All the way back in back in June of 2011, Tensator was approached by a gentleman who was running a charity event that was very different to those that we usually get involved in.

The event was called Charity Bobsleigh Challenge and it came about as a result of a team of civilian’s challenging the Royal Air Force to a ‘Two Man’ Bobsleigh race, all to raise money for RAF Benevolent Fund and Help For Heroes. The event was held in December is IGLS, Austria.

Tensator provided four 889 Advance Tensabarriers® to help guide people around their marquee at the event, which by their admission was a “little out of hand” the previous year without the use of Tensabarriers®. Not only did the posts enjoy a lovely trip to Austria, they also travelled around the UK with the team (and their bobsled) to promote the event.

Tensator was really pleased to help with such a great cause and with such an unusual event. One of our employees at Tensator was even offered the opportunity to audition to be part of the civilian team – an offer they sadly had to turn down, but with the wonder of YouTube they can watch the races and feel as if they were there, as can you by clicking on this link.

The event was a great success and it is something we at Tensator are really proud to have been a part of. The donation page is still open, if you wish to make a contribution you can visit their JustGiving page.

Huge congratulations to everyone that was involved and maybe next year we will join you! 

With the holiday season festivities behind us, Tensator will be entering 2012 comfortable in the knowledge that our customers (and theirs) are having a happy ‘queue’ year…

By selecting Tensator as their queue management partner to provide a rewarding customer journey, companies all around the world representing sectors such as retail, transport, finance, public sector, and health & safety are reaping many rewards.

Tensator’s Electronic Queue Management Solutions help our customers to reduce the amount of time spent waiting in line by ensuring an efficient method in which customers are called to counters as and when they become free.

Making the most of our time in a queue is also an important element for our customers. The careful selection of products from our In-Queue Merchandising range allows the queue to be utilised to extend the shopping experience, right up until point of sale.

Customers are also finding that providing in-queue media information via our InQ-tv product range not only entertains their customers but also provides a valuable opportunity to continue to communicate marketing and promotional offers.

Finally, last year’s launch of Tensator’s Virtual Assistant, which can be used to direct, educate and promote has proven to be a valuable addition to many of our customer’s companies.

So, if you also want to make sure 2012 is a happy ‘queue’ year for you; speak to Tensator, the customer journey specialists, to make it happen.

As the year draws to an end and Christmas is just around the corner, here at Tensator we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

We have had a great year, creating new, important and exciting relationships as well as treasuring old ones and we would like to offer thanks to all of our customers and partners. We look forward to dealing with you in 2012.

Remember to keep an eye out for some new product developments in 2012….watch this space.

Dubai International Airport has installed four bilingual virtual assistants to communicate important security and travel information to the 50 million plus passengers that pass through its doors each year.

Each of the virtual assistants will now cheerfully greet and engage with the Airport’s passengers in order to provide them with key information on the preparations they need to make prior to entering the security screening and immigration areas. The use of this innovative technology is set to improve operational efficiency and enhance the customer experience at Dubai International Airport by reducing wait and queue times in key areas.

Tensator provided Dubai International Airport with a full consultancy service that included idea generation, script writing, filming and final installation, to ensure the system matched the airport’s exact requirements,

Tensator’s virtual assistants can also be seen at Edinburgh, London Luton, Birmingham and Bristol Airports. Have you seen them? If you have, we would love to hear your thoughs!

UNIQLO have chosen Tensator to design a custom Tensabarrier® guidance system to help guide its customers at both of its newest locations, UNIQLO New York Fifth Avenue Global Flagship and UNIQLO New York 34th Street Flagship.

The sleek, stainless steel Tensabarriers reflect the ultra chic store interior while helping guide customers easily through the checkout process and increase efficiencies in customer flow. 

UNIQLO's attention to detail and customer first mentality is echoed by Shin Odake, UNIQLO USA CEO: “The entire store is designed with customer service in mind. The custom Tensabarriers allow our associates to check out customers in a quick and efficient manner. We don’t like to have long lines in our stores as it’s just not in the best interest of our customers.”

To find out how Tensator can transform your store’s queuing environment, email us at info@tensator.com or call our specialists today on +44 (0) 1908 684600.

