13 Benefits of Virtual Queue Systems

Everyone hates waiting in a queue. That’s not just a generalization – it’s psychology. Clever businesses know this and find the latest ways to minimize wait times for customers to create a more positive experience.

A classic example of this is at Houston Airport, where disgruntled travellers would complain about having to wait at the baggage claim. When increasing staff to reduce wait time made zero impact on the number of complaints made, Houston Airport decided to move the baggage claim far away from the terminal. Passengers now had to walk a distance six times longer than before to reach their bags, with shorter queues forming as a result.

Complaints disappeared.

M.I.T researcher Richard Larson is an expert on queueing psychology, and explains that this is because unoccupied time (where people stand around waiting) feels much longer than occupied time (where people are browsing other shops, reading, or enjoying other leisure activities).

Having long queues is a business-killer, whether you’re a fashion retailer, a dentist, or a government agency. Without a means of reducing lines and managing customer wait-times, you’re at risk of losing customer loyalty – not to mention creating a stressful environment for both customers and staff.

That’s why virtual queue systems are so effective and necessary for businesses around the world. By implementing an intelligent, cloud-based, and automated system that tells your customers their place in the queue and how long they have to wait, businesses are able to reap a number of benefits.

We’ll explain how virtual queue software like Skiplino creates so many benefits for businesses and their customers.

1. Virtual Appointment Software Reduces Customer Wait Times

The most powerful benefit of a virtual queue system is the ability to dramatically reduce wait times for customers.

By booking a spot using a virtual queue app, either remotely or when they walk in, customers can know exactly how long they’ll be waiting or schedule a time that works best for them.

Whether you’re a retail store or an insurance provider, customers are far less likely to use your services if they have to queue for long periods of time. Long, disorganized queues create less-than-ideal scenarios such as disgruntled customers and overstressed staff.

With a virtual queue system like Skiplino, businesses can minimize queues and the unsightly appearance of long wait times that put customers off.

FAQ: What is Skiplino?

Skiplino offers software for queue management, booking appointments, virtual branches, and more using cloud-based solutions for both remote and walk-in customers. Find out more here.

2. Implementing A Virtual Appointment Program Boosts Customer Loyalty

Virtual appointment software creates positive experiences for customers, so people are far more likely to return to your store.

Because customers are able to use a virtual queue app to book their spot in advance or know exactly how long they have to wait for your services, they’ll already feel valued by your business because their time has been respected.

Nearly three-quarters of customers want to try a competitor after having just one negative experience with a company, the impact of service experience and customer loyalty is clear.

With Skiplino’s Appointment Booking feature, customers can use their smartphone to schedule their own appointment with your business.

By successfully reducing wait times with a virtual appointment program such as Skiplino, businesses can benefit from an increase in customer loyalty.

FAQ: Can Skiplino be used offline?

Skiplino is a cloud-based virtual queue management system (so it uses the internet). This eliminates the hassle of wiring and complicated set-up processes that come with locally-hosted systems.

3. Using Virtual Queues Improves Customer Service

Business owners can dramatically improve their customer service by implementing a virtual queue system.

If a customer has to wait in a queue before even speaking to a representative, the customer’s experience is already off to a poor start before your service has begun. 50% of shoppers become frustrated and stop shopping when they see a long queue.

By dramatically reducing wait times with virtual appointment software, businesses can improve the quality of their services in the following ways:

Customers can’t stand waiting with unoccupied time (such as standing in a queue with nothing to interact with) and are more likely to complain to staff and overestimate the amount of time they’ve been waiting.

But, queueing psychology indicates that customers are happy to wait if their time is spent productively, such as walking to a baggage collection at an airport or browsing nearby stores at your location.

With Skiplino’s virtual queue system and appointment booking app, customers get the freedom to do whatever they like with their time while keeping track of their place in the queue and knowing exactly when they’ll be speaking to a representative. 

4. Virtual Queue Apps Manage Communication Effectively

Identifying a customer’s requirements in-store takes up valuable time for both customers and staff. By utilizing virtual appointment software and using a virtual queue app, your business can communicate more efficiently with customers and cater to their needs – digitally and in-store.

