Security is on everyone’s mind, but new technologies can help achieve a feeling of safety at the club without alienating members or their guests.
How to enhance security without compromising the member and guest experience is a question private club operators are contemplating more than ever
before. Even more, introducing new security technologies as a member benefit to enable rather than restrict member access and movement on club property takes careful planning.
Visitor Management Systems
It is important to understand who is entering your buildings and facilities, the areas they access and at what time they do so to ensure a seamless member and guest experience while securing restricted areas on the club’s property. Visitor management systems help organizations categorize and classify their members and employees. Powered by access control readers and other identity management controls, these systems provide a method of verifying identities with their associated permissions.
Visitor management is an important system function for the “member” users of an access control system. Members want security but also flexibility to move freely throughout club facilities while feeling free and welcome to invite guests. Access control-visitor management integrations have grown in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The integration made it easier to assign and customize guest credentials, add digital nondisclosure agreements, preregister guests, print badges and create health questionnaires. When building staff was limited, bypassing a front desk sign-in process was made possible with visitor management and access control.
These systems help streamline the club experience by saving time and reducing confusion. To properly do this, club operators must create individually manageable spaces for their members. The club needs to allow for straightforward management of users who require full access to all relevant locks for that space and even delegation of visitor management. In the case of private clubs, a paying member represents a primary user of the space created in the system. They have fulltime access to all the space’s locks. Members can invite guests, for whom they can set more refined access rules. A member’s guests are users asked by club members to have (optionally) limited access to the space created. The space created is the area that club members need to have access to reach and enter their private site or residence.
A perfect example is a member who wants to invite their mom over for lunch at the club. They have a system that allows the club member to send an email with a credential that works on the date and time of the lunch. This credential would work for the front gate, the guest entrance to the club and any other needed access point to get to the lunch area. Allowing a club member to invite guests takes a redundant portion of the system management and gives it to the members who also enjoy the flexibility. It’s a win-win solution. Additionally, clubs may also send information on “what to expect during your visit” that could be reviewed and digitally initiated before a guest receives a mobile credential to enter the facility. Automating any user screening is also key in keeping the procedure fast and user-friendly.
While many clubs do not have integrated access control systems in place, it’s been a key component for organizations as an aid to return to work procedures in 2022. Although the old handwritten paper logbooks may be helpful for standard check-in processes, they do not provide clubs with data that can be used to improve and optimize the member and guest experience. Understanding who is in the building, how long a person is inside, where they’ve gone, etc., can inform important business decisions facilities while feeling free and welcome to invite guests. Access control-visitor management integrations have grown in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The integration made it easier to assign and customize guest credentials, add digital nondisclosure agreements, preregister guests, print badges and create health questionnaires. When building staff was limited, bypassing a front desk sign-in process was made possible with visitor management and access control.
Bringing People Together
Thanks to the pandemic and technology, mobile credentials and frictionless solutions are becoming the standard when it comes to identification and access control. Automation provides an answer to simplify redundant tasks that allow employees to focus on guest services and the club’s experience. The fewer issues or redundant tasks employees have to focus on, the more they can hone in on the people around them. It is easy to use technology to isolate people from one another, but the key to most successful clubs is the social aspect itself. So how do we use technology to empower the social aspects of a club? It’s simple: Remove redundant, time- consuming tasks from your staff’s day. If you can remove many of the redundant tasks from your employees’ routines, it frees them up to focus purely on the individuals they are teaching, serving or directing at the club. This allows for an environment that can focus on people and the personal relationship they have with each other.
Using technology and visitor management data can allow club directors and operators to better protect employees, assets and buildings, as well as automate redundant processes associated with member and guest access. Take a gate guard, for example. They have a redundant job, but automation can transform the role from a security-centric position to a pure guest services position. With the proper automation, the data needed to enter the club is received, stored and documented automatically, using credentials for members, employees, vendors and visitors. Adding video sequencing for guests, delivery drivers and outside services can provide additional visitor data to verify entrance, location and arrival/departure times. And with all this, the systems are cataloging it instead of the gate guard doing it with a pen and pad/spreadsheet. The gate guard then is simply focused on being a great first interaction with the visitor rather than a security barrier, speeding up the process, negating human error and providing an excellent experience in the first 30-second interaction with the club.
Other Tech: Credential as Payment Method
Credential as a means of payment is a growing sector within private clubs. It is best known as a closed-loop system, where members use a mobile credential or wristband to purchase goods while at the club. It offers advantages over traditional cash or card payments by reducing transaction times and costs and eliminating cash handling. It also enables clubs to gain invaluable revenue and behavioral information on their members, enabling the constant evolution of a better member experience. Once a closed-loop system has been implemented, it creates a much better experience for the members and their guests with faster service, resulting in more time socializing, interacting within the club and creating memories.
Members can also budget for their spending at the club by depositing a set amount in advance. Offering this level of control means happier, more loyal customers, leading to higher spending in the long term. The technology does not end with standard purchases but can also help members enhance their experience within the club. Even timed events can be processed with the technology—think sauna, spa, court lights or tanning beds. Place a credential and select the needed period; the related costs are displayed. When identifying at the terminal, the authorization will be checked, the corresponding value will be debited and the installation will be started. Imagine a club where the use of a credential dictates every interaction. A single placement of a credential can control access, purchases and even timed events. With current hardware, this is feasible and the future for most private clubs.
Access control technologies and security analytics are evolving at a rapid pace. Advancements in software development, cloud access and the proliferation of personal mobile devices have helped initiate a shift from hardware-based solutions to more software-based systems that can provide more comprehensive coverage and analytics with the flexibility of features being added over time. It is very important to look at your security systems as only one piece of the puzzle. The culture and the people who live and use the system every day, along with modeling visitor management policies based on how members and guests move around a facility, will be the determining factors of a successful security program.
Ernie Ace Velayo is business development manager, west, for AMAG Technology. He can be reached at [email protected].
Tanya Turner is HR director, North America, with SALTO Systems, Inc. She can be reached at [email protected].
John Wright is retail & fitness industry business leader with SALTO Systems, Inc. He can be reached at j.wright@ saltosystems.com.