It’s 7a.m. and you’re waiting in a long line of other caffeine-deprived folks just trying to snag your extra-tall caramel latte and get to work on time. Then the door opens and you watch with incredulity as some newcomer walks in, strolls straight up to the the counter and gets served immediately. Sounds unfair right? 

If you’re the operator of one of the many businesses that now offers online and mobile pre-orders, you should know that this is how many of your customers could be feeling right now. 

Pre-ordering apps have quickly become popular in food and coffee establishments, but the roll-out hasn’t been totally smooth. 

QLess has been recognized with another top-shelf award in the struggle against lifelong line-waiting. I’m referring, of course, to our latest Gold Stevie Award for stellar consumer services at the 16th annual American Business Awards.

 This past winter was an absolute disaster for Americans who had to get on airplanes. A January storm grounded nearly 2,000 flights and more than 5,000 more were delayed. A month later a nor'easter caused more than 2,500 planes to remain on the ground – including half of the flights scheduled to depart from Newark, one of the country’s busiest airports. In total, tens of thousands of flights were delayed by bad weather, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stuck in airports wondering how (or if) they would reach their destinations.

And every single one of those people had to get in a line to get even the most basic information.

It is a well-established fact in the psychology of queueing that no one actually likes to wait in line. Time passes much more slowly to the idling human mind, and if individuals have nothing to occupy themselves with, waiting can feel very frustrating and time-consuming. Of course you can find all of this out just by talking to anyone on the street. No one likes waiting in line!

It’s no secret that brick-and-mortar stores are in deep, deep trouble. Major chains like Toys “R” Us are gone, and others like Sears and JCPenney are on life support. It’s not that Americans aren’t buying things – Amazon managed to bring in more than 8 billion dollars last year – but in a world of instant gratification the paradigm of walking into a store and walking out with a full bag just isn’t working. 

Except it actually is.

We recently announced a major milestone here at QLess: Our customer interaction management platform has saved more than 100 million customers over 5700 years’ time waiting in line. To put in perspective just how long that is, imagine what an individual could have done instead of queuing for 5763 years. If you’d started queuing 5700 years ago, you would have missed out on seeing the Great Pyramids of Giza built, worshipping at Stonehenge, and traveling along the original iteration of the Great Wall of China... with hundreds of years to spare in between. Someone who began queuing 5763 years ago would have been waiting since 3746 BC – Hammurabi didn’t even pen his famous law code until the 18th century BC. And I get frustrated just waiting in line at the grocery store!

Apple hit a new market cap record this month. Valued at over 732 billion dollars, it's the most valuable company in the known universe. So you'd be forgiven for thinking the future of Apple is bright. But unless big changes are made, Apple's past will shine brighter than its future. 

Look, I'm no anti-Apple boy. I am writing this on a MacBook Air, while my iPhone 7 sits nearby. I lost too many iPads to keep track of, and frankly haven't bothered to replace the last one. I've even been paid by Apple.

Yet the signs are all too clear that Apple is no longer the innovation powerhouse and meticulous perfectionist it was under Steve Jobs.

Picture a line of frustrated and footsore citizens stretching around a city block on a cold autumn evening. Some people see that line and head home, realizing they can’t afford to wait hours just for a chance to vote and let the government hear their voice.

This is not a scene from some former Soviet dictatorship, but a look forward at the upcoming United States Presidential election. The choice that America makes this coming November is an important one, yet some of the citizens making it will spend hours waiting their turn to vote. 

As the old adage goes: time is money. But how much money? According to an economics feature on Nate Silver’s statistics-driven site fivethirtyeight.com, New Yorkers pay an average of $56 a month to shave a minute off their daily subway commutes. As such, renters in New York City are willing to pay that much more in rent for a one-bedroom apartment that is one minute closer to popular Manhattan business districts. Want to move 10 minutes closer to Wall Street or Times Square? That’s going to cost you $560 per month!

One of the key issues in US elections today is the mechanics of voting. It’s a hot topic that pundits from all parts of the political spectrum are commenting on – and it often comes down to the fact that voters in many areas have to wait in line for hours to cast their ballots.

As filmmaker Michael Moore recently wrote, “People have to leave the house and get in line to vote. And if they live in poor, Black or Hispanic neighborhoods, they not only have a longer line to wait in, everything is being done to literally stop them from casting a ballot. So in most elections it’s hard to get even 50% to turn out to vote."

Sure, no one wants to stand around in line, but that doesn't mean you aren't willing to wait. The reason why there are long waits for anything is because it's something you have to do or something that's worth the wait. Here's a line that some people are happy to finally be able to join:

Right next to the Hilton Pasadena, on the top floor of the Pasadena Office Tower.

There is a great deli at bottom, The Pumpernickel, that's been open since 1972. Great chicken breast sandwiches.

This week’s news brought us a couple of stories about people lining up and what gives us the most satisfaction.

Standing in line is frustrating, and when you’re there, you’re stuck with whomever arrives before you and after you. Sometimes it’s someone that you can commiserate with as you slowly trudge forward. Sometimes it’s a harried parent with a screaming five year old that hasn’t been taught boundaries or public behavior. Sometimes it’s magic that you haven’t torn the place apart with your bare hands.

It’s day 2 at Comic-Con. Pictures are crawling into my Facebook feed. News articles are rearing their heads. I should be there, but I’m at work…not because I couldn’t get the time off if I had the chance. I’m not there because I don’t know if I could deal with paying to stand in lines much of the time, the massive crowds and the rabid fandom.

