A queue management software startup offering “infinitely customizable” modules is having a strong year.
In July, Calgary-based WaitWell secured seed funding from Toronto’s Graphite Ventures and Edmonton’s Accelerate Fund III.
Chief executive officer Steve Vander Meulen marked the transaction as a “significant milestone” for his young company, which is using the influx of capital to “expand our operations, establish strategic partnerships, and further innovate our platform to meet the evolving needs of our customers.”
More recently, WaitWell was honoured as the “A100 One to Watch” at the sixth annual Start Alberta Tech Awards, which took place in Edmonton on October 11th.
RELATED: WaitWell is hiring on Techtalent.ca
The Alberta upstart was co-founded by CEO Steve and Shannon Vander Meulen, who serves as chief of marketing.
The husband-and-wife duo developed their tech platform initially to better serve motor vehicle registries, which commonly struggle with lineups and wait times.
But the modern platform—which facilitates digital appointment bookings, queuing, workflow, events, virtual meetings, and analytics—shows benefits across a variety of sectors.
WaitWell claims its tech can reduce wait times by up to 35% while improving efficiency by more than 30%, based on client case studies.
“Physical lineups are a source of frustration for customers [and] also a problem for staff,” the company says. “WaitWell virtual queue eliminates the frustration that queues cause for customers and staff and provides administration with powerful insights into service operations.”
In addition, optimized workflows such as automated communication templates keep customers informed of progress from start to finish, while self-scheduling services empower the one-third of appointments that customers make outside of office hours.
The cofounders of WaitWell now target their all-encompassing queue management software at several different industries, including universities, government bodies, banks, healthcare units, and retail stores.
In retail, for example, customer retention sets apart a successful business from a failing one. One threat to customer retention is shopping cart abandonment, which “often happens when customers have to wait too long for attention from a sales associate,” according to WaitWell. The platform claims to reduce walk-aways by up to 60%.
More than three million people have used WaitWell across hundreds of locations throughout North America.
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