Improving Speed of Service for Better Customer Satisfaction with Secure Line-Busting Strategies

Managing queue lengths, both in drive thrus and within your business, can be difficult during peak hours of traffic. 

As more and more patrons enter your establishment, lines can become long and difficult to work through, testing the patience of both you, your employees, and your customers. Luckily, line busting presents a way to strategically shrink the queue lengths of visitors at your business so you can optimize your speed-of-service, saving you time and money and creating a better customer experience. 

Below, we’ll dive into how line-busting strategies can fast-track your speed of service, as well as how video analytics can do most of the work for you. 

What is Line Busting? 

Line busting is the implementation of strategies meant to reduce wait times for customers by eliminating long lines. 

There are various line busting methods depending on the business. For retail stores and quick-service restaurants, online ordering with in-store pickup can significantly lower the number of customers waiting in line, as all a patron needs to do is show up and grab their order. Getting people in and out of your business is important, and this strategy can help with that. For financial institutions, having lines split up into multiple lanes so different tellers can help also reduce queue lengths, as well as drive-thrus, mobile banking, and other methods. 

Regardless of the method used, line busting is meant to improve the quality of customer experience by allowing patrons to move through your business and complete a transaction in less time. 

How Line Busting Strategies Improve Speed-of-Service 

Speed-of-service can be improved through a variety of different methods, but if your business consistently has customers waiting in line to purchase a product or complete a transaction, then line busting is the best strategy to adopt. 

Long lines not only affect how long your customers are waiting, but they can even affect how potential customers view your business. If your staff can’t help customers in a timely manner, lines can stretch past your dedicated queue areas and out through the store. Depending on the size of your business, they may even spill out through your front entrances. This can deter customers from entering your business in the first place, and it may even prompt patrons in line to leave. 

By breaking up these lines through line busting strategies, customers can be helped more quickly, meaning you’ll be providing a better customer experience and making space for new customers to enter your establishment. 

Using Video Analytics for Line Busting 

Leveraging video analytics through your business’ surveillance system is one of the best ways to implement line busting strategies. 

While creating different lanes for your lines to move through and utilizing online options for customers who need assistance quickly can aid your speed-of-service goals well, using video analytics to monitor and uncover insights throughout your business can enhance your operations tremendously. 

Below, we’ll cover some of the applications of this advanced technology for line busting. 

1. Monitor Queue Lengths and Drive-Thrus 

Monitoring queue lengths, both in your business and at drive-thrus, is made easier by utilizing video analytics in those areas. 

With analytics in place, your video security system can recognize and alert you when queue lines are getting too long, or if service is taking longer than normal. You can track this data over time to recognize when the busiest times of the day normally are, as well as what times in the week you’ll see an uptick in traffic. From there, you can schedule your team more appropriately to confront these busier times head on. 

Having your video system keep eyes on the operations around you means you can devote your time to more pressing tasks to improve your speed-of-service goals. 

2. Track Customer Engagement 

Video analytics also present a way to track how customers are being engaged by your employees.  

These analytics can recognize customer journey throughout your business and uncover insights on how easy it is for your patrons to move through and complete a transaction. If you’re attempting to get the most out of an in-store sales initiative, you can monitor how customers are engaging with your products, as well as how quickly they’re finding what they need. 

Tracking this side of your business can help you construct a more streamlined experience tailored to the habits of your patrons so you can create a faster, more accessible business for them to visit. 

3. Evaluate Employee Performance 

Finally, video analytics can help you evaluate employee performance to see if customers aren’t being helped in a timely manner. 

A video security platform equipped with video analytics can alert you to any customers left alone at POS stations, or areas where an employee should otherwise be present. From there, you can either receive alerts for these events or search through past situations to identify if it’s a specific employee or a team problem. 

Understanding where your employees are when customers need their help can give you insight into how to better employee line busting strategies. Even if you incorporate multiple lanes and stations for employees to help customers complete transactions, if your team is missing or doesn’t have the help needed, your speed-of-service goals will lack the effectiveness your company may need. 

OpenEye Equips You with Powerful Line Busting Strategies 

OpenEye Web Services (OWS) helps business owners introduce effective line busting strategies into their operations in a seamless manner by equipping their video security with effective tools built for the task. 

OpenEye’s AI-powered video analytics monitor queue lengths, employee productivity, and customer engagement to bring you data on what’s happening on the floors of your business. OWS’ powerful alerts and search engine can help you stay proactive by recognizing areas where your team may need additional help to boost speed-of-service, as well as letting you look to past events to build trend reports and continue optimizing your business. 

POS Connect can also help you get more out of your security by combining your video system with POS data to connect customer experiences to specific transactions. Receipt data can be viewed side-by-side with video of the transaction associated so you can identify areas of fraud, theft, or operational inefficiency within your company, and see a more complete picture of your business. 

Ready to see how OpenEye can supercharge your speed-of-service goals? Book a demo now to learn more about OWS and how it can help your business.