Inspiring people to take on difficult challenges since 1962:
JFK's We choose to go the Moon speech

There is a great language divide even across English speaking countries. A sidewalk is a pavement, coriander is cilantro, a car trunk is a boot. In the US, a queue is a letter of the alphabet, the moment when you're supposed to say or do something, or an object used in a game of pool. At least it was until recently. It looks like Americans have gotten in the queue, too. From your Netflix movie queue to news publications such as the New York Times, you may not be lining up much longer.

Okay, you got us!

Last week Alex Backer made a quick stop at the Huffington Post Live studios for a chat with host, Marc Lamont Hill. They discuss the birth of QLess, long lines and working to end those lines. Alex also talks about what it's like being the CEO of a growing start up.

Pi Day is amongst us! Lots of people are celebrating with parties and pies including one of our headquarters' favorite places to grab lunch: Blaze Pizza. We were really excited, like you have no idea, when we heard about their Pi Day promotion! Pizza pies (get it, pie?!) are $3.14 for the day. Well, we decided that we were hungry then and took a quick walk over.

QLess is not just about increasing customer satisfaction. QLess establishments get a treasure trove of data about their customer flow. The plot below, for example, shows the increase in urgent care visits during the flu season for a couple of QLess urgent care locations in Texas:

I can see it now…soft mood lighting, clinking glasses, a waiter pouring a tasting of the wine you requested when you made the reservation 3 months ago.

Wait…

That’s not what it’s really like is it? You forgot that Valentine’s is just around the corner despite all the stuff at the grocery store in pink and red. I mean, if you don’t have the day off, why else would it be on your mind? And then it arrives and you’re at work thinking, “What do I do? I mean s/he says it’s not important, but if I come home empty handed, it’s not going to be pretty.”

There's a lot of queuing going on today in the news with a variety of outcomes. We're calling it the good, the bad and the ugly.

Weather across the country has been unbelievably cold with the exception of California, home to QLess headquarters. There are lots of jokes that have been made about the disparity and our comfortable (no pun intended) state. It's hard for us to wrap our heads around those negative temperatures even when we see the pictures and videos of waves freezing as they grow up a lake beach. But this week, Alex and a few of our team members are in Michigan for an important event. As Alex sat in the airplane, we looked up the weather and saw 11°F(-11°C) was awaiting him, a stark contrast from our 80°F(26°C).

Barbie mania, that’s the best way I can describe the Barbie Village at GirlTopia, the largest girls’ convention in the US. A Girl Scout sponsored event, the scouts and their den mothers came in droves to see the Barbie exhibit where girls got to dress in some of their favorite Barbie outfits, take pictures and get a special Barbie badge for their uniforms. We volunteered to help manage a QLess queue for the event. Mothers texted in and we were able to call them to the front so that there would only be 1-2 groups ahead of them when they arrived.

We’re excited to be gearing up for Blackboard’s newly updated mobile app. Blackboard is a leading developer of software for K-12 and higher education institutions and students.

I recently visited West Los Angeles College (WLAC) during a visit by several of our overseas partners, who wanted to see a QLess queue management installation.

We had a real treat at the headquarters of QLess a couple of weeks ago: Dave Logan, best-selling author of Tribal Leadership, and his partner Carrie Kish, a successful serial entrepreneur and uber-likeable woman, led a session on the stages of tribal leadership. They shared with us how they think the revolution of eliminating standing in line is a stage 5 play --the way the Manhattan project or the race to the Moon were. Their ability to influence people's language subsequently was truly remarkable. Interestingly, Dave's TEDx talk at USC had focused on DMV lines as an example of a stage 2 tribe. We are privileged to count them among our good friends.

Great meeting with Alcatel-Lucent CTO, Jean Pierre Albinet, and Nicolas Duez, Sr. Director for Professional Services Worldwide, and John Smyrnos last week at Educause. Great people. They've done a beautiful job integrating QLess into a full interactive smart display and emergency notification system for colleges, hospitals and others.

Liz Ohanesian of LA Weekly, one of LA’s top publications, spoke with QLess Founder and CEO Alex Bäcker and quickly learned he is a problem solver. After standing in line himself at Knotts Berry Farm, Alex came up with the idea for QLess, which is now applicable for all theme park lines. A quick thinker, Alex came up with the idea by the time he reached the front of the line.

QLess, the mobile queuing solution serving over 10 million customers, has expanded its list of acquisitions with the London-based virtual queue management company, Supalocal.

On average Brits will wait just under six minutes in a shop queue before they walk out. That's according to a survey conducted as part of an investigation by Omnico into the effect of queues on retailers' businesses. The survey also found that over half (56%) of Britons would be less likely to return to a store if they'd had a bad queuing experience, with men more likely than women to hold a bad queuing experience against a store (58% versus 55% respectively).

This video shows just how angry customers can get when you tell them to wait in line. The Apple store needs QLess. You cannot just tell walk-ins to walk away or wait hours. Especially while people with appointments are late. I once stood waiting for service at an Apple store without luck while a so called genius screamed the name of a person with an appointment at the top of his lungs. That person did not show up, and I did not get service. Patented QLess FlexAppointments fixes all of that by letting those with appointments who will be late push themselves back and automatically replace them with others in the QLess waitlist, letting those who won't show up to cancel their appointment from their phone and be replaced with someone else, too, and seamlessly integrating FlexAppointments with the waitlist.

