A QLess Milestone: 1 Millionth User!
We recently reached a great milestone and wanted to share. Last month, Jennifer Lin, a student at the University of Texas at Dallas, used QLess and her cell phone to hold her spot in the virtual Enrollment Management queue. 21 minutes later, she was able to show up and drop a class. In addition to the 21 minutes of her life that Jennifer got back by using QLess, we’ve now saved our total user base over 24 years of waiting in line!
Congratulations Jennifer! You will always have a special place in our hearts. 
Tune into QLess on the Colin McEnroe Show
Earlier today, Charles Marrelli, Director of Experience Design at QLess, was a guest on the Colin McEnroe Show to discuss our solution to the problem of waiting in line. He was joined by a panel including Dr. Ken Chelst, professor of Operations Research at Wayne State University; Sara Frias, Marketing Director at Lake Compounce; and Melody Curry, Commissioner of the Connecticut DMV. Dr. Chelst, a foremost authority on queuing theory, said that QLess “sounds like a brilliant strategy”.
The entire show is freely available for download or streaming on yourpublicmedia.org. Charles joins the discussion at the 22-minute mark. Check it out!
Santa Goes QLess, Restores Mom’s Sanity
QLess has some new fans over at In Line Waiting, a blog where, in their words, “you can read and share funny stories and practical tips on ridiculously long lines and the bizarre people and situations that go hand-in-hand with them.” The staff there discovered QLess last month, and then invited us to write a guest post on their site. So head over to read Alex’s post there: Santa Goes QLess, Restores Mom’s Sanity to find out all about how QLess and Santa are teaming up this holiday season to give the gift of time back to otherwise-weary kids and parents, and the gift of more customers and more revenue to the photography company, mall management, and our sponsor, AT&T.
Will Ross has posted an elegant and disturbing poem about waiting for service at the Sprint store at 72nd and Dodge in Omaha, Nebraska. He doesn’t indicate how long his wait actually was, other than noting that he didn’t start taking notes and working on his poem until he’d been waiting for 35 minutes.
QLess at Vodafone lets customers wait for service however, and wherever they want to
Let’s count all of the ways that Sprint screwed up Will’s customer service, and could have improved it with QLess:
- Trapping Will in their store for over half an hour while he waits for service. QLess mobile queuing lets customers hold their spot in line using their cell phone, so they can wait however and wherever they choose to. This dramatically reduces their perceived wait time, even if their actual wait time doesn’t change at all.
- Letting customers jump the line. Maybe Sprint employees were intentionally doing this, and maybe it was with good reason. But the point is that, to Will, all he sees are customers who entered Sprint’s single virtual line after him getting served before him, and he finds it infuriating. QLess lets you configure multiple queues if you need to serve customers in different orders, depending on what type of service they’re waiting for (e.g., new sales versus billing issues.) And QLess will make it clear to them where their spot is within their specific queue, and keep them up to date on what’s going on.
- Letting an incoming phone call take priority over customers who took the time to come to the store, and have been waiting much longer than the customer calling in. QLess will let you redirect those callers to a virtual call-back queue, so they can simply hang up once they’re in the queue, and you can call them back as soon as they have reached the front of the queue. Everyone gets served in a fair order, and nobody has to sit on the phone on hold!
- Angering customers who see staff “procrastinating”. Those staff members may or may not have been wasting time, but the point here is that, with QLess, Will wouldn’t have had to waste his time waiting inside the store, so he wouldn’t have known (or probably even cared), if some of the staff were not moving as quickly as he would like them to.
Not only is Sprint damaging their customer relationships with poor service, but they’re literally watching revenue simply walk out the door, as customers get fed up with a long wait for service. A recent survey found that 24% of consumers abandon their purchases, and walk out of the store when faced with a long line. In Will’s story, 14 customers were standing around waiting. If only half of them were waiting to sign up for new service, that means that 2 of those 7 likely walked out of the store, and decided to get a phone somewhere else. New customers are worth literally thousands of dollars in revenue to Sprint. If they have 2 customers per hour abandoning their purchases, over an 8 hour day, that single store is losing over $10,000,000 in revenue each year, simply because their customers are tired of waiting for service.
Sprint, and other retail stores that are making the same mistakes, if you’re listening, QLess can help! Let us free your customers from waiting in line, and save you from stories as embarrassing to you as Will’s.
–Tim
QLess Makes Waiting for the DMV a Piece of Cake
One of the cashiers at the Johnson County DMV shared this story with us this week, and we thought it was a great example of how QLess turns a mundane experience like waiting at the DMV into something as exciting as birthday cake!
