COVID-19 Tools
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Touch Desk has important capabilities to assist bowling centers in dealing with COVID-19.

As lock-downs are incrementally repealed around the world there are many new demands being made of businesses to keep their customers and staff safe. Below are some of the ways that Touch Desk may assist in meeting these requirements.

Contact Tracing - Many jurisdictions now require businesses to keep records of at least the name and contact phone number of every customer. These are used by health authorities for contact tracing in the event of a customer becoming infected. This is considered good practice even if it is not specifically required in your jurisdiction.

Touch Desk has this capability. When making a sale or taking a booking, or even when putting a bowler on to a lane, be sure to ask for the customers’ phone number and use the New Customer button to search for them in the database or create a new record for them if they are not yet in the database. Touch Desk will use the time of the the transaction, or score sheet, or booking to determine when the customer was in the center. Make sure “Save Score Sheets” is enabled for all bowling.

For even more precise recording of each customer’s visit, set up a free “Entry” and “Exit” sale item, and ring this up for each customer as they enter and leave the building.

For league bowlers, we recommend the use of CDE’s Master Bowler database, and enabling the creation of Touch Desk customer records for each league bowler. This allows the contact information for each league bowler to be transferred automatically from CDEs programs to Touch Desk.

It is also important to know which staff were present at any given time. Therefore all staff, even those that do not normally operate Touch Desk, should have their own user account and clock in and out as they enter and leave the building.

An update for Touch Desk is available with a new Contact Tracing report. This report will use this information  to provide details of all customers and staff within the center on a given date and time, or at the same time as a specified customer. Other information such as the lane they were using can be used to identify customers that may have been close to the infected customer.

This update will be free to all Touch Desk customers. You do not need the update to collect the data, but only to produce the Contact Tracing report if required by health authorities. Contact your supplier to obtain the update if needed. You can also generate tracing information without the update by using the Customer Address report and setting up multiple customer searches based on who has bowled on a specific day, or had sales on that day, or a booking etc.

Hands Free Scoring - Touch Score can be operated without a bowler console thereby minimizing cross contamination at the console. Bowlers’ names can be entered at the desk, via a mobile terminal, or when a phone booking is taken. Touch Score can be configured to automatically bring up  the arrows at the start of play, advance to a new game at the end of each game, and check out at the end of play. All without any bowler intervention. The console can be disabled in Touch Desk and covered or temporarily removed.

Note: Most legacy scoring types will not support complete hands free operation. However you can still minimize the time spent at the bowler console by entering the bowlers’ names at the desk or elsewhere prior to play.

Mobile Touch Desk - Touch Desk can be operated from a mobile tablet. This can minimize queuing and the movement of customers around the center. For example, you may wish greet customers at the entrance and take them directly to their lane for check-in, or visit the lane to take food orders or make lane changes such as score corrections.

Note: If you wish to operate a new mobile terminal independently of your existing Touch Desk you will need an additional terminal license. Alternatively, freely available remote control software can enable a tablet to control your existing Touch Desk terminal without any additional licenses.

Bookings - Ideally all customers will book either online or by phone before arriving, and this may be mandatory in some jurisdictions. The Touch Desk booking system is ideally suited to this task. In addition to recording the main booking customer’s details, it can record the names (and contact details if necessary) of all the bowlers in the group. The system can be setup to automatically check-in the lanes at the prescribed time. The bowlers’ names will be sent to the lanes and the lane will be ready for immediate play without any staff or bowler intervention.

The bowlers’ shoe size can be entered at the time of booking (if known), so their shoes can be ready on the lane when they arrive. The notes field in the booking record can be used for any other information needed to help streamline the process.

The Touch Desk Digital Signage system can provide automatic signage at the entrance to direct customers to their lane without delay.

Bookings for a table in a restaurant area can be taken and multiple customers can be assigned to each table. This allows the contact details of all guests to be recorded if needed.

Customers can now book online using the LaneEngine booking system. This system can collect the contact details of all bowlers and automatically create a booking for these bowlers in Touch Desk. Payments can also be collected online.

Payments - Payments for lane bookings can be made in advance by credit card online or over the phone at the time of booking. Many payment providers also support sending a link for secure payment via email. For in center purchases, Touch Desk supports running a tab for each individual customer so that they need pay only once as they leave rather than multiple times. This minimizes queuing and time spent at the payment terminal. If your Touch Desk is interfaced to a credit card terminal, you can secure these tabs using pre-authorization.

Disclaimer: Information, tips and suggestions listed here are provided in good faith by A.K.Microsystems International Pty Ltd to assist our customers and are without warranty of any kind. No specialist knowledge of, or compliance with, any laws, regulations, privacy considerations, health directives or advice that may apply in your jurisdiction or elsewhere is claimed. Errors and omissions excepted.

(c) 2001-2023 A.K.Microsystems International P/L. Last updated October 2023. Please email webmaster@akmicro.com.au with any comments or problems with this site. Various company names, brand names and product names included in these pages are trade marks of their respective owners.  Specifications subject to change without notice. Some options may not be available in all markets.