Colleges are mostly about students. And it turns out the best way to get students to rave about their college is to use QLess to liberate them from waiting in line. QLess was mentioned in 22% of the Yelp reviews 3-stars and above about WLAC since QLess was deployed. Just read what Aiden Y. of Irvine, CA wrote in his 4-star review :

We just conducted a thorough data analysis to look into whether not having people waiting in a waiting room for service relaxes DMV staff and makes them less efficient, or more. It turns out that QLess has reduced the average transaction duration at QLess DMVs throughout Kansas. The decreased stress on staff from facing happier customers rather than people tired from standing in line seems to have a dramatic improvement on productivity. Since launching QLess, each of the QLess offices average transaction durations has gone down, from 31% for Andover to 76% for Wichita.

If demand was evenly spaced across time and space, and assuming that every customer eventually gets served --not always true as our data shows that up to 50% of potential customers leave during their wait for service--, there would be no wait times. Yet demand inhomogeneities mean that wait times can be hugely different across locations, creating long waits at one while others are empty. QLess provides a simple solution for this by alerting your customers of real-time wait times at each of your locations, increasing demand for lower wait locations while reducing demand for higher wait ones, thereby smoothing demand across supply. The effect of this load balancing was staggering at Johnson County's two QLess locations: the month that QLess launched, average wait time at one location was 250% that of the other location's. By the next month, both wait times were within 1% of each other!

Last week, as we inaugurated our first Black U.S. President for his second term, we also honored the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.--a man who had a dream, and who against all odds succeeded in helping to make that dream a reality. The coincidence was fitting, and for many (myself included), inspirational.

Beginning with Denver, polling stations will serve voters with the first and only integrated, Mobile Queue Management and Mobile CRM platform.

Beginning with Pflugerville, Driver License Mega Centers serve citizens with the first and only cross-industry, integrated Mobile Queue Management platform.

LOS ANGELES, CA – October 30, 2012 – QLess, Inc. is proud to announce that it has been selected to provide its patent-pending Mobile Queue Management platform for several new driver license mega centers being opened by the Texas Department of Public Safety. The first mega center opens its doors in Pflugerville on Tuesday, October 30, 2012.

“QLess DMVs have been winning national awards for years and saving citizens decades of waiting in line. The Texas DPS is now taking that to a whole new scale, and will enable DPS employees to more efficiently serve their customers, while improving customer convenience, which is a top priority for the department,” said QLess CEO, Dr. Alex Bäcker.

Get in Line

DPS mega centers will leverage the QLess technology platform to help DPS employees more quickly and effectively serve customers at these driver license offices. The Mobile Queue Management system will offer customers the convenient option to “get in line” without going to the office. Customers will join the virtual line online or via any phone. QLess will also provide customers interactive options allowing them to make adjustments to their place in line – for instance, if they are running late, they can push themselves back in line. Walk-in customers will use the self-service check-in kiosks and will have the option of returning later, closer to the time they will get served, notified by QLess via text or phone call as their turn approaches. This level of interactivity is unique to QLess, and allows for an unrivaled customer experience, effectively giving customers back lost time.

“We are committed to ensuring Texas driver license customers have a quick and efficient visit to our offices, and using the QLess system will give our mega centers the technology needed to take a major step in advancing our goals of providing effective and efficient service to our customers," said DPS Director Steven McCraw.

In order to deliver a seamless experience for both staff and citizens, QLess worked in close partnership with DPS officials throughout the entire setup process. The result will be a Mobile Queue Management experience that is convenient for both the Texas citizen and for DPS staff.

With the announcement, QLess continues to advance towards its vision of liberating people from the act of waiting in line. Texas is in good company, with QLess locations in California, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Mississippi, Tennessee, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts, as well as around the world, from Barcelona to Winnipeg and British Columbia to Melbourne and Vienna.

The Pflugerville announcement further solidifies QLess as the world’s premier provider of Mobile Queue Management and Mobile CRM. The QLess Mobile Queue Management platform is unique in many ways, not the least of which is that it works in any industry where people wait in a queue, allowing for rich ecosystem experiences when QLess merchants are in close proximity to one another. QLess can also be localized to operate in any geography and in any language, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, German, French, Catalan, Dutch, and Arabic.

In addition to enjoying increased customer satisfaction, QLess customers gain access to an entire suite of QLess Analytics tools, which allow for rich data capture and analysis of customer and staff metrics unavailable anywhere else.

About QLess

QLess is dedicated to letting people live more and wait less. QLess Mobile Wait Management dramatically reduces waiting in line or on hold by letting people join a mobile queue from their phones, roam freely and get notified as their turn approaches. QLess also notifies hotel guests when their room is ready for check-in. QLess is the first true mobile CRM and boasts a powerful analytics & SMS surveys suite for brick-and-mortar merchants. QLess serves retail, government, education, hospitality, healthcare and everywhere people wait, and has saved millions of users well over a century of waiting. Customers include T-Mobile, Vodafone, the largest college districts in the nation, Rolex/Tourneau, DMVs and leading healthcare providers such as the Cleveland Clinic. Learn more about QLess at www.qless.com.

About Texas DPS

For more information about the Texas Department of Public Safety, visit www.dps.texas.gov.

It has long been known that the average shopper in a retail environment like a shopping mall spends about USD$1.5 per minute (see also this whitepaper).

The beauty of living in the 21st Century is that for the thousands of people attending the 2012 London Olympics this year, tickets could easily be purchased online and from every corner of the world.

