Optimizes Staff ProductivityA quality restaurant queueing system works to reduce lost business due to walkaways by deflating the intimidating lines. Long lines look intimidating even from afar. If you've ever bypassed a restaurant, or gotten out of line because the wait was taking too long, you see the potential for lost business. With a digitized queue, those who want to reserve a table or get on the waitlist can do so from afar. This is how to reduce wait times in restaurants. You can sign in online or at an in-person kiosk, and wander as you wish. Customers can even sign in to the restaurant queueing system on a mobile device. This frees up the front of the restaurant, making it look approachable to potential clientele. A major concern in the restaurant business is staffing. Being overstaffed is a serious monetary loss for all the extra pay. Being understaffed is worse as it means that there are longer wait times, and a higher likelihood of inadequate service. At QLess, staffing is a major priority to help improve the dining experience. The queue management software can collect analytics regarding customer behavior. A large component of this is when there are lulls and when it is busy. Looking at this restaurant queueing system data as a whole could help restaurant owners predict busy periods and lulls so that they can staff appropriately. The data is also able to inform users of: Client demographicsCustomer return ratesWait timesStaff productivity
This data can help a business to run optimally rather than wasting resources where they aren't needed, and losing business when you could just have an extra employee on the clock.
Improves Client CommunicationProvides Valuable Marketing DataBoosts Online ReputationA key factor that impacts customer experience and how to reduce wait times in restaurants is communication. If the expectation is that a wait will take 15 minutes, but the client still hasn't been seated in 20, they start to get impatient. A good restaurant queueing system can help to set new expectations when things go wrong so that clients don't feel in the dark.QLess implements bi-directional communication. This means that clients can communicate with the restaurant in two ways: Customers receive immediate updates about adjustments to their wait time via a mobile device. Customers can submit feedback directly to the restaurant via the app regarding their experience. The beauty of this communication improvement is that it further helps to reduce the frequency of walkaways. At the 30-minute wait mark on a wait that was supposed to be 15 minutes, with no communication from the restaurant queueing system, clients often feel dejected. They are hungry, confused, and aren't being communicated with. This is the prime example of someone who will walk away from the line without eating. With direct-to-customer updates, clients know they are being taken care of and can trust that they'll be seated even if it takes a little longer than they thought initially. To promote growth and development in your restaurant and know how to reduce wait times in restaurants, it is important to know who your average customer is, which deals are selling well, and when the popular time for dining is. QLess' restaurant queueing system can tell you all this, and more. With powerful data collection tools, this software can tell you tons of information about customer behavior concerning in-store operations. With this information, you can strategize more profitable marketing campaigns, plan deals in line with your audience, and better promote your brand to targeted consumers. This tangential aspect of a queueing system directly betters the dining experience for future clientele and increases the probability of returning clients. With shorter wait times, better communication, and more targeted marketing materials, your popularity will be seen in stellar online reviews. Your restaurant queueing system will reduce the rate of dissatisfied customers, thereby reducing negative reviews of your business. In addition to the natural improvements that are done to your reputation, QLess helps expedite the review-giving process. Did you know that dissatisfied customers often feel more motivated to leave restaurant reviews than satisfied ones? QLess sends satisfied customers easy and fast surveys or directs them to Yelp for a review. This simplifies the process for clients so they are more likely to talk about their positive experience. Positive reviews help other new potential customers to decide whether or not they'd like to visit your restaurant. Using a restaurant queueing system to boost your online reputation helps grow your business. If you've ever wondered how to reduce wait times in restaurants, this is it. With this growth comes an even better dining experience for clientele as your company builds into a successful, well-managed facility.
Try QLess Today For Your Restaurant
Setting QLess up in your business is simple and takes little time to integrate. The user-friendly interface means that minimal training is required for staff. The system works great for industries like government, healthcare, retail, and education, but is the perfect fit for restaurants. It reduces wait times and walkaways and improves communication, productivity, and reputation instantly. Contact the QLess team today to get started with your high-tech restaurant queueing system now.
The quality of customer service can deeply impact profits and company reputation, but good customer service is more than just a smile and a friendly tone. The process of serving clients, the ways that communication occurs between employees and customers, the way feedback is handled, and the overall customer retail experience all play a vital role as examples of good customer service in retail.
When a retail store has poor customer service, they are more likely to experience walkaways and no-shows. This loss of business grows even more when you think of each walkaway as:
QLess revolutionizes the customer's experience. The software takes all the varied elements of customer service and uses a system to address all of them individually with innovative new operational features. Below are just a few examples of good customer service in retail that QLess can help with:
The Personal Touch
One of the best ways to demonstrate to customers that you care about their retail experience in your store is with a personal touch. A help or information desk is the best place to show clients a personal touch. This can be difficult though when the help desk gets crowded or representatives are busy helping others to find what they need. QLess' queue management system simplifies the waiting process. Clients can check-in at an on-site kiosk or digitally online and wait from wherever to be seen. These examples of good customer service in retail mean that there are no long lines that cause customers to hesitate before even attempting to meet one-on-one with an employee.
Taking The Stress Out Of Shopping
One of the best qualities of the queue management system is that it can send updates and alerts. QLess reduces impatient walkaways by clearly communicating with waiting clients by sending updates directly to their phone. It's the perfect example of good customer service in retail. Clients feel more refreshed and are less likely to be impatient when finally getting face to face with a sales representative when they use QLess. Rather than waiting in a long line, they have spent this waiting time wandering the store and picking out more to buy. This means that in addition to improved customer retail experience, QLess improves employee experience as well.
Signs of Respect
One of the key examples of good customer service in retail is respect. Customers want to know that your store is going to take care of their needs and respect them. Here are just a few ways that businesses can show respect to their clientele:
Respect For The Client's Time
Rather than forcing customers to wait in long lines with little communication as to when they'll be seen, try QLess' queue management software. When shoppers have to wait next to other impatient shoppers in long lines, it can be hard not to feel disrespected. We all have places to be, and inefficient or untimely service comes across as unprofessional. Without examples of good customer service in retail being used in-store, clients think their needs are not being met. Another great aspect of QLess is that it doesn't just digitize queues for a better retail experience. It also collects and stores analytics about business operations. This feature is one of the more in-depth, structural examples of good customer service in retail. With information taken from QLess about when most appointments are scheduled, you can find out when you are most busy and when you aren't. This way, you'll be able to predict patterns and staff accordingly. It streamlines your staffing process so that you aren't continually left overstaffed in a lull and understaffed when things are crazy.
Respect For The Overall Client Experience
When customers see a long line behind them, they feel rushed with their time with employees. The client retail experience is inconvenient from start to finish, making them less likely to want to purchase anything or return for service in the future. Good customer service means catering to the customer's needs from start to finish and providing a stress-free environment for shopping. The problem with taking time with each customer is that it improves that client's experience while making other customers wait longer. QLess, one of the best examples of good customer service in retail, eliminates lines so that there is less of a rush while receiving assistance. It also puts employees in a better mood, which means clients are getting better service. Employees are in a better mood because of a clear, uncrowded store without long, impatient lines of customers. Staff can, therefore, slow down and spend the appropriate amount of time with each customer, thereby improving client retail experience without wasting other people's time.
Respectful Communication
There's nothing shoppers hate more than not being communicated with. Let's say a wait time takes slightly longer than intended. With no end in sight, a disgruntled shopper may just walk away. Examples of good customer service in retail include transparency. Successful stores show transparency in letting people in line know how much longer they'll need to wait if there are any delays, and why those delays are taking place. QLess uses bi-directional communication to allow staff to send updates right to clients' phones. This way, the client can make informed decisions about whether or not they'd like to continue waiting. Their expectations can be appropriately set and they leave without feeling disappointed or disrespected.
This bi-directional communication is a great example of good customer service in retail which also means that customers can leave feedback that helps improve future retail experience. When things go wrong, which is always a possibility, customers want to know that a retailer is going to make it up to them. Another amazing way to take feedback from customers is to place QR codes in your store. QR-code tech is simple and these codes can be generated using any of these QR-code generators.
What is QLess?
QLess is an innovative new queue management system, but it does more than just that. QLess has several impressive features that are examples of good customer service in retail. These features help improve customer service, including:
Many retailers use QLess to improve the client experience while cutting operational costs by staffing more efficiently, scheduling clients digitally, and removing the need for an unsightly and stressful in-store line.
Benefits of QLess on Client Retention
Brick and mortar retailers are losing out to online shops. Shopping digitally is convenient, simple, and often saves money. The in-person stores that stay afloat show many examples of good customer service in retail. To keep up, the customer experience in-store needs to be efficient, effective, and most important, convenient. Stressful retail experiences quickly enforce to clients that online shopping is better, which is not ideal. QLess' software helps stores to retain and grow their client base with:
Try QLess For Improved Customer Service
If you are a retailer hoping to improve your in-store experience for customers and compete with the convenience of online shopping, try QLess. This system is one of the best examples of good customer service in retail. It works well across several industries like government, logistics, and healthcare, but is particularly effective in retail environments. Sign up today for a product demo for your industry. You can reach out to speak with a member of the QLess team now. QLess is easy to integrate into the workplace and doesn't require extensive training. It is easy to use for employees and has a user-friendly interface for customers. Get set up with QLess today and start impressing your retail customers. Stellar examples of good customer service in retail are only a few clicks away.
If there's one thing that probably holds true for all of us, it's that we want what we want, and we want it as quickly as we can get it with as little hassle as possible. In that light, what could be more frustrating than a waiting room: a place where you're left to stew and watch the minutes tick away when you could be getting down to business?
Thankfully, our digital queue management system lets your clients zip in and out faster than ever before, and makes it so your employees will be quicker and better at their jobs as well. An efficient waiting room is a happy waiting room, and as the point of introduction for many clients, this remains a vital image to uphold. Allow us to explain exactly how the QLess system achieves this end.
QLess uses a myriad of features to allow for patrons who booked their appointment in advance to be given top priority, while still letting walk-ins receive quick and satisfactory service that doesn't interfere with that of other customers. To see this principle in action, look no further than the case of this Spanish telecoms company, which was facing a large threat to its reputation in the form of the notoriously agonizing wait times its customers had to wait through. After implementing our system, however, they saw a 66% reduction in service delays with customers, and a massive uptick in profits and customer satisfaction alike as a result.
Nobody prefers to spend time in a waiting room to begin with, least of all the ones in which the employees are surly or inattentive. While sometimes these bad attitudes can be caused by a poor disposition or a simple case of the Mondays, many workers find their service and demeanor taxed by overwork and the inefficient systems they have to deal with. A digital queue management system can help you bypass this cycle of frustration entirely by allowing your workers to keep track of lines with ease, and cut down on the amount of time they have to spend fiddling with archaic management systems like clipboards and paper waiting lists, and don't feel as though you have to take our word for it: studies have proven that our app has been able to increase employee efficiency by as much as 90%; if that doesn't indicate a big boost in attention, service, and efficiency, we don't know what does.
