Customer Flows

Customer flow and crowd management is a vital aspect to take into consideration when providing effective customer service. It is an important tool and can be used to assess the organisations performance, identify current problems which the organisation is facing and when undertaken properly can positively impact the organisation; increasing sales by 30% and decreasing costs by 30%. This has been proved by ensuring that the customer flow process is as effective, ensuring the customer is dealt with in the best way possible in the most efficient amount of time. The process of customer flow management will emphasise on the organisation observing their consumers visit as well as their own performance during the time of the visit. There will be different factors which will be affecting this including; time of visit, staff available, day of visit etc.

The organisation needs to ensure that the process from pre-arrival to post-serving is effectively implemented as this will impact the customer service which they provide. When this process is carried out properly, 94% of customers are more satisfied with it when compared to previous queuing systems.

• Pre-arrival: the methodical process can be implemented before the customer actually arrives. This may be done by enabling customers to reserve, book etc. this would therefore enable the business to know when the customer is arriving and may be able to reduce the waiting time by enabling them to join a shorter queue or encourage them to visit at the time when the store is less busy. Therefore making it more convenient for the customer as well as the business.

• Arrival: On the arrival of the customer should be put in the most appropriate queue and waiting system depending on the service which they require. For example, a customer with a more difficult problem who requires assistance should be dealt with separately so that they do not cause a hassle to the remaining of the customers.