Here is a Fox News report on how Twin Peaks is growing fast in this economy. Want to know how? Here's part of their secret:

If you want to work and learn with one of the fastest-growing most exciting companies in the planet, send a cover letter, a resume and your favorite joke to interns@qless.com today.

Raw, unedited student feedback about QLess --some of it quite funny, a testament to the many ways youth has to express happiness:

As the 2012 Olympics draw near, and amidst reports of rampant border control queues at Heathrow Airport, I can't help but imagine the systemic chaos that will likely ensue over the next few months. It will culminate on August 13, the day after the Olympics closing ceremony, when Heathrow will experience its largest volume of passengers--ever. Authorities insist that the airport is prepared, but I'd be willing to bet that Murphy's Law will have a hand to play.

"This is by far the best system I have ever used. Lets you anticipate your time. It also give you more freedom to make a call or use the bathroom, knowing where you are in line. Thank you." -QLess user with a Las Vegas phone number in an SMS to us when we asked about his/her experience

It's always a pleasure to meet accomplished people who raise our standards, who humble us with their record of accomplishment. Yesterday, the LA Times wrote on its cover about one such entrepreneur: Elon Musk, of whose Saturday launch of the latest SpaceX rocket the future of the space age may depend, something he does in his spare time when he's not running Tesla, the first successful electric car company and a solar energy production company (you want to have the electricity to run his cars be clean, after all) to save the Earth (you can tell he's not confident of his success and is hedging his bets with an escape plan). It's good that Elon is up to something these days, as previously he had only co-founded and led the Internet's largest payment platform (Paypal). And that after he created his first multi-hundred-million dollars success. Wishing him and SpaceX all the luck on Saturday's launch.

750,000 residents use the Providence, RI DMV system annually and most note long lines as the reason for the negative public image it has. So what do you do to solve the biggest problem they have? You bring in an insurance company to teach sensitivity training to the workforce of course. It all makes perfect sense, just combine the bureaucracy of the insurance industry with the great taste of a government run DMV and you've got a recipe for success. Instead of fixing the problem, utilize significant funding and resources to train a workforce that likely already has low job satisfaction and high turnover. Perhaps they didn't know that QLess is ending long lines and improving the customer experience at leading DMVs across the nation. If you're one of those unfortunate Providence customers, let them know there is a better way... with QLess :)

When it comes time to be heard on an issue that is sensitive to public policy and personal convictions, the governing body has an obligation to listen to its constituents and gather information and insights before rendering decisions. Municipalities small and large face issue ranging from smoking bans to permitting to budget. This week in Manhattan, the sensitive topic of hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as Fracking, comes to light in public hearings that are expected to draw extremely long lines of people waiting to be heard. And guess what happens when people endure long lines and tireless hours waiting to be heard in these public forums? You guessed it. They get angry. Let's put an end to the disorderly and ring in a better way to let voices be heard with QLess.

For any parent, seeing your young child meet Santa, sit on his lap and share her Christmas wish list is a time-honored tradition. Extending the holiday shopping season means there are more opportunities for the kids to see Santa, and more locations to do so as well. At the same time, the outfits have gotten more high-tech and opportunistic. Now, there are professionally-taken photographs and packages that can be ordered, limitations on personal camera use, and even candy and hot chocolate buying opportunities in some high-end malls. And unfortunately, most have one thing in common beyond the jolly man with long white beard: the wait in line. Kids don't want to wait. Adults don't want to wait. Frankly, we'd rather be spending money at other stores than spend it standing among crying toddlers. Luckily, there are now several malls where Santa uses QLess to virtually manage long lines, so we as parents don't have to stand in them!

The Thanksgiving holiday means retail deals like no other and lines like no other. While not all result in pepper spray to get ahead, most involve spending far more time waiting line than most can or care to stomach. A father and son team in Flagstaff, AZ spent over 30 hours waiting for color coded vouchers at Best Buy. Their entire turkey day was turkey-less. What if you could have your turkey and eat it too? Well...with QLess you can. Retailers can manage lines virtually so consumers get what they want in an orderly, pepper spray-free environment, so they can spend time with friends and family instead of wasting it in line.

This year it is starting earlier than ever, but so far, the results have been largely the same. Long lines and big headaches. Every year we hear the stories of people camping out, going sleep deprived - and even getting downright nasty (taking cues from the honey badger). Luckily, Walmart and other retailers have started early so you can experience the frustration earlier than ever. Get a glimpse of some interesting tips here. And if you're searching for luxury timepiece for someone on your list, the Tourneau store in NYC uses QLess so you won't have to wait in line. Have you got an early Black Friday experience to share? Let us know.

Many people fear the dentist more than any other common human experience (even more than marriage). They agonize over the drill, the smoke, the sounds, latex - you name it. But for some it comes with an additional price. On this Veteran's day it has been brought to light that many of those who have served in the armed forces so courageously are faced with the additional frustration of waiting in exorbitant lines for free dental work. It is truly a tragedy that so many Veterans return home, struggle to make a living and have to wait for hours for healthcare. QLess can help end the wait for these heroes.

You'd think that a brand as innovative as Apple would leverage its own technological and process design assets to take the pain of out its product release. And professional queuers? Check out this article and video to see the chaos in action. There's certainly a much more affordable and customer-friendly way to solve this challenge - QLess.

