Unlike lines in amusement parks, which promise excitement and thrill at the end, stores must find ways to convince people to wait. As a secondary issue, balkers may be more likely to put merchandise back incorrectly and create more work for your team. Among your balkers are a group of people who have done all the work to find the items and decide to buy them only to reverse course before making it to the register. Balking costs your store revenue through reduced conversions. Second, the customer may anticipate an unpleasant wait time and choose not to buy anything at all. First, the queue may be so long there is no place to wait. Balking: After seeing a long line, some customers will choose not to wait at all.Just as in traffic, shoppers are often bad at judging how fast a queue will move, and sometimes wait longer than if they stayed in place. In a retail setting, jockeying will decrease the wait time for the starting line while adding to the wait time at the new line. Motorists will become more frustrated when the lane they’ve joined ends up moving more slowly than the one they came from. Studies show that lane-switchers worsen traffic jams. Many drivers see the lane next to them moving faster than the one they are in and will switch from lane to lane to try to go more quickly. A non-retail example of this is traffic congestion on the highway. Jockeying: Also known as queue jumping, jockeying involves customers switching lines to avoid long waits.Here are some of the consumer behaviors at play in your checkout aisles: Your customers can spend over an hour leisurely comparing brands, browsing your aisles and generally enjoying the experience for it to be suddenly sullied by a seven-minute wait at checkout. The first step to resolving issues in the waiting line is understanding the customer psychology that contributes to them. So, how can retailers resolve this and all the issues that lead to unbearable wait times? Customer Behavior in the Queuing System Customers become frustrated when they see people who arrived after them being served before them in the lines nearby. This clog leads the lanes on either side to move faster. Larger basket sizes, slow equipment or an issue requiring a manager’s attention can hold up the line for one register. When lines are organized into parallel rows, some can get held up. This phenomenon is one of retail’s main concerns when it comes to customer queues. In stores, where most queuing involves customers physically standing in line, the order is determined by the speed of checkout lanes. Queuing isn’t always first-come, first-serve. Dining facilities have found ways to improve the waiting experience by giving customers a call or text when their table is ready. Restaurants employ customer queuing during busy times as diners wait to be seated. In this case, the line is disguised as a waiting room, with the queuing happening in the back office as nurses prepare exam rooms and keep a list of arrivals at the check-in counter. Patients wait in a less-obvious customer queue at the hospital or doctor’s office. You may have experienced a digital customer queue if you’ve ever waited to connect with a customer service agent online.Ĭustomer queues have been a staple of retail and most in-person, service-based industries. However, not all queues involve standing in line, in the traditional sense. Anywhere where your customers have to line up to receive service in an orderly fashion counts as a customer queue. Meanwhile, department stores might create checkout queues for popular departments, making it easier for customers to find the checkout counter and wait in a shorter line. Take-a-number systems, often used in those departments, create customer queues without asking patrons to stand in a single file. Grocery stores may have additional, miniature lines at the deli or seafood counters. Checkout aisles and service desks are two prime examples. What Are Customer Queues?Ĭustomer queues exist throughout your supermarket or retail store. We’ve created this overview of the processes, tools and tricks you can use to enhance your customers’ queuing experience. Finding ways to manage lines and create the best customer queuing system can have a considerable impact on how long customers wait and improve your ability to serve customers. Queuing plays a significant role in the customer experience - more than retailers previously thought. Meanwhile, 18% of shoppers say they’ll choose a competing grocery store for a better checkout experience and a shorter queue. Only 23% of shoppers say they are satisfied with the length of the lines at their preferred supermarket. They’re also the element of your customers’ shopping experience that they’re least happy with. Long lines cost retailers a collective $37.7 billion a year. Use Traf-Sys People Counters to Improve Your Customer Queues
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