crm
series
KIOSK CULTURE
T
Club check-in: should it be attended or unattended? Sean James reports
ravelling to the Munich beer festival last year, I checked in at Heathrow. I queued for 10 minutes or so and, when it
was my turn, I was greeted with a warm smile and good service while my luggage was checked in, my tickets and passport were administered and I was ushered through to the departure lounge. On my way back from Munich, at
check-in there was no queue. Nor were there any staff – just a kiosk and a conveyor belt. Slightly bemused, I went up to the kiosk and checked myself in. The kiosk carried out all of the checks that were previously carried out by staff, as well as printing out my tickets and luggage labels. I loaded my luggage onto the conveyor belt and was invited to go through into the departure lounge. It wasn’t a bad experience. In fact, with a hangover I didn’t feel much like polite conversation anyway, so the
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machine check-in was perfect for me – as well as being a lot faster. It was this experience that started
me thinking again about the necessity of attended check-in at health club reception. The modern customer is well used now to business websites and telephone numbers to deal with any customer administration. They are well used to kiosks from which they make bookings, print tickets, withdraw cash and buy food. So are receptionists at club reception really necessary?
cinematic vision
The cinema industry moved to electronic kiosks and online booking to ease strain (and cost) from front desk operations some years ago, and this has made significant differences to operational efficiencies. Clarity Commerce has been an
innovator in the provision of electronic
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
reception and front desk systems and supplies a large number of cinemas with their electronic customer service products. Clarity’s division director Kevin Anson explains: “Clarity has installed more than 1,000 kiosks in cinema chains including Cineworld, UCG & Empire. Kiosks are used for ticket sales and retrievals and also to generate additional revenue by accelerating the entry process, giving customers more time to linger at concessions stands. “Kiosks reduce transaction costs
through signifi cant staff savings, while driving revenue through up-selling products. They also help increase return on investment through advertising and promoting upcoming events and offers. Typically now, staffed counters are
‘customer service counters’ rather than being the primary point of sale desk. “We’ve also extended our
knowledge and working practices
june 2010 © cybertrek 2010
©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/ALIJA
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