In 2016, we started developing the Smart Climbing Gym to bring digital route management tools to route setters and gym owners. Since that first iteration, we’ve incorporated more features and tools to bring the product closer to our vision of providing an all-in-one platform for managing your gym.
A Force Majeure
When Covid hit last year, we decided to shift our focus to a feature which proved to be essential for any gym wanting to remain open and keep their climbers and staff safe. In March of 2020, we made the decision to double-down our efforts to evolve our existing, and admittedly lean, course booking tool to be more flexible and serve a wider range of use cases.
This quickly transformed into an entirely new module within the Smart Climbing Gym which we now call Check-ins. The system allows gyms to create custom slots with a specified check-in time and duration of stay. Once published, your slots are available to be booked from a custom public booking page which you can easily link to your website. After booking, climbers receive an email confirmation with all of their booking information. You can easily manage bookings on the Reservations page, and use the capacity controls to regulate the flow of customers in and out of the gym.
Demand for Check-ins Outside of Climbing
After releasing the first version of Check-ins, various local businesses near our headquarters in South Tyrol began contacting us, looking for a similar software solution. Within a few months we opened up the platform and started supporting other businesses including pharmacies, swimming pools, national parks, and even community Covid testing operations. Across all our clients using the Check-ins feature, we’ve processed over 1 million bookings since our launch last year.
As our base of customers using Check-ins has grown more diverse, so too have the number of customisations and options available for setting up your bookings and managing check-ins. In addition to basic information, we now allow you to collect a fully customisable set of fields from your prospective participants. For some of our clients, this includes data like tax number, specific address details, or even unique reference numbers. For the check-in manager, we’ve added enhanced searching and filter controls compatible with barcode readers to facilitate even faster look-up.
In terms of data, we’re offering both API integration options alongside basic CSV export directly from the system, giving businesses the ability to extract all the necessary data to maintain parity across legacy systems and to facilitate reporting and analysis.
Introducing Payments
The logical next step for the system, and our core focus right now, is allowing users to not only reserve, but also pay, for their bookings online. We know this option gives gyms more control over the booking process and avoids the frustration of no-shows, which prevent willing and paying customers from visiting your gym. Allowing your customers to purchase tickets in advance creates better incentives for the customer, improves cash flow for your business, and expedites the check-in process. We’re excited about bringing Payments to the Smart Climbing Gym and have started testing with local gyms and businesses with the aim of rolling out the capability to everyone. We hope you share our enthusiasm for this direction, and look forward to working with you to make this new feature work for your gym.
Contact us to find out more about our Check-in and Payment solutions.
