After nearly two years locked away, Australia has reopened our international borders to the world once more.
While this is great news for so many individuals, families and businesses that rely on international travel, it’s expected that our country’s population will surge considerably with the influx of foreign students, tourists, skilled migrants and ex-pats returning home over the course of the next few months – and with it, the demand for services.
This means that if you’re a service provider within the education, healthcare, retail, tourism or government sector, you need to ensure that you are prepared to handle the added strain that this will inevitably place on your service delivery systems.
Fortunately, NEXA has a variety of solutions to help you meet the growing service demand so you can continue to provide a high level of customer service.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, most service-based businesses in Australia, although increasingly busy, have been limited to dealing only with the domestic population since March 2020.
Now, with the number of people requiring these services set to increase once more, this poses quite a challenge for many service providers who have already been inundated with increased patients for the better part of the last two years.
Organisations in the following sectors are especially likely to experience this:
Qantas estimates that they brought more than 14,000 passengers into Australia in the first week following the borders reopening on February 21, 2022.
Less than two months later, Sydney Airport predicted that on April 14, they would see more than 82,000 people pass through their terminal in just one day – the highest figure since March 6, 2020.
With this increase in arrivals, queues have not only been longer in airport terminals but the added pressure has also been passed onto retail, tourism and commercial settings too. This means heavier workloads for already exhausted staff, leading to potential delays in service delivery and a negative customer experience.
While some international students were permitted to enter Australia back in December 2021, many more are expected to return now that travel restrictions have been lifted altogether.
This means extra pressure on administration staff at schools and universities around the country as they manage hundreds of additional applications and enrolments.
Other areas such as on-campus student centres will also have to find more efficient ways of handling the influx of students, with resource management and proper communication the main priorities to help minimise queues during peak times.
It is not unknown that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented strains on the healthcare system. The increase in population is now likely to lead to a further increase in the number of people seeking healthcare services around the country. Hospitals and medical clinics will need to find a way to manage the additional strain on their system, and those without an advanced appointment solution will be prone to no-shows, congested waiting areas and frustrating miscommunication between staff and patients.
This will also make it harder to remain prepared for walk-ins and emergency patients.
Like healthcare, the reopening of borders will now mean a considerable increase in the number of people accessing government services. Many will be looking to renew passports or licenses, while some will need assistance completing and submitting documents necessary for their leaving or entering the country.
It’s important for government services to work towards simplifying their multi-step procedures and streamlining their customer journeys to help maximise their resources and assist more people.
This goes to show just how important it now is to improve your internal efficiencies to ensure your team can remain productive and continue to deliver the best experience for your customers.
This is where NEXA can help.
We offer innovative customer service, service design and queuing solutions to support your employees in providing an excellent customer experience, while helping your business adapt to the latest changes in the Australian landscape and scale with your growing customer base.
That’s why, together with your team, our experts take a consultative approach to assess your current processes and identify opportunities for improvement. We work closely with you to optimise your organisation’s operations and redesign your services to ensure that both your customer and employee experiences are taken to the next level.
If you’d like to learn more about service design and how it can improve your company’s overall performance, download our FREE Service Design eBook.
NEXA’s queue management tools for a more efficient customer flow
NEXA can also help enhance your customer flow through queue management solutions, allowing you to effectively scale and respond to the influx of people that require your services.
Regardless of industry, we offer the following products that enable you to eliminate queues, reduce wait times and improve your staff productivity:
If you’re looking to prepare your service-based business for the increase in service demand or you want to improve your overall customer experience, NEXA is here to help.
NEXA is an Australian company that delivers innovative solutions that streamline the customer journey. We offer tailored software that empowers you to improve your service delivery by taking advantage of digital technology.
Reach out to us today to find out how we can help you to make your customer interactions matter.