Monday, just after five. Six people are standing at the counter, and they all want the same thing: to get in and train. How fast that goes is decided by the check-in.
There are three ways to do it today: the card, the fob on the key ring and the QR code on the phone. None of them is the best for every gym. This article shows you what matters and what fits your gym.
What a check-in has to do
Before you think about cards or phones, it is worth looking at the job itself.
- It has to be done in one second, even with six people in line.
- It has to answer a single question: may this member train today?
- Your team has to see the answer without clicking anything.
- It has to keep running when the internet goes down.
- Every visit has to be recorded, so you can see who comes and who stays away.
If a method fails the first point, your team simply waves people through when it gets busy. Then you know neither who was there nor whose contract has run out.
1. The card
The membership card is the classic, and for good reason. Tap, sound, next. It does not get faster than that.
- It works even when the internet goes down.
- It needs no battery and no phone.
- Every member understands it right away, at any age.
You know its weakness: it is at home, in the other jacket or in the car. Each card also costs a little money, and a lost card has to be replaced.
2. The fob on the key ring
The fob does the same as the card, but sits in a small tag. In most gyms the same card reader reads both.
Its advantage is simple: the keys are almost always there. Whoever comes by car or by bike has the fob in hand before reaching the counter. That is why members forget it far less often than a card.
In return, the tag has no room for a name or a photo. If that matters to you, stay with the card.
3. The QR code
With a QR code, the phone is the pass. There are two kinds, and the difference matters.
With the first, the member shows a code on their phone. A code like that can be photographed and passed on to friends.
With the second, the code is on the screen at the counter, and the member scans it with their own phone. If that code changes every few seconds, a photo is of no use to anyone. This is the safer kind.
- You do not have to buy cards or reorder them.
- The phone is almost never left at home.
- A new member can check in on the very first day.
But the QR code has its limits too. The phone needs battery and signal, and scanning takes a few seconds longer than tapping a card. And not every member wants to use their phone for it.
When the card is at home
This happens in every gym, every day. The only question is what happens next.
Without a plan, your team looks up the name while the line grows. Or the member is waved through, and the visit shows up nowhere.
A second way in that needs no card is better. If you offer card and QR code side by side, you already have it: when the card is at home, the code gets scanned.
What matters is that this visit is recorded too. Otherwise it later looks as if the member was never there.
When the internet goes down
A check-in that stops at every outage is no help on a Monday evening. So ask every software provider exactly what still works without internet.
The card has the edge here. The card reader is plugged straight into the device on the counter, and a good program remembers the visits and sends them later on its own.
The QR code runs through the member's phone and therefore needs a connection. If you rely on the QR code alone, have a plan for the day the line is down.
What fits your gym?
- Your members already have cards or fobs: keep them. They are fast, and your team knows the routine.
- You are starting fresh and do not want to buy cards: start with the QR code.
- You want nobody to wait at the counter: offer both. The card is the fast way, the phone is the spare.
For most gyms the third answer is the best one. It costs nothing extra and solves the forgotten card along the way.
The short checklist
- Time the check-in with a stopwatch on a busy evening
- Check that your team can read the answer from across the room
- Ask what keeps running without internet
- Decide on a second way in for forgotten cards
- Make sure a QR code cannot simply be passed on
- Have your existing cards and card reader tested before you buy new ones
How check-in works with Tresenly
In Tresenly you decide how your members check in: with the card reader, with the QR code or with both.
When a member taps their card or fob, the answer fills the whole screen. Green means welcome, yellow means the contract ends soon, and red means no access, with the reason right there. A sound comes with it, so your team does not even have to look. This works even when the internet goes down.
The QR code is shown on the device at the counter and changes every half minute. So a photo of it is worthless after a short time. Your team connects a member's phone once, after that the camera is all it takes. Each member has exactly one connected phone, and a new phone signs the old one out. The QR code needs internet, the card simply keeps running in the meantime.
If the screen shows red and your team lets the member in anyway, that is recorded as well. So you can see later exactly who came in by card, by phone or through your team.
You can usually keep your cards and your card reader. We test them for free before you start.