How AI-Powered Queue Management Systems Are Redefining Customer Experience

Did you know we spend 3 to 5 days per year waiting in line? It can add up to 6 months of queuing during our lifetime!

Every retailer manager knows how customers hate to wait in line. Long queues decrease customer experience. A long line in a supermarket or outside a restaurant often results in people simply renouncing to enter the store or restaurant.

A queue management system can transform this bad experience into a positive one or at least minimize its negative effects. When these systems are powered by artificial intelligence, they also become tools for analyzing waiting times and customer inflow and optimizing the queuing process. Let’s find out what queue management systems are and how they are revolutionizing waiting lines.

Queue Management Systems Definition

A queue managing system is a tool that helps businesses track customers as they come in and manage their access to the service. It can be deployed in almost any sector, from hospitals to restaurants, from beauty centers to supermarkets.

This is how a queuing managing system generally works:

1. Customer registration. The customers begin the queuing procedure by registering on a kiosk or just picking up a queuing number from a totem. For more complex systems, customer registration can also happen on a website, with customers registering their data autonomously even before physically accessing the retail.
2. Automated queuing. The system assigns customers to a virtual queue. It’s virtual because, once they have registered, they don’t need to stay physically in line.
3. Alerts. Customers are informed about their current status in the line. This can be made with a display or, for more complex systems, with a specific app or website that customers can check from anywhere.
4. Service provisioning. Customers are alerted and directed to the appropriate service area where they are provided with the required service.
5. Feedback. Some systems also include a post-service survey, ideal for collecting information and understand how to improve the queuing system in the future.

An AI-powered queue management system add advanced functions that enhance the business’s capability of welcoming customers.

1. Analyze waiting times: AI can track and record each customer’s waiting time. It would elaborate this data to provide insights and statistics that manager can use to improve their queueing system.
2. Customer inflow data: AI-powered queuing systems provide information about how many customers access the service each day, during a specific hour, last season… and so on.
3. Predictive modeling: Predictive models can forecast future customer inflow and adjust resources accordingly.
4. Resource optimization: With all this data at its disposal, the AI also provides information about the necessary resources (raw material, employees, number of service provisioning stations…) according to the expected customer affluence.
5. Personalized customer experience: AI recognizes returning customers and can tailor their waiting experience according to their past feedback. It can also offer discounts or personalized offers to returning customers like priority service or faster lanes.

Types of Queuing Management System

Depending on the field of application and business needs, there are multiple types of queuing management systems.

1. Linear Systems. In these systems, the first to register is the first to access the service. The same kiosk or totem serves to enter any line, and the system will then sort users and direct them to the different stations or offices. Users usually wait in a single waiting room where a display informs them when it’s their turn. This is usually used in hospitals and government offices.
2. Priority Systems. All users can access the same kiosk or totem, but the system will then assign a priority status, giving priority to the most urgent cases. AI-powered systems are way more effective in assigning priority status based on the provided data. This is mostly used in emergency rooms and clinics.
3. Appointment-based Systems. Customers can make an appointment remotely, using a website or a specific application. The system automatically assigns a date and hour according to customers’ needs and notifies them to remind the appointment. These are systems that improve customer experience in restaurants, beauty centers, and more.
4. Self-Service Systems. Some systems allow the customer to manage their access to the service autonomously. They usually access a kiosk or an application, make their appointment or order, and receive the service when established. When these systems are applied in restaurants, customers can handle their orders autonomously.

Benefits of AI-Powered Queuing Systems

Since the advent of artificial intelligence, queuing management systems have become way more effective in handling lines. Furthermore, they gather and elaborate large amounts of data to provide managers with important information on how to improve the service and increase revenue.

Here are the main benefits from using a queue management system powered by AI:

• Improved Customer Interaction. AI can calculate expected waiting time which decreases users’ frustration during the wait.

• Analytic Information. AI collects and elaborates large amounts of data that managers can leverage to improve operational efficiency, optimize staffing resources, and more.

• Cost Savings. When managers can manage resources more effectively, it results in reduced costs.

• More clients and revenue. When you can manage queues effectively, customers are more likely to require the service, which results in increased revenue.

Which Industries can Benefit more from using a AI Queue Management System?

The industries that can benefit more from AI queuing systems are:

–       Healthcare, where 30% of patients leave their doctor’s offices because of the long waiting times.

–       Restaurants, where almost a 15% rise in revenues can be achieved by removing waiting times.

Conclusion

AI-powered queue management systems offer innovative solutions that benefit both customers and service providers. Industries like healthcare, retail, and restaurants stand to gain the most from adopting AI queuing systems, as they help eliminate bottlenecks, reduce abandonment rates, and create a seamless customer experience. 

If you want to develop a system that adapts to your business needs, contact our team of experts.