What is a queue management system?
Shoppers hate to queue. Extensive research proves that queuing at the checkout is the number one cause of customer dissatisfaction in retailing. Conversely, short queues – and critically, the expectation of short checkout queues – are key ways to build customer loyalty and encourage spending.
Queue management is about making the most effective use of checkout and customer service staff to improve customer satisfaction and profitability.
Why use queue management technology?
With competition from online retail only increasing, it is vital that bricks and mortar grocers offer the very best in-store experience possible.
A queue management system can:
- Improve customer service – increasing customer retention and shopping frequency
- Reduce queues – increasing shopping time and basket size
- Improve profitability – through greater sales
- Optimise staffing costs – through intelligent and efficient deployment of personnel around the store
Measure queue performance – against service and productivity targets
Queue management in supermarkets
Our experience of operating queue management systems in thousands of supermarkets all over the world has shown that reducing the waiting times for customers at checkout can have a number of other positive effects on the business, including:
- Increased footfall to the store
- Increased average transaction value
- Labour cost savings
When customers know that they are going to be served quickly and easily; they are more inclined to visit a store in the first place and more likely to spend time browsing and choosing items.
The grocer is also able to use a queue predictor tool to anticipate demand and re-deploy labour that isn’t needed at the checkouts to perform other tasks, so that cost savings can be made.