Loitering Lowdown: How It Hurts Your Business and How You Can Stop It Using Technology
Is Loitering Putting Your Business at Risk?
Filed under: Banking, Retail, ATM Security, Security, Finance
Imagine walking into your business and noticing someone in the ATM lobby—standing around or lying down with no apparent purpose. It might not seem like a big deal initially, but loitering can significantly impact your business’s reputation and security.
Whether it’s an ATM vestibule, convenience store parking lot, restaurant patio, or other public area, it’s still your customers’ first impression of your business. Ensuring they enter a welcoming, efficient, and secure establishment is crucial to a positive customer experience. But how can you manage it effectively without constant supervision?
The Hidden Dangers of Loitering
Loitering can lead to several issues that might not be immediately obvious. First and foremost, it can make your customers feel uneasy. No one wants to walk into an area where people are lingering without reason. This discomfort can cause potential customers to turn away, leading to lost business opportunities and lost revenue.
Importantly, loiterers can create an environment where employees feel unsafe, both during their shifts and when entering or leaving the business. This unease can disrupt their daily tasks, hinder customer interactions, and impact their overall sense of security.
One of my customers recently told me they’ve been having issues with unauthorized individuals loitering on the premises, scaring away the cleaning service from entering and completing their cleaning duties after hours. There are so many other examples of the negative impact that loitering can have on your business.
Aside from your customers and employees’ wellbeing, loitering can also disrupt the natural flow of traffic in your business. This can be particularly problematic during peak hours when your business is bustling with activity. A congested area can slow down operations, cause safety issues, frustrate customers, and create a chaotic environment that detracts from the professional image you’ve worked hard to build.
Notably, there are security risks to consider. Loiterers might assess your business for vulnerabilities, potentially planning criminal activities such as theft or vandalism. Even if their intentions are not malicious, people lingering around your business can raise red flags for staff and customers.
Why Accurate Detection Matters
Given the potential risks, it’s essential to have a reliable, accurate system to detect and manage loitering – even before it happens. You definitely don’t have the time to keep an eye out for loiterers 24/7 – BUT you can use your video surveillance system to do the work for you. However, not all detection systems are created equal. Many traditional surveillance methods can be inconsistent and prone to false positives and misses, which can put a strain on resources, and operations. That’s where advanced video analytics comes in.
March Networks’ Lobby Loitering Protection analytic on our X-Series recorders provides highly accurate, automated detection of loitering incidents. Initially developed for ATM vestibules, this tool uses sophisticated, customized algorithms to monitor your critical business areas, or any public space in real-time, distinguishing between regular activity and people standing, sleeping or camping on your property. When the system detects someone lingering in the pre-defined area for more than a predetermined amount of time, it triggers an alert, enabling you to take immediate action.
The Lobby Loitering Protection analytics uses AI Computer Vision instead of image processing to identify and track how long an individual has been in an area of your business – like an ATM vestibule. If they linger longer than 10 minutes, for example, you receive an alert to your mobile device, which can also trigger an audio message from your security camera asking the loiterer to exit the premises – all done automatically without you having to look at the video footage.
How the March Networks’ Lobby Loitering Analytic Enhances Your Security
Our Lobby Loitering Protection analytic is a revolutionary feature for its ease of use and accuracy – nearly 100 per cent – meaning virtually zero false positives and zero misses. The analytic has been field-tested in some of the largest banks worldwide and proven highly accurate in identifying genuine loitering incidents – even in low-lighted areas. This ensures you are only notified of real threats, saving you time and resources.
When an alert is triggered indicating that an individual has been in your public area for longer than a reasonable amount of time, you and your security team receive a push notification to your smart phone. This alert can also trigger a pre-recorded message kindly asking the loiter to leave the premises. This message can be delivered over a speaker wired to the closest IP camera to the individual, or directly via the audio output of the NVR.
Additionally, the analytic is designed to integrate seamlessly with your existing surveillance system and can be set up remotely within minutes. This means you can enhance your security without overhauling your current setup. Once installed, it works quietly in the background, constantly monitoring and protecting your ATM vestibules, C-Stores and gas stations, transit operations, retail stores, QSRs and more.
Another customer is eager to combine our Lobby Loitering Protection analytic with our Heatmapping feature, which can provide important information on the financial impact of loitering by tracking how many people avoid the ATM area – it’s also easy to see this in a visual way with the motion heatmap.
Master Your Security with Confidence
In today’s competitive market, every detail matters. Ensuring your business is a safe, welcoming environment is essential to creating a positive customer experience – and keeping them coming back. With Lobby Loitering Protection, you can stop loitering in its tracks, protect your investment, and ensure your business remains a step ahead in security.
Don’t let loitering undermine your security and reputation. Discover how our Lobby Loitering analytic takes immediate action and keeps your business loiterer-free!