How the Queue Management System Helps to Implement Safe Distancing Due to COVID-19

Posted by admin Apr 1, 2020

The world is in serious trouble right now!!

And, it is only because of the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Every other person is panicking and it’s obvious because there are less transparency and no vaccine!! There is an ongoing debate about how to avoid spreading it.

But, unluckily, it is not stopping anyways, even, expanding like a wave.

If we consider the recent figures, then, it can be seen that there are 859,342 Coronavirus cases, 42,327 is the death rate and 178,131 are those who have recovered.

Check out the below graph to know how this virus has painted itself gradually in every corner of this universe. 

What is COVID-19?

COVID-19 is a severe respiratory disease caused by Coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2). It came under the extended family of Coronaviruses (CoV). 

The reports say that it starts from a seafood market in the city of Wuhan in China in December 2019. And to date, it has spread all around the world. And, the person with an infection of COVID-19 may suffer from flu either severe or mild or could be fatal as well. 

Its symptoms are cough, cold, fever and shortness of breath. Most of the people who got infected have even shown other non-respiratory symptoms. Even, there are many positive cases with no symptoms at all. The symptoms of COVID-19 may occur in either 2 days or maximum in 14 days after getting infected.

It spreads from person-to-person who came in contact with (in between the 6 feet). Also, it develops from the respiratory droplets of the infected person’s sneeze and cough. The droplets, when landed in the nose or the mouth of the nearby person or probably inhaled in the lungs, can cause infection. 

How Business Should Cope with Corona?

This virus has become the reason for the economic crisis now. A large number of businesses are facing a lot of challenges to cope up with this. 

Most of the companies have started remote work to curb potential risks of the infectious disease so that they remain available to fulfill their customer needs. For the pharmacies, government offices, grocery stores have to remain open despite the outbreak. 

Staying open means they have to handle the longer queues than normal which gives rise to a lot of risks. Besides, above all, the highest priority should be given to the staff and the customers so that it does not catch the virus. At the same time, make sure to deliver the best services with competent staff availability comparatively.

How Infections Spread in a Queues

A team of researchers created a random model to examine the spread of COVID-19 infections in a hypothetical hospital queue area, where waiting times, occupancy levels, and ventilation rates can vary.

It has shown that there is an increase in the newly infected cases with the long waiting queues. Besides, the number of affected people in the queue has grown the number of new cases evidently. So, they have advised that to stop the COVID-19 spread, you need to minimize the long queues and the susceptible individuals, even before moving to costly ventilation solutions. 

As per this scenario, the businesses should prefer to adopt the solution that improves the customer satisfaction rate and stop spreading COVID-19 infections.

So, here, for those businesses, the Queue management system is a helping hand. Also, according to the Singapore Government, applying queue management systems to your enterprise should be preferred. 

Keeping that thing in mind, we have curated a list of ways that you can follow in your organizations to maintain the distance and importantly, stop spreading the coronavirus.

Maintain Distance and Secure your Business with Queue Management During COVID-19 Outbreak

As of now, we are much clear about how this pandemic disease could be devastating, so it becomes crucial to know those tips that can secure your business from the COVID-19 outbreak. Let’s’ find out:

Watch the Personal Hygiene Guidelines

As per the scenario, the best we can do is to follow the hygiene guidelines given by WHO. It is recommended to maintain a distance of less than one meter, that is, three feet appropriately. Or, the best is to keep a distance of two meters that is six feet. 

Most of the people have opted for the distance on their own, though, knowing how far the other person is quite tough. To make it more convenient, the adhesive labels can be marked on the floor. Also, disinfect the floors regularly and clean every surface that the person has come in contact with. 

Here, we meant the Kiosks, plugs, switches, etc. that you think are touched by the visitors. Buy use only the alcohol-based sanitizers and wipes to make everything clean and infection-free. Furthermore, allow your visitors to use the sanitizer and hand rub while entering the premises.

Appointment Solutions

The other important tip is to use the appointment management solution to maintain the distance and lessen the waiting time in the queues. Allow your customers to book an appointment in advance. This will eliminate the process of waiting time because this usually results in crowded lines. 

Moreover, the queue management system deals with the token system that eliminates the waiting time. This solution generates the token and notifies through the automatic SMS when your turn is approachable. With this, you can manage your visitors and maintain safe distancing. 

Hence, the best appointment solution enables you to strategize the workload ahead of time and direct appointments to fewer peak hours.

Keep the Queues Virtual

To get rid of the physical waitings and crowds, keeping the queues virtual is also the best way to maintain the social distance. Consider if there are no customers in the standing line, then, the probability of spreading the virus is less. There is always a way around to offer the services without contacting; and, also maintaining the proper queue system. 

Like, in case, there is an agent who accepts the emails and phone inquiries can use the queue management system to add the visitors in the virtual queues and maintain the workflow accordingly.

By allowing the users to use the virtual queue in their mobile, you are permitting them to wait in their cars, home or outdoors till their appointment. It totally eliminates the means of waiting in the queues. 

Manage Staff Allocation and Customer Flow

The benefit of using the queue management system is that it manages the customer flow effectively. It helps you to know how many available appointment slots you have and provide you the control on the visitors at one time.

Practicing this, you can designate the staff as per customer demand and staff availability. Moreover, monitoring is also one of the significant parts in identifying the number of visitors waiting for their turn. But, this all becomes seamless with the queue management system. It gives you the data such as open counters, staff availability, number of counters, etc. 

Minimize Interaction/touchpoints

Try to keep touchpoints and physical interactions to a minimum and replace them with digital solutions. Below, we have mentioned some of the touchpoints that can be changed easily with the digital alternatives:

• •  Check-in 

To eradicate the virtual check-in, use the QR codes. It allows the customers to scan to get in the virtual queue even on the premises or online. It eradicates the cause of interactions to the maximum level.

• •  Waiting 

The virtual queues enable the customers to control the close interaction to less and ask them to wait somewhere else. You can take advantage of the notification system to keep them updated about the scenario of waiting.

Manage Peak-hours

It is tough to neglect the peak of customers completely. So, to handle those peaks, it is advised to get the queue management system that helps you to manage the real-time data. It opts all those rules that have a sole rule to reduce the number of customers who are in the queue waiting for their turn. The management system programmed all these scenarios prior to and linked with the staff profile. And, eliminates the chances of manual changes. 

Concluding Remarks

Indeed, social distancing is not allowing many leading and important firms to work to maintain their regular workflow. Using the mobile solution can reduce the risk of getting infected to a large extent in the queues. Give a try to the queue management system and experience the decline in the number of cases of the virus occurrence. Protect your staff and customers and do not COVID-19 halt your business in any manner. Deliver the best of the services and maintain the customer satisfaction rate.

Even though the current conditions have made us divided physically, but, we are still together. Do not get panic and use this time as much as you can and strengthen the bond.

We hope the given information is beneficial for your organization to fight with this tough situation. 

In case of any query, comment below and get in touch with us if you need some help. We will assure you of a safe customer journey.

Stay safe and stay healthy!!