Our digital queue management system isn't just for customers who have our app and want to take advantage of the speed it brings; their peers who haven't set an appointment also benefit indirectly as well. FlexAppointments are an innovative addition to our app that automatically sift people who made their appointments earlier to the front of the line, while simultaneously keeping track of new openings for last-minute clients. Both kinds of customers end up getting the best of both worlds and can coexist in the waiting space with that much greater harmony.
Lines and lobbies aren't just for places like banks, mobile outlets, and doctor's offices. Businesspeople, logisticians, and construction workers need to wait in line for appointments at their own places of business, too. Cutting through the paperwork and getting the contract or permit your peers need to do their jobs is essential, which is why QLess has an optimization specifically for dealing with logistics such as these. Now filling out forms and getting permission to advance your projects can leave more space in the waiting room for people who can only be served in person.
The fact of the matter is that every room, member, and function of a business all have to work together in harmony in order to succeed. The waiting room is the initial touchpoint of your place of work. When patrons can trust that their needs will be taken care of quickly and smoothly, it brings out the best in everyone. Employees can devote more of their time and energy to doing their jobs to the utmost, and customers can enter and leave through your doors with confidence that they'll be satisfied with the goods and services you've provided them with. Is it any wonder that our digital queue management system has been cutting down on wait times and expediting profits in record numbers?
Dozens of companies all around the globe have been improving their efficiency and maximizing their productivity thanks to the convenience of the QLess app, and now your venture can join them at no risk. If you'd like to request a free demo to see if QLess is the right fit for your company or business, fill out this form and we'll send you a taste of what our digital queue management system can do for your workplace with no financial obligation attached.
Do you have a question or concern about QLess that we haven't covered? Get in touch with us directly and one of our customer service reps will get back to you. QLess is growing--and helping other businesses to grow--every single day, so jump to the front of the line and see what makes this digital queue management system more than just another app.
We all go shopping for different things, but a perfect day at the store probably looks pretty similar no matter what. The ideal retail experience should be quick, pleasant, and conclude with the product or service you need. That's the dream, but reality frequently falls short of what we want it to be. Without an effective queue management system retail, customers experience long lines, staff that are stretched thin, and other inconveniences.
Luckily, Qless exists to make that ideal customer service experience a reality for your patrons every time they step through your doors. QLess is a flexible and dependable system for outlets of all kinds, and the results have spoken for themselves. With the help of our app, dozens of businesses have seen their profits, reviews and overall efficiency improve. Keep reading to find out why our queue management system for retail might be exactly what you need to take your company to the next level of success.
While established businesses can always use help trimming the old ways that aren't helping their bottom line and making way for new efficiencies, companies that have just gotten started also need to prove they have retail customer service in mind and won't be leaving their patrons in the lurch. Johnstone Supply fell victim to this very situation: even though they had great products and a lot of walk-in traffic, customers were hesitant to browse because their inefficient queue management service for retail stoked fears that they may lose their place in line if they wanted to explore the store's sprawling inventory. Even the most desirable products can lose their allure if consumers aren't confident they can access them.
Thankfully, Johnstone Supply was able to utilize QLess to turn their customers' worries around. Using an automated queue system that would summon customers to the cash register when it was their turn to check out, patrons felt free to wander the massive store and browse, which also increased money spent by the average patron considerably. A good queue management service for retail can introduce your products to the world in style and let customers know you have their convenience as your first priority.
Having experience gives you a great edge, but it doesn't count for everything. Even the most venerable and time-tested companies can stand to update their retail customer service systems when better and more effective options rear their heads. This Spanish telecoms company is a classic example of what can happen when even the most necessary and desirable services fall prey to inefficiency. Their queue management service for their retail locations was bloated and outdated, leading to congested lines that lead droves of frustrated customers to simply walk out and never return. QLess turned out to be the ideal solution for this company's customer service woes. Instead of idling in the lobby, customers could now receive convenient notifications via text to let them know when assistance would be available to them. Patrons finally got the attention and service they felt they were entitled to all along, and the company saw their customer retention lock in and stay strong thanks to investing in their new queue management service for retail operations.
One of the biggest problems that can befall a business is when they do better than they expect in the marketplace and find themselves lacking the infrastructure to deal with it. This cruel fate happened to a shooting gallery in Fort Worth, Texas, which found its runaway success to be as much of a curse as a blessing as frustrated customers frequently complained of the long wait times that would invariably accompany their day at the range. Without an effective queue management service for retail to guide them to the bullseye, Shoot Smart found itself struggling to keep up with its own success.
QLess proved to be the retail customer service solution that they were looking for. Our app allowed patrons to sign up for their shooting session ahead of time and be summoned to the range when their time came, as opposed to having to spend hours idling in a stuffy lobby. Many businesses find themselves struggling to scale service with success and a great queue management service for retail can help them along. Shoot Smart was finally granted the opportunity to enjoy the success they so richly deserved.
Smaller, family-owned retail businesses can sometimes need a little extra boost when it comes to offering an appealing service that will drag potential customers away from the bigger names in the game. Such was the case with Pigtails & Crewcuts hair salon, which found its efficiency hampered by cumbersome sign-in sheets passed around on a clipboard. This system didn't account for the difference in wait times for the child and adult barber chairs, leading to mix ups for the staff and frustration for the customers.
However, since they were already known for their great cuts and friendly service, a good queue management system for retail was all Pigtails & Crewcuts needed to put themselves back on top. Qless gave these barbers the flexibility to customize their sign-in operations to their exact needs. A great retail customer service system combined with a pleasant and highly competent staff to turn a good experience at the barbershop into a truly great one.
Don't underestimate the results of an effective queue management system for retail. When customers walk through your doors, they expect quick service delivered with few to no inefficiencies or mistakes...and if they can't get that in your store, they'll go somewhere that offers it to them. No matter how the excellence of your products or staff, you won't to see the profits and customer satisfaction you could be if you aren't working with the right tools for success.
QLess is just the queue management system for retail that can lead your business to the next level of profitability and reputation, and we're willing to put our money where our mouth is. If you're curious about our app but aren't sure if it's right for your workplace, you can request a free demo today and try our app with absolutely no financial obligation.
If you're looking for hard facts about what makes QLess the perfect queue management system app for retail, our whitepapers are a great place to start. QLess is constantly implementing the latest economic science and tech to make sure it stays the best possible app for your business, and you'll never have to pay a dime for updates or reinstalls. When you use QLess, you're using a dedicated system that will grow with your business every step of the way.
If you have any questions about our queue management system for retail that haven't been covered by this post, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us. For the most intuitive and convenient customer service system on the market, don't put your business in the hands of anyone but QLess.
Whenever we enter a business, be it anything from a coffee shop to a doctor's office, we all want pretty much the same thing: the goods or services we came for, given to us quickly and with a positive attitude. Unfortunately, you don't need a team of experts to tell you that countless outlets fall short of this mark. The customer journey through your front doors, up to the checkout line and out again is a vital part of any businesses' success, so why do so many neglect this vital experience?
Fortunately for business owners and customers alike, it doesn't have to be that way. Thanks to apps like QLess, the shopping experience can be as pleasant and efficient for your patrons as having them pick a valued object off a shelf in their own home. Today we'll be going over just a few ways our app can help the customer journey become not just tolerable, but turn it into a downright pleasurable experience.
If there's one thing a customer won't stand for (besides the obvious things like outright verbal abuse), it's having their time wasted. Many businesses unintentionally keep their patrons at arm's length by having their queuing line stay so clogged that many potential customers simply won't stick around for the goods or services they came for. Look no further than this Spanish telecoms company: even though they provided a service that their patrons not only desired but required, the customer journey was so arduous for many of them that lots of potential clients simply left and never came back. Thankfully, with the help of QLess, this venerable company was able to turn their situation around in record time, seeing astonishingly high upticks in customer retention and satisfaction within a few months of implementing our app. The lesson here? Never underestimate your client's desire to get what they came for, but fast!
There's nothing worse for a hard-working and diligent employee than a customer management system that won't work with them as well as they work with their clients. The customer journey is a cyclical system: if the client feels that their time is being wasted, it puts your employees under further pressure, which can lead to more errors and slower service in a grueling rinse-and-repeat experience. Even the best employees can make errors and fall prey to inefficiency if they don't have the right tools to work with. Luckily, the customer journey can be greatly improved with our queuing line app, and when that improves the employee experience does as well. This family hair salon in the American South saw a massive increase in business once they ditched their sign-in sheets and started using QLess for scheduling needs. Their employees were able to move customers with increased efficiency, making a more satisfying customer journey.
It's not just a matter of improving everyone's attitude: keeping your line on the move also helps your company cut down on wasted expenses. The numbers here don't lie: businesses can lose out on as much as 50% of their potential profits if customers leave or stay away en masse thanks to cumbersome lines and wait times. And when a bad customer journey results in lost profits, that means you're also losing money by extension on operations. When you use QLess, you can use resources that otherwise would have gone to waste on no-show customers on the patrons that are there. When a satisfactory customer journey is a sure thing, you'll find a whole new wealth of resources to use on the parts of your business that matter most. And since our queuing line app is proprietary software that requires no installs or paid upgrades, you're guaranteed to get the same value out of it years down the road.
QLess isn't just great for your patrons' immediate in-store experience: it can do a world of good for the customer journey before they even set foot through your doors. Taking care of customers who make previous arrangements lets them know you care about the people who are putting the most energy into using your services and making sure your other clients aren't lost in the shuffle makes an appealing customer journey for anyone who decides to spend their time and money with you.
And while it might not be the first demographic you think of when the word "customers" pop to mind, QLess can be a lot of help for dealing with logistical personnel as well. Taking care of the warehouse workers and truck drivers who handle your product directly means that your products will get out quicker and in better shape than they would otherwise. The backend is an underrated but very important part of the customer journey, and helping warehouse laborers and others do their jobs more easily thanks to our queuing line app is a big part of making sure that the voyage goes off smoothly.
Getting your customers from Point A to Point B in an efficient and satisfactory matter is going to be the bread and butter of your day-day-day income. QLess is an affordable, straightforward way to make the customer journey easy for the people who make your business what it is, and it requires virtually no installation or upkeep. QLess keeps your patrons happy and lets your employees do their job with greater ease and even helps the people who supply your goods and services stay organized in their dealings with you. You don't have to take our word for it, either: studies have proven that QLess improves the customer and employee experience by leaps and bounds. An efficient customer journey is synonymous with an enjoyable one for many consumers, and our queuing line app has been shown to make the consumer experience speedier and easier than ever before. Take into account the ripple effect customer positivity has on workplace efficiency and your own bottom line, and you have a service you literally can't afford to miss out on.