I'll be the first to admit that when it comes to exercising your right to vote, we have a better job as a nation to do in making sure people are both aware of the issues and able to actually make their vote count. That said, when people make the effort to do so with pride and conviction, shouldn't the government at least be prepared? In yet another case of voter administration challenge (just wait until the next election phase really comes into full swing), people were denied a right to vote, actively being discouraged due to long lines. See the full post here. Let's make it easy on people in the future Mississippi, let's make sure every willing voter gets to cast their interest -and that it is counted, not discounted. It can be done with QLess.

Our hearts go out to the victims of the quake, tsunami and now nuclear disaster in Japan. There are now queues everywhere --people waiting for food rations, people standing in line for transportation, to leave the country, and more. The last thing the Japanese need right now, with so much rebuilding to be done, is to stand idly in line. So QLess is donating its mobile line management solution for any lines affecting the victims in Japan. If you know someone who knows someone in Japan who could benefit from this, please let them know!

“Absolutely love, love, love, love the system!! I had a 90 minute wait with 108 people ahead of me. So I left to do shopping, contacted my insurance company and had the insurance emailed to me home, dropped off the groceries, got updated wait times, came in with the insurance and was called to the window for service. Pam was fantastic, polite, efficient and courteous – a real delight! Whoever came up with the system is a genius! Everyone should be calling in to praise the system and the staff that are responsible for selecting and implementing it!! Awesome experience.”
— Erica, QLess user

QLess is available in any language and alphabet, and now has offices in Saudia Arabia, Malaysia, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, the UAE, Kenya, South Africa, Australia and several locations in the USA. To become a QLess distributor, contact QLess today. To contact QLess in your country, contact us and make sure to indicate where you are located.

Alex Backer was named one of "40 under 40" in a televised awards gala at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the site of the original Oscars, for the inaugural 40 Under 40 M&A Advisor Recognition Awards. The Gala Event celebrated the leading forty M&A, Financing and Turnaround professionals who have made great accomplishments before their fortieth year. The 2010 40 Under 40 Award winners have been chosen from international nominees by an independent judging panel of distinguished business leaders for their accomplishments and expertise.

ab|inventio, the invention factory -- our parent company -- was named most Innovative Company of the Year in North America Distinguished Honoree by the International Business Awards, alongside Salesforce.com.

Yesterday, QLess was selected Finalist for Best Overall Company of the Year by the American Business Awards, because of the high average scores received during more than five weeks of preliminary judging. This is the second year in a row that QLess is recognized by the Stevie Awards --sometimes called the 'Oscars of Business'. We couldn't have done it without our customers (most QLess customers have already recommended us to their colleagues, and a few of them have won awards of their own for their QLess installations) and team, so our thanks go to all of them!

--Alex

QLess welcomes Independent Sales Offices (ISOs), affiliates, resellers, franchisees, distributors, representatives, and all kinds of partners. We pay you a generous ongoing revenue share. We have offices in five continents (including Los Angeles, New York & Sunnyvale (USA), Barcelona (Spain), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Muar (Malaysia) and Nairobi (Kenya)), and are already fully integrated with some of the world's leading POS vendors and merchant processing solutions, and are partners with some of the world's leading customer flow management providers. If you think you can sell QLess or refer us to someone who could benefit from it, drop us a line. We are also hiring salespeople, business developers, marketers and software developers.

Did you know that virtually all QLess functions are available via our secure API, so you can integrate wait management, customer flow management, mobile queueing, mobile CRM, analytics and/or mobile marketing into your own application? Integration is a breeze. The possibilities are endless. Contact us today for details.

"We have seen the efficiency it creates, & more satisfied customers. We liked it a lot because it gives us the option to see what customers are there & service them accordingly. Everybody was excited. Every store should have QLess". -Ali Faraz, VP, Sprint stores

Ali's next move? He asked to expand QLess deployment to every one of his stores.
--Alex

" I am very excited to use all the features of this system and am so relieved to see customers using it with ease." --Cyril Wrabec, Missouri DMV

QLess at JoCo DMV named 2009-2010 Technology Solutions Award Winner by the Public Technology Institute. "The program,...an entirely new technological approach for the public sector, ...ability for customers to "place themselves in line" by providing their cell phone number either in the office, online or by phone". The awards recognize 9 winners in each of 5 categories nationwide. The best part of it is our customers nominated us for this.

QLess in the words of our customers:

"It's helped keep customers from walking away,"

One of the world's most beloved brands wants QLess for their event at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver this month, and is looking for an Olympic sponsor who would get prominent exposure in displays, kiosks, SMS, phone calls & more, + access to an audience of hundreds of thousands of rich Olympic attendees, asking them if they'd like to opt in to a special SMS offer from the sponsor, who'd be able to send interactive SMS coupons, promotional messages and/or surveys to every opt-in thereafter. Do you know anyone who'd be interested? A list of Olympic sponsors at http://www.vancouver2010.com/more-2010-information/about-vanoc/sponsors-and-partners/vancouver-2010-sponsors/ Amazing marketing/PR opportunity to sponsor the first ever QLess Olympics for less than you would think. Contact sponsorshipsqless.com for details.

After tens of thousands of students queued, here is a sample of what Mesa Community College learned by using QLess Analytics:

New rules were announced last week aimed at limiting the long wait times for patients in health maintenance organizations to see a doctor.

The Vator.tv video about QLess got me thinking about the origins of standing in line. We now know it goes back at least as far as the Egyptians. Tim recently found two references to standing in line in Ancient Egypt:

QLess launched successfully in Ohmycut!, a salon chain in Spain. So far QLess has reduced the no-show rate by 63%!

