The Queue Culture of India Is Going To Disappear with Online Booking Solutions

India’s economic growth and ongoing development in diverse sectors are worth appreciating. But every country has its flavor and signature style – India’s one of the most visible characteristics is an unstructured and unorganized system that results in long queues.

The Problem

In India, one can see queues here and there – be it money withdrawal from the bank to booking essentials like cooking gas, paying tax, electricity bill, water bill, to buy entry tickets for any place – there are long queues EVERYWHERE.

And the strange fact is that Indians are pretty used to this queue culture – they often have the attitude to spend a couple of hours whenever they need to do any of the activities mentioned here. Strangely, it may surprise you, but these people are completely okay with this. Any of these activities without a queue leaves them wondering “What” and “How”!

The Deeper Level of the Problem

In the rural areas, the scene is even worse – people have to stand in a queue to get the essentials like water, food, etc. There is no age limit or gender bias to stand in queues: for example,  students stand in lines to complete their institutional formalities. What worsens the situation is that the queues barely move – people have to stand under sun, rain, and storm, and sometimes they are asked to come the next day as no more tickets are left, or the timing is over.

Here are a few situations where queues are very common in rural, semi-urban and urban areas:

• Billing counters in hospitals
• Diagnostic centre
• Banks (both withdrawal and deposit counters)
• Insurance companies
• Billing counters of mega shops
• Any ticket booking counters (car/bus/train/flight)
• Tax payment counters
• Electricity bill payment
• Gas booking
• Any service-providing center
• Amusement/adventure park ticket counter
• Ticket counters of tourist places
• Movie/show/game ticket counter

In short, you have to stand in a queue if you need to get a service or an entry ticket, and you have to sacrifice your essential tasks for the day to be in that queue. Sometimes, many people fail to get their booking or access pass or service ticket as:

• No more tickets are left
• Counter is closed after a certain time

In India, basically, people have to wait longer for their turn to get the service. Be it the essential services or the luxury services –  people may have to make multiple attempts to get a successful booking.

So, What Is the Way Out?

It seemed like a deep-rooted problem having no way out – but is that for real?

Well, of course NOT!

India is on its way to a cashless economy – so why should people not expect online booking and ticketing services for all these tasks?

Currently, online mobile bill payment, gas booking, tax payment, and many other payments are in. Yes, even the rural people in India are slowly getting used to online bill payment.

Next, there are booking apps that power easy movie/show ticket booking, hotel booking, ticket booking, etc. However, small players cannot avail their service due to the hefty cost. For example, entry-level music or dance show organizers, hotels, parks, or event companies need help getting the assistance of these apps. They have to stick to offline culture, and that results in queues. Simplistically, they cannot bear the cost of these apps.

What Is Actually Needed?

The present need of these merchants, especially the entry-level ones, is a simple solution so that they can take all their booking services online and offer the services to a broader base of customers. More specifically, they need a solution that will not require the merchants to write long pages of code or have excellent design knowledge.

And, of course, the platform should not empty their pockets.

They need a solution where they can fill in the details of their booking services, and their customers can view the details and book it. Not just that, this solution should also offer a payment solution so that the customers can pay for their bookings from their homes without standing in a queue.

The Current Scenario

In order to get rid of the queue culture, several Indian companies are coming forward. It is visible that the companies have tried everything to make their solution as simple as possible. They have aimed to minimize the trouble of the merchants and are undoubtedly successful in doing that.

At present, a number of companies offer booking solutions so that even the smaller players can take their booking services (be it appointment booking, travel booking, show/movie booking, or entry ticket booking) online and offer an easy booking facility to their customers. The best part of these solutions is the merchants need to put in little effort and spend less.

With the editable templates, merchants just need to select their preferred template and edit the details to complete the process. Once they preview their inputs and are okay with that, they can go live to make these tickets purchasable for the customers.

Acceptance of the Online Solutions

Moving on to the customers’ reaction to these online booking solutions – it is very convenient, especially for the working population of urban India. It is like a savior to them because they do not have to avail half-day off or late-login approval to make some bookings.

For the rural area, the online services are yet to be accepted. It is known that rural areas gradually have smartphone and internet access. Initially, they do not have the option to make these bookings online. As a result, they have to stand in a queue to complete these bookings. But, right now, the situation is different.

However, smartphones and high-speed internet connectivity have entered these places. Right now, the missing link is the awareness. Therefore, a certain portion of the rural population can access these services. To take this further, the companies offering booking solutions and the merchants using their booking solutions to take their booking online must promote these collaboratively. As a result, end-users will know about it and book it – it will altogether solve the queue problem. Live demos of how to make a booking with their smartphones and how the process will be at the time of availing the services can be very helpful here.

Wrapping up…

The queue culture is very dominant in India, and it will take some time to disappear, especially in rural areas. Proper awareness will show these people the ease of the new system. However, the awareness campaigns may sometimes be challenging in these areas as the people here hold a conventional mindset. We expect that some smart and realistic approaches will create proper awareness in these areas. One day, they will accept online booking services with open arms, and we can see a queue-free India.

Also Read: Future For Digital Bitcoin Currency