Not all customer waiting lines are created equal. A walk-in traffic line at the DMV is characteristically different than a registration line at a college or university, said queuing expert Erik Berg. On this episode of the podcast, host Shelby Skrhak sat down with Berg, a sales consultant for the North American Region at NEMO-Q, to discuss how to best handle traffic management on college campuses.

"For a government entity like the DMV, it's very first-come, first-serve in the order they came in and very fairness-centric," Berg said. "But in a college or university, it doesn't have to be that way."

What makes higher education campuses unique is the students' familiarity with doing business online.

"These kids grew up with technology so we don't have that fear of people not wanting to use their mobile phone or get in line from their computer," Berg said.

NEMO-Q creates systems for college campuses that seamlessly transfer students between departments and merge walk-in traffic with appointments to maximize efficiency. They've implemented their Student Flow Management system at campuses such as Michigan State, Harvard University, Texas Tech University, UT Arlington, Georgia State, University of North Florida, University of Central Florida, and USC.

As a result, campuses have reduced labor expenses, increased employee efficiency, and reduced student abandons. Most importantly, Berg said, the queue system has increased student satisfaction.

"Students feel like they're valued and their time matters," he said.

High humidity levels can increase the dry times for dry wall, paint, plaster, fireproofing compounds, adhesives, masonry, cement, and other key building materials. Cost overruns are a builder’s nightmare. Is there a better, more efficient way of increasing dry times without using traditional heaters, fans, or outdoor air?

In this episode of the Building Management Podcast, Ryan Creagan, Business Development Specialist at Polygon U.S. offered a solution to speed up these dry times: desiccant dehumidifiers. Creagan resides in San Diego, where the area has been subject to rising humidity levels in the past few years. The rising humidity slows down the building process, especially for the dry wall crews.

Unlike traditional methods which may warm up an area, but not mitigate the moisture in the air, desiccant dehumidifiers suck up the moisture and exhaust it out of the building. When determining the right setup of desiccant dehumidifiers for a particular building project, Creagan and his team look at several factors: the size of the area that needs to be dehumidified, the internal/external conditions involved, and the particular building process that needs to be dried.

Why use desiccant dehumidifiers instead of heaters and outside air? Traditional construction heaters use a fuel source such as propane or natural gas which cause combustion and return moisture back into the area one is trying to dry. And outside air is unpredictable. Moisture levels can fluctuate throughout the day with an outside air source.

A recent example of desiccant dehumidifiers saving the day was at a downtown San Diego building project. The humidity levels were causing drywall compound delays. Creagan's team brought in desiccant dehumidifiers and turned a 3-day dry-time project into an overnight one.

Protecting new ideas, processes, and products is as important as developing them in the first place. On this episode of MarketScale’s Building Management podcast, Seckin Ozol, vice president of engineering research and development for Transhield [https://transhield-usa.com/], sat down with host Sean Heath to discuss their approach to protecting ideas and developing responsible products.

Any company that develops new iterations of its products in-house, needs to protect them.

“At this point, we either patent the material itself, where the technology is bringing some new idea to the application, or we patent the process to manufacture this fabric,” Ozol said. “By protecting this, we are adding value to our company.”

The fact that Transhield relies so heavily on “chemically impactful” materials has strengthened their resolve to be environmentally responsible, as well, according to Ozol.

“As a company in plastics and packaging, we are always a part of the equation that get criticized, in regard to the environmental footprint. As a company, about ten years ago, we patented a material and process that is 100% recyclable," he said.

Ozol also shared the excitement that accompanies being an innovative industry leader.

“One of the best things about these productions, in R&D, is that you know that no one in the world created what you are making right now. That it’s being manufactured for the very first time and that’s a very good feeling.”

Waiting in line seems to be an unavoidable experience. On this episode of MarketScale’s Building Management Podcast, Michael Bruner, National Sales Director for NEMO-Q, sat down with host Sean Heath and they discussed the philosophy and technology behind removing the wait from waiting in line.

Virtually every government office experience requires waiting in a line, however, Bruner pointed out that they are addressing the lines associated with an enormous number of sectors today.

“We have about 50,000 customers across the world using the NEMO-Q system. A lot of those are outside of the government world and they cover really any industry where someone stands in a line," he said.

While there appears to be the exact same line in whichever government office a person finds themselves visiting, each one is quite distinct, according to Bruner.

“One city is going to be very different from another city and their office constrictions, whether it be size of the office, number of employees that are behind the counter, those are all different across each different office," he said.

Bruner pointed out that a key factor in controlling an office’s efficiency is found in the data at their disposal.

“One of the biggest things to reducing wait times is to ensure that from the time the office opens until the time the office closes that you are staffed appropriately for the expected volume of customers. Using the data from our system, customers have the ability to go in and see exactly what they can expect for that day," he said. “You can’t manage what you can’t measure."

On this episode of the MarketScale Building Management Podcast, host Daniel Litwin, the Voice of B2B, was joined by Todd Jenkins, President of Jenkins Roofing, Jennifer Long, National Manager for Commercial Contractor Programs at GAF, and Jo Ann Moreno, Senior Commercial Territory Manager at GAF for a roundtable podcast discussion on the current state of commercial roofing.

The discussion began with thoughts on what’s hot, and what’s not in today’s commercial roofing industry. Jenkins said a lot of building owners are looking for certified inspections from certified roofers. And what wasn’t hot? Roofs that are not being looked after or maintained for months and years at a time.

Long and Moreno agreed, with Moreno adding, the building managers are becoming more educated on roofing maintenance and what they want out of a maintenance contract. Jenkins noted, managers were becoming more specific in the roofing materials they were looking for.

“Everyone wants a No Dollar Limit (NDL) Warranty, right now,” Moreno said.