The % of those using their cell phones to queue up via the QLess home kiosk who show up for service is equal (if anything, a little higher) than that of those doing it on-site at the DMV, validating the model of remote or off-site queueing pioneered by QLess.

Nespresso, the fastest growing division of Nestle, the world´s largest food and wellness company, launched QLess, increasing the % of customers who show up for service among those waiting more than 10 minutes by 64%:

"I think this is a wonderful way to improve patient satisfaction and reduce expenses…I think this would be a killer thing to have in a healthcare organization. I'd like to have it…It's extremely neat…I wouldn't want to build and operate this in-house --I want to sleep all night long".

We visited Mesa Community College and asked QLess users what they thought of the system. Here's what they said:

From today's L.A. Times:

With three people in the household who already had the flu, I can attest that this is a flu season extraordinaire. Flu shots have run out in many places. Find out where to get yours at gettheswineflushot.com today and let your loved ones know, too.

Today we got our favorite kind of call: a customer referring a prospective customer. One of our DMV customers referred the manager of an employment services office to us. Nothing better than pleasing a customer enough to get a referral. Thanks, Amy!

Brick-and-mortar retailers and online sellers alike are noticing an increase in abandoned shopping carts and cold feet at checkout lines. For physical shops, this means more work putting things back on the shelves.

Dave Rosenthal, an engineer and MBA by training who has held positions as product manager, program manager, alliance manager, Sr. Consultant, Director of Development and VP Ops at Xerox, Deloitte & Touche and other companies including early stage start-ups, has joined our team to lead administration & finance. Welcome, Dave!

Mesa Community College launched QLess, eliminating lines at advisement, admissions, financial aid, registration and enrollment services. We asked Bill Dehaan, Director of IT for Mesa Community College, if he was happy with QLess or if there was anything we could do to improve his experience. This is what he wrote back:"So far I am ecstatic with the app and even more happy with the support I get". Thanks, Bill! We love QLess, too. --Alex

I met Aaron Patzer at JuicePitcher last night. Aaron is founder and CEO of the #1 personal finance service in the world, Mint.com, recently sold to Intuit for $170,000,000. He approached me to say he loved what he had heard about QLess, and wanted to set a time to learn more. We took his words seriously coming from a smashingly successful entrepreneur who drove his own company from 0 to 170MM and created a market-dominating company in 3 years. Well, Aaron, we love Mint.com too –in fact I use it every month. If you have not tried it, go to Mint.com today –it's free, and it'll tell you exactly how much spare change you have to go QLess today. Then you can use it to track exactly how much money QLess adds to your net worth.

QLess was selected today to speak at Geeks Going Global at the Sun Microsystems campus in Silicon Valley next week.

Sign up now at Gettheswineflushot.com .

CNET covers QLess presentation at the JuicePitcher award show last night.

QLess was named a winner of the JuicePitcher competition last night. JuicePitcher, sponsored by Microsoft, Mashable, GigaOM, Wilson Sonsini, Silicon Valley Bank and other sponsors, selected the 10 most promising new companies. QLess, the only company in its field to receive the prize, clocked in at #3 in the online vote and at #4 among in-person attendees. More than 130 companies were evaluated by thousands of voters including entrepreneurs, investors, journalists and others. Voters gave QLess a 5-star average rating –that's out of 5 maximum. Details at http://vator.tv/competition/show/vatortv-and-thefundedcoms-juice-pitcher .

QLess guarantees a 400% ROI in 4 months or you get 400% of the shortfall back.*

A video of a QLess installation at the DMV

"I think overall it's a very good system. Customers really like it. The day we had a really long wait, everything was perfect.. On a 1 to 10 scale, I'd give it a 9. Educating people [about their wait] helps tremendously. It's perfect, it really is."--Patricia Rogers, Citizen Services Director, Office of the Mayor, City of Nashua, NH.

"It's helped keep customers from walking away,"
--Dada Ngo. Owner, The Boiling Crab.

"Any simpler and it would do it itself!... At our Divisional Staff meeting Sherry had some very complimentary things to say about Qless and it's staff as well. We would like you to consider us a strong reference for your firm should you wish to provide my contact info to any potential opportunity."
–John Barker, IT Director, Motor Vehicle Registration.

"QLess is a great friggen idea!"
--Mike Schroepfer, VP Engineering, Facebook

Register to receive brief QLess updates at http://vator.tv/pitch/show/qless

--Alex

This just in from Johnson County DMV about QLess:

We have a huge favor to ask that will only take a minute of your time and could mean a lot to us. But it needs to be done before midnight tonight (Wednesday). QLess, the company whose mission is to eliminate standing in line from theface of the Earth by letting people enter virtual lines and get paged on their cell phones, has just applied for a competition that could give us a lot of exposure to help fulfill our mission. We just entered hours ago, and there are less than 24 hours left, but we know we can beat all the other contestants who have more than two weeks headstart if (and only if) you all lend a hand; we're already the fastest growing contestant. We need you to vote for us in the next 20 hours. Here is what you need to do:

QLess has launched the first DMV where you don't have to wait in line. Using QLess mobile queueing, Johnson County's DMV in Kansas respects its customer's time. The launch has been a huge success and uptake of the mobile queueing option by customers has been very significant.--Alex

Many restaurant owners will empathize with this story.Do you need any more reasons to go QLess and stop wasting money on coaster pagers? Find a page full of reasons to embrace mobile line management here.

With QLess, he would have gotten an update letting him know the doctor was running late.

