Where is fine line of trust in customers relations and steal towels protection system operation
At the beginning of October, 2015 the Club Industry Show took place in the convention facility McCormick place Chicago IL (USA).
At the show there was a presentation of a new system for automated towels distribution and collection designed for fitness club members as well as for swimming pools, spas members. This system is equipped with steal towels system- Towels locker.
The system caught the visitors interest and they liked it a lot because it reduces costs incurred by towel service management, plus it helps to keep towels clean and fresh, isolating them from external actions and sanitizing with the help of germicidal lamp.
The system has a very convenient feature - when a clean towel compartment is empty, a voice message is enabled and relayed to the front desk as a text message where it’s said about an empty hopper. This message will alert each minute until the hopper will be refilled with clean towels.
The same story is with a return hopper – when it’s full, a text message pops up on the front computer and a voice message is activated with a notice to clean up a full hopper.
RFID technologies are broadly used in the system in line with embedded tags in towels. These are special RFID chips that are washable, water and temperature resistant and resilient to other aggressive factors and they are used within the useful life of a towel.
Tags invisibility allows them to use in a steal towels system. Therefore, while leaving a sport club, it turned out that a guest or an employee has a towel registered in a computer base and carried out in a sport bag, the alarm will alert and a front computer will display a message about alleged steal towels.
But it’s not necessarily an alleged theft. In some cases let’s say a club member can drop a towel in a bag by mistake or accidently. But what should you do in this case in order not to spoil customers relations and fitness club credibility?!
There is a solution to this problem. Steal towels system is installed out of the sight near front desk and if a guest who has a towel in his bag is standing near the front desk, such information is relayed to the front computer. In this case an administrator will inform a guest politely that he forgot to return a towel and towel control system pops up this message.
Probably, a guest says that he has returned a towel and such a situation can never happen. You have a right to shut your eyes to such objection for the first time. But as a rule the same guests repeat such a misbehavior. Soon you memorize them and will think whether you need such customers in your club that only bring losses.
From my personal experience: one interviewee was honest and told us that once he got rid of pathological stealing disease, then he came to a fitness club bringing back all 8 towels that he had taken earlier.
The solution to this problem can be handed over to RFID technology that always saves your money.
FRESH USA Inc.
