Most leisure centre and health club operators don’t need to be told that in today’s climate of austerity, understanding and responding to the needs of their customers is essential to the success, if not the survival, of their business.

Yet in many facilities what customers do once they go past reception is still anyone’s guess. While reception turnstiles track their attendance, data on what they do afterwards is largely lost – a particular issue for operators that offer all-inclusive memberships.

To overcome this problem, savvy operators are investing in multi-sector access control solutions developed by suppliers such as Gladstone, which control access and collect customer data, not just at reception but throughout the whole site: at the gym, the studio, the pool and the spa.

However, Gladstone understands that not every leisure operator is in a position to install turnstiles at the threshold of every facility within their club or centre. To cater for this, the company has developed a system which allows data on specific facility usage to be captured via a mounted touch-screen at the main reception turnstiles, where customers must answer a simple question or number of questions before being allowed to proceed.

Gladstone, which consulted access experts ASP on the hardware design, originally developed the solution for Oldham Community Leisure, but is now offering a tailor-made version of it to all its clients.

“Providing enhanced data on how a member uses a club or centre would normally involve unprecedented investment in access control hardware covering the whole facility,” says Gladstone’s managing director, Tom Withers. “Our solution provides an answer where installing physical access control in all areas is either not practical or not affordable.”

Another unique feature of the product is the System Monitoring Tool, which prevents data from being lost because a staff member manually releases the turnstiles to let a customer in if the system denies them access – for example, if they have an unpaid sale.

Using the System Monitoring Tool, staff can now go into a web portal and simply click a button to override the access denial. This gives the customer a one-day grace period, enabling them to pass through the turnstiles while the site still collects their data.

The access control solution also allows individual members to choose multi-ID options – so one person can check in using an RFID band, card or mobile – as well as supporting biometrics, should operators require it.

“Like all our products, Gladstone’s access control solution can be adapted to meet each operator’s specific needs,” says Withers. “But the ultimate aim is to support our clients not only to control access within their facilities, but also to gain a much better understanding of their customers’ behaviour and needs.”