In your store, it’s your customer against the line. When your buyer walks in, the first thing she notices is how long she’s going to have to wait for a fitting room or to check out. If you’re plagued with long queues, you’re losing sales.
The sales are not a temporary sales loss either. Long queues have a long-term impact.
Letting lengthy queues perpetuate in your stores can do serious damage to your brand.
- Your customers will continually think of your store as providing poor customer service;
- Your associates will feel stressed, causing them to act more rushed and provide a poorer level of customer service;
- You will have a higher abandonment or walk off rate;
- Your brand perception in the market will take a blow;
- You’ll have fewer loyal customers;
- Your word-of-mouth marketing will suffer.
When you ignore your long queues and hope they’ll disappear on their own (they won’t) you face 3 major queue management risks.
Frustrated Customers
Out of the top waiting experiences people encounter every day, customers found checking out at a retail store the second most frustrating, according to research by NCR Corp. The only bigger frustration is waiting in the hospital.
Frustrations run high among customers when they’re forced to stand in a long line. Although they might make it to the cash register to make their purchase, they’ll remember the frustrating experience for future shopping excursions. If your store is a repeat offender, chances are you won’t see the type of loyalty you want from your customer base.
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Lack of Repeat Business
It costs five times more to attract a new customer than it does to keep your existing customers happy, Gartner found in a study. A lack of repeat business is more than a disappointment – it’s costing you money.
When your customers are frustrated by one or more poor experiences waiting in line, they’re less likely to return to your store. When your buyer is out with a group of friends, she will likely express her bad experience, costing you even more business. It’s a major risk eating away at your bottom line.
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Higher Abandonment Rates
Perhaps you’ve gotten your customers in your store. Perhaps your buyer has found something she’s interested in trying on or buying. What happens next? As she walks over to the fitting rooms or the cash register, she’s eyeballing the line. Is it too long? How long will she have to wait to buy her items?
The longer your lines are, the bigger the risk that your customer will abandon their purchase and leave your store. Your buyer hates waiting. When she sees a long line, she’s less likely to stick around and wait, and more likely to put her purchase back and leave.
What Can You Do?
Queue management isn’t an option for retail stores today – it’s a necessity. Managing your lines to look and feel shorter is critical to reaching your sales goals.
Ready to learn more about Queue Management? We have the full scoop for you in our e-book, “What Is Your Queue Costing You? Queue Management for Modern Retailers.” Download your copy in seconds to learn more about the costly risks of not investing in queue management.
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