busy gym - streamlining POS & check ins?
hi all,
firstly congratulations on a very thorough program, it looks absolutely amazing in terms of features, concept etc.
however having downloaded rgp, gone through tutorials & running a few dummy accounts to get a feel of it, there are a couple of things i am unclear on, all related to the practical side of dealing with large amounts of customers efficiently and fast:
1. is there really no integration between POS, data entry & check in? for example if i sell a punch card to customer "paul newman" through POS and then go to check ins to check him in, why is the punch card not now registered under his name? or if I sell him a punch card through POS, why does this not check him in and use one punch at the same time?
2. if i have someone set up as a "guest" and then go to check him in, at check in there is no query as to what entry has been paid for, but the guest is simply checked in. For example if i am on reception and a customer comes in for a climb, I go to the check in screen, look up their last name and enter them. Do I then have to go backwards into POS to enter them for, say a punch card of 10, take the payment, and then go backwards yet again to data entry in order to enter this punch card on their account, and then forwards again to check in to remove one of their punches? This doesn't seem like it can be right.
I understand that you want to make sure there are no warnings on the customer's account before they climb, and also ensure they are buying a membership for themselves, but surely 99.99% of the time, people are:
a. paying for themselves
b. do not have any warnings on their account
While I am otherwise all for using RGP, i can't help but feel I am missing something out at the moment as the only way I can figure out to use this otherwise great piece of software seems like it will massively slow down our sales and check in process as it requires a member of staff to potentially chase the customer through four separate RGP subdivisions (check in, POS, data entry then finally check in again) before that customer is ready to climb. Factor in the time taken for a customer to make a payment and the fourfold probability of human error by staff members and the whole thing seems prohibitive.
Apologies if I seem critical, I am really quite excited about RGP's potential for my business in terms of functionality and reports, and am all set to pay for full support etc. but I just feel that I must be missing out on something essential as I am finding it ridiculously complicated to do the basics at the moment and cannot see the purpose in having all three areas (POS, check ins, data) under one potentially awesome roof, if they are functionally divorced from one another!
Hope I am just being mildly retarded and that someone can explain where I am going wrong!
Regards,
Fred
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To explain where I am coming from and how we operate currently:
At the moment, we operate with a reasonably simple access database program with a list of first names, last names & zip codes. We are on approx 30k at the moment. You can search by zip, or by either first or last name. You choose your member and click on them, up comes a screen with their current status (monthly membership, no entries, 10/9/8 punchcard entries etc.) and by clicking on the "climb now" button the database either removes an entry from their punchcard, registers a member's entry, or else you need to select a payment option (single entry, membership, punch card etc.) in order for that climber to go through.
Our cash register is entirely separate from the database, so all my staff need to do is see the amount the database tells them to charge the customer, and input this to the register.
New customers signing up are just inputted through the cash register on the moment, and their purchase option is written onto the registration form they complete, to be entered onto the database later that day, along with any notes that will appear alongside their status (say for example, "needs to complete zip code").
Using this system, with one computer and one cash register, we can work through a queue of customers (sometimes a couple of hundred in an hour or two) of both mixed members, new registrations, punchcards and single entries extremely fast. The only errors that can happen are mistypes on register amounts and these are corrected at Z-out.
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Comments
I only have time for a quick answer for now, but these questions have been answered previously a few time in the forums. U.S. gyms operate quite differently than UK gyms (I think where you are located) and that is also part of the difference.
There are VERY busy gyms in the U.S. using RGP with great success. And the "limitations" you speak of haven't really slowed down their front desk operations. Most of these "limitations" are actually intentional to 1) provide more flexibility and 2) prevent the staff from accepting defaults that are not correct. For instance, in the U.S. it is very common for one person to pay for another person's membership or punch card.
More later.
Hi Andy
Like I said I am really impressed with many of the features in RGP and am sure that I am just not getting to grips properly with the program.
Apologies if this is all already out there or if my questions were phrased negatively. Look forward to hearing from you again.
Fred
Hi Fred,
I'm a little confused by why the check-in process seems different in RGP.
All your staff has to do is look up the customer in Check In and it will either 1) debit a punch 2) accept their membership as valid and check them in or 3) check-in a guest. If there are any warnings they will be indicated.
For members and punch card holders, they can just scan their card and keep walking!
For new customers, the digital waiver stations are the game changer. After the digital waiver is accepted by the staff and the customer record automatically created, the new customer can automatically be checked in as part of the document acceptance process.
Why do I not automatically configure memberships or punch cards after a sale? Because, at least here in the US, there are a million different ways that gyms sell, market, and configure their memberships. After a sale, if Data Entry is running, the effected customers are already automatically listed in Data Entry. All your staff has to do is flip to Data Entry (Alt-Tab), double click on the customer, and press a handful of buttons to configure the membership. It takes about 10 seconds and would be the same amount of time if I asked the staff member at POS to confirm the various membership assignment.
That being said, I hope in 2012 to have some form of auto configuration for membership and punch card holders at the conclusion of a POS transaction... but it really hasn't been a problem for even the busiest gyms in the U.S (gyms doing nearly 1000 check-ins per day).
Hope this helps
Andy
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