How to Reduce Customer Waiting Time & Long Queues

Today’s consumers want what they want, when they want it. And, they’re more likely to go elsewhere when that doesn’t happen. Long queues and waiting times can turn an otherwise positive customer experience into a negative one. 

The last thing your business needs is for customers to abandon their carts or return their merchandise to the shelves and head over to one of your competitors. Talk about a no-win situation for your customers, sales volumes, and your brand’s reputation.

Of course, the goal is simple from a business standpoint: Maximize throughput, especially sales, all while maintaining superior customer service. In this article, we’ll cover the top queue management strategies and operational best practices so that you can deliver the service your customers deserve on time, every time. 

Understanding the Impact of Long Waiting Time

Taking a data-driven approach to understanding (and reducing) long waiting times is critical to your queue management strategy. That’s where predictive analytics comes into play. By measuring and analyzing key operational metrics such as:

• Peak wait times
• Average wait times
• Wait time variability
• Staff response time
• Abandonment rate
• Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT)
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Not only will you identify any bottlenecks, but access to this data will also allow you to make appropriate staffing changes and necessary operational improvements. Take the NPS metric, for instance. The NPS measures how likely your customers are to recommend your business to others. 

Typically, there’s a strong correlation between shorter wait times and superior customer satisfaction, yielding a higher NPS.  Likewise, if you’re struggling with longer wait times, you’ll usually have a lower NPS on your hands. Ongoing analysis of these metrics will show your effective areas, while revealing your sore points that require immediate improvement. 

For instance, if your customer waiting times (and even perceived waiting times) are long, it can negatively impact the overall customer experience, derailing customer loyalty, tarnishing your brand’s reputation, and negatively impacting revenue and sales volumes. Once you determine the extent of the damage, you’ll want to roll up your sleeves and implement these top strategies for reducing customer waiting time.

5 Best Strategies to Reduce Customer Waiting Time

1. Enable Contactless Payments

If you want to reduce customer waiting times drastically, then it’s best to reevaluate the payment methods you accept. Unlike physical cash, enabling contactless payments and accepting digital payment methods will speed up sales transactions, reducing waiting times and increasing customer satisfaction. 

Consider allowing customers to make their purchases quickly and securely with one of these digital payment methods:

• NFC payment cards
• Mobile wallets
• QR-code checkouts
• Cryptocurrency

Not only do these cashless payment solutions boost customer experience and loyalty, but they’re in high demand in businesses worldwide. They’re especially successful in high-traffic establishments like coffee shops, entertainment arenas, concession stands, and retail shops (to name a few).

“We’ve seen a real improvement in how quickly transactions happen. Staff don’t have to deal with counting cash, and that makes everything run smoother.” – Assistant Controller, Paycor Stadium

2. Deploy Mobile POS for Line Busting

Traditional POS systems are static and typically operated by one staff member. They require customers to queue to pay for their goods or services. Depending on the payment methods being processed and the speed of the sales associate (and each buyer), such queues can become long, forcing customers to wait longer than necessary.

Deploying a mobile POS system is an effective line-busting strategy to reduce customer waiting times. Armed with handheld payment terminals, your staff can enter the queue and process payments quickly and securely. This approach is especially effective during peak sales periods or even special events where a traditional point of sale isn’t possible due to space or other logistical concerns.

When choosing the best mobile POS system for your business, such as Ready Credit’s ReadyFLEX® mobile payment solution, it’s vital to inquire about integration requirements. This way, you can ensure the payment system will seamlessly integrate with the POS and inventory systems you have in place.

3. Implement Virtual Queuing Systems

Sometimes waiting is inevitable. But it doesn’t have to lead to frustrated customers. Let them use their waiting time the way they want. 

Implementing a virtual queuing system will deliver a better queueing experience for them. Here’s how it works: Customers can use an app or other means to join the queue remotely instead of physically waiting in line. They’ll receive position updates and estimated waiting times, allowing them to enjoy an alternative activity instead of just waiting in the queue. 

As for the benefits? You’ll witness less physical crowding on site, and customers will experience improved perceived waiting times, leading to a more positive experience with your brand.

Consider the following tips for selecting the best vendor or building an in-house virtual queueing system solution for your business:

• Evaluate your operational needs (customer volume, tech-capabilities of your customer demographic, etc.)
• Reputation of the vendor (consider client reviews, transparency with cost structure/fees, demo options/trials, and level of customer support.
• System features (user-friendly, security/compliance, scalability, real-time analytics availability, integration capabilities, etc.).

