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MANAGING CUSTOMER FLOW, QUEUES AND QUEUING |
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A service environment such as a customer service centre, branch, retail store, restaurant, library, surgery or contact centre often has to support many different types of enquiry and service timings as well as peaks and troughs of customer demand. Queues and resulting customer dissatisfaction that develop in these environments are often symptoms of a problem within the service delivery process, its flexibility and how it is supported rather than simply a problem with the physical service environment alone. It follows therefore that when designing a new customer focused environment careful consideration must be given from the outset as to how customer flow is to be managed as part of the service delivery process, how demand and service delivery timings will vary, and how staff can make changes to respond to this variation to maintain a satisfactory experience for their customers. Likewise in existing service environments lots of opportunities to improve queuing and customer satisfaction can be found by understanding and better managing the flow of customers. However when faced with queuing problems many organisations rush to invest in technology and equipment to manage the queue alone, usually with a combination of tickets, kiosks, display technology and barriers. Unfortunately this approach will often miss many opportunities to improve customer experience; in some cases it will result in no improvement to queuing or even the problem being made worse. Over the last five years Konvergence have worked with many of its clients to design, develop and continuously improve over 100 public and private sector customer focused environments. It is our experience that to improve queuing and customer satisfaction requires an integrated approach which applies simple process changes, staff training , management mitigation techniques, and a better application of existing systems with any investment in new technology, equipment or facilities. If you are having problems with queues and are unsure about if or how to start an improvement project, please send us an email to request a free copy of our Project Implementation Checklist. This is what we use with our clients at the start of most projects and has some useful tips on how you can use information you probably have or can easily get to start to define a scope for your project and to build a business case for any investment. Also have a look at our list of some of the benefits our clients have experienced from their projects. Of course please contact us if you would like to discuss your project directly with us. |
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BenefitsMany of our private and public sector clients have reaped business benefits from improving the management of customer flow. Some of these benefits are:Improved Customer satisfaction Increased sales from increased throughput of customers Increased sales from up-selling to customers waiting in queues Increased sales from customers shopping whilst in 'virtual' queues Increased sales from reducing customer walk-aways at busy times Improved staff morale Improved security Improved safety Improved use of service environment space Improved use of existing systems and technology |
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A Local Authority in the MidlandsWorkspace appraisal and design brief - A structured programme of work, to support the development of a design brief... |
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A London BoroughBusiness Process Re-engineering – a project to consolidate different approaches and standards of customer service delivery and... |
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