Managing the customer queue in a bank environment has always been challenging. The key issue with banking is variable transaction time. This simply means that some customer transactions are fast, like making a deposit and some are slow, like arranging a cashier check.

With the traditional multi line queue with each service position having it’s own line customer suffered the frustration of being ‘trapped’ behind a customer with a slow transaction while others in the next line get served ahead of them.

Today most banks have adopted the single line queue system in which a single line serves all the cashier positions. This means that if one cashier is delayed by a slow transaction the queue is still served by the other cashiers and the line keeps moving. This format also guarantees that customers will always be served in the order that they join the queue.

The question for financial institutions now is how to continue to improve the customer’s branch experience. A certain amount of waiting is inevitable, the single line is the most efficient queue system so now the focus needs to be on turning waiting time into productive time. For customers who are in the queue being engaged by an activity make the wait seem shorter and reduces the feeling of time wasted.

Queue Accessories to Engage

The Writing Table

An immediate way to save customers time is to allow them to complete their paperwork while in the queue instead of before joining it. Having to fill in deposit or withdrawal slips before joining the queue causes the frustration of customers seeing people entering the queue ahead of them while they are ‘stuck’ completing the paper work. For those customers who have spent time in the queue before realizing they need paperwork or discover their forms are wrong the situation is even more aggravating. They must leave the queue to use the writing surface and then join again at the back.

A simple way to alleviate this customer stress is to provide writing surfaces in the queue itself. Arriving customers can join the queue immediately to preserve their place in line and then complete the paperwork. By providing multiple surfaces along the queue the customer can move from table to table in time with the movement of the queue.

Our Writing Table accessory allows customers to complete paperwork without losing their place in line. The table fits onto existing stanchions while still allowing the belts to be extended so tables can be positioned anywhere in the queue.

Literature Holder

What better way to engage customers standing idle in the queue than to provide them with your promotional material to read. The uptake of literature offered in the queue is far greater than else where in the branch simply because the queue is the only place where the customer is idle and looking to be entertained. Queue Solutions has designed a versatile literature holder that fits to the top of the queue stanchion, so it can be moved whenever necessary. Designed to take both full size 8.5”x11” brochures or trifold pamphlets this fixture is low cost and easy to use.

Summary

The next evolution in improving the customer’s waiting experience is not so much about shortening the wait time but engaging the customer so the wait seems shorter. Queue Solutions range of queue accessories are designed to do just that engage and entertain.