Disappearing queues
A queue is a counter-productive waste of a person’s time. It is also one of the biggest issues of retail service.
Over 40% of buyers feel negative emotions when they are forced to stand in line. The most frequent spontaneous reaction is refusal to make a purchase: 75% of people will leave the store if they’ll see a queue of more than 5 persons. While almost a third of clients will choose a different store in case of regular queuing in their main one.
Recoshelf recently developed a Recoshelf Queue product to execute control over queues in stores. The solution functions using artificial intelligence and a system of data analysis.
How does it work?
- A camera controls queuing area.
- A computer identifies the number of people in a queue.
- The system sends notifications to personnel.
- An additional checkout is opened.
- If the above event did not take place, the system notifies a director on that.
Recoshelf Queue business case
A network of drogerry stores performed manual control over queues. Checkouts did not open in the optimum way, hence the store kept losing clients.
Recoshelf offered Recoshelf Queue product to resolve the issue.
We installed point and shoot cameras in the client’s stores and adjusted program interface according to customer’s requirements.
Cameras take photos every minute, while artificial intelligence identifies the number of people near a checkout. If a queue of more than 5 persons emerges the system automatically sends a notification to personnel via a messenger. The machine also controls optimisation of checkouts’ functioning.
Profit
Before our product was applied, a queue of over 5 persons emerged near at least one of the checkouts in 50% of cases and remained for up to 20 minutes. Thanks to Recoshelf Queue system, the latter performance variable was reduced by 30%, while personnel discipline and client satisfaction increased.
Why Recoshelf Queue solution is more effective than manual control
In pandemic times, people are even less tolerant towards queues than usual. At the same time, manual counting of people near a checkpoint possesses a range of disadvantages.
- If cashiers are occupied with the task of counting people near checkouts, it puts them under additional stress and distracts them from servicing of clients, which often leads to even longer queues.
- If queues are controlled by other workers (usually that means one person for the entire hall) it hinders immediacy of reaction when queues are getting bigger, as a single worker is unable to provide quality control every other minute.
- Human factor has an adverse effect over quality of queues control.
Installation of Recoshelf Queue solution automatically removes all above-mentioned disadvantages. Apart from that, a client saves a significant amount of personnel’s working time. While the main thing is extremely high quality of queue control.
