A Queue Management System (QMS) essentially does what the name states – helps manage queues 😊. But with a well-managed queue, the customer experience improves dramatically which leads to increased customer satisfaction.
A QMS empowers organizations measure, manage and organize customer queues and streamline customer flow.
As an example, let us take the case of a patient visiting the hospital.
In the absence of a queue management system, she first walks to the registration desk / reception where she is handed over a form to be filled in and then should go to make the payment. Once the form details are entered by the person at the desk and the payment made, she is asked to visit the OPD area and look for Dr. XYZ. She locates the Doctor’s cabin and informs the person there by filling in a slip with her name. She waits for her name to be called out. The doctor advises her to get some pathological tests done so she comes out and asks the person what next? So she is sent to the counter where she made the payment. She then proceeds to the Pathological department where she shows the payment made and awaits her turn for submitting the sample. After that she is asked to leave and collect the reports the next day to show it to the doctor.
With a queue management system, she would directly go to the kiosk, enter her name, number and other such details on the touch screen and then pull up a token number for herself. This token number would be unique to her throughout the visit for that day. The TV screen would show the current token number being called and to which counter number the called person should go to. Once her number would come up she would go to the counter number mentioned and make the payment. She would be asked to go to the OPD. There the screen would display the number of the persons being called and the cabin numbers. She would await her turn and would see her number and proceed to the cabin number mentioned. Since she would have to do the pathology tests, she would go back to the payment counter, await her number to be displayed there and then make the payment. Once she proceeds to the pathology department, she would see the screen for her number to display, walk in and submit the sample. The next day when she would come, she would get another token number from the kiosk which would enable her to go through the report collection and then visiting the doctor.
While the above example is about how queue management can be used in hospitals, it applies to all other areas where queues are encountered be it Banks, Telecom and other service centres. Application areas are extensive as queues are encountered almost everywhere.