An NDL is the protection from the manufacturer to the owner. Long told the panel that often times roofs are replaced too frequently, when maintenance and repairs were all that was needed. Long mentioned there was an opportunity for contractors to differentiate themselves from those who are quick to replace than to repair.

The podcast roundtable went on to discuss common roofing misconceptions, like having an NDL warranty means the roof is maintenance free for the next 20 years; the discussion further stressed the need to proactive maintain one’s roof to ensure longevity.

Listen to this roofing roundtable for insights into how different regions should prepare their roofs uniquely for weather, how solar adds new layers of inspection education to the industry, and where data from AI might take roofing inspections in the future.

Online shopping is dominating the transactional marketplace for its ease and immediacy. For brick-and-mortar business, this fact makes providing a positive in-store experience all the more crucial for keeping customers content and loyal. Much like first impressions, the lobby experience can be the singular determination of whether a customer leaves happy and returns again. On this episode of MarketScale's Building Management Podcast, we discover just how important a positive lobby experience can be in both the private and public sectors. The podcast welcomed Michael Berg, queuing expert and CEO of NEMO-Q, to elaborate on the lobby experience today.

“The customer is going to walk away with an experience, they’re going to walk away with an impression of the business no matter what happens," Berg said.

Simply put, business need only make their queuing experience pleasant to maintain positive brand perception. But how? The first hurdle is finding out what people are happy or unhappy about by gathering feedback.

NEMO-Q has streamlined and customized a fast, eight-second surveying process that delivers real results.

“Companies can get instant actionable data even after a day of use,” Berg said.

The data, in turn, helps businesses approach queuing systematically. Whether it’s a flustered parent with noisy children in tow or a disgruntled patron in a rush, every customer has a pain point when it comes to queuing. These issues can only be addressed once they’re known.

By capturing data, problems like long lines, employee in-efficiency, and customer engagement can be identified in as little as just eight seconds.

Here's how to get your foot in the metaphorical door at Boon Edam, the North Carolina-based manufacturer of revolving doors and security barriers. On this new episode of the JobCast, host Sean Heath sat down with Brian Worrell, field technician manager at Boon Edam to discuss the open role of Field Service and Installation Technician.

This position provides necessary technical support for installation, service, and maintenance of equipment to regional managers, distributors technicians, and end-user customers.

"This position is the core of our finished product out in the field," Brian said, explaining the ideal candidate has strong communication skills and a strong mechanical background. "Our installation service department is the front line. We're out there in front of the customer, making our product work properly and beautiful."

Brian answered one of our signature questions -- If this position was a celebrity, who would it be -- with a salute to Tim "the Toolman" Taylor.

Job basics:

If you'd like to apply for this position of Sales Account Manager, head to boonedam.us/about-us

To check your pulse, you'd place two fingers on your wrist or neck and count the beats per minute. But checking the pulse of an entire company could be as simple as taking an eight-second survey. In this new episode of the Building Management podcast brought to you by MarketScale, host Sean Heath sat down with Erik Berg, sales consultant at Nemo-Q, to discuss employee engagement as the key to efficiency.

North-Texas based Nemo-Q offers pulse surveys, including their 8-Second Survey, a short poll that asks employees how they're feeling at different parts of the day and offers feedback that allows companies to go in-depth and solve underlying problems.

Among the biggest problems facing companies are disengaged employees, high turnover, and high incidences of stress-related absence.

"People are your number one commodity in business," Berg said. "Anytime you can decrease turnover and have more engaged employees, everyone's going to be way more efficient. That's a fact."

But disengagement manifests in many ways. "In fact, sick leave absences have increased 600 percent in the past seven years," Berg said. "That's people taking leaves of absence from work for stress-related problems."

Creating a channel for employees to share concerns and feedback helps team members feel they matter. "Employees want to feel like they're more than just a number," Berg said. "They feel it's nice to know that the company is putting an investment in them as a person, and they really care and want to know how they're feeling."

A construction project is one of the most meticulously planned efforts you'll ever see in business, but despite the best-laid plans, something you can't plan for is variable weather conditions. Hot, cold, or damp -- those conditions make construction challenging for workers on-site, can cause delays, and create problematic condensation and high humidity in construction areas.

In this episode of the Building Management podcast brought to you by MarketScale, host Sean Heath sat down with Tim Young, business development specialist at Polygon to discuss how important a controlled environment is on construction sites.

"Not only does temperature affect workers health and safety, moisture on a job site can slow down the progress of the construction," Tim said.

But the challenge comes when deciding to use a temporary climate solution or use the building's permanent HVAC unit.

"A permanent HVAC is not designed to be used during construction when there's a lot of dust and fine particles that can get into the system," Tim said. "For example, the motors on a HVAC system -- when they're not filtered properly and fine dust gets into the motor, it actually decreases their life."

Andover, Mass.-based Polygon delivers Temporary Humidity Control environments and solve moisture issues for construction projects to prevent delays, prevent corrosion during tank coatings, eliminate condensation and high humidity in areas.

"[Temporary systems] are much more hardy and built to handle extremes that a permanent system is not," Tim said.

Law enforcement agencies have begun to partner with Amazon's Ring video doorbell. The partnership allows for these agencies to request video footage from the doorbells through an app in an effort to solve crimes in the area. 

From a business perspective these partnerships make a lot of sense for Amazon. As law enforcement agencies look for options to reduce crime, partnerships such as these offer a cost-effective solution for obtaining more information. 

On the other hand, questions of privacy naturally come to mind in cases like this. Will the knowledge that Ring has partnered with local police cause consumers to look elsewhere for their security needs? Hear what Daniel Litwin and Tyler Kern had to say in this excerpt from Business Casual.

Tune in to Business Casual, MarketScale’s live radio broadcast, every Wednesday and Friday at 8 a.m. CST.