I had a customer who came in, left, and when I [later] called her up to my station, she was really extremely happy with [QLess]. She told me that it was her daughter’s birthday, and she was able to go home and bake a cake. And she actually took a picture of the cake and showed me what she baked. Instead of waiting [at the DMV] for 2-3 hours, she was able to go home and come back, and she loved the system.
When was the last time your customers were this ecstatic with your level of customer service?
Customers who walk into the Johnson County DMV simply use QLess Kiosk to see how long the wait is and enter their cell phone number. Then they receive a text message confirming that their spot in line is secured, and they can go home to bake a cake, head back to the office to get one more task done, buy groceries, pick up the kids, or whatever else makes them more productive than spending hours sitting in a waiting room, waiting for a number on a piece of paper to be called.
Get QLess and set your customers free. They’ll love you for it.
–Tim
How to Lose Customers as Soon as They Walk In: From Diablo’s Cantina
Standing in Line at Diablo's Cantina, just to get on the wait list!
On a recent weekend, I was in Las Vegas, and my wife and I were playing poker at the Monte Carlo. It was about 9:30 pm, and we started talking about getting hungry, and figuring out if we knew any place close by to get some Mexican food and a decent margartia. The dealer overheard us and recommended Diablo’s Cantina which was right on the corner of the hotel, with an outside door facing The Strip. So we cashed out and headed to dinner, arriving about 10:00.
Vegas never sleeps, of course, so the restaurant was packed. There was even a line of customers waiting to get on the wait list for a table. As we waited our turn, I overheard the conversation that the woman in front of me had with the hostess:
“It’s about a 30 minute wait for a table.”
“Ok, no problem.”
“I just need your driver’s license.”
“Umm…why?”
“So I can give you this pager.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah, sorry.”
“Never mind, we’ll find some place else.”
That’s right. Diablo’s had apparently been spending so much money replacing lost coaster pagers, (JTech, by the way), that they decided they would rather lose customers who weren’t comfortable turning over their driver’s license just to wait for a table, than to keep forking over money to JTech for replacement pagers every time one went missing.
I gave the hostess my license when my turn arrived to get a pager, and asked her how often conversations like I had just listened to happen, with angry customers walking away because of this policy. “It happens all the time, but I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal.” Rather than try to convince her that it was a big deal, I simply handed her my business card and said “I can help. My company sells a system called QLess that lets you use your customers’ cell phones to page them when their table’s ready. You’ll never have to pay for a lost pager again, and you’ll stop losing customers.” She agreed to pass my card and my story on to the manager, and that was the end of that.
Let’s count all of the ways that Diablo’s Cantina screwed up in this story, and all of the ways that they are losing money:
- Well, the most obvious, losing customers who don’t want to hand over their driver’s license just to wait for a table. Our check was about $100. Even if only 10% of Diablo’s customers walk away when asked for their license, (from what I saw the number was more like 50%), with an average party size of 3, this policy is costing them $15 per party in lost revenue.
- The range on their pagers was not even far enough to reach inside of the casino. We had to stand outside the door and people-watch while waiting for our table. Not that there’s not some great people watching to be done at 10 pm in the middle of The Strip, but we would have rather been back inside the casino spending money. Diablo’s could almost certainly get the Monte Carlo to subsidize a paging system that encourages customers to wait for a table inside the adjacent casino. The average quarter slots player spends $40 per hour. If their average party size is 3, and the average wait for a table is 30 minutes, even if only 10% of their customers choose to wait inside the casino and play slots, that’s $6.00 per party in lost revenue.
- With QLess, instead of sending us to Diablo’s to wait for a table, the dealer could have simply told us “you can call or text to put yourself on the wait list, so that you can keep playing poker while you wait for a table.” At our table, the Monte Carlo poker room was making about $12 per hour from the rake from each of us. With our 30 minutes spent standing outside the restaurant waiting for a table, instead of at the poker table (where we would have rather been anyway), chalk up $12 in lost revenue in our case.
These are just the ways that Diablo’s is screwing up beyond the typical restaurant that uses coaster pagers. There are plenty of other reasons why they should be using QLess instead, like increasing customers’ patience while waiting for a table, better hygiene, fewer hostess hassles, SMS marketing, detailed analytics, more room for tables, the list goes on and on.
Diablo’s, and Monte Carlo, if you’re listening, we want to help! Give QLess Mobile Queuing a chance to set your customers free from those stupid coaster pagers, and let us prove how we can make you a 400% return on investment.