Across industries of all kinds, from retail outlets to government offices, QLess has proven to be an undeniable success when it comes to making the customer journey smoother and more direct than ever before. And the good news doesn't stop there: now you can see what makes QLess so special from firsthand experience when you sign up for a free demo of our app. Get in touch with us now if you'd like to use our service in your own place of business with absolutely no financial obligation .For more up to the minute information about the intersections between the customer journey and consumer technology, follow our blog for posts just like this one and never miss out on something you need to know again. To check out some of our webinars and learn more about what QLess can do for you, take a look through our resource page. And for the best experience with a queuing line app that modern technology can provide, stick with QLess and watch your business thrive like never before.
Every business has a way of organizing its income and the order that its customers are served in, but not all of these systems are created equal. Whether it's a clunky filing cabinet, a time card machine that hasn't been changed since the mid-'80s, or a point-of-sale system that just can't keep up with the foot traffic, an appointment system that isn't streamlined and easy to use can be just as much of an impediment to your company's growth as any of the aforementioned relics of business past. When the apparatuses that make up your store are outdated and hard to use, everything from your employees' morale to your personal bottom line suffers as a result.
Thankfully, we're living in the 21st century, and many of these problems can be condensed and solved by implementing the latest technology. We'll show you today how our QLess appointment system can make your life easier, and push your books further into the black. If you've never considered that web based appointment scheduling software might be the key to turning your company's fortunes around, you'll definitely be left with something to think about by the time you scroll to the bottom of this page.
#1 Encouraging Customer Confidence
One of the bedrocks of good service is making sure everyone who comes in feels like they're the first priority. When customers know they can visit your business and expect a certain level of timely service, that increases their belief that they can spend with confidence, too. Take the Salt Lake City location of Johnstone Supply as an example of this: their store proved to be such a sprawl that interested customers would refrain from browsing their stock for fear of losing their place in line, or getting to the checkout queue too late to have a quick transaction. Johnstone Supply began using QLess to make sure its customers' place in line was always secure no matter where in the store they happened to be and saw the amount of browsing and purchasing go up significantly. An appointment system isn't necessarily just for scheduling transactions and services days or weeks ahead of time: it can also work for the patrons that are in your business right here, right now.
#2: Appointment System for Employees
Without reliable web-based appointment scheduling software, an up to date point of sale system, or other resources in your workers' tool kit to help them do their jobs, it can easily lead to frustration and avoidable errors among even your most diligent employees. Just like how you wouldn't want to build a shed with the aid of a rusty hammer, keeping track of customers with an out of date appointment system can make life a lot more difficult than it needs to be for workers and consumers alike. When your employees can do their work with ease and efficiency, this leads to a better experience for the customer as well...and happy customers means greater profit. Studies of our software have proven that implementing QLess increases staff productivity and satisfaction by as much as 90%. If your employees are struggling to keep up with their workload, they may not be shiftless or inexperienced; they might just need a better appointment system to help them make the most of their natural talents.
#3 Decreasing Waste
It goes without saying that companies want to avoid waste, but waste comes in many forms, and it can't always be boiled down simply to product that goes bad or sits gathering dust on your shelves. It's possible to waste money on employees that don't provide useful in-the-moment services, waste energy keeping lights and heating on for the benefit of customers that aren't showing up, and even waste time with inefficient shipping and handling on your storage backend. A good appointment system can make a big dent in all the ways your resources can be misused.
Our web-based appointment scheduling software proved to be such a good waste reducer for the Antwerp Gateway container terminal that they were able to completely eliminate their reliance on truck lines for their shipping. Trucks idling for their turn to take their assigned shipments to their destinations created massive traffic congestion as well as an appalling waste of gas and wages for workers who were literally sitting around doing nothing. But thanks to our appointment system, these drivers were able to make their deliveries only when summoned via QLess, and ended up improving profits, morale, and environmental health to boot.
#4 Positive Word-of-Mouth
Much of the time, an expensive advertising campaign won't net you half as many new customers as will the customers you already have simply saying nice things about what you have to offer. Without an appointment system that guarantees a smooth transition for the customer's journey from Point A to Point B, you may not be getting all the kudos you could be from the people whose income you require to keep your doors open. QLess itself is a fantastic example of how making people happy can keep your cash flow healthy.
Our web-based appointment scheduling software has been such a hit among the customers and businesses that have used it that even the press has gotten in on the news with a lot of positive coverage. Our appointment system thrives on the great things our valued customers have to say about us, and implementing it in your own place of work is sure to garner rave reviews from patrons that are forced to deal with cumbersome wait times at the other places they choose to shop at throughout their day. Flattery will get you everywhere if the positive gossip happens to be completely true, and QLess garners nothing but compliments from those who have tried it out.
What This Means for You
We've proven that our appointment system makes a good choice for a huge variety of outlets and service providers that want to take their efficiency and profit margins to the next level. Your business may very well find itself among their numbers. Whether you're a mom and pop retail store just trying to beat out the competition or a place of higher education with very specific goals for your students and employees, QLess can reduce stress and increase usable income every step of the way. Our software makes life easier for customers, middle management, the heads at corporate, and everyone in between.
To see if our appointment system is right for you, request a free demo and try QLess for a set period of time with absolutely no financial obligation. Dozens of businesses have seen morale and money earned improve thanks to their use of our web-based appointment scheduling software, and you can join them when you sign up for our trial run today. There's no sense in missing out on a competitive edge at no cost, so get in touch with us about this great offer today.
Where to Go Next
If a free demo and a handful of successful case studies doesn't convince you that our appointment system is worth trying, you're in luck: further resources await! Our whitepapers provide hard facts and numbers about the benefits of our software. We also publish a consistently updated blog with entries just like this one that will keep you in the loop about everything developing in the world of QLess. Learn more about QLess' investors and board of directors on our About Page to see whose hands you're putting your business in. We're always ready to accept questions, comments, concerns, or ideas you may have regarding our innovative appointment system. If there's something we didn't cover over the course of this piece, feel free to let us know and make your voice heard. Not every business infrastructure is created equally, so see what puts us over the top and make QLess your web-based appointment scheduling software of choice today.
The QLess queue manager is the future of line management. Forget about the old "take-a-number" system! This new technology will change the way your customers view waiting in line forever. To fully understand its possible applications, let's take a look at what it is like to use as the customer. We'll start where long lines are notorious, at the DMV.
Almost everybody in the USA loathes trips to the DMV because they may have to wait hours for service in a crowded waiting room on not-so-comfortable benches. There's also a good chance that you overlooked a needed document and will need to return and start the process all over again on another day. That adds up to a possible four to six hours of wasted time you can never get back. Let's not forget to mention the frustration and stress it can cause you.
Now, when DMVs implement the QLess queue manager system, the entire mindset of customers is changed to a positive one. Let's say I need to register a vehicle, before I ever leave my home, I can use the DMV's website or phone app to virtually get in line. The queue manager system will send voice or text notifications to my cell phone letting me know my approximate wait time and my place in line; therefore, if my wait is 2 hours long, I can relax at home or run a few errands while I wait for my service time. The QLess queue manager app will give me updates on new wait times as my place in line moves closer to the front.
The QLess queue manager app has notified me that I am about 30 minutes away from being served, so I decide to start my car and head to the DMV building. Low and behold, life happens and a traffic accident has severely lengthened my commute. While I'm stuck in traffic, the app lets me know I am 15 minutes from being served and asks if I need more time. I opt for more time, and my place in line is moved further back in the queue. Thankfully, the QLess queue manager app doesn't restart me all over from the beginning again. Once I arrive at the DMV, I wait a few minutes and am directed by the app to go to a specific window for service.
Since QLess is a new technology, not many people are aware of it. You may have no idea your DMV is even using it. For these DMV customers, a kiosk inside of the DMV building is where they will join the virtual queue. The QLess kiosks seamlessly integrate walk-ins with people who have remotely joined the queue. You will receive the same cell phone notifications as others who are in the virtual queue. That means you are free to immediately walk out of the DMV and go get lunch, go shopping, or maybe just wait in your car until it is your turn. These kiosks give you time back to utilize it however you want to.
Businesses who use the QLess queue manager system have the option to send customers targeted alerts about their current promotions. These ads may be useful and end up saving them money on goods and services they wanted anyway. Plus, as a business owner, you will get good exposure for your promotion and you can even use the queue manager's analytics to craft sales and promos that are in line with your customer's preferences and buying habits.
As you may recall from past DMV trips, customers waiting in line at the DMV consistently become frustrated, impatient, and dissatisfied the longer they wait, tensions run high with customers and they often turn to taking out their anger on employees. People may also walk-out as soon as they see the line, abandoning the DMV trip for another time.
Let's jump back into the shoes of the DMV customer waiting in the queue manager system, due to their perception of time as precious and their autonomy to allocate it according to their preferences, they are almost certainly to be happier and more satisfied with their experience. Customers may love it so much that they tell their friends about it and recommend that particular DMV for services.
As soon as the customer completes their transaction with the business, the QLess queue manager immediately sends a short customer satisfaction survey to their cell phone. Studies show that the sooner surveys are sent to customers, the more likely they will be to complete them. These surveys are collected in the system and organized into reports and graphs that easily let business owners see customer satisfaction rates and other important information like transaction types and times, no-show and walk-out rates, outcomes, and other data. This information is an excellent way to assess how your business operates and will help you find areas for improvement.
The QLess queue manager is certainly not just for DMVs. This system can be used for many industries, including those that need an option for appointment scheduling, like in healthcare. Imagine not having to wait in line at the doctor's office, at restaurants, in government offices, when navigating the college scene, when visiting theme parks, when shopping, or other instances where lines and wait times are long and arduous.
Like cell phones replaced pay phones, soon the QLess kiosks and queue manager app will replace antiquated systems. In time, people may not even remember the old "take-a-number" days of waiting until you drop.
Get started with the QLess system today. It's easy and doesn't require expensive installations or company downtime, it works through common web browsers and also provides your employees with a real-time dashboard to easily manage the queue.
Contact QLess today for a free business demo!
The entertainment industry is a booming opportunity for business owners to create a destination of fun and excitement for their customers. Too often though, customers who expect a day full of wonderful experiences get crushed by the dreaded wait in line. Lines to get into a park or event, lines to be served food and drink, and even more lines for individual attractions. The constant waiting in one place with a crowd of people can be enough to make your customers think twice about repeating the experience altogether. Luckily, there is a new technology that can greatly improve the customer experience and put your business ahead of the competition.
A Ticket Queue Solution for Theme Parks
A prime example of where the QLess ticket queue system can be used is at theme parks. With the old system of standing in line on busy days, customers could be waiting for an hour or more just to get into the park itself. Once inside, popular rides could again have them waiting 30 minutes, an hour, or even longer just to reach a roller coaster, flume, or other fun ride. There's no chance to leave the line if you need to use the bathroom or want a snack, and when it's time for lunch, the best food establishments make you wait in line again. This customer experience may be more tolerable for kids, but it's enough to make any adult dread coming back to the theme park.
