Net Check In, an Innovative Computer Software Developed Queue Management Solution, Enables Users to Reduce Wait Times and Remotely Check in at their Desired Locations

"Eliminating on-site waits creates a superior customer experience."

Imagine a world in which the worst aspect of walking in to a doctor’s office, mechanic or any other service business-a long onsite wait-has been eliminated. There are many better ways to utilize the extra 30-40 minutes spent waiting in a dingy waiting room while the queue moves ahead. Software company Innovative Computer Software (ICS) visualized and created technology to improve the customer wait experience.

ICS developed a queue management system called Net Check In (NCI) that allows the user to check in to a queue remotely. NCI users can select businesses they want to go to and see wait times at each of these businesses’ locations. They can then choose a location, add their name to the wait list and wait where they want– avoiding the over crowded lobby. Their individual wait time counts down so they know when it is time to walk in and receive their service. They can wait at home, work, a park, a coffee shop, etc.

A Net Check In executive spoke to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Q. Can you brief us about the contribution of your patented algorithm to your solutions?

The patented algorithm makes end-customers’ lives better by giving them extremely accurate wait times and displaying those times on a map. End-customers remotely check in to the closest location with the shortest wait via their phone or a website and wait wherever it is comfortable and convenient for them as the app counts down the minutes until they are to be serviced. It further makes business site-users’ lives easier by automatically calculating wait times so that they do not have to estimate and manually key in inaccurate wait times of their own. Because end-customers can check-in remotely, employees at the site get visibility of the queue of customers who desire a service but have not yet arrived.

Q. How does your queue management software help the client to improve their ROI?

Net Check In helps improve business ROI in multiple ways: Eliminating on-site waits creates a superior customer experience. This significantly improves customer return rates and increases revenue. Showing the wait times of all convenient locations on a map causes customers to check in more often at sites that are slower at the time of check-in. This helps balance the customer load between locations, drive down wait times at higher-volume sites, decrease idle time among employees, and increase the number of customers that each site can serve. Providing wait times online enables potential end-customers to see wait times while waiting at nearby competitors encouraging them to leave the competitor and become customers of the NCI partner.

Q. Tell us about your subscription model and how successful is it?

Net Check In is a SaaS product that users subscribe to and pay for on a month-to-month basis. Automated payments are authorized in advance and invoices are sent prior to payments being processed so that businesses always know what to expect for their monthly fees. Customers love the flexibility to cancel at anytime but choose to stay because of the positive impact on profitability and the benefits NCI brings to their staff and end-customers.

Q. How can SMEs benefit from Net Check In?

Small and medium-sized enterprises benefit from Net Check In by getting an additional, inexpensive touch-point for making their customers’ lives easier. Some examples:

In Urgent Care, if you have a sick child, would you prefer to drive to an urgent care facility where you have no idea how long the wait might be and sit there with your sick child (and lots of other sick people) for an undetermined amount of time or would you rather look at an urgent care’s NCI app on your phone, determine which convenient location has the shortest wait time, check in to that location, let your child sleep in his or her own bed and drive to the urgent care location when it is getting close to being time for your child to be seen by the medical professional?

In Oil Change, would you prefer to drive to a ‘quick lube’ location on your lunch break and sit in line behind a half-dozen other vehicles that arrived ahead of you or would you rather check in via the NCI app of an SME that offers this benefit to their customers? Instead of waiting in your car, you wait at work while the app counts down your wait minutes and leave for your service at the appropriate time.

What are the areas that benefit from Net Check In?

Net Check In is beneficial for businesses in all industries that manage their queue on a first-come-first-served basis. Outside of hair salons, our highest concentrations of NCI customers are in Medical (predominantly urgent care, blood testing, and walk-in chiropractic), automotive (oil change and tire rotations), and several smaller categories including universities, banking, etc.

Compliance is important for any organization. What are the measures you adopt to comply with regulations?

Net Check In has been certified for HIPAA compliance and also follows ADA guidelines. These are both critical; particularly for medical businesses as patients want assurance that their information is secure and users with disabilities need to have the same opportunities to benefit from the convenience of Net Check In as other users.

Innovative Computer Software was founded in 1985 and is based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

For more information please visit: www.netcheckin.com

"End-customers remotely check-in to the closest location with the shortest wait via their phone or a website and wait wherever it is comfortable and convenient for them as the app counts down the minutes until they are to be serviced."