'Virtual Receptionist' Kiosks

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Protouch and XN Leisure have produced a ‘Virtual Receptionist’ for Aberdeen Sports Village. As a result, usage levels for self-service have risen to 80% and the project has won a Retail Systems Award 2010.
 
The Challenge – Improving Reception
 
Aberdeen Sports Village is a partnership between Aberdeen City Council, the University of Aberdeen and sportscotland. Through sportscotland’s national and regional facilities strategy, the Aberdeen partners submitted a bid to develop a regional facility in Aberdeen, and out of this initial bid, the Sports Village was developed. The state-of-the-art £28 million facility houses a host of sporting amenities previously unavailable in the north east of the UK. These included a full size indoor football pitch, an indoor running track with throwing/jumping areas, a games hall, squash courts, fitness suite and dining/conference areas, as well as many other facilities. The external running track and football/hockey pitch have also recently been enhanced by the addition of a new stand which seats for 500.
 
Aberdeen Sports Village needed to be able to provide a fast and efficient service to match its excellent facilities. The kiosk solution providers looked at the busiest part of the operation, the reception. Reception is the first point of contact for information, for bookings, for payments and for interaction with customers. Making these processes faster and more efficient, while at the same time ensuring that the information being delivered is as detailed as possible was a key objective.
 
The Objectives – Self-Service Booking and Payment
 
The  Aberdeen Sports Village had a number of objectives which they wanted to achieve if they implemented a self service booking and payment solution. They wanted to ease the strain at peak times on the front desk; to enhance customer experience by fast tracking members’ entry to bookings and activities and reducing queuing time; to provide customers with a convenient self-service solution that allows them to easily check in for activities and collect tickets, make future bookings or enquiries without staff assistance; and to collect customer feedback on service.
 
The Solution – ‘Virtual Receptionist’ Kiosk
 
To deliver all this, XN Leisure and Protouch worked together to develop the ‘Virtual Receptionist’ kiosk solution that automated the whole booking, ticketing and payment process for Aberdeen Sports Village.
 
The kiosk offers a 19” touch screen, RFID smart Card Reader, receipt and ticket printer and branding. It and runs a booking and on-screen payment application that provides fast-track entry. It also provides a secure monitoring system which links membership cards to turnstiles, barriers or doors. The design is intended to makes it easy for customers to work through the booking process, which should take the pressure off reception desk staff. Having completed their booking, customers can start enjoying the leisure facilities immediately. Their membership card will have been activated to operate the access control around the building.
 
The Results
 
The ‘Virtual Receptionist’ has automated the whole booking, ticketing and payment process for Aberdeen Sports Village and is now used by 80 per cent of its members. The centre has now turned receptionist staff into Customer Service Ambassadors. They believe that the customer experience has been enhanced because the speed and efficiency of transactions has been increased.