A User Journey is the path your guests take when using your business. It shows how they interact with your service, from the first contact (eg: booking the service) to last contact (eg: guest survey and thanks for your business email/sms)... and everything in-between (eg: how long before the guests' booking starts should they get an access code or when the guest books a room, they should also have access to the swimming pool).
In order to ensure Inlet can support how you want your customer to experience your business or service, it's important consider the user journey.
Some things to think about:
- What sort of business do you have?
- Consider how your business operates and what level of access control is needed. A hotel, co-working space, gym, or self-storage facility may have vastly different requirements.
- How long does the access need to be valid?
- Determine if access should be granted for a short period (minutes or hours), a full day, recurring use (e.g., a gym membership), or indefinitely until manually revoked.
- Will the guest use a code, or will they "pulse" the door open?
- Decide whether access should be granted via a fixed or dynamic code, mobile another form of digital key. The choice can impact both security and convenience.
- How many codes does the door need to support at any given time?
- Some businesses may require multiple users to have unique codes for the same access point, while others may only need a single shared code for all users.
- Does the access need to be spread over several doors?
- Consider whether a single code or key should provide access to multiple locations, such as a shared entrance, private room, gym, swimming pool, or additional facilities.
- Should any of the doors remain open for the entire booking? (no code needed after gaining access the first time)
- Determine whether access should be required each time a door is used or if it should remain unlocked for the duration of a guest’s stay to improve convenience.
- Are there different access systems/locks in use at the location which are part of the journey? This affects if the same code can be used for all doors.
- If multiple access systems are in place, ensure they are compatible or determine if different credentials are needed for each system. This affects whether a single code can be used across all doors.
- Customer communications.
- Decide how and when guests should receive their access details. Should they get an automated SMS or email with a code? Will customer service be available for support? Ensure a clear and reliable process is in place.
Here are some examples of businesses and services we support, along with User Journeys.
- Ski Destinations
- Self-Service Storage
- Tool Rental
- Short and long term apartment rentals
- Car Charging
- Access to Municipal Spaces: Libraries, Gyms, Offices, Swimming Pools
- Meeting Rooms
- Saunas
Let's explore the examples above, and see what typical User Journeys look like.
Ski Destinations
Typically Ski Destinations are similar to hotels and short-term apartment rentals, although there can be some variations in the type of User Journeys. Through experience we know there can be quite a bit of complexity, especially around check-in/check-out, key returns and single codes for access to different areas.
- Usually a guest will book a unit, which can be a cabin or apartment for a short period of time: a few days to a few weeks. This normally requires a single access code which is valid for the length of the stay. Often the check-in and check-out times are defined by the operator, but the guest sometimes has the ability to check-out via an app, link or other. Some things to consider related to this:
- Do you require any "access padding" either at the start of the booking, or at the end? This means that even though the guest books for a specified from/to time, you as an operator wants to give the customer some defined time before or after the specified from/to time where the code might still be active. This is to protect against the guest forgetting something in the unit and the door being lock if it's close to the defined check-out time. Also at the start time, to give access if the guest arrives a few minutes early. This is done in the booking software, but it's good to consider in case it's a "must have", to be sure your booking system can support this.
- Inlet receives bookings just in time, meaning very close to when the guest is due to check-in, or in some cases exactly when the guest checks-in. This means it isn't possible to send and sms or email generated from Inlet until this time. Sometimes our customers want these to go out at a specified time before the booking starts (1day, 1hour for example) , but obviously we cannot do this if we don't know about the booking until it's starting.
- Are there any shared doors, lockers, etc. that need to also support the code the customer has for their stay? Depending on the locks in use, if they are the same, or different, has an effect on how this may work, or if separate codes might need to be used.
Tool Rental
Self-service tool rentals users typically book access to physical equipment for a defined period of time, ranging from a few hours to several days. However, there are a few unique aspects of these journeys that are worth considering.
- Typically, a customer will book specific tools requiring access to a locker, storage bay, or equipment shed using a digital code or mobile key that is valid only for the duration of their booking.
- Do you require any "access padding" either at the start of the booking, or at the end? This means that even though the guest books for a specified from/to time, you as an operator wants to give the customer some defined time before or after the specified from/to time where the code might still be active. This is to protect against the guest forgetting something in the unit and the door being lock if it's close to the defined check-out time. Also at the start time, to give access if the guest arrives a few minutes early. This is done in the booking software, but it's good to consider in case it's a "must have", to be sure your booking system can support this.
- Inlet receives bookings just in time, meaning very close to when the guest is due to check-in, or in some cases exactly when the guest checks-in. This means it isn't possible to send and sms or email generated from Inlet until this time. Sometimes our customers want these to go out at a specified time before the booking starts (1day, 1hour for example) , but obviously we cannot do this if we don't know about the booking until it's starting.
- Do customers need to enter a main door before retrieving the tools from another storage area? If so:
- Will the same code be used across all access points?
- Are the locks the same type and from the same vendor?
- Depending on how your setup works, we can support a unified code across multiple access points—but if the hardware or systems differ, we may need to generate multiple codes for the same booking.
- If there's s a requirement that the operator get information about when a tool was picked up, and dropped off, this information isn't stored in Inlet, and will need to be retrieved directly from the access control systems logs by the operator.
Self-Service Storage (Under Construction)