How Queue Management Works in Education
Thanks to exams, relationships, and homework, school can be tough—even time-consuming. What student’s don’t need is the added headache of waiting around in a queue.
The importance of queues in schools should go without saying. It can be judged as a determination of just how well-run a particular institution is. Therefore, the administration wants to put their best foot forward.
Or, maybe a better way to put this is that administration wakes to ensure student’s feet are continuously moving forward in the queue.
What schools need is student management system software. Yes, that’s a lot of syllables. Rather than keep it abstract let’s dive and find out how exactly queue management solutions work in education?
To the Admissions Office
Our first destination is the admissions office: a place normally dreaded by students overwhelmed by exams and projects.
But the admissions office is an important part of schools. It’s where students turn to for answers to their questions—often in large numbers that can quickly turn into long, twisting queues.
The admission office quickly adds to students frustrations.
It should be obvious that administration wants to provide their students with the best possible experience, just like any business would. That means serving students in a reasonable and organized manner that’s efficient.
But what to change is not always obvious.
Thankfully a queue management system (QMS) can transform the admissions office process into a headache-free experience.
The QMS Education
How does QMS come into play in our admissions office example above?
Well an admission office with QMS doesn’t have traditional lines. Instead, it features a tablet, like an iPad, where students tap in their name and enter a digital queue.
There’s no need to take a number or impatiently stare at the back of the person’s head in front of them.
Instead, students see their place in line thanks to televisions connected to the student management system software’s app. Students see who is queued before them and who is queued after them.
The Importance of Queues In Schools
The importance of queue systems in schools grows alongside our fast-paced culture. Impatience is the name of the game. And the more important we become the more frustrated we become.
Eventually, we leave if frustration grows too big.
In Texas, 21% of patients left a university pharmacy to fill their prescription because they felt they waited too long.
In the same vein, at city-sprawling universities, poor transportation organization leads some students to skip the bus—meaning they also skip class. What we’re stressing is the importance of queue systems in school and public places.
Because when people feel irritated by queues it causes them to have a negative assessment of their entire experience: a negative assessment of their education.
More Than Just Admissions
Let’s keep in mind that student management system software isn’t only viable in an administrative office environment. Other areas of education where it can be effectively employed include:
- Testing centers.
- Library (study rooms).
- Computer labs.
- Campus dining halls.
- Office of Student Success.
- Financial Aid office.
Any aspect of the educational institution where students have to queue can be refined with a queue management system.
The point is to streamline the experience to lift the burden of staff members and to ease the anxiety of students to make life easier for everyone.
Take Advantage of Mobile Queueing
Millennials and later generations are inseparable from their smartphones. The statistics are amazing. On average, university students spend 94 minutes a day texting.
These students can’t help but interact with the world through their mobile devices. Meaning, that mobile queuing should be taken advantage of to easily streamline students into the queuing process.
77% of surveyed students told Cappex, “If a college has a message that is relevant to me, I want to know about it anytime.”
Well, here’s how it works for queues:
Students sign in to the queue, and when it’s their turn in line they’ll be notified with an SMS message (a text message). That’s it.
Really, that’s it.
Not only does mobile queueing pose an intuitive interaction for students, but it minimizes the organization nightmare created by long lines.
During long waiting times, students are free to wander the campus (nearby, of course), or the office where they find themselves. And staff can easily manage the queue from a single queue management portal.
High Grades, Great Results
Not only are students better organized in the queue but the administration is better able to help students. Especially when staff is limited.
A teacher in a computer classroom environment is often called on to help multiple students at once. Employing QMS in the classroom lets students add themselves to the queue, and get the assistance they need in the order of their request.
Fairness is the fundamental tenet of QMS.
Plus, in the case of the administrative office, the queue management software makes it simple to direct students to the staffer who can best help them.
A single staffer can be designated as a primary customer service person for routine questions, while more complex requests can be directed to the proper advisor.
Dividing students based on the help they need can be tedious if done manually. But QMS can be easily used to request student’s reason for their visit that day, and automatically put them in the queue that’s right for them.
Of course, a person can also stand at the beginning of the line and manually add students to the right queue. This has the added bonus of adding a human element to the system which creates feelings of intimacy and warmth.
After all, no one wants to deal solely with computer.
Ease of Use
Queue management solutions pull ahead of other options because they’re easy to use.
Many students can recall their frustrations due to over-complicated technology—especially when it comes to class enrollment.
Luckily, queue management systems like Qminder are designed to be intuitive.
With very little training, almost anyone can operate the system. And it comes prepackaged with everything staff need to get up and running. Students won’t hear university personnel calling IT for assistance to operate the queue management software because they won’t need them.
And because of QMS’ intuitiveness, even students who don’t speak the native language fluently can easily utilize the interface. This is particularly apparent for global institutions like educational institutions where people from all around the world are drawn together.
The takeaway? Student management system software is easy to use and operate.
Student Footfall
The most valuable way to improve queuing whether in an institution like a hospital, a retail business, or a university is data. With queue management software, administration can see just how many students are waiting around.
They already know that the university bookshop is crowded at the beginning of the semester when students are racing to buy the books they need. But they would be presumptuous to assume no other time of the semester will be crowded.
Footfall analytics gives staffers the information they need to predict when they’ll be busiest. Which becomes readily apparent once data has been collected over time.
Doing so enables more efficient organizational responses to meet the needs of students.
Lunch Queues
We’ve focused on higher education so far, but that doesn’t mean queue management solutions don’t exist for younger students as well.
At San Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School, nearly 1,000 students queued for lunch each day of the school week. With that many students, not everyone gets the time they need to eat.
District Director David Binkle told SFGate, “What we find is, with the kids that don’t have the time, they don’t eat anything.” How can we make sure students have the time they need to eat?
Making lunch queues tolerable doesn’t have to rely on software, though it certainly can. Instead, schools implemented the following solutions:
- Student wristbands that indicated the meal the student wanted.
- More tables to sit at to eat, and more service areas to receive lunch.
- Student helpers who assist staffers.
By recognizing the importance of queues in school the administration was able to provide better process which ensured that kids got the lunchtime they needed.
Perhaps the most important system is recognizing that queues need to be improved and can be improved.
The importance of queue systems in schools can’t be overstated. And any educational institution can benefit from revisiting their queueing strategy.
If you want to discover how queue management software can help your institution or business try Qminder. It’s free for two weeks, no credit card required.
