How to use technology to reduce queues and sell more

Queues are bad. Bad for customers: no-one wants to be waiting in line. Bad for businesses: less sales and less repeat custom. Reducing queues will obviously increase customer satisfaction, but are there other benefits?

An ice-cream retailer found that minimising queues meant not only happier customers but more of them. Not only that, but people were spending more in each visit to the shop. According to Ellen Rooney Martin writing for Tech Page One, “At Oberweis ice cream and dairy stores, the lines were becoming a problem. Then store executives analysed customer data and came up with a solution. The result: shorter lines, increased sales and more people eating ice cream.”

At the heart of the problem were the complex menu boards. By testing different menu boards at several stores and monitoring the results, the company shortened the queuing time and drove up ticket prices.

The first step for any company wanting similar success, is to monitor their queues. A Retail Sensing system accurately counts the number of people in a queue and logs the time people spend waiting. Employing this type of system means managers can test different strategies to reduce the queuing time. As the data can be combined with information from the POS system, it becomes easy to make improvements in the knowledge that they will work. Get happier customers, more of them, spending more.

To see if we can help your business reduce queues contact sales@retailsensing.com, telephone +44 (0)161 839 6437 or fill in our quote form.