GLL case study

Why should your customers queue when you can 'fast-track' 3,000 customers a week?

Nobody likes queuing at leisure centres when they've already paid and booked for an activity. So when GLL wanted to embrace Gladstone's 'new customer journey', it turned to kiosk self-service solutions. GLL has now cut reception desk queuing, freed staff to deal with queries, and has increased the management information.

GLL manages over 65 leisure centres in partnership with 12 London boroughs, Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, Reading Borough Council, Bellingham Community Project, the London Playing Fields Foundation, and the London Development Agency. As an employee-owned Social Enterprise, GLL invests any surpluses into improving services.

The company has used Gladstone's Plus2 leisure management system for many years. Now helping support 57 locations for fourteen council partnerships, Plus2 is integral to its daily operations. For Business Systems Manager Stephen Winfield, there was one issue left to resolve.

"Members who have prepaid for an activity don't necessarily want to queue up behind somebody who is paying for a swim or enrolling on a swimming lesson."

"What's never liked - for those on pre-paid subscriptions - is having to queue at a reception desk for a simple token or wristband."

"The rationale behind self-service kiosks was to get our members through more quickly," says Winfield. "That would then free up our reception staff to spend time with customers who need it."

There are also parallels with London Underground where people use pre-paid Oyster cards or ticket machines for a smoother travel experience - it's fast, simple, and avoids ticket office queuing. "We wanted to find some machines that would do a similar job and do it very reliably too."

Gladstone's Kiosk2

By using Gladstone's Kiosk2 solution, GLL hoped to create a fast track entry system for pre-paid members while leaving reception staff free to improve the customer experience. Although a queuebusting ability was important, it wasn't the only consideration.

"We wanted the new kiosks to give us the attendance data which we weren't getting from the turnstiles. The functionality of the kiosk - when programmed properly with the turnstile - seemed to meet our requirements exactly. It became our validation point before the turnstile," says Winfield.

A 12-week pilot project at the Waterfront Leisure Centre in Woolwich during October 2007 was one of the first for Gladstone's then-new Kiosk system. Gladstone worked closely with GLL when designing the processes and user interface including personalised page design.

By the end of the first week, 300 users had tried the kiosks and, three months later, there were 1,600 regular 'fast track' users for group exercise, fitness centre, general swimming, squash, and badminton. Now, there are 13 leisure centres equipped with pairs of kiosks with three kiosks at the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre covering 3,000 weekly visits.

The new floor-standing kiosks are powerful and flexible with Gladstone software, card readers for identification, receipt and wrist band printers. Equipped with a user-friendly touchscreen, transactions generally take around 11 seconds and also allow group exercise classes starting within the next two hours to be booked. As both are connected to the Plus2 system, kiosks and turnstiles now work in tandem.

For pre-paid members, GLL's "fast track admission system" enables simple collection of pre-booked activity tickets. For example, fitness centre users collect a time-printed wrist band with a barcode for the turnstiles. Paper tickets are printed for other activities which also gives a useful visible security check. And thanks to the real-time interface with the central Plus2 system, daily attendance figures can be analysed and staffing allocation improved.

"The kiosks are allowing us to understand the usage patterns of our members a lot clearer than ever before," says Winfield. "It's really good for reporting centre usage to our clients too."

Smooth progression

Gladstone's "new customer journey" has been warmly welcomed by users switching in large numbers to managing their own entry. The easy-to-use kiosks are also usefully backed by Gladstone's Connect2 web booking facility. It then becomes a smooth progression from making an online booking to attending the chosen activities.

When any new kiosks need installing, Gladstone provides the kiosk software, hardware, and a support contract. The new units are installed by GLL in a few hours including in-house training. "The staff have been very positive because the kiosks have changed customer attitudes. Once they demonstrate how easy the kiosks are to use, our members think it's brilliant too," says Winfield.

A new 'pay and play' system is likely to be trialed in 2009. This will involve upgrading a kiosk to 'chip and pin', which Gladstone has recently started supplying, to allow activities to be paid for by nonmembers. By adopting self-service technology so readily, GLL is making the new customer journey into a pleasurable experience.

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To see this case study in the April 2009 issue of Leisure Management magazine please click here

3 December 2008