One size fits all: The same wristband can be used for club access, lockers and cashless payments around the club
if you persuade members to deposit money onto their card or wristband, this can provide operators with useful cashflow,” says Egele. Jacob Herborg Nathan, head of sales
at Exerp, believes the start-up costs for installing a cashless system can be offset through ongoing cost savings – for example, having wristbands dispensed by a machine, and offering quality vending instead of operating a café. This cashless approach has been fully
embraced by operators such as Fresh Fitness in Scandinavia. Security was one of the main reasons the operator decided to go down the cashless route, but higher secondary spend has been a welcome side-effect (see briefing, p72).
Power in your palm Offering the option of booking classes and managing memberships online – particularly via mobile phones – is another trend that’s continuing to gather pace, and operators must ensure they aren’t left behind as consumers become more accustomed to this level of convenience (see also HCM June 14, p69). “We’re hearing a clarion call when it comes to payments,” says Maguire.
“There’s a widespread desire to be able to make payments using mobile phones. Currently, we facilitate two million online smartphone bookings each month, many of which are done on people’s commute to and from work.” And Kevin Scott, director at Harlands Group, says his company’s services were
July 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
Wristbands can be credited with money to pay for products in-club
used to sign up over a million members online in 2013. “We now see over 50 per cent of members joining online via smart devices,” he adds. Using phones to enable in-club
payments also looks likely to become more widespread in the near future. Ivan Stevenson, director at Debit Finance, points to the high levels of innovation in the area of virtual wallets, contactless smartphone apps and NFC technology. “These innovations lend themselves well to a health club point of sale/retail environment, where a member doesn’t necessarily have cash or their wallet in-hand but typically has their phone,” he explains.
In line with this, Gladstone is working
on continuous payment authority, which will allow people to pay via their phone using a passcode. The aim is for this to remove barriers to purchase and make transactions as seamless as possible.
Flexible models Tom Withers, sales and marketing director at Gladstone, says the company has also been looking at other markets to see how they have evolved – the mobile phone sector, for example, which used to be almost exclusively subscription-based, but now offers multiple ways to pay, including options such as pay as you go and personalised monthly packages.
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 71
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