The National Retail Federation (NRF) was able to directly impact the registration service areas with lower wait times and increased throughput of approximately 18,000 attendees by utilizing Q-Matic Corporation’s Customer Flow Management Solutions at the registration areas at this year’s 2009 retail’s "Big Show" convention and Expo.
Over the past few years, this convention has enjoyed big growth in attendees, exhibitors and sponsorship, but according to Susan Newman, VP of conferences, "The biggest challenge in growing the (NRF) show was maintaining the same level of customer service as the number of exhibitors increase." * With this goal in mind, NRF had to focus on the registration aspect of the convention.
NRF has taken numerous steps to help ease the long wait lines at their convention registration with pre-show processes including easy on-line registration and bar-coded confirmation notices that help the attendees arrive at the show better prepared. However, all attendees whether pre-registered or not, still need to receive their access badge at the show. This resulted in long lines and long waits. Even with the set-up of different station categories and 36 manned service counters, the shear volume of attendees arriving at similar times created long waits that extended beyond the floor barriers.
This year was different. The show’s Registration Director Daryl Everett decided to implement Q-Matic's call-forward systems at the attendee and expo registrations counters to help move attendees faster and more efficiently through the registration lines. Not only were the attendees excited to see the call forward system and noticed a significant increase in speed of the lines, the counter staff were thrilled to have the help of this electronic system.
How it worked - When the counter staff completed a transaction, they immediately pressed their call button which caused their counter number to start flashing whilst triggering the another monitor located at the head of the line, to also display the counter number.
Along with directional arrows and a voice message, the attendee is well informed and proceeds to the counter number ready to serve them. Staff didn’t have to stand up and call the next customer.
Also, while one customer was gathering their belongings at the counter post-transaction, the next customer is already walking to the counter to be served. This can cut throughput times by as much as 7%, and decrease customer wait times by 40%, as noted from a study by a large global retailer who installed Q-Matic.
Shorter waits, happier attendees and more productive staff resulted thus creating a less stressful registration environment.
*From Tradeshow Week