Barcodes and Bar Bells – Read & Feed™
Bar bells are a staple in the fitness industry. Used as a tool to improve, bar bells are accessible and effective. From a business standpoint, the same can be said for barcodes.
Barcode technology has proven to be a fundamental means in helping businesses improve their processes. In the fitness industry, barcodes can help in the following areas of your business:
- Membership Registration
- Facility Access
- Point of Sale (POS)
- Inventory
- Loyalty Programs
- Fixed Asset Tracking
There are a lot of things you can spend your money on to potentially improve your business. A barcode system is one of the hidden gems that deliver an immediate payback in terms of:
- Improving your customer’s experience
- Making your operation more efficient
- Helping you make better decisions because information is more accurate
Let’s talk about how barcodes can improve your customer’s experience – an initiative that all business must covet if they want to sustain success.
How many of you currently register a new member by quizzing them on their name, address, city, state, etc. as they sign-up? Not a big deal if you don’t mind your employees making mistakes as they manually key in the data. And, not a big deal if you don’t mind having your new customer state their personal information out loud for others to hear. Worse yet, your new customer has to re-state the information or spell-out the information as your employee tries their best to get the info correctly into your system. (Cue the trumpets). Barcodes to the rescue!
Utilizing barcodes as part of your new member sign-up will change the above scenario in two simple steps:
- Ask your new customer for their Driver’s License to assist in the registration process.
- Scan the 2D barcode on the back of their license with a programmed reader to automatically populate the fields in your membership info screen.
That’s it. Pretty cool. Your membership sign-up process improves by taking less time, is more accurate, and doesn’t require your customer to verbalize personal information – smiles all around! And, are you familiar with the phrase “building your brand?” Well, positive customer experiences are an important part of brand building in addition to helping your club become known as innovative and in tune with improving all facets of your business.
The great news is that implementing a barcode system is easy and very cost effective. Typical components of a barcode system are: barcode reader, media (a card, label, or phone screen with barcode on it), and a program or application that accepts barcode data.
The news gets even better when you learn that the barcode reader can be used for multiple purposes. Multiple use is always a good thing for improving your return on investment whether you are buying a technology related item or a piece of fitness equipment
The same barcode reader can be used to:
- Automatically populate fields in Membership sign-up screen(s).
- Allow entrance into facility by scanning barcode on membership card or Smartphone
- Scan UPC barcode during point of sale transaction with your customer
- Scan barcode on inventory item and automatically enter data into field in Excel or other program as keyboard data entry.
- Scan barcode on membership card or Smartphone to collect data and time and date stamp as part of Loyalty program
- Scan barcode on fixed asset and automatically enter data into field in Excel or other program as keyboard data entry as part of inspection or inventory program.
Bar bells and barcodes. One makes you stronger; the other makes your business stronger.