You may remember that a few months ago we asked for people to take part in our queue survey. It was a great success and the results made a great read!

Something that became very apparent from the results was that many people accessed social media sites with 65% of people asked admitting to updating sites such as Facebook or Twitter whilst waiting in a queue, many commenting on the environment.

Shockingly 98% of people admitted to abandoning a queue because of the length of time it took for them to get served. As part of the survey the respondents were asked how long they would be prepared to wait in certain environments and just under half of the respondents said they would only be prepared to wait for up to 5 minutes to pay for their weekly shop while many people were prepared to wait up to 15 minutes to be served in a bank.

There was a question asking what frustrated people most about queues and the findings from this were perhaps unsurprising with 52% saying slowness and 22% saying queue jumpers annoyed them.

Just over 43% of respondents said that when they were queuing, they were often thinking about their plans for the rest of the day, but many noted that they often thought about how the location they were queuing in could improve the queuing experience.

For every survey response that has been received, Tensator has making a donation to its local charity, Willen Hospice, a registered charity that provides specialist care for people whose illness no longer responds to curative treatment (also known as specialist palliative care).

Have you spotted our Tensabarrier in the new EDF Energy advert? EDF are proud sponsors of the Olympics and so their recent adverts have been made with the Olympic theme, including this one! Please click here to see the advert in full which features our 889 Tensabarrier (with post top signage) being used as a finish line for a shopper.

In the advert the shopper runs into the webbing, like an athlete at the end of the finish line. Perhaps a more conventional use for the Tensabarrier would be to create a clear queuing space, but it is nice to see that our barriers are being used in such an imaginative way!  

Let us know if you see one of our products anywhere that we haven’t mentioned. We would love to hear from you.

Tensabarrier® features on Dutch advert.

Tensator’s best selling Tensabarrier® stanchion reaches fame in The Netherlands, appearing heavily in a quirky TV Advert for Dutch supermarket AH (Albert Heijn)!! 

The advert shows the shop manager working his way slowly through the corral of eye-catching 889 Advance posts with the key to open the store, while crowds of excited shoppers wait outside in anticipation for the “garage sale”.

It’s a great example of how you could incorporate your brand or store colours into your queuing environment, by purchasing pantone colour posts and / or webbing, or even going one step further and opting for customised webbing, so you brand messaging really stands out!

For more information on our queuing posts call us on +44 (0) 1908 684600.  Or to buy your very own standard 889 Tensabarrier Post visit www.tensabarrierdirect.com/uk .

Tensator’s Rollabarrier has been spotted in the newly released Inbetweeners movie! The film took a huge £2.5 million on the day of its first UK screening and is a follow up to the successful TV series of the same name. The Rollabarrier features at Luton Airport in the film as the characters go on holiday to sunny Spain, let us know if you spot it!

Our Rollabarrier system is suitable for both indoor and outdoor use and is both portable and stable and features two wheels which allow quick and easy movement of the posts. For more information on our Rollabarrier product please click here or call us on +44 (0)1908 684600. 

Tensator has donated access control products to the international charity Mercy Ships, which offers free medical care and humanitarian aid to some of the world’s poorest people.

Mercy Ships operates the world’s largest charity hospital ship, the Africa Mercy, currently docked in Sierra Leone.  The ship, a former Danish rail ferry, is staffed by an international crew of dedicated volunteers from over 40 nations ranging from seamen, engineers, surgeons, doctors and nurses who give up their time to help save the lives of others.  The donated wall mounted barriers will be used on the Africa Mercy to prevent having to close fire doors multiple times each day whilst the floors are being cleaned, creating a high visibility barrier on each entrance. 

Corporate social responsibility is an extremely important principle for Tensator.  We are therefore pleased to provide some practical support for this charity which, through the good work of the hundreds of selfless volunteers, provides thousands of free surgeries and medical care each year to some of the poorest countries in Africa.

Donations, such as this, have a real impact upon the work carried out by their team of volunteers and are vital to ensuring Mercy Ships can continue to help and provide care to those less fortunate.

For more information about our access control products please call us on 01908 684600 or click here.