After-Hours Locker Pickups

Foote and Flame operated out of a workshop in Bibra Lake, during business hours (8AM to 4PM). But many customers wanted to be able to pick up their orders after these hours to fit in with their busy schedules.

The original method was to leave a tub outside out of view. But after one Christmas where someone stole the tub, it was time for a new process.

See it for yourself

The after hours locker

We acquired a steel locker with four doors. Then, with some simple electromagnetic locks, we modified the lockers to open with an electrical signal.

And then we added some magic: a keypad on the top allowed you to enter your order number, and if your order was present, it opened the locker where the order was.

You couldn't use any order number - we had to mark it as "in the locker" first. And once you used the order number once, it was marked as picked up (sending us an email to let us know!), and you couldn't use it again.

The experience

Customers loved it. We had a sensor light so customers could see as they used the lockers.

When things went wrong

Like all technology - things go wrong. But here is how we handled it:

• We had a camera on top to record it in case of any issues.
• We had a phone hotline and I could open the locker remotely if needed in case something went wrong.
• In case of a power outage, we had an override key to allow customers into the locker, that we could talk them through over the phone. This was used several times with great success.

It's all about designing the solution to be robust for the situations you didn't even think of.