5 ways to reduce wait times in your business
Having to wait in a queue is one of the reasons why a customer may leave an establishment without purchasing something. The time they waste waiting in line, the fatigue they accumulate from standing for so long or the boredom they can feel just by looking at the back of the person in front of them, are the main complaints that a queue can cause. That’s why at Book The City we bring you several tips to help you reduce waiting times in your business and, thus, avoid losing customers.
Why is it important to monitor waiting times?
According to a study, 7 out of 10 customers leave a shop or establishment without completing the transaction due to queues that are too long. As a result, it is important to control these times so that your users do not have a bad customer experience.
Prior to anything else, you must know the type of customer that comes to your establishment and the service you offer: is it inevitable that they will have to queue? Therefore, the best thing to do would be to implement several actions that will help you to reduce the feeling of wasting time that your users may have.
Ways to reduce your waiting times
Optimise your workflows
If you cannot prevent queues from forming in your business, it is essential that you optimise the waiting process as much as possible. Identify the hot spots of your queues: at what times do you usually have more people, where the attention becomes slower, which services take longer to attend to, etc. Knowing your weak points beforehand will allow you, consecuently, to know where more personalised attention or more intense processes are needed to keep customer satisfaction levels high.
Use a queue manager
A queue management tool is one of the best solutions you can find to reduce waiting times in your establishment. These softwares help you to control the queues that form in your business, as well as being able to establish the positions where each service will be attended. The management system of Book The City will also allow you to know real statistics of your establishment, so that you can identify the places where there are more people to attend or the waiting times that each one usually has. Moreover, your customers’ feeling of waiting will also be reduced, as you will give them the opportunity not to have to wait in line without the fear of missing their turn.
Provide entertainment while queuing
Another complaint of customers when queuing is that they get bored while waiting. Hence, your business can offer as a solution the inclusion of screens on which, in addition to their waiting times, useful content can be displayed. For example, if you have to manage a hospital waiting room, patients will appreciate having health tips displayed on the heads-up displays during this time. In a dentist’s surgery, for example, you can include animations about dental care that will entertain the little ones.
This solution is also one of the advantages of Book The City, as the manager tool allows you to include this type of content (or even promotional campaigns) in the waiting screens.
Be honest about waiting times
Good communication with customers is essential to maintain high customer satisfaction. Don’t keep them in the dark about how long they will have to wait: if you do, or if you give them the wrong idea, they may become impatient. Therefore, it is better to let them know from the very beginning the average waiting time they are likely to experience, so that they are aware of how long they will have to wait for their turn.
Provide good customer service
If waiting is unavoidable, the best thing you can do is ensure that this time is not unpleasant for the customer. Train your staff members to be patient with customer complaints and to deal with complaints that are out of proportion.
By following these tips, you will not only maintain optimal customer service, but you will also contribute to customer retention and loyalty.