The QLess Ticket Queue is Perfect for Entertainment Businesses
An amusement park was one good example, but the QLess ticket queue system can be used to improve the customer experience of other businesses and events like sports games, shooting ranges, concerts, conventions, museums, and more. Explore the various businesses we help with queue management on our industries page, any event that attracts long lines and wait times can benefit from letting their customers control where and how they wait. The system itself is so easy to use, customers, staff, and businesses owners love its simplicity and features, simply downloading the QLess app, customers can join the ticket queue from their home, on their way to the event, and from the parking lot.
Now imagine a theme park where there are no lines, it would be a place where customers can join a virtual ticket queue right on their cell phone or through a kiosk. Before even entering the park, customers can kill time by visiting local businesses or tailgating at their vehicle. Their cell phone alerts them to when their time to enter the park is nearing and they can head to the ticket booth to pay and stroll right in, and when customers enter the park, they can immediately use the QLess ticket queue to save their place in line at the most popular roller coaster in the whole park. Then, customers can browse around, grab something to drink, and join other ticket queues for the next best rides. If they start to run out of time for one queue, they can easily request more time, instead of kicking them to the back of the queue, they're simply pushed back a little bit. The customer experience is improved because they are empowered to wait anywhere they want to.
Push Promotions to Customers
Before QLess, the most effective way to advertise a promotion at events to customers was by using expensive print signage onsite. Even with that method, you'd be lucky for most people not to just overlook it. It can be hard to reach the public when they are constantly inundated with advertisements everywhere, all the time. The QLess ticket queue gives you the option to send your promotions straight to the customers' cell phone, because they are already checking their phone for updates on wait times for the queue, you can bet they'll get the message and read your advertisement.
Satisfaction Surveys
So how can you actually measure the effects on the customer experience? The QLess system features also let you track satisfaction with customer surveys. As soon as the customer has left the queue, you can send a short survey to their cell phone. Due to the immediate release of the survey, customers are more likely to complete it. Customers are also more empowered to complete surveys and leave good online reviews when they have an amazing experience. Good reviews lead to a better reputation for your business and increased traffic.
Customer Data & Analytics
Your customer satisfaction surveys are collected along with other important data like no-show and walk-away rates, transaction lengths, peak customer times, outcomes, and other metrics that can help you optimize customer flow, increase productivity, find areas that need improvement, and help you customize future promotions that are tailored to what your customers want. You can even use your data to create employee incentive programs, all of this information is arranged into easy to read graphs and reports that can be downloaded at any time.
Total Product Support
The QLess team works with you to make implementing the ticket queue system as easy as can be. Based on the scope of your business, our team can fly to your location to get the ball rolling. We also offer ongoing support, the ticket queue system is simple for customers and staff to use. Your employees will also love the live dashboard that lets them communicate directly with customers in the virtual line. Get started bringing in more customers with an improved experience. Contact QLess today to request a free business demo!
If you struggle with employee motivation in the workplace, you're far from alone. They say the customer is always right, but the easiest way to get a satisfied patron is to make sure they're being assisted by a happy and motivated employee. There are a myriad of ways to make sure your workers are giving it their all, but queue management has emerged over the past few years as one of the best ways to improve employee experience. You can do all of this through the QLess queue management software.
Create Faster Turnaround With Shorter lines
Effective queue management means that your patrons will spend less time dawdling as they wait for their goods and services, and more time getting to the point of the reason they stepped through your doors in the first place. And fast turnaround means a better atmosphere for your workers too: it ensures that they won't be getting bored sticking to one rote task with one person, and decreases the stress that comes with a drawn-out appointment-setting or checkout interaction. Improving customer experience also means you'll be able to improve employee experience as well.
Increase Your Workers' Drive
It will do wonders to improve employee motivation if they know they can do their job quickly and effectively, and not get bogged down with inefficient busywork. One of the keys to a happy workplace is that your workers must know that they are accomplishing something every time they clock in to their post. When things get done more quickly, it lets your employees know they're working somewhere that's earning its place in the market. It can greatly improve employee experience and thus motivate them to work harder, to know that their labor is contributing to the success of a place that can get things done.
Boost Your Reputation in Your Industry
Another great thing that can contribute to worker satisfaction is the knowledge that the people they're serving love what they're offering. We've all seen glum employees haunting the desks of mobile phone outlets and doctor's offices because they know that very few of the people who step through their doors are excited to be there. It can improve employee experience tremendously to know that they work somewhere that outpaces the competition (quite literally) when it comes to the speed and efficiency of the service they provide, and since good service is a huge factor when it comes to customer retention, it'll do your workers a world of good to know they work somewhere that people actually like to visit.
Customer Mood Boost
It's truly impossible to overstate how much it can improve the employee experience to deal with customers who aren't frustrated, stressed out and anxious. QLess can improve employee motivation tenfold to know that they're working with a project that doesn't lead the people who most need it to resent their providers.
Stress Reduction
If you've never had to be on the business end of a transaction using a cash register and print out system that hasn't been updated since 1987, count yourself lucky. The employee that has to work with it hates it just as much as you do. Apps like QLess improve employee experience by creating an orderly, streamlined system that makes sure everyone gets exactly what they're looking for in a reasonable amount of time. Fast checkouts create a more rapid customer transaction experience, and easy ones give your workers the peace of mind they need to concentrate on all the tasks that may befall them throughout the day.
Your Bottom Line
Queue management isn't just a great way to get your patrons in and out of your place of business quickly and happily: it will inevitably improve employee experience by making their jobs easier, which in turn lets them help the customers more quickly and effectively, this has the ultimate result of making your business a more profitable one. There's little that can improve employee motivation like the assurance that they'll be able to complete their tasks with a minimum level of frustration and keep the customer happy enough to make sure that they can thrive in a positive work environment every day. When you improve the customer experience, you also improve the employee experience, and no business succeeds without having one consistently feed into the other.
Try QLess Yourself Today
If you're eager to see how QLess can get your workers to work harder, better, and happier than ever before, get in touch with us today and request a business demo of our app. Our dedication to customer service and flexibility when it comes to installing our systems to fit your needs means you have nothing to lose from giving our app a try. Improve employee experience with the ease of use that QLess lends itself to and watch as customers make use of your services and leave rave reviews such as they never have before.
It doesn't matter how big or small your project is: we help institutions of all shapes and sizes improve their output and customer service every single day, and we're certain we can do big things for your company as well. Whether you're a small local business or a bustling government office, you can improve employee experience and make your workspace a more profitable and efficient enterprise by seeing the difference that QLess brings to the table. There's no better way to improve employee motivation than to expose them to the simplicity and quality of the QLess app today.
If you own or work in a business setting that accumulates long lines and wait times, you may ask yourself, "Isn't there a better way to manage these crazy lines?!" While the take-a-number system may have dominated the past century, we now finally have a better way. The QLess queue management business apps allow your customers to get in line virtually and wait wherever they want to until it is their turn for service. That means no more crowded waiting rooms and happy customers!
A Brief Overview of QLess Business Efficiency Software
As a customer, imagine walking into an urgent care clinic or a government office. Typically, you would sign in and wait until your name is called. Don't even think about going to the restroom or your name may get called and your turn passed over because you were absent.
With the QLess system, you can sign in using a queue management business app on your phone or by using an onsite kiosk. From that point, you will start receiving text or voice messages on your phone letting you know your wait time and place in line. As you wait, you can leave the building, take a walk, go for a drive, go shopping, get lunch, or any number of things. The queue management business app sends you updates as the time ticks down for you to be serviced.
If you get caught up while you're out and about and need a little more time to get back to the business, you can easily request more time. The queue management business app will push you further back in the line instead of starting you all over from the beginning again. Customers will no longer have anxiety about missing their turn in line. When they are next, the app summons them for service. Once they have completed their transaction, the queue management business app can also send them a customer satisfaction survey. This, along with other important analytics, is stored for business owners to use to improve their operations.
Easy Steps to Implementing the QLess Business Efficiency Software
1) Answer a Questionnaire
The QLess team will start by giving you a business questionnaire that will tell them about your company's needs. It will help them determine the number of customers you receive on a daily basis, whether you make appointments ahead of time, and other factors that will let the QLess team customize a package that is perfect for your company.
2) Sign a Proposal
Once all of the details about what services you specifically need are collected, a proposal will be drawn up that includes a schedule of implementation and prices for use of the queue management business apps and any physical equipment that is needed, like kiosks.
3) Set-Up and Training
Depending on the size and scope of your business, QLess can fly members of their team out to you to physically set up and brand the queue management business app and any kiosks or tablets that will be needed. The set-up process will take between 4-6 weeks. Once the set-up is complete, training your employees will begin. Because the QLess system is so simple for users, the training period for your employees will only take about 2 hours and can be done remotely.
4) Continued Support
Once you get started using the QLess queue management business app, your daily operations should run smoothly and customers will quickly get used to the new system. Should you have any issues or questions, you can reach out to the QLess support team who will remotely guide you. They are readily available to help the process be as stress free as possible. And, as you use the new system and realize that you want more features, you can easily contact QLess for free upgrades within the first year.
Benefits of Analytics
Not only does the QLess business efficiency software quell the queues, it also provides business owners with powerful data about customer satisfaction rates, transaction types and times, no-show and walk-out rates, outcomes and more. This data can be used to identify weak areas in the business operations, create incentive programs for employees, customize promotions and sales, and much more. The benefits of managed lines, valuable analytics, and increased customer satisfaction alone make the QLess queue management business app a game-changer for businesses.
Increased Customer Satisfaction
When you eliminate the wait from the waiting room, your customers' satisfaction will go through the roof. When they have the power to spend their time however they want while they wait for your service, it doesn't seem like time wasted. Who wouldn't love checking into the DMV from the comfort of their home and only headed to the building when your turn is next? Collective wasted years of your life can now be spent on more productive things like running additional errands.
When your customers' satisfaction goes up, they treat employees with more respect and kindness. This, in turn, increases your employees' satisfaction. High satisfaction rates lead to good online reviews and word-of-mouth conversions.
The QLess queue management business app will also give you a leading edge over your competitors. When customers have the choice between businesses with the old "take-a-number" system and QLess, you can bet they will choose the business with QLess, again and again.
Change the way your customers view waiting in line forever with the QLess business efficiency software. The applications are numerous and businesses in the industries of healthcare, higher education, retail, government, motor vehicles, logistics, and many more are a perfect atmosphere for adopting this new technology. Move your company into the future with a modern system that gives back to business owners. Give QLess a call today and request your free business demo!
Customers feel a sinking feeling when they arrive at a location and find themselves waiting in line. Everyone is familiar with this feeling because this is a universal experience. Lineups are a problem common to businesses in almost every industry. For years practical solutions have been hard to find. Enterprises should not be content with long customer waits in extended physical queues. Waitlist software is the solution to minimizing lines and improving the customer experience. Customer satisfaction in the digital age depends on convenience, ease of access, and speed.
