Better UX in the banking queues
Queues are a constant in the people’s life, always present to access any service of public interest such as transportation, health, citizen participation or personal tasks. But this activity is characterized for being an unsatisfactory experience, even implementing technologies, applications and resources, it’s still part of the activities that the users prefers to avoid.
Shortcut culture
The cultural factor also has a great influence, because if there is a minimal possibility of saving time, why not do it?. According to Antanas Mockus, Colombian politician and mathematician, this is the thinking of several people who promote the “shortcut culture”, defining it as “a characteristic of people who pretend to take advantage of others inappropriately, such as: to sneak in line, take over what someone forgot or cheat in exams and games.”
From the approach of the professor and ex-mayor of Bogotá, we can find a characterization that divides Colombians into passive and conflictive people.
We take this base to perform a sub-segmentation of the most common behaviors, in order to have a greater cultural and behavioral understanding in the queues.
Conflicts: Exacerbating tempers makes the time in the row pass faster, but not before altering the order of the trained. But when going into detail we can find several types of conflicting people in the ranks.
Seepers: They are the worst exponent in a row. They can preempt or claim place in a challenging way. They put their situation on the rest of the community, lengthening the waiting time of the order that the line had.
The village hero: Defend the rules, only if he are sure that will have the support of the majority. Exposes the behavior or any other irregularity before public scrutiny.
Worried: “I’ve been waiting for more than 30 minutes” or “that person has been with the counselor for a long time”, this type of phrase identifies those who are eager. They believe that by exasperating others, they will make the line flow.
Passive: But not everyone has high spirits. There are those who ignore conflicts to avoid any confrontation, but this attitude in itself isn’t something contributing, in fact, can contribute to the experience in the row is negative.
This is what Mockus says “a culture of ours, of permissiveness, of passivity, where one allows others to do what they want”.
Guardian: Many people arrive early to avoid waiting too long in line, and that’s fine, the problem starts when that person keeps the position to more people, increasing the waiting time of others
Accompanist: There are those who accompany friends or relatives in line so that the wait isn’t so long, but their presence can confused the people trained, commonly hearing the question: “Excuse me, are you standing in line?”
Personal space defenders: Concentrated on themselves, until they have to defend their personal space in the ranks. They show displeasure with looks and pushes when they feel their square meter invaded.
Those who leave: We all have some other occupation that we could be doing instead of forming in a row. In some cases, this activity is important enough to leave the line.
Although we find different profiles and behaviors in the row, all agree in their perception around the rows: is a waste of time that could be better taken advantage of, but sometimes it has to be done, even if the experience is not the best.
Crucial time to connect with the client
This perception takes strength when we review the different apps on the market to minimize the hassle of making lines like: “My turn”, “I do not row”, “We make the row for you” or “Get me out of the row”.
All of these share the promise of value in shortening the time in the queue or evading it altogether. But none offers to improve the user experience in the row when it is inevitable to do so. For this reason, we propose a new way of approaching the problem.
Let’s focus on improving the experience, not on abolishing the queues.
Factors such as time, satisfaction with the service received and facilities play a relevant role in the perception of the user before the queues. Let’s focus on the first factor, time.
According to Qminder, an application that optimizes the dynamics in the rows, customers don’t want to wait, they are willing to stay 14 minutes in line before leaving the establishment with the worst taste in their mouths.
In addition, the companies surveyed said they lost 75% of their customers due to excessive waiting time.
In contrast, Professor Richard Larson, also known as Dr. Queue, who has spent more than 30 years studying the psychology of online waiting, found that consumers can also have positive experiences in the ranks.
“The rows of routine bother us, but the idea of a line of celebration doesn’t. To line up at an Apple store or buy tickets for a rock concert is almost a celebration, you can boast about it. They are not negative rows”, says Larson.
The entertainment in the ranks is known as “busy time”, and is the perfect opportunity to improve the user experience in line through products or services, as they have their attention ready for what is shown in the period standby.
Optimization of time in the banking rows
Our case study is the rows in the banks, where people attend to change checks, pay for services, withdraw cash, apply for credits and open accounts through a banking advisor.
The common denominator is the large amount of time spent waiting for the service, which often coincides with the need of other users on the same date of the month, biweekly or monthly payments, collection of tax or payment of public services.
There are factors such as the type of row (customer, non-customer and preferential) that can influence the waiting time of each user, but most leave the bank with the feeling of having wasted their time.
Currently, banks develop applications and digital solutions to reduce the flow of customers in physical facilities, with the aim that their experience improves when it is imperative to do one.
Even when modernizing the offices with comfortable furniture and incredible interior design, isn’t enough for people to want to stay in a row by their own choice, because although the digital experience is optimal, the waiting time in the branches is fruitless.
Therefore, we implemented a survey of 70 users, designed with the objective of identifying contact points in the rows to optimize the experience in them.
From this exercise arose a journey that allows the banking user to take advantage of the dead time.
Taking into account factors such as needs, tastes of consumption and time, we identify the following aspects in the behavior of customers, in addition to finding potential solutions for the use of dead time in the queue.
- Users have an average of 15 to 30 minutes to complete their procedures, but the time they really have to invest in the entity is between 45 minutes to more than 1 hour.
- Even when 88% of customers have the option to streamline procedures through other channels such as digital, they decide to do some processes in physical branches, exceeding the limit of time allocated and assuming the experience in the bank as negative.
- An informed user is less likely to leave the process with a feeling of frustration, in contrast to the user who relates the time to invest with the type of service required by the bank, idealizing an agile process, when in reality, the rest of the users in the row have the same projection.
- All banks take actions to optimize the time of attention for each user, making use of technology to work on three fronts. The first is to pre-calculate the expected average of people based on the previous data of attention, in order to offer an estimate of waiting. The second is to offer contents that allow the client to be distracted, learn and invest the waiting time in something of quality. Finally, the ease of carrying out the greatest number of procedures through digital channels.
- Having information grants decision power. If during the client’s waiting time, before deciding to leave the process, they are informed that there are other means to carry out your procedure, the feeling of dissatisfaction of the client will be mitigated by knowing that the bank is working in different ways to expedite its request in digital channels.
- According to the survey, 90% of users are willing to see content while they are in line for the process. This disposition of the clients, offers a space to change in a positive way the experience that they associate with the bank, through previously selected entertainment and learning contents.
- According to the survey, among the options proposed for audiovisual content, 34% of users prefer to watch series, 27% movies, 28% documentaries and 32% financial education while waiting in the bank row.
The ideal journey
According to the results of the survey and applying the proposed solutions for the use of time, according to needs and tastes of consumption, the ideal journey for the client was raised while doing the queue in the physical branches of the bank.
The best journey to have an optimal experience is indicated with green color, achieving in the end to fulfill the two objectives, perform the banking procedure and take advantage of the dead time during the wait.
The user enters the branch and receives a tablet, which has an interface to confirm the type of user: personal banking (ID) business banking (NIT) and if it is a special user, member and non-customer.
When filling out the data, identify the procedure required by the user, indicate the line in the row and calculate waiting time. According to the estimated time, the client is offered the appropriate content while his turn comes.
The second option, the content of entertainment, is the opportunity for the national production companies, since they will have a space in which they will have an audience for their new audiovisual proposals, allowing to measure the impact and the preference of content in the dead moments of waiting.
*This article was written by the ux investigation team at Grupodot: Mateo Rojas Borrero, Sofía Meza, Gustavo Álvarez, Lucas Barrales, Leopoldo Tacchini, Juan David Jurado.”
