You know how it is, the queue to get a queue number is itself quite long and slow moving. Buying a handphone, especially on a weekend, can take up quite a bit of time. I’ve waited like 2 hours to be served at M1 Shop the last time I bought a phone from them. I don’t know about StarHub, but it is sort or about the same with SingTel Shop. So I was pleasantly surprised that my shopping trip to M1 Shop today was over so quickly.
The best thing that has happened is how re-contracting customers are served. There are now self-service kiosks for existing customers to enter some particulars and select a phone. A queue ticket was issued. Not seeing any of my type of queue number being displayed on the queue number display, I asked a staff how long I had to wait. I didn’t mind waiting, I just wanted to know how long, so that I could spend my time productively. I was told 20 to 30 minutes. Yeah, that’s very good, but I was half disbelieving.
I went off, and came back about 25 minutes later. I checked, apparently they had really already called my number. They put me back in the queue only, and it was not even 2 or 3 minutes before they called my number. Cool.
The service at the counter was pretty quick too. The last time I bought something, I was stuck a long time with plenty of paper work, signatures, and photocopying. It is a whole lot different this time. Good that the workflow has improved.
I think from start till the time I left with a handphone, it didn’t even come up to 45 minutes. That’s on a Sunday afternoon. It was a crowded day. But it was a good day.
I estimate the self-service kiosk had easily cut my waiting time to get a queue number by at least 15 minutes to 20 minutes. Many people hog the queue number issuing counter with time-wasting questions. I’ve spent enormous times at many of such counters: SingTel Shop, Nokia Care, and M1 Shop too.
If they can somehow also make the self-service kiosk work for new customers, I think they would have basically made both new and existing customers happy, so long as they have made up their mind what they want. The only people that would be kept waiting would be those who hog queues keeping others waiting.
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