WaitWell 2024: We stepped it up

In 2024, WaitWell went all out to redefine how organizations manage queues, appointments, and customer flow. With bold innovations and a relentless focus on efficiency, we’ve empowered our clients to process 10 million tickets, saving over  2.1 million hours for their customers and improving experiences for everyone involved.

Along the way, we’ve become a vital part of operations for leading organizations, including:

• Nevada DMV: WaitWell has empowered tens of thousands of Nevada residents to secure appointments within a week instead of waiting three months, significantly enhancing the speed and efficiency of service delivery.
• SKIMS: WaitWell has supported SKIMS’s successful and seamless opening of new stores by ensuring a smooth customer experience during peak times and preventing staff from being overwhelmed by the influx of customers trying on garments.
• Vancouver Coastal Health: WaitWell has significantly improved Vancouver Coastal Health’s ability to manage appointments and walk-ins, reducing no-shows and enhancing the patient experience. By streamlining appointment scheduling, WaitWell has helped clear waiting rooms, minimize staff stress, and ensure more efficient patient flow.

On the product side, we went all in. We developed powerful updates that go beyond features. These enhancements create stronger connections, elevate customer experiences, and ensure seamless operations in hundreds of healthcare, veterinary, government, retail, and higher education locations.

Here’s a closer look at how we’re making it happen:

Empowering staff and customers with big solutions

We introduced some major add-ons this year, designed to streamline your operations, and tech stack and improve user experiences across industries:

• Staff scheduling: Shift-based organizations no longer need to rely on spreadsheets to manage staff schedules. With WaitWell’s staff scheduling module, teams can easily track shifts, make updates, and ensure everyone stays informed.
• Payments: By enabling customers to pay when booking appointments or joining queues, WaitWell simplifies financial transactions, optimizes appointment bookings and improves resource allocation by reducing no-shows. Vet offices, for example, have used Payments to reduce bottlenecks for pet owners, secure revenue, and ensure that fee-related processes are handled upfront and efficiently.

• Central booking hub: With role-based access, staff can now add customers to any location or queue, whether in person or over the phone, without being overwhelmed by unnecessary information. For example, a customer can call the reception desk of a healthcare network, and the agent can use this feature to book an appointment at the most convenient location or modify an existing booking. This process is done without accessing the customer’s medical records or any information beyond what is necessary to complete the task.
• Service locator map: For multi-location organizations, WaitWell’s interactive map offers customers a clear view of different service locations, wait times, and details in a visual format. This has proven particularly useful in government services, where clients need quick insights to make informed decisions about where to seek service.

Driving better insights

This year, we introduced even better tools to help organizations make decisions. For example, the no-show percentage report creates a clearer view of customer attendance trends, while the agent summary report highlights key performance metrics like average service times and tickets handled per hour.

New scheduling reports, like the hours worked report, allow managers to analyze scheduled versus actual hours, giving them a complete picture of staff efficiency and resource allocation.

Reimagining service efficiency

Many of this year’s updates are designed to help organizations deliver faster, more personalized service. For example, the feature that allows upgrading dependent service types to make ticket transitions smoother. Previously, customers could only be routed within the same queue. Now, they can be seamlessly moved between different queues and locations. This means, for instance, in a hospital, once a triage nurse completes their assessment, the patient’s ticket is automatically routed to the appropriate specialist or department, even if it’s at a different location.

Transforming customer experiences

Every update we made this year was designed to improve the experience for customers. However, there are also some super customer-specific features like our new document upload feature on appointment confirmations that simplify paperwork for customers after booking. Also, enhancements like map filtering by service type help them find the exact services they need more easily.

Reducing pressure on staff

We know how vital staff are to the success of any operation. That’s why we had updates like the shift event editor, which simplifies schedule adjustments for managers. The central booking hub consolidates appointment and ticket handling across multiple locations to streamline workflows and boost productivity.

Lots of new flexibility features too; agents can now use a serving button on tickets to move customers forward without needing to assign desks manually.

Ensuring security and precision

Security was front and center too! We introduced tools like IP restrictions for some roles and precision features, like the prevent cancel if serving setting, to ensure actions are accurately tracked.

While we’re talking about security, we also achieved SOC 2 Type 2 compliance and earned the Texas Risk and Authorization Management Program (TX-RAMP) certification this year!

Creating better interactions

A lot of improvements on the finer details too, to make every interaction seamless. Think the ability for end users to locate existing tickets or appointments, or for staff, features like message shortcuts and recurring appointments remove repetitive tasks, freeing them to focus on what truly matters: delivering excellent service. By further streamlining workflows, WaitWell ensures that teams operate at their best, every day.

2024 was also about connecting. We hit the road, meeting with customers and industry leaders and uncovering deeper insights into the industries we serve across North America.

Some of our favorite cities and events:

• AACRAO Annual Conference in Columbus, Ohio

• AAMVA Annual Conference in Atlanta, Georgia

• MGMA Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado

• RICE Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois

Looking ahead

In 2025, we plan to outdo ourselves. The coming year is for refining our user interface to make what’s already recognized as the easiest-to-use platform in the market even simpler and more intuitive. We’re enhancing the experience for every user, across the board.

Happy Holidays!