Does your property have manual doors at the front entrance? Even beautiful, functional manual doors aren’t as welcoming as automatic ones. And many manual doors are easily broken and dated. Upgrading to newer glass and aluminum automatic doors can benefit you, your property, and your business in some unexpected ways, whether you run a storefront, an apartment building, a warehouse, or another property. Here are nine reasons to switch to an automatic door.

1. Meet Your Customer’s Expectations

How many times have you walked into a retail store that didn’t have an automatic door? Chances are that encounter with a manual door stood out to you as a little frustrating. Many of your customers feel that way too. In many industries, automatic doors are standard, and when people find a manual door, they’re taken aback. This hassle is a small thing, sure, but it does start your interaction with the customer off on the wrong foot. You want it to be as easy as possible for customers to get in your door.Plus, you want to meet their expectations as much as possible.

What if automatic doors are not yet standard in your industry or for the type of building you’re running? Perhaps you have an apartment building, and your competition still relies on manual doors. You can use an automatic door to stands out from the crowd and exceed your tenant’s expectations. You’ll find that people care more about automatic doors than you think, for all of the other reasons on this list.

2. Reduce the Spread of Germs

Every flu season, we welcome the sight of an automatic door. It means that we don’t need to touch a doorknob and get the germs of everyone else in the building. People who have weakened immune systems, or who are sick, will appreciate being able to do business with you with a reduced risk of getting ill or passing an illness on. Plus, they then view the rest of your property as a more hygienic environment—and it is.

As they don’t collect as many germs, automatic doors do not need to be cleaned as often as manual doors. An automatic door can be very helpful during a pandemic or during periods where you need to take more thorough care of the hygiene of your space.

3. Save Time for Staff and Customers

In many lines of work, time is of the essence. The seconds that it takes to open a door matter. Or, getting through manual doors may take a lot of time because of what is going on in the building. Here are three main examples of how automatic doors can help you save time in these situations:

Hospitals: If you’re dealing with a medical emergency, it’s important to have smooth, fast, automatic doors. Paramedics, patients, and staff will appreciate being able to get through the doors faster.
Shipping facilities: In warehouses, factories, and many other similar facilities, you may rely on large pieces of equipment. Moving them through manual doors can be a hassle. And propping open the doors can waste energy. Automatic doors are a smart solution.
Airports: Places where huge groups of people gather have problems with flow through the building. People might get stuck holding the door. Or people in a rush might not appreciate having to use a manual door. Automatic doors make things faster for everyone.

4. It Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive

Installing automatic doors can be a perfectly reasonable cost for your business. At CLAD, we charge fair prices for high-quality installations and do them in a timely manner too. However, if you’re still concerned about the cost of the door, you might consider a low energy automatic door. This is a piece of hardware you can install directly onto your existing manual door. It will open and close it automatically. You don’t have to purchase and install a brand-new door to get the benefits of automatic opening.

5. Your Property will Look Better

Not all manual doors match the overall look of the building. In fact, many broken, faded, or old doors do just the opposite. These days, architecture and interior design focus on a clean, modern look. Glass and aluminum doors often work perfectly with the look of contemporary office spaces, condos and storefronts. They allow in plenty of natural light and also give you the opportunity to posts signs, whether vinyl or paper.

6. Improve Accessibility

Of course, those with physical disabilities prefer automatic doors because they are easier to use. For some businesses, adding an automatic door might be necessary to meet your ADA obligations. However, it’s not just about following the law. A certain portion of your customers do have accessibility issues, and you want them to feel as welcome in your building as your other customers. Plus, automatic doors suggest that your business cares about accessibility and the convenience of its customers. Those with disabilities and their family are not the only people who will notice.

7. Get Better Energy Efficiency

It can be a big challenge to keep your building cool in the summer and warm in the winter, at least not without increasing your operating costs substantially. For businesses with thin margins, keeping the utility bill down might be necessary to be profitable. What do you do when a tenant, customer, or even staff member leaves the door open? Pay the bill and ask them not to do it again. However, with an automatic door, you don’t need to worry about that. It will close behind people right away, so there’s no unnecessary loss of heat in the winter or cool in the summer.

8. Add Convenience for Staff or Tenants

How often do your customers leave your store with heavy bags? How often do your tenants enter your apartment building with their groceries? Do your staff need to bring in heavy packages? People in essentially every type of building will find that automatic doors are a life-saver when their hands are full.

9. The Installation can be Convenient

Work with CLAD to get an automatic door installed on your property. We respond quickly, install high-quality doors, and minimize the time that the door is inoperable during installation.