Keeping Customers Happy Even When There Are Lines!

All of us can probably agree: lines can make one grumpy!  And,  lines are everywhere: schools, airports, restaurants, retail stores, government agencies.

Businesses take lines seriously. They have to: no one wants grumpy customers annoyed about waiting times and abandoning the purchase, entirely, because of a line.

Waiting isn't as bad -- there's Friday's Brews & Bites!

That's where queuing management comes into play -- and it isn't just about shortening the line.  Queue theory, a 100-year old field of study, has transitioned from the purely mathematical to more of a psychological analysis of lines and their impact.

Automated line management systems are available to make the wait process more efficient.  Typically, an effective system can provide a 15-35% improvement from end-to-end.  Everyone likes the idea of less time in line but ... reducing a 3 1/2 minute wait by 25 seconds doesn't always register as a significant improvement to the average consumer. It's still a wait.

Just as important -- if not more so -- is perceived wait time -- the psychological component of line management.

There can be up to a 40% decrease in perceived wait time with a good automated line system keeping customers up-to-date about what to expect and both occupied and distracted by marketing and informational messaging.  It's play-off season; who wouldn't mind waiting when they knew they'd see the latest game score? Or, learning about Friday night's free wine tasting!

What's your business doing to keep your lines moving -- and your customers happy?  Take a look at CPS' QuikLine automated line management solution!

How to Manage Retail Customer Lines & Improve Customer Satisfaction

Lines are a very big topic these days.  It's Memorial Day Weekend and there are media reports of record numbers of travelers and record long lines anticipated through TSA checkpoints at airports.

Shoppers appreciate social fairness while waiting in line!

In comparison, it might seem trivial to talk about lines of 10 or 20 people at a retail store.  Yet, from the retailer's perspective, lines are anything but small talk.  The retail checkout line is a critical aspect in the "total" shopping experience and, because of balking and reneging possibilities, there's a possibility that a sale can very well be lost because of a line.

Perry Kuklin, writing in Business2Community, suggests consumers would consider not returning to a location with long or badly managed lines -- and would probably tell others about the experience.  And, social media outlets are available everywhere for disappointed consumer stories.

What's a retailer to do? There's actually an established body of knowledge regarding lines -- operations management and queueing theory. Queueing theory has been around since the early 1900's.  However, the focus has transitioned from mathematical theory to shopper experiences.  There are 3 basic tenets: people get bored while waiting in line, consumers don't like expecting a short wait and experiencing a long one and the experience needs to be perceived as fair.

Retailers have added all sorts of ways to combat line boredom from impulse items next to the line to demographics-sensitive music and always-on monitors running video and news. Shoppers tend to mind waiting less when provided with estimated wait lines (think: Disneyland).

However, the biggest line issue (and, therefore, the most emotion-laden) is the quest for fairness. Dick Larson is considered one of the foremost queue management scholars and he notes there have been incidents of "queue rage" when the concept of social fairness has been breached.

CPS' QuikLine helps manage the social fairness aspect of consumer line expectations.  Whether implemented with a serpentine line or a series of individual lines, QuikLine signals for the next person when a checkout location becomes available (an example of call-forward queueing). It can display results on a monitor, call out an available register and prompt lights to flash. Coupled with impulse items at the checkout stand and great background music, QuikLine will help minimize actual wait time and the emotional impact of waiting for retail consumers. End result: improved customer satisfaction!

Does automated line management make the line move faster??

We've talked about lines before: no one likes them and... they're all around us!

Businesses take lines seriously. They have to: no one wants grumpy customers annoyed about waiting and sometimes abandoning the purchase, entirely, because of a line.

Waiting isn't as bad -- there's Friday's Brews & Bites!

That's where queuing management comes into play -- and it isn't just about shortening the line.  Queue theory, a 100-year old field of study, has transitioned from the purely mathematical to more of a psychological analysis of lines and their impact.

Automated line management systems are available to make the wait process more efficient.  Typically, an effective system can provide a 15-35% improvement from end-to-end.  Everyone likes the idea of less time in line but ... reducing a 3 1/2 minute wait by 25 seconds doesn't always register as a significant improvement to the average consumer.  It's still a wait.

Just as important -- it not more so -- is perceived wait time. There can be up to a 40% decrease in perceived wait time with a good automated line system keeping customers both occupied and distracted by marketing and informational messaging.  It's play-off season; who wouldn't mind waiting when they knew they'd see the latest game score? Or, learning about Friday night's free wine tasting!

What's your business doing to keep your lines moving -- and your customers happy?  Take a look at CPS' QuikLine solution!

Lines: there's more than checkout at the end of that wait!

Lines...we can probably agree that they'll always be with us.

Businesses are putting queue theory (a mathematical process developed over 100 years ago) to work to make the line wait process both faster -- and more tolerable for their customers.  In addition, effective line management can enhance a retailer's bottom line, too!

Take the line out of waiting!

There's nothing worse than a customer, irritated with either the time or process, leaving a line, abandoning their purchase.  All the marketing dollars spent bring the customer into the store plus the time, energy and money spent to make the shopping experience as good as possible...lost! That's backlash and reneging in retail-speak.

Perry Kulkin, in a customer experience blog, notes 38% of customers wouln't return to a store with long or badly managed lines and 81% of dissatisfied shoppers will tell others about an unpleasant checkout line experience.

That's where automated line management systems help: both in expediting customers through the checkout process and reducing the perceived wait time through technology such as digital signage.

Effective line management also provides for increased sales volume with end-of-the line impulse purchases.  In-line merchandising has been said to "take the line out of waiting" with the ability to continue shopping while being processed through the checkout experience. When coupled with  call-forward electronic queuing (or automated line management), in-line merchandising rewards the retailer with up to a 400% increase in impulse sales, according to Kulkin.

And, line queuing management is where digital technology really shines as it can easily transition digital signs from reminding the regular shopper about Monday's sale to suggesting Friday night's wine tasting to the occasional drop-in customer.  Different messages, different profiles, different times of day -- easily managed through a comprehensive line management system.

CPS offers QuikLine -- an automated line management system geared towards enhancing the customer experience and the retailer's bottom line.  Let's talk about how your checkout process can be more than the end of the line!

Waiting in line: keep it fair!

All of us have spent time waiting in line -- whether at the DMV or department stores or...you name it, we've waited in that line!

Waiting in line: using automation to enhance fairness

Generally, people waiting in line aren't happy about the wait -- many think it is a waste of time, boring, tiring and generally unpleasant. Thus, any organization facing lines wants to enhance their operation.

There's an entire field of study about lines: queuing theory.  It started in Denmark about 100 years ago.

Queuing theory, says Seth Stevenson in a recent Slate article, has transitioned from a mathematical process to more of a psychological analysis. More about feelings than formulas, in other words.

The element of fairness is key to the latest queuing studies and systems.  Queue rage (yes; that is a concept!) develops when waiting in line and somehow someone else is served ahead of their perceived time. No one wants that, to be sure!

There are multiple ways of handling the queue fairness issue and CPS' QuikLine manages one of the most prominent solutions: the serpentine (or single, wrap-around) line.

There are other line psychology issues; we'll be discussing them in future blogs. Meanwhile, take a look at QuikLine with a serpentine line servicing about 20 cash register lines: Whole Foods Foggy Bottom Washington DC. Here's QuikLine video highlighting multiple lines serving about 40 cash registers: Whole Foods Union Square New York.

What type of queue makes waiting fair in your mind?