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Smart Lockers: Why Are They So Popular?
In a culture where everything from toasters to flip-flops have rebranded as ‘smart’ devices, it’s easy to forget how brilliant and effective some IoT and wireless developments have been. Contactless payment, streaming sticks, and pretty much everything to do with smartphones – these are technologies which have enhanced the lives of millions.
And now smart lockers are on the rise. For businesses, it’s about substantial cash savings and increased worker productivity. For everyone on the ground, smart lockers are easier to use and lead to a happier atmosphere. But how?
Table of Contents
Why Bosses Love Smart Lockers
The logistical headache of hard-wired locks
When employee numbers reach the hundreds and beyond, strict organisation becomes paramount. One simple way to keep staff on the ball is to assign lockers for personal belongings, clothes, and whatever else they would otherwise leave lying around. Two common problems arise from this:
- Installing, operating, and repairing traditional lockers is expensive and time-consuming.
- Human beings are completely unreliable.
On average, 50% of Westerners ‘lose’ their keys every month. And those are house and car keys – attitudes to locker keys are even more cavalier. Between aimless searching, apologising to security staff and cutting or dispensing replacements, losing keys amounts to a loss of time and resources for companies. When staff leave the company, the expense of reallocation is even higher.
Hard-wired locker systems are also heavy and mechanical, which means they are prone to failure. Repairs require a costly technician, and all the while the productivity of your team is dropping.
The cure
Losing keys is seriously annoying for employers and staff alike. But what if you lose a low-cost, programmable piece of plastic? Within a few seconds at a terminal, security staff can:
- Remotely deactivate the old card
- Pick up a new one from the pile
- Assign it to the same locker, in your name
It literally does take seconds, with hardly any training required for the security team. No replacements, no engineers, and extremely low downtime. Since smart lockers run on low-power electronics, the failure rate is extremely low. On those rare occasions, the locker can be easily opened remotely by security and the staff member’s card re-allocated to a new locker.
Complete transparency
Smart lockers provide the added benefit of tracking and logging every one of their interactions. You can tell whether employees are spending extra-long lunch breaks hanging around their locker, or identify the exact time of any unusual activity. For larger companies, real-time insights can be gained which describe how your staff interacts with lockers throughout the day.
This information can then be used to drive strategic business decisions and get maximum efficiency from workers.
For the Employee
For staff things are a bit simpler. It’s not about money, resources, or hitting schedules. Most manual workers spend their days surrounded by others, and lack any kind of privacy or personal space – a locker gives them that.
More importantly, employees can wear their expensive headphones or watch tablets on the commute to work, without having to worry about them lying around all day. After building in smart lockers for our customers in the past, we’ve seen an improvement in the number of confrontations between staff, as well as improvements in how valued and appreciated employees feel.
Are Smart Lockers Here to Stay?
When you factor in the strengths of contactless locks over their hard-wired rivals (not least the considerable difference in cost for retrofitting existing lockers) and the world’s general progression towards smart solutions, it doesn’t look like the technology is going anywhere.
Individual houses and cars won’t adopt the technology en masse anytime soon, but for medium-large companies who want to save money and boost productivity, it’s a no-brainer.
To chat hot lockers or discuss your project then just get in touch – www.elocker.com