Someone very trustworthy, smart, organized, who is not picky about what they do or do not do but rather has a good attitude to getting things done, who has command of basic arithmetic and proper English spelling and grammar, who can do everything and anything that I can delegate. Yeah, attitude:Like, this is mine too. Your success is ours/mine. When I answer correspondence or the phone I make the person/customer/client/colleague feel like I am their personal assistant and that their agenda is important to me, their convenience is on my mind, my efficiency for them counts.And as to smart: very smart. And by smart, there are different smarts. Needs to be savvy about technology or conversant with it, but there is street smart-make sure they see things coming I may miss- they take the work to heart-it's more than a job and they have a history of acting and feeling that way. ideally someone who has been an EA to a successful executive before. Someone who can get to know key clients and leaders sometimes better than me. Someone who has worked in senior positions before a plus.Someone who anticipates what I do not. Who is proactive. And upbeat, stable and fun. Who can be light hearted and can be serious and know when.Promises future growth in one of the world's fastest growing companies in a fun, casual environment and a desire to change the world for the better. Getting honored for Best Business Innovation of 2009 and beating Google at their game in a 3rd party-evaluated blind test was just the beginning.For multi-talented applicants, job may include work in accounting, accounts receivable and payable, process design, documentation, customer support, IT, office management and appointment-setting.Send a resume to careers {at} abinventio.com for more details.** Special thanks to the always fabulous Robert Fisher for tips on this job description. rfisher.com

Did you know that QLess restaurants have served every president from Gerald R. Ford to Barack Obama? We are proud to say that Bill Cosby, Elizabeth Taylor; Nick Lachey, Billy Joel, Sir Elton John, Jessica Simpson; Hall of Famers Anthony Munoz, Troy Aikman, Oscar Robertson, Marty Brennaman, Johnny Bench, Sparky Anderson, Frank Robinson; every National League Baseball team; Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus; Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, and a host of other celebrities are all a part of the clientele at QLess restaurants. They came for the great food, great food causes lines, and lines require QLess. Proudly here to (quite literally) serve democracy for generations to come. --Alex

QLess appeared in the press again, this time in Nation's Restaurant News, where one of our customers was quoted saying "It’s helped keep customers from walking away,” said Ngo, who was concerned about theft or abuse of restaurant-issued pagers.

A great article by Trisha Torrey about what and how it costs you to wait for your doctor's appointment.

A Kansas City favorite goes QLess --check them out.

Mobile advertising platforms and others waiting for the space to finally lift off can take comfort from the latest Mobile Advertising Report from Nielsen Mobile and its finding that about 23% of U.S. mobile users—about 58 million people-- report receiving an ad over their cell phones within the last month.

I am pleased to announce that QLess signed on Boston Gourmet Pizza, a national chain of 40 restaurants, last Friday. QLess dining, coming soon to a fine restaurant near you. --Alex

Last year, QLess was awarded the DMV contract for a city. Today, we got awarded the contract for an entire county and a much more sophisticated system. Once again, QLess beat several companies long entrenched in the queueing industry. Once again, a government has recognized that the time for a paradigm shift in wait management has come. Congratulations to Tim and Joe for a job well done. Even before this new contract is accounted for, QLess quarterly revenues have grown rapidly and consistently every quarter even in times of recession since our launch. We are confident this is only the beginning. Join us in eliminating standing in line from the face of the Earth.

Read our customer's glowing review of QLess.

John Barker, the IT Director of a DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles/Motor Vehicle Registration) QLess customer, sent us this note today after QLess was rolled out to their users. Thanks, John!

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/database-crm/2215.html

A Walmart employee was tragically trampled to death on Black Friday by anxious shoppers standing in line to enter the store. The employee, a 34-year-old man, suffered "an undetermined death" when a "throng of shoppers ... physically broke down the doors, knocking him to the ground." Might have been different if the lines had been absent and QLess had summoned customers to enter one at a time using the QLess touchscreen-activated digital turnstiles. With QLess, nobody can cut the line, and so the rush is replaced by an orderly flow.--Alex

Just go to the Qless facebook page for special photos, videos and other fans.

The answer, from this CNN article published today about MIT Prof. Larson's studies of queueing: Not really, not if you have to stand in line. But if you free your customers to roam freely while they wait, notifying them when you're ready for them on their cell phones, the fun knows no limits. Check out QLess today!

A second case study showed 22% reduction in no-shows with QLess in The Boiling Crab as compared to guests not using cell phones. When added to the 9% reduction in turn-aways previously demonstrated with cell phone paging as compared to old-fashioned pager systems, this makes for a 34% increase in customers seated thanks to QLess, not altogether different from the 45% we previously demonstrated.If your restaurant is not using QLess, you are missing out on 34%-45% of the customers you could be serving! --Alex

abInventio, Whozat and QLess signed on mPRm, the PR firm behind Overture, RealNetworks, Disney, Dolby, Fox, Viacom and the Oscars. We are proud to be working with a top-notch team including Rachel McCallister, Bret Ingraham and Natalie Yallouz.

Alex Backer was appointed by Caltech President Jean-Lou Chameau, and joins a distinguished set of colleagues at the California Institute of Technology's IST Board.

Peter Johnston, formerly CIO for Ogilvy, the preeminent international advertising, marketing, and public relations agency and a subsidiary of WPP, the world's largest communications services group, has joined QLess. We are proud to have him among us.