Regardless of the industry, enterprises must cut down on their average wait times. But lines happen for a reason. They are a product of demand overwhelming a business’ ability to provide immediate supply. So if waits are inevitable on some level, how can an enterprise hope to cut down on lines? One of the biggest ways enterprises in industries ranging from healthcare and education to retail and government are changing consumer waiting experience is by implementing waitlist software. Waitlist software is a digital solution designed to give enterprises heightened control over how customers wait in line. It adds a digital component to the queueing experience for customers. This enables them to wait for their appointments outside of a physical lineup. Virtual waitlists are a modern digital solution, and QLess is the waitlist software many industry leaders depend on. With QLess’ digital waitlist platform, enterprises around the world are moving their queues to smartphones, computers, and on-site kiosks. Let’s explore how this works and why the out-of-line waiting experience is one consumers prefer.
Before we dive into the details of waitlist software, virtual queues, and how they improve customer flow, let’s analyze the status quo. Physical queues have been the norm for as long as businesses have existed. Customers have probably been hating them for that long as well. But to what extent do customers dislike waiting in line? And what are the primary reasons customers are so against queues? The answer to how much customers dislike queues is clear. They deeply dislike them. According to a comprehensive study by Time Trade, 75% of retailers report losing customers due to long waits, and 15% say the number one reason they lose customers is because of long waits. QLess’ findings back up this point.
It is clear that customers hate queues. We can all identify with the experience of frustration that comes from standing in a long lineup. But what is it exactly about waiting in lineups, whether at theme parks or healthcare providers, that drives us crazy? There has been significant psychological research into this question, and the answers are illuminating. David Maister released one of the seminal works of queue psychology, and this paper laid out several rules based on studies that give us a sense of what customers like and don’t like about waiting in line. Some of these important rules include that uncertain waits feel longer to people than known, finite waits, unfair waits, where people feel others are moved in front of them, feel long than fair waits, and anxiety makes waits feel longer. With this in mind, it is easy to see why the standard waiting room is a source of significant frustration.
Now that we have more of an understanding of why customers hate the typical waiting experience let’s look at how waitlist software works and why it is so effective. We’ll look at the QLess software and waitlist app and uncover how it works and the key features that make it so beneficial to enterprises around the world. With QLess, the days of crowded waiting rooms and long physical lineups are in the past.
There are several ways customers can enter these virtual queues. For an appointment-based business, customers can get sent a link when they schedule an appointment. Then, they can tap on it to check in when it is nearing the time for their appointment to begin. They can receive forecasted accurate wait times that indicate how long they will need to wait for their appointments, with updates sent to their mobile device. When it is time for their appointment to start, they can enter the line. For a retail store, restaurant, or theme park, customers can enter lines through an on-site kiosk or mobile app and have real-time updates on their position in the line sent to their mobile phone. To ensure that waitlist software doesn’t complicate things for enterprises, they can manage the digital queue and better control their customer flow. If a customer is scheduled into a slot and sends staff a message that they aren’t ready, they can be moved back in the virtual line, and a present customer can be moved up. If a customer has set an appointment and is late without providing updates, they can be automatically removed from the queue. Staff can manage the lineup manually or automate it according to pre-configured policies. This keeps lineups moving efficiently and allows customers to wait for their appointments wherever they choose.
Every move organizations make should be centered around consumers’ preferences. The happier customers are, the more likely they are to return to a business. So, customer retention is a huge driver of business success.
This is a big reason enterprises are so committed to spending money on the customer experience. For organizations looking for a way to directly increase the satisfaction of the people who frequent their business, waitlist software perfectly aligns with consumer preferences. As we’ve touched on, the modern consumer craves convenience. In an age where you can grocery shop from your bed, consumers’ expectations are not what they used to be. According to Nasdaq, 83% of consumers said that convenience when shopping is more important to them now than it was five years ago. 52% of consumers said half or more of their purchases are influenced by convenience. Do you know what is very inconvenient? Standing around in a long line. With QLess’ waitlist software, consumers can remotely enter lineups while going on with their day. Modern customers value their time greatly. With QLess, they can work in their favorite cafe, attend to house chores, or grab a bite from a local eatery, all while waiting in line. The only time they need to enter the physical lineup is when they are at the front. Customers also prefer waitlist software because it allows transparency in the waiting process. The queue management software will show them accurate forecasts of how long the lineup will take, so there is complete clarity about how long they must wait. Digital waiting removes the veil of confusion and anxiety that long lineups are typically engulfed in. It also offers a more customer-friendly experience. Not only does QLess make waiting more pleasant, but it also reduces the time customers wait.
This is because it gives enterprises a tool for managing their customer flow. They can automate lineups or have staff manually control them. But the system allows for heightened organization over what often is a disjointed, disorganized business bottleneck. This will lead to a more efficient end-to-end experience for your customers.
QLess’s waitlist software aims to help enterprises create a seamless experience for customers. This system is designed to help enterprises create a more organized, fast, and customer-friendly waiting system where customers are able to receive the product or service without the hassle of standing in a long line or sitting in a congested waiting room. Let's dive into the details of what the value of this software is to enterprises' bottom line. Providing a positive customer experience is a proven driver of business success.
Investing in the happiness of your customers is investing in the success of your business. After all, keeping customers happy allows businesses to grow. Virtual waiting is a clear boon to the customer experience because it eliminates a massively common customer complaint. According to Total Retail, the single biggest consumer frustration with shopping is long wait times, with 43% of consumers stating this is their biggest complaint with the shopping experience. QLess helps create an efficient, bottleneck-free customer experience where the consumer is empowered. This will change how your customers view your business and how they review it. Reviews are a crucial component to success in the modern marketplace, where nine out of ten consumers say online reviews play a role in them discovering local businesses. Removing extended lineups from your business will lead to positive customer feedback, helping boost your enterprise’s reputation. The more convenient and fast your customer journey is, the happier consumers will be. This will have a definite impact on the bottom line, as customers provide positive reviews and loyalty in return.
When seeking ways to improve customer service, one solution that is often overlooked is the power of data. Concise, accurate data provides enterprises with the pivotal information they need. Sometimes, all it takes to improve is a better understanding of where you are failing. Data helps show businesses where they are succeeding and where they are coming up short. However, collecting data on the customer experience is difficult when every aspect of the customer journey is physical. With QLess’s online waitlist software, organizations can add a digital touchpoint that allows them to collect business intelligence on the customer journey.
This system tracks information about the customer waiting and appointment processes and presents it to the business. Some of the information QLess provides includes:
This information is presented on a dashboard that allows businesses to spot micro-trends and aberrations with graphs and charts. This data can be segmented according to date, time, employee, appointment type, and more. These charts enable organizations to identify what might be holding them back from achieving the best possible results. If there are certain appointment types or times where the wait times are higher than others, it is clear that there is a problem. A better understanding of the critical bottlenecks in your customer journey will allow enterprises to fix these bottlenecks and create more efficient waiting experiences. Businesses that make data-backed decisions are at an advantage, as they are operating based on objective information. Data is a huge determinant of business success.
The QLess data tools allow enterprises to quantify customer journey results and changes. If you spot a problem and try and address it by changing an element of your offerings, the QLess waitlist software can provide objective numerical data that will indicate whether the strategic changes have paid off.
After two years of sheltering in place, lockdowns, and the threat of a dangerous virus hanging over people’s heads, there is a sense that things have returned to normalcy. Businesses are open, crowds are back, and life seems to have reverted to how things were. However, there are still many people that are on edge about COVID. It is hard to shake the feeling that two years of pandemic chaos can bring. It's only natural that some customers will not feel comfortable sitting in big crowded waiting rooms. QLess helps enterprises accommodate these customers, ensuring consumers are more at-ease and organizations don’t miss out on COVID-cautious customers’ business. Consumers are still a little edgy about being around others, and this is most heavily pronounced in the healthcare industry.
There is still a feeling of discomfort many people have, and businesses need to be aware of that fact. According to Morning Consult, 55% of US adults say they are somewhat or very concerned about the omicron variant of the pandemic as of December 2022. Even if much has returned to normalcy, many people are still on edge. With QLess, waitlist software, organizations can remove congestion from their offices. This ensures maximum comfort for weary customers. Customers can check into the lines from their homes. Then, they receive SMS notifications about their status in line, and arrive only when their appointment is set to begin. This minimizes face-to-face contact and will alleviate much of the discomfort they feel. QLess is also optional, so for customers who don’t need to wait from outside the waiting room, the choice is theirs. It simply enables customers to make that decision for themselves, an option they wouldn’t have had before. After years of tumultuous times and disruption, the world has returned to full speed. For some, this is intimidating. QLess offers those still not at ease in crowds the ability to wait away from other customers and helps enterprises ensure they are meeting the needs of all their customers.
One of the biggest roadblocks to enterprises implementing waitlist management software is preconceived notions that it might be difficult or that potential customers will struggle to use it. While these are valid concerns, with QLess, they haven’t been borne out by reality. QLess is easy to integrate for enterprises and easy to use for customers and has been utilized by major companies in education, retail, government, healthcare, and much more. With government offices, QLess has .gov integration, meaning government enterprises can implement it on their government websites without any additional hassle. QLess for education has Microsoft Teams and Zoom integration, so higher education institutions reliant on virtual meetings with students can run their digital appointment calendars through the software. In the healthcare industry,
No hardware is required when purchasing QLess, and there isn’t even a need to install software. QLess is a hosted service that business owners can run on a company’s website. While additional features, like an on-site kiosk, can be added to augment QLess’s web-hosted offerings, this is up to enterprises. The implementation is straightforward, and with API integration, QLess ensures that businesses don’t have to condense their tech stack. It works in complement with the other solutions they use. If enterprises are worried about alienating potential customers with the addition of virtual queuing and waitlist software, they might not be aware of the habits of the typical consumer in North America. According to the Pew Research Center, 85% of Americans own a smartphone, so the average consumer will have mobile technology on-hand to access waitlist solutions. Consumers also value the addition of technology to their shopping experience. According to Clerk.io, nearly 80% of consumers prefer omnichannel strategies because it improves communication in the shopping experience. Your customers like technology integrated with their shopping, and chances are they possess the technology to utilize waitlist solutions. QLess offers software changing the customer journey from the restaurant industry to healthcare. It is easy to implement, doesn’t require significant digital or physical infrastructure changes from enterprises, and aligns with consumers’ tech preferences.