Here’s how virtual queue systems streamline the communication process:

1. Using the virtual queue app, customers can select their language preference and even clarify what they’re looking for before entering the store.
2. Businesses can keep in touch with customers using automated notifications sent by the virtual queue app, alerting them to their place in the queue.
3. Delays, cancellations, or changes to your service can be communicated instantly and digitally through the app.

The importance of communication is highly relevant to virtual queue systems. Studies into the psychology of queueing show that customers feel much happier waiting in line when they know exactly how long they need to wait.

In 1950s New York City, this knowledge of queuing psychology was applied to the elevators in newly-built skyscrapers. To improve the agonizing wait of taking an elevator to the top floor, architects added floor-indicators to keep people informed of how much longer they had to wait.

At Skiplino, our virtual queue app uses this knowledge of queueing psychology by keeping customers informed about their wait time on their smartphone. Find out more about how it works here.

5. Virtual Waiting Rooms Minimize In-Store Traffic

Virtual appointment systems and virtual appointment software allow businesses to reduce in-store congestion.

When potential customers see that your store is busy and congested with queues, they’re more likely to go somewhere else. Plus, customers are easily confused by in-store congestion and are often unable to see helpful signage or communicate with customer service staff.

By integrating a virtual queue system within your store, customers who are waiting can go elsewhere knowing they won’t miss their spot in the queue and walk-in customers can easily find their way to the right kiosk using the virtual queue app.

This ensures that, even at peak times, your store is a clear and inviting space. Both your customers and your staff will be grateful for the peaceful environment.

6. Having A Virtual Queue System Ensures Social Distancing

By offering a touchless customer experience and managing queues digitally, businesses using virtual appointment software are able to maintain social distancing measures.

With recent global changes, social distancing must be adhered to so that we can minimize the risk of infection and protect the immunocompromised. Virtual queue systems are an effective way for businesses to protect their staff, their customers, and their level of operation throughout a pandemic.

To try and minimize the risk of infection, businesses around the world are implementing the following measures:

• Enforcing the use of hand sanitizer
• Limiting the number of people in a store
• Making hallways and aisled one-way
• Implementing mask requirements

While these behaviours are effective in reducing the spread of infection, they can put-off potential customers and reduce productivity and daily revenue for businesses.

By implementing virtual queue software, you can adhere to regulations whilst protecting your ongoing business activity.

The digital experience of using a virtual queue app ensures an entirely touchless process, and the reduced wait times and minimized congestion mean customers can maintain a safe distance in your store.

Read more about Skiplino’s commitment to protecting customers and employees during the recent pandemic.

7. Virtual Appointment Software Promotes Staff Efficiency

When your store is experiencing large queues and customer congestion, employees must man the desk at all times – so any other non-customer-facing tasks are not prioritized.

Virtual appointment software allows staff to know exactly who they will be seeing and when. Between set appointments or gaps in the queue, staff can use the information provided in-advance about customers to do the following:

• Fetch any necessary paperwork for the customer’s requirements
• Prepare other resources or staff members who may be helpful to the customer
• Read about the customer’s history to get more context about their recent experiences at the business
• Be able to finish any other necessary tasks in a priority order

By reducing in-store congestion and managing incoming customers, virtual appointment systems allow employees to take care of important tasks other than manning the desk. The tasks that would otherwise be rushed during quieter hours, such as follow-up calls, outbound sales conversations, and cleaning the premises, can now be prioritized and organized effectively throughout the day.

8. The Benefits of Virtual Queue Systems Nurture Staff Satisfaction

With the help of virtual queue systems, you can reduce stressful situations for staff while creating a healthier work environment.

The following three benefits of virtual queue systems also promote staff well-being:

1. Minimized in-store congestion creates a less stressful environment where the staff has time to organize their tasks and prepare for their next customer.
2. Streamlined communication through automated notifications allows staff to know about their customer in-advance, which minimizes confusion at the desk.
3. Paperless operation through the virtual queue app means staff has less paperwork to worry about when preparing for customers because all information is handled digitally.

9. You Can Analyze & Utilize Data With Virtual Queue Software

Queue management systems provide business owners and managers with in-depth reports and data to help identify and respond to potential service strengths and weaknesses.

A cloud-based queue management system empowers managers with invaluable insights into the operations at each branch.

