Comments on: Customer Service Queues: Fair, Fast Or First?

By: Paul Weiss

Paul Weiss — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:30:19 +0000

I used to work at a company that hosted a huge yearly convention, and we did a “Preferred Customer” line where people could, well, skip the line. It was right out in front of the line for the “regular” customers. All it did was lead to a lot of confusion and anger on the part of our customer base. I don’t recommend it.
Paul Weiss
blogs.vbpoutsourcing.com

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:46:31 +0000

Andrew, thank you for commenting. From your LI profile, I can see you have more than a cursory knowledge of customer service.
Customer service is tricky. Fair or not, businesses cannot afford to be all things to all people. And like it or not, there are some customer groups that add more value to a business and thus should receive priority. Matching customer expectations with consistent service levels is probably one of the most difficult processes for a business.

By: Andrew McFarland

Andrew McFarland — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:58:35 +0000

You’ve hit on one of the most difficult things of customer service — that each customer’s expectations may be somewhat different. I’ve seen a cheeky sign in restaurants lately to illustrate.
Friendly Service
Great Food
Low Cost
… Pick any 2.
http://wp.me/pAwUN-S

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:11:29 +0000

Dusan, thanks for commenting from the non-country of Slovenia.
I must admit, you bring up some very important points that got me thinking.
First, the sell first, serve later mindset. Isn’t this where most brands fail to meet expectations? Instead of catering to an overall experience, the mantra is push product out the door and worry about servicing it later. And then companies wonder why their operating margins suffer…
Second point, “if you cannot master the simple, forget about tackling the complex.” Companies who cannot get the little things right – like customer service email addresses and web site instructions really have no business bringing the latest and greatest product/service to market. The “hand-offs” (i.e from sales to service) within an organization are more important than most executives realize.
Designing a great end-to-end customer experience really is rocket science!

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:58:23 +0000

SGA, thank you for taking the time to comment. As you know, queue management isn’t just for entrepreneurs, and in fact businesses of all sizes need to think about how they serve customers and perhaps serve their best customers even better! The physical design of customer service queues is (in most cases) no accident.

By: Dusan Vrban

Dusan Vrban — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:28:51 +0000

A small add-on, I might have been wrong here:
“found out that Slovenia is not a country”
They know about us, I’ve just seen a jumbo in the street about my phone! Yes, Samsung knows about Slovenia!

By: Dusan Vrban

Dusan Vrban — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:22:56 +0000

Hey Paul,
you’ve raised an interesting subject. But beside queue I think modern, well-known brands and companies are failing on simple things already. At least my experiences in past few months are terrible.
Might be connected to your points, but I think it is about being too new-products-marketing orientation. Just a case or two:
1. I wanted to update my Samsung mobile phone. Went to the Samsung site (hey, it’s software – download, install, live on?), found out that Slovenia is not a country. Tried UK, but serial number is not ok. Sent an email, got an answer that I should come to their service office 130 km away from me. Answered “Are you serious?” and got reply that the email doesn’t exist.
2. Wanted to buy a Dell netbook. Spent 5 hours, found out it is impossible to get that one. I live in the centre of Europe, not in some Pacific island. Asked around almost 10 people and in the end bought Lenovo that was in the store.
Well, actually – I got sure that for big companies these days – it is just about selling quantities on low margin. Customer service? Buy a new one, don’t come here.
Sorry, might have been out of context…

By: Strategic Growth Advisors

Strategic Growth Advisors — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:20:14 +0000

Hey, Paul. Kudos for the informative post.
This article has so much insight about the subject of queue management and I think that this will help a lot of entrepreneur who has a problem with the same.
Keep the ideas coming!

By: Marc

Marc — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:06:34 +0000

I would believe both space issues and shopper behavior play a role in the usage & success of this design. There are no conveyor belts at each register, allowing Whole Foods to place several registers next to each other (some have upwards of 40 in a relatively small space).
With that said, busier suburban & rural grocery stores could likely use a little bit of retail space and implement this design – it’s these little issues that can sour the customer experience.
Think of the possibilities of increasing impulse sales – Barnes & Noble does this particularly well with gift cards, best sellers, candy and magazines placed at the POP.

By: Paul Barsch

Paul Barsch — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:15:24 +0000

Marc, thank you for commenting. WF has implemented single lines in Manhattan, but so far – at least to my knowledge – not in other places. Do you think single line works well in these locations because of urban population density -where shoppers are probably buying groceries for 1-2 days (smaller baskets) instead of weekly?

By: Marc G

Marc G — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:44:47 +0000

Whole Foods’ Manhattan locations use the single line approach to much success.
Although the single line often appears daunting (it can stretch throughout the store at lunchtime), it moves amazingly fast and makes consumers feel much better – at least those I’ve talked to informally. Additionally, at peak times they have two single-lines – one for express (common in NYC) and another for shoppers with several items.