Swiss Civil Registry Office Turns to Qmatic for a Seamless Visitor Flow

The city of Basel in Switzerland, part of the canton of Basel-Stadt, has more than 200,000 residents and is ranked as one of the top ten cities with the best quality of life in the world. If you live in the canton of Basel-Stadt and are expecting a child or are about to get married, then you will most likely visit the Civil Registry Office (Zivilstandsamt) to register your marriage or newborn.

The Civil Registry Office in Switzerland offers a variety of services but is mainly responsible for certifying birth, child recognition, death, marriage, and same-sex partnership. The Office also provides visitors with information and issues documents, such as marriage or civil partnership certificates, birth certificates,  confirmation of recognition of a child, and other types of civil status documents.

However, the most well-known task of the Civil Registry Office is the application procedure and process of the civil wedding ceremony - the marriage process that precedes every wedding ceremony. It’s a process that can be very time-consuming as it requires considerable legal expertise especially when it comes to international marriages.

To manage the high number of visitors and enhance the customer experience at the Office, the Department of Justice and Security of Basel-Stadt decided to integrate a new queue management system from Qmatic into its office. As the Civil Register Office is located inside a listed building – a historical building placed under protection to ensure that the cultural heritage is protected and preserved – and lacked a reception, a unique solution was required to get the technology in place.

The Office installed a 42-inch touch display that was seamlessly integrated with Qmatic Orchestra and a ticket printer was placed inside a custom-made wooden construction at the entrance of the Office. Using Qmatic's Customer Journey Management platform Orchestra, arriving visitors are informed in four different languages and able to choose the type of service that they like on a touch screen and then obtain a ticket for the selected service. When a ticket is issued, a notification is sent to the staff members at the respective department via SMS or email, informing them that a client is waiting to be served. Staff can then either go outside and receive the visitor or call them remotely using Qmatic's staff application.

As the Office’s digital signage is integrated with Qmatic, the Office can display ticket numbers and the estimated wait times for each service. Call visitors forward via its LCD screens and provide directions. By offering clear and relevant information using customized displays throughout the office environment, the civil register office is able to reduce uncertainty for the visitors and speed up the transaction process.

And with the use of Business Intelligence from Qmatic. The Department of Justice and Security can analyze the visitor flow with real-time data, gather reports and insights on waiting and service times.0 This provides important indicators for management in staff planning and to optimize its operations. Providing the Office with the necessary tools to create a frictionless customer experience.