4. Optimize Staff Scheduling with Real‑Time Data

Consider optimizing staff scheduling with real-time analytics to reduce customer waiting times and become more operationally efficient. You can track staff availability, consumer traffic, peak times, and more to make necessary, live schedule changes, such as:

• Placing additional (or fewer) staff at peak times or during low-traffic periods.
• Shift-swapping based on staff availability and skillsets (e.g., utilizing talented, CX-minded staff during peak times)
• Task reassignments to even out their workloads in an equitable way

5. Leverage Integrated Payment & Queue Solutions

Eradicating long queues and wait times from your establishment will require the best integrated payment and queue management solutions. 

Ready Credit’s Cash-to-Card® Kiosks and ReadyFLEX® mobile digital payment terminals drastically reduce customer waiting times. By eliminating cash handling, you’ll significantly improve throughput and operational efficiency. As a result, staff can reallocate their time toward cultivating a superior customer experience. 

Some establishments, like university dining facilities, are under immense pressure to keep payment queues short and student and faculty waiting times minimal. So they’ve adopted integrated payment and queue solutions to keep their campus community moving quickly at every point of sale.

Ready Credit’s cashless solutions for campus dining have helped multiple campuses provide A+ customer service by eliminating unnecessary queues, enabling students to make it to their next class on time all semester long.

Evaluating Customer Experience and Perception

In addition to real-time analytics, you need access to customer feedback based on their overall experience and real and perceived wait times. As their names suggest, actual waiting time (AWT) is objective and easily measurable. Whereas, perceived waiting time (PWT) is subjective, with several other unknowable and sometimes unquantifiable factors that are impacting the customer experience, such as:

• Customer mindset/emotional/cognitive state
• Pre-visit expectations
• Service environment (i.e., if alone or overcrowded, comfort level of the space, etc.)
• Evidence of other stressors and distractions (e.g., child/children experiencing meltdowns, etc.)
• Queue characteristics (i.e., length, rate of movement, etc.)

You can compare PWT to AWT by analyzing real-time customer feedback against more objective metrics, like transaction speed, etc. 

Consider this example—if your average customer AWT clocks in at 4 minutes and 55 seconds during the off-season. But the average PWT comes out to 9 minutes and 58 seconds, leaving you with a 5-minute and 3-second difference/surplus between how long they thought they waited and how long they actually waited.

Such a drastic difference boils down to perception, which can negatively impact customer satisfaction. Therefore, doing everything you can to shrink that differential is key. 

While the fallout from PWT may seem out of your control, know that it isn’t. Start by gathering real-time customer feedback, such as easily accessible post-service surveys or SMS feedback prompts, to gather data about their on-site experience, while it’s fresh in their minds.

Go a step further and link your customer feedback results to your NPS and CSAT scores. Doing this will streamline your analytics. Plus, it will give you greater visibility about what you can improve to shrink the gap between AWT and PWT, ultimately improving the customer experience.

Measuring ROI and Business Impact

Even if you’re on board with adopting these data-driven strategies, you may worry about their implications for your business. Or, will you see a fast return on investment (ROI)?

To gain clarity and confidence, take a proactive approach that involves:

• Calculating the cost savings you could reap from shorter customer queues (e.g., fewer staff/labor hours, fewer abandoned carts/walk‐aways, and increased throughput).
• Conducting a cost‐benefit analysis, comparing your investment in a queue management solution with anticipated revenue gains.
• Tracking secondary metrics (i.e., average transaction value, repeat‐customer visit rate, etc.) to understand indirect benefits.

Change Management and Stakeholder Communication

With any major (and necessary) change, getting everyone on board with your action plan is critical for success. One tackling how to reduce customer waiting time is no exception. To make the transition as smooth as possible, consider the following:

• Construct a phased rollout plan to ensure minimal service disruption, to include: a pilot phase, feedback loop, full deployment, and more, depending on your needs
• Keep internal and external messaging (e.g., staff briefings, customer notifications, stakeholder communications) clear and consistent.
• Adopt and stick to milestones for training sessions, performance checkpoints, and progress announcements.

How Ready Credit Solutions Can Help

Embracing a clear, data-driven strategy to significantly reduce your customer waiting times is a non-negotiable. Especially when it comes to improving customer experience and retaining their loyalty. Ready Credit’s digital payment solutions are a proven means to that end, giving you access to real-time analytics to track and assess key queue metrics. So that you can tackle these issues proactively and streamline operations. 

Our digital payment solutions seamlessly integrate with any POS and CRM system. This means no downtime and immediate access to vital, real-time data.  Our ReadySTATION® cash‑to‑card kiosks convert cash into digital spending power, reducing checkout friction and queue waiting times. Likewise, ReadyFLEX® mobile payment solution allows your staff to easily and securely process payments anywhere, keeping throughput healthy and on the move.