Josh Kowitt, named Top 30 Entrepreneur Under 30 by Inc. magazine and former CEO of ResFridge, University Trucking and Collegeboxes Inc. joined QLess to open up our Boston offices. Welcome to the team!

Led by Kelly Stephens, a pioneer pediatrician, Mercy Health is going QLess: reducing waiting room contagion, showing respect for patients' time, and gathering a wealth of new data about their service.

Using QLess to let truckers know when they can unload, ExploreCo is doing their fair share to save the Earth for future generations, while saving on unnecessary idle motors running and eliminating lines for their truckers.

This Christmas season, kids will not stand in line waiting to get their picture taken with Santa at Houston Premium Outlets. Instead, their parents will happily roam the mall with them while they wait, shopping and dining, and get a call on their cell phones from QLess when their turn to Ho Ho Ho arrives. After all, the most recognizable face in the world wants to see the children smiling for the photo.Santa will be the first to use the new QLess Teleprompter --he will never forget your kid's name again.

City of Nashua's DMV selected QLess this week to solve their queueing needs after a competitive process.

Keeping tabs on your business metrics has never been easier! You just have to see it.

One of our early investors was happy enough with what we are doing that he sextupled his investment in the abInventio fund. Thanks!

I am most pleased to announce the appointment of Steve Glovsky as an Executive-in-Residence at ab|Inventio. In that capacity, Steve’s role is to help commercialize ab|Inventio’s technologies. Steve supports ab|Inventio’s technologists and engineers on the business side, providing corporate business development, sales, marketing and operations guidance and support.

I stopped by Barney's Beanery today and ate one of their great appetizer platters. On my way out, I asked Betsy, a hostess, how QLess was working for them. Here is what she had to say:

The Boiling Crab, perhaps the most popular Cajun restaurant chain in California and Texas, is going QLess for 3 of its restaurants. Welcome to the QLess family!

As Yahoo's Santa Monica offices dealt with an hour-long power outage and cell phones turned useless all day across Southern California, abInventio's websites remained fully operational through the 5.4-magnitude earthquake. None of our data centers serving Whozat, HoundWire, REPcloud and QLess in Altadena, Santa Monica or Texas were affected. Indeed, HoundWire was among the first news organizations to report the earthquake, within a half hour of the event.

A new survey shows that more than 90% of restaurant guests surveyed said they prefer a QLess restaurant than one w/o QLess, and that they'd wait longer for a table if QLess was available. Something that was borne out by the fact that guests waited up to 3.17 hours to get a table using QLess (and actually sat to eat after that). In fact, the revenues from people who wait more than 45 minutes alone give a highly positive ROI for the cost of QLess --making the extra customer satisfaction for every guest a free bonus.

That's what Jonah Dumont, manager of Barney's Beanery Santa Monica, said today of QLess. Barney's was voted #1 place to watch sports in the Los Angeles area. With no having to stand in line, it's no wonder the crowds love it. Check it out at www.barneysbeanery.com or stroll over to 1351 3rd St. Promenade, Santa Monica. It's a joy of a place to eat.

Joe has a long history of entrepreneurship including The Desktop Factory at Idealab and deep industry expertise from his time at Lavi Industries, makers of the stanchions that keep physical lines organized at airports and other locations. Joe contacted us after seeing a demo of QLess, impressed by our potential. Welcome, Joe!

Read Jed's post here.

Blinkx is charging north of $60 CPM for overlay video ads.

Here are some interesting (albeit slightly dated --it's only gotten better) facts about the mobile marketing industry that explain why you can’t wait any longer to start sending promotional text messages to current and potential customers!

Mr. Harteveldt of Forrester Research says mobile check-in is an option many travelers want.

Watch CBS story.

Read what Stephen Dubner, the co-author of Freakonomics, had to say about us.

• Tim released QLess for Coffeeshops, Security Checkpoints, Hotels (check-in, buffet, check-out), Casinos (Poker tables, etc.), Stores and Doctor’s offices, adding to the pre-existing ones for Restaurants, Theme Parks and Nightclubs. As you can see, QLess can be rapidly customized to any vertical –anywhere where people stand in line, QLess seeks to eliminate the lines.

Catching up on my blogging...QLess in the press again! Check it out at No More Security Checkpoint Lines? Yes, if QLess Has Its Way.

The VP of Sales of a major US corporation recently spoke to me about the buzzers that some restaurants give out to the customers waiting in line to page them: "It's like having to carry a brick! I hate those damn things. Everybody hates them."

Then I spoke with our recruiter about them. "They're unhygienic", he said. "You never know what someone has done w/it before you got it".

Just wait till QLess goes mainstream...

David Thomson, an intense former technology executive and management consultant, has spent the past three years figuring out exactly what it takes for a startup company to reach that magic revenue threshold of a billion dollars. He lays out his findings in a new book called Blueprint to a Billion (for more information, see blueprinttoabillion.com).

Mike is VP of Engineering of Mozilla (the maker of the browser in which this post was composed) and one of the youngest Distinguished Engineers ever at Sun Microsystems. He wrote to us:

We were featured in Elliot.org!

• Tim completed the first alpha version of the QLess Merchant Web UI, to be unveiled soon.
• We are giving out an iPhone per sign-up plus a commission of 20% of the first year's revenues from that client to anyone who introduces us to a prospective QLess client (limited time offer). Target markets at www.waitinginlinesucks.com .

Qless (http://www.qless.com) is a hosted service that virtually manages your customer lines or wait lists.

Dear all,

Adapted from recent correspondence with Marc Andreessen: