An outing to a retail store is supposed to be a pleasant experience for shoppers. However, it’s become a major challenge for many due to extensive wait times. Consumers have become more accustomed to getting their needs met quickly and efficiently. If extended wait times are frustrating shoppers, they might decide to award their business to someone else. Here’s how your retail business can reduce wait times to improve its customer satisfaction and get better results.
Why Customer Wait Times Matter
Your retail store might have the most desirable products and the best prices in town. But many customers will walk back out the door if they realize they have to wait in long queues to make a purchase. For a growing number of consumers, the savings and inconvenience are simply not worth the wait.
According to a 2022 survey of over 2,000 consumers, 86% will leave a brand they were once loyal to after two or more poor service experiences. Wait times in your store matter for several reasons:
Waiting Feels Disrespectful
Customers feel disrespected when they believe their time is being unreasonably wasted. While waiting in line is required for many things, people don’t voluntarily do this if they don’t have to. Customers want to feel valued by the brands they support, and minimizing wait time is one way to do this.
Customers Want to Be in Control
One of the major reasons customers take issue with long wait times is that it takes away their control. They can’t leave the store when they want or even move around freely. Consumers have many choices in the brands they shop with, and they’ll likely choose the ones that give them the most control first.
The Customer Experience is Critical
At the end of the day, the wait time is part of the overall customer experience. No matter how great your products are, customers won’t come back if they believe it’s going to be a hassle. Providing solutions to this is the best way to deliver a better experience and maintain these vital relationships.
Are There Different Types of Customer Wait Times?
Believe it or not, there are several different types of wait times that can impact the overall customer experience. These include:
Checkout Queue Times
These queue times are minutes (or longer) that customers have to spend waiting in lines to pay for their purchases. Unfortunately, many customers will leave a store if lines are too long.
Order Processing Times
What happens behind the scenes can also impact the customer experience. For example, if customers only select floor models, as they do in cellular stores or electronics stores, how long does it take a sales associate to get their selection once they’ve agreed to purchase a certain model? If there are delays in the back of the house or due to short-staffing, a customer might decide to go elsewhere.
Perceived Wait Times
Perceived wait times are how long a customer feels like they’ve been waiting for service or believes the wait time will be based on what they observe (i.e., long queues). If a customer walks into a store and sees long queues to pay, they might turn around and walk back out even if the lines are moving swiftly.
How Retailers Can Reduce Wait Time to Improve Customer Satisfaction
When you own or manage a retail business, you know that long wait times will frustrate most customers. As a business, you have the power to make this part of the customer experience more stress-free. Here are some strategies you can use to reduce wait times and boost customer satisfaction:
1. Offer Self-Service Checkouts
Although some customers are critical of self-checkout, having this service does give customers the option to handle their purchases and payments on their own so they can leave the store quicker.
2. Use Mobile Checkout Stations
Mobile checkouts are another excellent way to reduce customer wait times. Retailers can use mobile powered carts and wireless devices like tablets or smartphones to help customers scan items to pay for their purchase anywhere in the store.
3. Streamline Your Checkout Processes
You can significantly reduce the queues in your retail store by addressing some of the workflow issues that lead to checkout delays. Once you identify and reduce or eliminate bottlenecks, your lines will move faster.
4. Implement Pre-Order and Pickup Services
If customers want to avoid lines entirely, they can shop for the items they want online at home and choose to pick them up in the store or have them delivered to their vehicles in the parking lot. This popular practice is referred to as Buy Online Pick Up In-Store (BOPIS).
5. Increase the Number of Checkout Stations
Increasing the number of checkout stations during weekends, holiday seasons, or peak hours is another common way to reduce long lines and provide a better overall shopping experience.
6. Provide Distractions for Customers
One way you can address perceived wait times is to give customers something else to do and think about while they wait to check out. For example, some stores offer free WiFi to customers or have televisions set up offering some type of entertainment.
7. Manage Customer Flow in Real-Time
Many stores now monitor their customer flow in real-time so they can minimize customer wait time. As soon as lines surpass a certain number of customers, another checkout station will open.
8. Improve Customer Communication
Finally, many customers simply appreciate being told what’s going on or knowing how long they should expect to wait. Similar to the signs you see at amusement parks, you can tell people roughly how long they should expect to wait from certain spots in the queue.
By implementing a variety of solutions to address retail wait times, retailers can address one of your customer’s most pressing concerns. This results in a more enjoyable shopping experience for consumers and more repeat business. Ultimately, solving this pressing problem will contribute to higher retail sales and provide stores with more growth opportunities.
|
The Basics of Manual and Automated Picking |