Standing in line is an experience that is universally disliked. Standing with a group of agitated strangers, waiting for your name or number to be called can feel alienating and impersonal. While most companies chalk this up to a symptom of supply and demand, in today’s age of customer experience-oriented enterprise, it doesn’t pay to tolerate long queues. Your customers demand and expect speed and convenience; if they aren’t receiving this from you, they’ll look elsewhere. With waitlist software, businesses across industries are changing the waiting experience. Waitlist software allows customers to wait out of line. Instead of the long physical queues or congested waiting rooms, customers can wait from their couches, at a nearby local cafe, or any other location of their choosing. They check into virtual queues, monitor their wait time, receive real-time data on their position in line, and arrive only when their appointment is ready to begin. For customers, this is the seamless, convenient experience that they crave. For enterprises, waitlist software helps organize and streamline the customer journey while offering data insights into the experience. It is a tool for improving the time customers have in a business, ensuring enterprises retain customers, and improving their bottom line.
Let QLess serve your community through online appointment scheduling. This user-friendly software implements necessary changes to improve customer relations. Some of QLess's important service industries include:
In government, QLess's online appointment software eliminates long wait times for industries such as airports. In one report, QLess was successfully able to void wait for security badging services while making sure that employees still had thorough evaluations in order to access restricted and controlled areas. The goal was to help the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) create a more structured environment and streamline operations for thousands of staff serviced through the Badging Office; this included employees who work for airlines, government entities, airport tenants, vendors, and contractors. When daily wait times exceeded several hours, QLess entered to help better manage customer flow. QLess implemented an online appointment scheduling system at MSP, allowing customers to sign up for same-day badge services or make future appointments. Customers could choose to sign up via:
Employees at MSP were granted flexibility while being able to wait their turn in the virtual queue allowing employees to plan for future appointments, perform their job, or attend to other matters while waiting their turn for badging services.
Going to the salon sometimes can seem like such a chore. For Pigtails & Crewcuts in Charlotte, North Carolina, checking customers in manually led to overcrowding and confusion for staff who'd have to locate and retrieve patrons. With QLess's customizable online appointment software, there was an immediate improvement of streamlining services. In addition to increasing profits and staff efficiency, after one month with QLess's online appointment scheduling, Pigtails & Crewcuts beat the national record for haircuts in a single day.
At a shooting range in Chicago, QLess was able to raise a retail company's profits by 50%. Maxon Shooter's Supplies and Indoor Range needed a modern edge to create a better visitor experience. Maxon wanted to use QLess's online appointment scheduling technology to eliminate lines of people waiting to shoot in addition to completing paperwork before renting or buying equipment for shooting sessions.
To help business grow, the company needed to find a way to aide the queues for frustrated customers. Company owner Dan Eldridge, experienced first-hand the QLess online appointment scheduling system while waiting at a tire shop. One month later, Maxon implemented the virtual queue allowing customers to receive a text notification when it's their time for the range without losing their place in line. After one year of the QLess online appointment software, Maxon was able to create a more satisfying experience at the range, reduce crowding, and improve service flow.
In Australia, QLess online appointment scheduling was able to revamp long campus lines and improve the student experience by freeing up space and staff time. With a student body of more than 37,000, the university needed to provide a simple and efficient way to access student services; prior, students would wait in line between classes or on their days off causing a lot of frustration from the student body.
The QLess solution was to introduce user-friendly mobile technology through its online appointment software. The university partnered with Hague Australia and it became an instant success with only three weeks for a soft launch before fully implementing the program. The QLess online scheduling software allowed students to join a virtual queue and receive text messages with their projected wait time. In the end, QLess improved:
Within three weeks, QLess's online appointment scheduling eliminated more than 2,812 hours of physical wait time.
Hardcore sports fans know the pain of waiting in line. Fans will wait on average three or four hours to wait in line to have their picture with the Stanley Cup according to FISH Technologies. FISH provides data systems that power large events and cut long queues for fans at hockey and football league events, for fan days, tens of thousands of people show up to have their photo taken with athletes and trophies. Fan events can be hectic and include:
These interactions are important to everyone, FISH needed a way to enhance the fan experience to end long lines. At these large sports events, sponsors and vendors invest a lot in the experience. The QLess platform helps vendors make a profitable return on investment by ensuring that more fans are able to circulate than spend hours in queues. QLess's online appointment scheduling turned those hours of wait into a few minutes.
Anyone who has been to the DMV knows the stress and irritation of waiting in lines, whether you're applying for or renewing licenses and registrations. QLess was able to double citizen satisfaction, boost staff productivity and morale, increase the number of citizens served by 50%, and decrease the number of no-shows by 35%. QLess's online appointment scheduling encourages citizens to join a virtual line via a mobile device, the DMV website, or at an on-site kiosk and then are notified by real-time text. When it's their turn, citizens can request more time if they're running late or reschedule to come back later.
QLess is a software that eliminates waiting in line. With online appointment scheduling, customers can join a virtual queue through a company's website, mobile device, or other web-based options. Customers then receive real-time notifications updating their appointment and wait time. Benefits of the virtual manager include:
What's worse than waiting in the doctor's office when you feel miserable and would rather be at home in bed? QLess's online appointment software revolutionized the wait for one Urgent Care center in Arizona. In 90 days, QLess launched a pilot program with the facility for a virtual check-in. Now, the virtual check-in manages 102,000 visits per year!
Patients can get in line on the clinic's web or mobile site. QLess online appointment scheduling alerts them by text 15 minutes in advance of their appointment; on the other hand, staff at the urgent care can monitor and manage the real-time virtual queues and notify patients of delays to control expectations and reduce frustration. QLess provides the urgent care with analytics across multiple clinics featuring data about each patient's experience, as well as staff productivity. This results in a 20% increase in patient satisfaction with wait times less than 30 minutes (prior, the wait was 1-3 hours).
Problem: a global chemical company needs to expedite getting drivers on the road; however, there are a lot of regulations and concerns. Using an online appointment scheduling program can help them overcome these concerns:
Drivers must complete multiple forms before leaving the premises. This causes long waits versus having the drivers out on the road, and a mess of paperwork. QLess was able to use their online appointment software to use a kiosk to process driver credentials; in the end, the company saved wait time and lowered its vehicle maintenance and operational costs (over $7 million annually). In addition, QLess online appointment scheduling was able to improve the company's processing times by 46% and increase the employee satisfaction rankings. The company also gained insight into how to correct operational obstacles and inefficiencies with analytics they can access from QLess.
In addition to serving government, healthcare, and education industries, QLess also provides online appointment scheduling to car dealerships, call centers, theme parks, and casinos. QLess strives to help industries large or small succeed and provide optimal visitor experience, we're proven to successfully increase customer satisfaction up to 99%.
Additionally, QLess works with companies to pinpoint any error for losses in revenue and/or productivity. QLess helps ensure that employees are doing meaningful work to help your business do the most it can; for example, save your logistics company millions in operational costs.
We offer ebooks, webinars, whitepapers, demos, and events so that you can do more research as to why QLess is the best choice for your business, government, or school. You'll discover how to evaluate queue management systems, optimize the customer journey, and boost customer satisfaction and growth. Sign up to get more information about the key benefits and features of online appointment scheduling through QLess.
In today’s consumer-friendly world, the importance of customer satisfaction reigns supreme, very few markets are not saturated, and your customers will have options in just about every industry. From retail to healthcare and education, your customers may just look elsewhere if the customer experience isn’t good. This is great for consumers but challenging for businesses, so finding an advantage like an SMS queue system is crucial. While the product and service you provide for your customers is a pivotal driver of success, customer service and the purchasing experience also define customer loyalty. If consumers enter your business and are greeted with hectic wait times and disorganized staff, their chances of sticking around are greatly reduced, but managing customer flow has proven difficult for businesses for years.
Luckily, we’ve now reached a point where technology has advanced enough to help in this department. SMS queue systems are virtual waiting line management systems that can be accessed through customers’ phones. These systems drastically re-shape how consumers wait to access businesses, making it easier, faster, and friction-free. Long queues are an arduous, annoying experience for customers, and many businesses lose out on customers because of them. According to SimpleTexting, "25% of people report they would only wait in line for a maximum of two minutes, while 59% wouldn’t wait longer than four minutes, 73% of people would abandon their purchase if they had to wait longer than five minutes." People anticipate rapid service, and they often walk away if a business doesn’t provide it. Let’s dive into how SMS queue systems can help, why customers love them so much, and the importance of providing an optimal customer experience.
Most businesses operate under budgetary constraints and must be cognizant of how they spend every dollar, some businesses decide not to invest in CX initiatives for this reason. Investing in infrastructure that puts customers’ needs first can be expensive, but the value businesses find from developing a top-notch customer experience strategy is significant. The better the customer experience is, the better your business will perform, it is that simple. Countless statistics illustrate just how vital investing in accommodating customer preferences is, according to Gartner, "64% of people find the customer experience more important than the price when making a purchase." "Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than companies that aren’t customer-centric," according to HubSpot. By investing in a strong customer experience, you are really investing in the growth and success of your business.
Customer experience may seem like a vague term, but there are clear factors that define the experience. According to Statista, "Lack of effectiveness (27%) and lack of speed (12%) are the two biggest causes of a poor experience." Businesses with high average wait times and poor crowd control are falling very short in these regards. If a strong customer experience is a key to creating loyal customers, then a virtual queue, like an SMS queue management system, can be a massive asset for a business. These are customer management platforms that can help improve the customer experience by streamlining the speed and efficiency with which a business operates. A digital queuing system is an easy-to-use system that benefits businesses and customers, it provides the customer with a better experience, helps the business retain the people that frequent their store or offices, and reduces exasperation on both ends. Investing in the happiness of your customers is tantamount to investing in your company’s success, and an SMS waiting line management platform is a worthwhile investment.
If you’re going to implement an SMS queue system into your business, understanding how it works and what they do will help clarify why a queue management system is valuable. Essentially, how an SMS queue system works is that customers will join a queue from their phone, they will receive accurate reports on the wait time before their turn at the front of the line comes, then they will be notified by SMS message updates on their position in line, so they can monitor their spot in line and time their presence in-store accordingly. A customer journey management platform like this has other key features as well, because it runs through SMS, many platforms, including QLess, offer bi-directional communication. Businesses can send messages to customers updating them on changes in the wait or appointments, and customers can update businesses on things like pertinent information for their appointments.
The platform also provides Business Intelligence features that are impactful for businesses, unlike a typical physical queue, where there is no way to track timing and individual experiences, virtual queuing solutions equip businesses with high-quality data on their line process. They can report general average wait times, waits for certain services or departments, and more. Businesses can also send out customer feedback surveys to learn more about how they found the experience. Essentially, SMS message queues are digitalizing the line process, rather than stand around in physical lines, customers can enter the line virtually, receive a simple text message updating them on timing, and plan accordingly. Businesses can choose to fully integrate their line in this format or blend walk-in physical lineups with a virtual queue with the flexible key features of these products. SMS queue systems are valuable digital services that transform the waiting experience.