With the following historic and real-time metrics:

• Customer numbers
• Staff numbers
• Customer feedback
• Staff productivity

Managers have the information they need to make informed decisions that will improve their quality of service, maximize productivity, and scale-up their business.

FAQ: Does Skiplino have an app that customers can use for queue management?

Yes! Customers can use Skiplino’s virtual queue system in the following ways:

By using a tablet in-store to reserve a place in the queue and be given a ticketBy downloading the app onto their smartphone and booking appointments remotely

Skiplino also offers other customer-facing software, like remote booking for one, which you can learn more about here. 

10. Reports From Virtual Queue Systems Help Managers To Allocate Resources 

By presenting you with valuable data on incoming customers and queue numbers, virtual appointment software allows businesses to correctly allocate resources and staff to stores that will be busy.

With detailed reports available at your fingertips, you can identify and respond to the following four instances where resources could be allocated more effectively:

• Trends in customer behaviour: if consistent data points to your premises being busier and quieter on certain days, you can reallocate staff to provide a consistent quality of service throughout the week.
• Location foot traffic: reports could demonstrate a surge in foot traffic at a particular branch, indicating you need to transfer or hire more staff for that location.
• Customer feedback: consistent negative or positive feedback about certain employees presents opportunities for further training or rewards.
• Employee performance: insights into performance metrics create healthy competition between staff and a more motivating work environment.

Skiplino’s virtual queue software for Retail is perfectly suited to businesses that can gain invaluable insights into their businesses by monitoring customer behaviour such as tracking customer numbers and the amount of time they spend in-store.

11. Implementing A Virtual Queue System Leads To Reduced Costs

The ability to respond to ongoing customer data and reports, as well as the improvements to staff productivity, wait times, and customer satisfaction, lead to the overall optimization of costs to run a business.

When customers are queueing for your services, your business is losing money. Studies show that crowded environments make customers far less willing to purchase a product. The European Retail Report 2018 showed that long queues were a critical reason why customers abandoned their purchases leading to a  £14.3 billion loss in sales.

By minimizing wait time and eradicating physical queues in your store, you’re effectively minimizing the cost of losing a customer to a competitor.

What’s more, implementing a virtual queue app is a step in the right direction to go completely paperless. Businesses spend an estimated $8 billion on paper every year, which is a precious resource.

By digitizing forms and streamlining procedures, virtual queue systems such as Skiplino help businesses reduce their paper consumption. 

12. Virtual Queue Apps Allow Businesses To Receive & Respond To Feedback

A virtual queue app encourages customers to leave detailed feedback about their experience, which managers can use to identify challenges, reward staff, and swiftly respond to performance issues.

Customer feedback is valuable, and customers are more likely to provide feedback when it’s automated, paperless, and easy! 

Asking for feedback is the most powerful thing a business can do to connect with customers and staff and improve their services. 68% of staff feel motivated in their jobs when provided with consistent feedback from their managers.

Implementing a virtual queue system through a user-friendly app integrates feedback within the customer’s experience, so they’re far more likely to tell you about how helpful they found your services.

You can personalize the app to ask for specific feedback, acquiring more detailed insights into how your staff is performing and where you can develop your customer service capability.

Check out Skiplino’s pricing to find a package that suits your business.

13. The Benefits of Virtual Appointment Software Maximizes Potential Revenue

By providing a birds-eye view of business performance, managers can use ongoing data and reports from a virtual queue system to improve procedures and eliminate service bottlenecks.

The following responses to virtual queue systems increase the profitability of your business:

With Skiplino’s Admin app, business owners and managers can access Skiplino’s detailed reports into customer behaviour, staff performance, and even branch performance on a monthly basis to make informed decisions based on accurate data and watch the difference this makes to your business success. 

Conclusion on Virtual Queue Systems

With the help of a virtual queue system like Skiplino, businesses can reap the benefits of reducing customer wait times and promoting a safe, productive, and efficient work environment for staff.

By gaining valuable insights into customer behaviour and staff performance, business owners and branch managers can use Skiplino to make informed decisions that improve their business and support its scale-up process.

Skiplino’s products are perfect for a wide range of businesses, from small-scale hair salons to large-scale government agencies. Start your 7-day trial today.