View the entire newsletter for more articles: 2020 – NJAC County Biz – July
by Salvatore Coppola, Director of Marketing & Communications of ACCSES New Jersey
During a pandemic, social distancing is sometimes needed to curb the spread of illness and help keep your customers safe while they access your business. QLess can work with many industries, keeping your business running and promoting a healthy environment for both customers and employees. Clear crowded waiting areas, make appointment scheduling easy, and give your employees an option to communicate directly with customers over their mobile phones.
Government offices, colleges, healthcare facilities, pharmacies, and grocery stores face different challenges because they cannot simply close their doors and cease operations. For these industries, finding a solution that doesn’t involve “shutting it down” is imperative. While there is still a lot of research to be done to understand how coronavirus is transmitted, there are things you can do to help reduce the spread of the virus by limiting contact and keeping crowds down as much as possible.
Government Offices
A pandemic can hurt the economy causing job losses that result in unemployment claims and claims for state aid, like SNAP and cash benefits. Many of these cases will need to be fielded in person by government workers. With such a rush for aid, government offices can quickly become packed and make social distancing difficult. The QLess appointment scheduler and queue management lets people check-in virtually and wait anywhere they want to, while not being jammed together in a waiting room.
QLess COVID-19 Solutions
QLess allows customers to get in line from a website at home or work, receive SMS text messages of their place in line and wait-time, and arrive at the location when it is time for their appointment.
For customers that walk into the lobby, you can check them into QLess and they will receive an SMS-Text message of their place in line and their wait-time, allowing them to leave and come back when you are ready to serve them.
All SMS messages can be customized to communicate their journey to your office during COVID-19.
By empowering customers to wait at home, work, or anywhere else they choose, your lobby will be empty and you will be fighting contagion.
This valuable feature enables you to move to 100% appointments for office visits. FlexAppointments are interactive and send SMS text messages to customers an hour before their time to ask them if they are on their way or if they need to cancel or reschedule.
You can completely customize your text messages during COVID-19. Since we’ve learned how coronavirus spreads through large groups, moving to 100% appointments is another opportunity to fight contagion by emptying your lobby.
Customers are able to check into a Virtual Call-Back Queue through your website. Once they have checked-in, they will receive SMS text messages of their place in line and their wait-time. They will receive a text message when your staff is ready to call them, giving them a heads up.
They can also leave the queue or ask for more time if they need it. Staff members are easily able to manage Call-Back Queues through a simple interface, thereby streamlining your virtual services. The ability to provide virtual services will fight contagion during COVID-19. You may not be able to make all of your transactions with customers into virtual queues, but we have seen our clients move to Call-Back Queues for many transactions.
A better customer experience
Despite the horrors of the pandemic, there have also been opportunities for businesses and people to innovate. This includes businesses becoming reliant on technology like waiting line apps to maintain operations. Innovations and technologies that became a necessity throughout the pandemic will become expectations as the world changes post-pandemic. Consumers will expect an improved customer experience in industries that once relied on long wait times, creating a future without waiting lines.
QLESS & ACCSES New Jersey
Every purchase made through ACCSES Secure has a purpose. We make sure you get the products and services you need, when you need them, at a competitive price, while also providing employment opportunities and making the American dream more accessible to people with disabilities.
Our passion is creating jobs for people with disabilities. We connect our customers to an established network of nonprofit agencies who hire talented people with disabilities. We advocate for more employment opportunities and choices in employment for people with disabilities on a national scale. We support our network of agencies, providing training, networking, sales & marketing, and technical assistance. The QLESS partnership provides HelpDesk and training jobs for people with disabilities and an opportunity for valuable tech jobs for our consumers.