One of the key frustrations associated with the waiting in line issue is the sensation of being in a state of inertia or lack of progress. Everyone hates standing in line because they are confined to a wait in a place they don’t want to stay for a long period, whether that is a DMV office, a retail store, an advisement appointment, or a doctor’s waiting room, long waits often frustrate us because they reduce our freedom. If you remove the physical barriers of a lineup, you are increasing your customers’ freedom and making your business more accessible. Rather than stand around in a store or office, customers now can wait where they please, they can check into the lineup from their favorite nearby coffee shop or apartment, read a book or do work while they wait, and receive SMS updates throughout the process. Essentially, they have the freedom to wait how they want.
Your business becomes more accessible because an SMS queue system like QLess often includes comprehensive appointment scheduling software. Appointment scheduling software allows customers to schedule appointments at any time, browsing by available appointment times and types. They can input critical information, receive updates and reminders for their appointments, and schedule according to their unique needs. The more accessible your services are to customers, the more likely they will use them. The appointment scheduling process doesn’t need to be a difficult experience, and neither does waiting in line, using an SMS queue system, businesses can provide a software solution that reduces the difficulty for customers, providing them with more freedom, mobility, and easier access to appointments.
Customers who spend hours standing in line often don’t emerge from the experience in the highest spirits. Often, when staff is dealing with angry or rude customers, it is because they are frustrated and feel like they haven’t been treated properly. There is no excuse for being rude to front-line staff, but by reducing wait times, businesses will likely find that their average customer’s disposition will improve. QLess and other smart queue platforms have the ability to drastically reduce the wait times for your business. Data from QLess shows that some customers have managed to shorten wait times by 97% and increased staff productivity by 90%. These are drastic transformations that not only improve the customer experience but also help businesses increase their efficiency and profitability.
An SMS queue management system has advanced features that dramatically improve speed, not only do they reduce queue lengths within the store, but they make it easier for staff to manage the queue and adjust to changes in real-time. The smart queue can be automated to ensure that people find the right appointments at the right time, the queue is broken down according to appointment type and other differentiating factors, and customers are seamlessly organized and moved based on their appointment time or spot in line which means that in-store congestion is down and efficiency is up, As staff has their workflows arranged for them, their day-to-day work is more organized allowing more rapid progression through the line and less time spent dealing with dissatisfied customers.
The business intelligence features also go a long way toward reducing wait times. According to Tech Jury, "Data analytics makes decision-making 5x faster for business." Business intelligence from SMS queue systems allows enterprises to understand more about operational bottlenecks, they can see departments or times of day where waits tend to be the longest and adjust their strategy accordingly. The less your customers have to wait, the happier they will be, dissatisfied customers are a significant problem for a business, but by cutting back on wait times, a more frictionless experience for all parties can be achieved.
Everyone is familiar with that feeling while standing in line. The line is moving at a fraction of the speed you want it to, time feels like it is moving at a snail’s pace, and the anxiety and frustration begin to mount. Waiting in a queue can be a truly agitating experience for something we find ourselves doing so often, while waits to some extent, are an inevitable part of providing a product or service to a large number of people, that stressful feeling doesn’t need to be a part of the wait. One of the advantages of queuing system software is that it completely transforms the queue experience, it is no longer an anxiety-inducing, uncertain wait that feels deeply impersonal. SMS queue systems provide accurate insights into what the actual waiting time will be, help maintain consistent communication between staff and customers, and ensure that all customers need for their wait is a cell phone.
The psychology of waiting in line has been studied significantly, one of the key findings from David H. Maister’s The Psychology of Waiting Lines is that, "Unknown wait times feel longer than known wait times." If customers stand in line without understanding when that line will end, that wait will feel drastically longer. Another takeaway from this study was that, "Unexplained waits feel longer than explained waits." If customers don’t understand why their wait is taking so long, it will feel longer and make them more irritable. SMS queue systems make for a stress-free queue experience by giving your customers a clear idea of how long their wait will be. There are SMS updates throughout indicating wait times, making it a vastly more transparent experience. If there are changes in the lineup or with staff, businesses can send custom messages to customers, so their waits are explained. This creates a painless queue experience devoid of the usual stressors that lead to a bad time in line.
Customer loyalty is how businesses stay alive. Attracting new customers is essential to establishing and growing your business, but if you can’t keep the customers you’ve already attracted, your churn rate will be too high, and you’ll find your business losing money. Regardless of the industry, finding ways to retain your customers is the only way to ensure a bright future for your enterprise, the data supports a customer retention mindset for businesses. According to Outbound Engine, "Acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining a current one, and by increasing retention by just 5%, companies can increase profits from 25-95%." Investing in strategies that will help retain customers is the decision many businesses worldwide are making. QLess helps removes one of the biggest obstacles to increasing satisfaction and loyalty: a negative customer service situation.
Customers quickly disengage with a company due to a negative customer service experience. According to Microsoft, "58% of American consumers will switch companies because of poor customer service." A report from Glad showed that, "78% of customers have backed out of a purchase because of poor customer service."
Most of the time, bad customer service isn’t because the staff is disinterested or poorly trained, it is often not the front-line staff’s fault. Slow business processes and long wait times are out of the staff’s control, but they bear the brunt of customers’ anger. By streamlining business processes and eliminating the need for in-person waits, an SMS queue system will have a marked impact on customer retention. This customer-friendly solution is designed to minimize one of the most difficult aspects of purchasing a product or service, it empowers customers with additional freedom and mobility while reducing wait times and providing invaluable data to businesses.
Your customers want to feel heard, they want to feel like businesses value them, like their patronage matters. Most enterprises struggle to accommodate that feeling, it can be difficult to be responsive to the unique needs of a constant flow of customers throughout the day, but ensuring that businesses provide their customers a personalized service is essential. According to Startup Bonsai, "80% of consumers are likelier to buy from a business that provides a tailored experience." One of the best ways to engage your customers is through an SMS queue system that opens communication between staff and shoppers. If you’ve ever been late for an appointment, tried to call the office, and been unable to contact staff, you know how important a clear line of communication is. QLess has bi-directional communication features that help staff and customers in several ways:
For customers, it opens the door to a more communicative, engaging experience. The ability to ask staff questions from your phone, understand why there’s additional waiting time, and update with additional information regarding your appointments leads to a more engaged customer. The feeling of just passing through a business or office is reduced, as customers can send or receive custom messages that feel like authentic human interactions.
For businesses, a more communicative customer has a lot of value. If it is hard for your customers to communicate with you, it can be difficult for your business to receive updates on delays and cancellations. This can limit the speed with which a business adapts, but if you have an SMS queue system with appointment software, you can quickly have appointments move around, so the customer flow isn’t disrupted which leads to a higher capacity for customer intake. Engaged customers are happy customers, and empowering the people that frequent your business with more open communication channels goes a long way. It helps create a personalized experience and gives your business a more flexible response to changes.
If you want to connect with the people that frequent your business and make a strong impression, utilizing the methods of communication they prefer is an impactful decision. Not every customer communicates the same way, but some tendencies make sense for a business to try and accommodate. One of the biggest ones is the average consumer’s preference for smartphone technology, some businesses prefer emails, others phone calls, but the typical consumer will want to interact with your business using their smartphone. According to the Pew Research Center, "85% of Americans own a smartphone of some kind." The ability to chat and message on smartphones is more rapid and informal than email but less intrusive than phone calls. These kinds of convenient smartphone communications have grown in popularity since the onset of the pandemic, particularly with younger demographics, according to a report from Google.
The same report shows that, "68% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a business if they offer convenient communications." With such a significant share of the population utilizing smartphones, businesses should align their communication strategy accordingly. The simplified communication of smartphone technology goes a long way, particularly for rapid communication like late notices, appointment reminders, and questions for upcoming appointments. If you want to match the preferences of your customers, an SMS queue system is a mobile solution perfect for the smartphone-driven world, while QLess has a virtual queue app for Android and iOS users, the SMS queuing system can be used by anyone with a phone. It is easy to grasp, can be taken with customers wherever they go and allows for more rapid and efficient communications between staff and shoppers.
There is a reason that customer-driven businesses tend to succeed more than businesses that don’t prioritize their customers. The happier your customer is, the likelier they are to return, and the more growth you will have. Investing in strategies that align with your customers’ preferences, make their experience within your business easier, and remove some of the primary obstacles that lead to dissatisfaction is a must. That is why more and more businesses across industries are investing in SMS queue technology. SMS queue technology is a queue management solution that allows customers to join lines from their mobile phones, spot the estimated wait time, and receive SMS updates regarding their appointments. They can message back and forth with staff for a more communicative experience, these features drastically reduce wait time and make for a more pleasant waiting experience, as they have the option to wait for their appointments from wherever they are.
For businesses, SMS queue systems are similarly beneficial, they improve customer loyalty and reduce the number of dissatisfied customers a business will have to interact with. They also provide essential business intelligence and data into operation performance, so businesses can understand and confront key bottlenecks. The flexible appointment software makes it easier to overcome missed or late appointments. Overall, SMS queue systems are a powerful solution that customers love, they help businesses offer a more personal, stress-free interaction and cut down on one of the biggest roadblocks to an enjoyable experience: long wait times and physical lines. With an SMS queue system, wait times are reduced, physical lines are a thing of the past, and the customer experience is brought to the forefront.
Healthcare organizations have a clear imperative to evolve alongside technology. Technology has already transformed the industry numerous times, whether it's new medicines, ways to diagnose, or equipment. While keeping up with the constant stream of innovations is difficult for the average organization, it is important. In a hugely competitive industry, implementing technologies that make the lives of your patients easier and more convenient is a must. That is what a patient queue management system can do.
Patient flow significantly impacts the quality of care your customers receive. Congested patient flow means long waits in crowded waiting rooms. This is a safety hazard for customers and a risk for healthcare organizations. Customers are stuck in long waits and are rarely satisfied with their experience.
What patient queue management systems do is virtually organize healthcare organizations’ patient calendars. It is a system where customers can schedule appointments, check in virtually for their appointments, and monitor the wait time online.
For healthcare offices, these systems help them organize their calendar and control their day-to-day without needing the same time investment and organization work. These systems' biggest impact is improving customer service and patient experience. The healthcare industry struggles to provide consistently positive customer experiences because they are overburdened with huge demand, and their customers are often ailing when they arrive. Wait times and the waiting experience are significant frustrating components of the healthcare experience. According to Binary Fountain, 43% of patients find this to be the most frustrating aspect of their doctor visits.
A patient queue management system has the potential to flip the script, providing a positive waiting experience and enabling smoother operations. Let’s look at some of the ways a management system like QLess can streamline the patient care journey and create a more efficient healthcare organization.
A crowded waiting room is a norm in the typical patient journey. Whether you are visiting your doctor’s office or the emergency room, chances are you will be in for a significant wait.
Wait times are a natural part of an industry when doctors, nurses, and front desk staff can’t handle the pace of customer flow. However, not only do patients dislike them, but they can also pose a hazard to your patients. Patients who are seeking medical assistance, whether at their primary care providers or a chiropractor, are dealing with some kind of ailment. A lot of the time, these are benign things that can be cured and aren’t transmissible.
However, there are a lot of other circumstances where patients are made to sit in a crowded waiting room with many other customers, many carrying contagious illnesses. This has become all the more prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are entering a period where the worst days of the pandemic appear to be behind us, but concerns linger. COVID caused a significant spike in fears of crowds, and understandably so. Being in large groups became dangerous, and healthcare centers were at the heart of it.
Patients dealing with symptoms would head to emergency rooms or doctors' offices, which made waiting areas a significant hazard. Even as the virus has died down, concerns over crowded waiting areas remain significant. According to a QLess survey 250 US men and women aged 45+, 59.4% agreed that they associate crowded waiting rooms and lines with potentially unsafe conditions. That is why healthcare offices have an imperative to make their waiting areas less crowded. Customers will feel and likely be safer, leading to better health outcomes and higher patient satisfaction.
There are answers for organizations that want to remove congestion in their waiting spaces. Yes, waits are an inevitable part of the healthcare system, but they don’t necessarily have to involve physical congestion.
A patient queue management system can give a health care provider a solution that enables virtual waiting. This has the potential to eliminate physical waits in crowded waiting rooms.
A queue management system for clinics or hospitals works in a straightforward way. Your customers check in for their appointment on their phones. They receive a projected wait using real-time data. They’ll receive updates throughout their wait from the system, notifying them when it is time to enter the office. When it is time for their appointment, they can walk into the office and either complete any in-person check-in process or enter the office for their appointment.
The upside is that customers don’t have to be in your waiting room to be checked in. It is a straightforward path to removing physical queues and ensuring the spread of contagion in your office is minimized. This serves to make the care process more customer-friendly and seamless.
The QLess features enable businesses to set preferences for their calendar, favoring customers with appointments, prioritizing certain appointment types, or abiding by any other kinds of rules.Wait times do happen; that is a normal part of medical care. However, long in-person waits aren’t the necessity many clinics and offices believe. That is why doctor’s offices and urgent care clinics worldwide have been implementing QLess and patient queue management systems. Packed waiting rooms are both unnecessary and a source of anxiety for customers. Eliminating this and implementing a virtual waiting room will decongest your business and create a safer work environment.
A significant component of a positive customer experience is good communication. This is all the more important in healthcare, where communication often falls by the wayside. The communication components of the QLess’ patient queue management system ensure customers arrive on time for their appointments and don’t miss them. They do this by providing bi-directional communication features that allow patients and staff to message back and forth. This makes the check-in process drastically smoother. Your patients can message staff to provide updates, and staff can respond, allowing for easy and natural virtual communication. Unlike emails, which often go unopened or are sent to junk folders, these messages will go straight to customers' phones, increasing the likelihood they are seen and responded to.
The use of communication features can help with customer service, the waiting process, and reducing appointment no-shows. With customer service, your patients want to feel that their voices are heard. They want staff to be accessible and to have delays explained to them. Patients also want to be able to provide updates on their health.
The QLess communication features allow healthcare staff to message customers at scale. They can schedule automated messages, send mass messages to specific groups, or customize their message to individuals. QLess for healthcare also has automated notification features that help throughout the appointment process. They notify customers of their spot in line when they’ve checked in and provide updates throughout. That way, customers can arrive for their appointments at the right time without disrupting customer flow.
The automated notification features are also impactful appointment reminders that can be sent via SMS to customers. This will help reduce appointment no-shows.
With QLess, staff can schedule automated reminders for customers via SMS. Customers can respond to confirm their appointments or cancel them. This will remove some of the day-of mystery over whether customers will arrive and ensure that the rate of appointment no-shows will decline.
Overall, better communication means a smoother end-to-end process for customers and more clarity for businesses. The QLess healthcare virtual queue software makes mass communication easier and more efficient, helping medical care offices stay connected.
There are a lot of ways to achieve success in the healthcare industry. Quality care is the biggest determiner of your ability to survive and thrive as a business in this field. But just as important is customer satisfaction. Quality care is important to satisfaction, but it isn’t the end-all. Customer service, convenience, and patient comfort both go a long way toward determining whether you earn a repeat customer or a one-time, dissatisfied patient.
A patient queue management system can help ensure healthcare offices earn customer loyalty by creating a more comfortable and convenient experience. Customer convenience is not something businesses should overlook in this age of options. Customers exist in a marketplace with nearly limitless options, and more often than not, what determines their decision-making is how convenient something is to them.
Consumers emphasize speed and convenience. These are two of the last things that come to mind when you enter the typical waiting room. Sitting in a crowded waiting room with old magazines and a TV playing the muted news is hardly an enjoyable, fast, or convenient experience.
However, with QLess, customers can now remotely check-in. That means they can wait for their appointments from wherever they please, with updates coming to them through their phone. This makes the waiting process drastically more convenient.The QLess patient scheduling system has also made the waiting process much more efficient.
QLess can improve operational efficiencies by up to 90% and reduce the number of patients waiting by up to 35%. By automating the line and appointment schedule, QLess improves the speed of a healthcare organization. Cutting down on service time will go a long way toward creating happier and more loyal customers.
Customer experience is a big indicator of success. That's why minimizing wait times and improving the waiting experience are so important. According to research from Vitals, the shorter the wait time in a doctor’s office, the higher their online reviews and ratings are, and 84% of customers believe that wait times are important to their overall experience at a doctor’s office.
QLess helps create a more convenient, quick, and comfortable wait, which will significantly impact patient loyalty.
The average customer healthcare organizations interact with today is different from their previous typical customer. That is because more customers than ever are now embracing digital solutions. The popularity of smartphones and mobile devices has surged to the point that they are now ubiquitous. Digitization has become popular for every industry. Customers now emphasize technology as a core part of their experience, and businesses can improve interactions with patients by implementing more technology into their patient journey.
Customers' reliance on digital technology isn’t limited to your youngest customers. It is now people of all ages are incredibly reliant on mobile and digital technology for everything from communication to organization. According to the Pew Research Center, "61% of seniors (age 65+) now own a smartphone, which is rapid growth from the 13% of seniors that owned a smartphone in 2012. For ages 18-29 and 30-49, that number is 96% and 95%, respectively". Most people own and constantly use smartphones, and many want them to be a part of their healthcare experience.
Also, 90.7% prefer to receive communications through their phone, either through text messages, phone calls, or a mobile app, rather than email. Customers rely on their phones and want their healthcare offices to accommodate that.
QLess perfectly aligns with the digital and mobile tendencies of the modern customer. Customers can do everything from schedule to wait in line for their appointments, all with just a tap of their digital screen. Rather than emailing customers for appointment reminders and communications, businesses can message them directly through their mobile devices. Customers also receive information on their waiting times from their smartphone devices.
Providing high-quality care to customers is dependent on meeting their standards. Customers of all ages are now heavily invested in their usage of mobile devices and expect businesses to communicate and augment their experience through their smartphone devices. Healthcare organizations would be smart to invest in digitization that meets the demands of the modern mobile-driven patient.
Healthcare staff faces a momentous challenge in monitoring customer flow. Front-desk staff is tasked with a difficult job, one that is subject to human error. They have to control a stream of customers, ensure they fill in check-in details correctly, and communicate back and forth with doctors and nurses. It isn’t easy, particularly when the healthcare office faces substantial customer demand. Their job is all the more difficult when customers are irate from long lines or illnesses. Lightening the load of front-desk workers, nurses, and doctors is important, as they have so much on their plate.
This patient appointment software will give offices greater visibility and control over their operations, increasing business predictability and allowing offices to adapt to changes on the fly. The calendar feature is a virtual calendar that is color-coded to make it easier to understand at a glance. It shows a daily or monthly appointment calendar and is organized to display important information.
Staff can see the time o different appointments, the types of appointments booked, and the employee servicing them.
This is an easy, efficient way to view your day-to-day, so staff is more aware of what work lies ahead of them. The calendar can also be controlled by staff or automated. It is a flexible system for overseeing appointments and customer flow, allowing businesses to adjust to changes more effectively. If a customer is running late but has notified staff, they can be moved out of line and put on hold so that the flow isn’t disrupted and the customer still gets an appointment. If a customer doesn’t show up within an allotted time, they can simply be moved out of the virtual line without stalling the line too dramatically.
QLess makes controlling and automating a complicated hospital queue and appointment schedule far easier. It increases the visibility of staff schedules, ensuring they are prepared for appointments and aware of what’s next throughout the day. It also makes organizations more efficient by ensuring they have a flexible calendar that can be manually or automatically managed.
A patient queue management system streamlines the experience your customers have while waiting for care, but this queuing solution also helps in another critical area. It serves as a tool that allows enterprises to collect objective and subjective information from their customers. This is done with two powerful features, the business intelligence features, and the customer feedback feature. Together, they provide healthcare offices with greater clarity into how they perform and what they need to change.
The QLess business intelligence software is a feature that collects objective data from your customers. Because patients are using QLess to check in and wait for their appointments, the software can collect important data from customers and report it to organizations.
QLess collects data like the median wait time, transaction time, number of customers served in a day, and the appointment no-show percentage. That data is reported in charts and graphs that can be filtered according to different criteria. With this information, healthcare organizations can see what areas of their business might be due for improvement. If there are substantial wait times at certain times of day, adding staff or changing processes to adjust might be necessary. If your appointment no-show percentage has spiked, implementing more reminders on the dates leading up to appointments can solve this problem.
With the QLess patient experience data, healthcare offices can better understand a crucial aspect of their operation. Meanwhile, the customer feedback feature allows businesses to solicit and store subjective data.
Knowing how your customers perceive your healthcare office is extremely important. With the QLess customer feedback features, businesses can send automated SMS pulse survey requests to customers immediately after their appointments. These requests can include an embedded survey with questions to customers that offices want to know more about. If you see consistent customer complaints about one aspect of your business, that is highly valuable information. Better understanding the patient journey requires consistent reevaluation and tweaking of processes. If patients complain that something isn’t working for them, understanding that is the first step toward making improvements.
QLess allows healthcare offices to collect objective and subjective information on their processes. Knowing your organization’s strengths and weaknesses will allow offices to identify what needs to change.
The waiting experience is something no customer enjoys, but it is considered an inevitable part of business. In the healthcare industry, waits tend to be long, which can be dangerous due to the nature of the industry. Many organizations seek a way to cut patient wait times and ensure the experience is less risky and more comfortable.
A patient queue management system is a way to do this. A patient queue management system is an impactful solution that ensures a more positive patient experience while improving efficiency and communication. With remote check-in and a virtual queue management system, customers can wait in line for their appointments without ever needing to enter the business. Their virtual visit will be improved with efficient communication features showcasing the actual wait times, so they can enter the business only when needed.
Healthcare offices deal with ailing patients, many of whom may be contagious. Limiting crowds and congestion is an effective way to maximize customers’ comfort and minimize the risk of contagion. This will help healthcare offices stand out as a more patient-friendly option, driving customer loyalty.