Love and Respect should never be something you have to wait for.
That has been our guiding mantra since last year when we made the commitment to end queues at our booth.
Queues suck. They stop us from having enough quality time with professionals and in many instances, from having ANY time with people. Sure, it is nice to feel "Loved" when you see mobs of people literally rushing toward you as the gates open, but that short term buzz dissipates quickly as you struggle to accomplish what we invested so much to do: spend time with the professionals we serve.
For us shows are not about "The Sales". Shows are about the people. They are about the experience. They are about meeting new and old friends and a great opportunity to listen and learn new ways that we can be more meaningful for those we serve.
To be better at this, we needed to reduce queues. So at Excel we increased stand space, tills and team members by about 30%. Sadly it didn't make a dent. In fact the average queue time increased. At one stage the organisers installed security at the 2.5 hour mark to prevent people joining as the line was running outside the hall and down the concourse.
So how many more tills would it take to kill the queue? How many more team members? How much space would we really need and how much stand build would we require?
We still don't know. But here is the one thing we DID know: Since Excel we have launched Vinylux, Tibby Olivier and Dashing Diva which has more than DOUBLED the amount of SKU's (items) we had at the show. That meant we would have needed approximately 20 tills and twice the stand, space and team just to maintain a 2.5 hour queue. The thought of a giant till counter as the face of S2 gives me shivers. That is not what the show is about for us because that is not what we are about.
So we had to up the ante and seriously rethink things.
Those that went to the Event in 2013 were privy to our first test of what we were trying to do at the show. An App that would allow you to build your own order at the show (thereby avoiding queuing all together). That is still our objective that we will accomplish, however we needed the new till and picking/packing system in place FIRST. We launched that on Sunday.
Apart from allowing you to create your own order, a key objective of the system is to consolidate the fulfilment process in a significantly more efficient manner. In the Squarehouse, we can order products in a special way that makes picking them much faster and more efficient. At Olympia we started picking the order as you started to pay which meant that in most instances, it was ready for collection by the time you got to the window. It also meant we could tie your orders to your account so that you could qualify for the locators, receive emails of your receipts and have larger items drop shipped to you instead of having to lug them around all day.
Leading up to the show, we worked tirelessly on the system. We even set up a mock show in the Squarehouse. Complete with picking bins, staff, till points and randomly populated order forms. We were as confident as you can be at the launch of such an important event that we were prepared.
What we weren't prepared for was the almost complete lockout of the majority of our tablets due to the wifi being next to useless. Within 20 minutes we had a queue running out and around the stand with only 2 till points operating intermittently. It took us several extremely stressed hours to get fully operational by which time we were hundreds of orders behind. It took the entirety of the day before we could catch up and put a dent on the queue size.
So yea... kind of a serious disappointment. We invested a seriously staggering amount of time, money and energy to create a cool experience and eliminate queues. Only to find we did the exact opposite (for Sunday anyway).
The good news is that once the system was working, it did so exceptionally well and achieved our objectives of our first phase. The next is where we will really start to make a difference and I believe our third phase will complete our goal of totally eliminating queues.
Then we can get on with what we came to the show to do: Spend time with the professionals we serve.
Customers who were made to wait as long as they did deserve to be angry and upset. Know that you were not alone. We were ALL angry and upset to have let so many down. Just know that it makes our resolve to end queues even stronger and that we will all work harder than ever to make that happen.
nJoy