Queue management systems in Nepal: token kiosk or QR phone queue?
Banks and hospitals here run on token machines. Smaller walk-in businesses are starting to use the customer's own phone. Both are queue management systems, and they solve different problems.
We make LainMa, a QR phone queue for beauty studios, so we have a side. This guide describes both kinds as fairly as we can.
The token kiosk
Take a number, watch the screen.
This is the system you know from the bank. A machine at the entrance prints a numbered token. A display on the wall, often with a voice announcement, calls each number to a counter, and staff press a button to call the next one.
It works well where there are several counters and hundreds of visitors a day, and where nobody can be asked to own a smartphone.
The cost is the equipment: a kiosk, a ticket printer, display screens and counter units, plus someone to install and maintain them. And the customer has to stay in the hall, because the hall is the only place the number is called.
The QR phone queue
Scan a code, wait anywhere.
Here there is no machine. A printed QR code sits at the door. The customer scans it, joins the queue on their own phone, and sees how many people are ahead. A notification calls them back when their turn is close.
The business runs the queue from a phone or tablet it already owns. That makes it cheap to start and quick to set up, and it frees the customer to leave the room.
The trade-off is that customers need a smartphone with data. So a phone queue only works if staff can also add the people who don't have one.
Side by side
How the two compare.
The right-hand column describes how LainMa works. Other phone queues differ in the details.
| Token kiosk | QR phone queue | |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | A kiosk, a ticket printer, display screens and counter units. | Nothing. A printed QR code and a phone or tablet you already own. |
| Setting it up | Supplied and installed by a vendor. | Download the app, add your team, print the code. |
| Where the customer waits | In the hall, watching the display. | Anywhere. Their phone shows their place. |
| How they're called | A number on a screen and a voice announcement. | A notification on their phone. |
| What the customer needs | Nothing. | A smartphone with data. Staff add anyone who doesn't have one. |
| Choosing who serves you | By service or counter. | By person, or whoever is free first. |
| Best for | Banks, hospitals, government and telecom service centres. | Small teams serving walk-ins one at a time. |
The short answer
Which one should you choose?
Choose a token kiosk if
you run several counters, serve hundreds of people a day, and can't assume every visitor has a smartphone. A bank branch, a hospital OPD or a ward office is the clear case.
Choose a QR phone queue if
a small team serves walk-ins one at a time, your customers carry phones, and you'd rather they came back on time than sat in your waiting area.
If you run a beauty studio
the second case is yours. LainMa is a QR phone queue built for salons, barbershops, nail studios, spas and makeup studios in Nepal. It costs 3% of the sales you record, with no hardware and no monthly fee.
Questions
Common questions.
Any system that records who arrived and in what order, and tells each person when it's their turn. It replaces the paper token, the notebook and the question "who's next?".
A token kiosk system is priced by its vendor and depends on the hardware: the kiosk, printers, displays and counter units, plus installation. Ask suppliers for a quote. A QR phone queue has no hardware to buy. LainMa charges 3% of the sales recorded in the app, and nothing on a day with no sales.
No. LainMa is built for beauty studios: hair salons, barbershops, nail studios, spas, makeup studios, brow and lash bars and skin clinics. For a bank or a hospital, a token kiosk system is the better fit.
With LainMa, yes. The QR code opens the LainMa app, where they join with a name and a phone number. They don't create an account.
Running a beauty studio? Try the phone queue.
Leave your details and we'll set your studio up by hand. It's checked and live the same day.
Get the app