–Tim
QLess Crowned Best Company of the Year at the American Business Awards
Eighth Annual American Business Awards(SM) Crowns QLess(TM) Winner of America’s ‘Best Overall Company of the Year – 100 Employees or Less’ for Eliminating Standing in Line
Shining a spotlight on the most outstanding executives, organizations and employees nationwide after a year in which the American economy began to see signs of recovery, The 2010 American Business Awards crowned this year’s winners at a gala event in New York City’s prestigious Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square.
QLess™, one of five finalists in the nationwide competition, was honored with winning the Stevie for “Best Overall Company of the Year – up to 100 Employees” in the Business Services category. We are honored to be recognized alongside global leaders like Apple, Ford and SalesForce.com. I would like to thank our team and our customers for their support and willingness to make our vision of a world without lines a reality for over half a million Americans and growing rapidly.
More than 2,700 entries were submitted for The 2010 American Business Awards. More than 200 executives nationwide participated in judging to determine this year’s Finalists and Stevie Award winners.
QLess is revolutionizing queueing in the private and public sectors: “The response and customer feedback about the system has been overwhelmingly positive. It has given our customers a sense of freedom…One customer …said that it was as good as car registration may get,” said Amy Meeker Berg, Chief Deputy Treasurer, Johnson County, Kansas, who oversees the county’s DMVs, all of which have gone QLess over the last year. Johnson County has received a national award for the line management program since.
Steve Jobs won for executive of the year, Apple for best large company, & Larry Ellison took home a prize, too. A video of me receiving the award on behalf of QLess can be seen here:
About QLess™
With offices in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa, QLess offers mobile wait management solutions for retail, government, colleges, health-care, theme parks, casinos, services, restaurants, hotels and anywhere where people stand in line or wait for service. QLess, the world’s first and only provider of mobile queuing solutions, eliminates standing in line by letting users get in a virtual line from their cell phones, roam freely while they wait, then receive an automated call or text message when their turn approaches. QLess even lets users push themselves back in line or notify the establishment they are leaving the line. QLess™ was formed in 2007 with the sole purpose of eliminating lines around the world. Since inception, QLess™ has been the recipient of many accolades and awards from TechCrunch.com, Government Technology, Vator News, CNET, QSRWeb, Chain Store Age, the Kansas City Star and the American Business Awards. QLess ™ is part of the ab|inventio family of companies. Follow ab|inventio on Twitter @abinventio.
About The Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.stevieawards.com/, and follow the Stevie Awards on Twitter @TheStevieAwards.
Users continue to write to tell us how much they love QLess
“Absolutely love, love, love, love the system!! I had a 90 minute wait with 108 people ahead of me. So I left to do shopping, contacted my insurance company and had the insurance emailed to me home, dropped off the groceries, got updated wait times, came in with the insurance and was called to the window for service. Pam was fantastic, polite, efficient and courteous – a real delight! Whoever came up with the system is a genius! Everyone should be calling in to praise the system and the staff that are responsible for selecting and implementing it!! Awesome experience.”
— Erica, QLess user
“Lol…what an original website address. Love this method, very updated & convenient!”
“What should i send if i want to be first in line?”
“Thank u great service by cell. It help take care of some personal bussiness [sic] and still hold my place in line.”
“Wow im shock with this great sys”
“This setup is awsome thanks so much”
“You are welcome. Your system is awesome:)”
“K. Thanks again, awsome service!!”
“Thanks. I am here waiting. Nice system.”
“Waiting……we ran to Chipotle….you can check ur wait time.thru texts. We should be up in 15-20. I’m good. How r u?”
“Thank you..This is great!!”
We also have had a couple of inquiries from jealous wives checking their husbands’ cell phone records. Worry not, we straightened them out (no sexy-sounding receptionist for those calls)!
How would you like those to be your customers? All it takes is one call! 877-4-0-LINES
QLess in Any Language – Now On All Continents
QLess is available in any language and alphabet, and now has offices in Saudia Arabia, Malaysia, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, the UAE, Kenya, South Africa, Australia and several locations in the USA. To become a QLess distributor, contact QLess today. To contact QLess in your country, contact us at QLess.com and make sure to indicate where you are located.
QLess CEO Named One of “40 under 40″
Alex Backer was named one of “40 under 40″ in a televised awards gala at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the site of the original Oscars, for the inaugural 40 Under 40 M&A Advisor Recognition Awards. The Gala Event celebrated the leading forty M&A, Financing and Turnaround professionals who have made great accomplishments before their fortieth year. The 2010 40 Under 40 Award winners have been chosen from international nominees by an independent judging panel of distinguished business leaders for their accomplishments and expertise.
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