Should You Make Your Facility Cashless? - Part 2

Part 2: Getting away from typical pricing

Growing up in the 80’s, I spent a great deal of time in arcades. I would collect my quarters all week, then on Friday and Saturday nights head down to the local arcade to spend a fun-filled 15 minutes of playing Pac-Man. In the 2000’s, those local arcades have now become entertainment facilities with multiple options for entertainment; however the technology that many of them use for payment is the same as it was 20 years ago… tokens and quarters. Sure, some arcade games now charge $1.75 instead of the dreaded $.50 we used to experience, but the multiple is always the same… 25 cents.

By adding debit card readers to your arcade games, you are gaining the ability to set your own pricing structure or structures. No longer does a game have to cost a multiple of a quarter. Now you can price your arcade games at $1.33 instead of a $1.25. Those few cents might not seem like a big deal in the scope of your entire business. In fact, it’s so small that your customers usually won’t even notice. However when you put into perspective the number of plays multiplied by the difference in your price, it is not hard to see the potential.

Odd dollared transactional amounts on cashless readers are not the only means to create a distinguishable and profitable pricing structure. A cashless facility can also create multiple pricing structures for one attraction or game. Using the example above, the $1.33 could be a regular guest’s price; however $1.20 could be the price for a loyal guest who has been rewarded VIP status through a customer loyalty program. Or if Thursday afternoons is your worst business day for a specific attraction or game, you can create special Thursday afternoon pricing, which will adjust itself according to the calendar and clock. Try all of that with your typical quarter or token game.

Stay tuned for more of the advantages of operating a cashless facility.

Should You Make Your Facility Cashless? – Part 1

Part 1: Don’t Leave Money In Your Customers’ Pockets

When we decided to start this blog, I knew immediately that I should address the advantages of turning a facility cashless. I have been asked numerous times, “what are the advantages of the cashless system?” Unfortunately there are so many advantages, the message gets lost as a “sales pitch.” I hope with this series of posts to answer the question thoroughly while providing real life examples and solutions.

Whether you are negotiating a salary, selling a car, requesting a donation for your charity, or operating an entertainment facility; you do not want to “leave money on the table.” How often does a customer walk into your facility with a specific amount of money to spend? How often has a teenage been given x dollars to spend at your facility? Now ask yourself, how often do you feel they have walked out without spending every penny of their allowance?

Let us analyze two identical locations, FunRUS, traditional facility that does not utilize cashless technology, and JunglePlex, a fully cashless facility. For our example, let us also assume both facilities utilize the same pricing scheme. Also, you should note that the same principles would apply if JunglePlex only used the cashless system in their arcade rather than their entire facility.

After school Sue decides to go play for a while at FunRUS. Her parents have given her $20 for a fun-filled afternoon.

Across town, Matt decides to go to JunglePlex, and his parents have also given him $20.

When Sue arrives at FunRUS, she first purchases a $3 hotdog and a $2 large soda. She plays a round of miniature golf for $5, and afterwards spends $8 on go-kart rides. She cannot find anything to do with the $2 remaining, and decides to pocket it for a future purchase.

Across town, Matt was purchases a debit card in order to participate in activities at JunglePlex. After putting his $20 onto a card (either at a Point of Sale station or at a self-service kiosk), he decides to purchase a $3 hotdog and a $2 large soda. He then plays a round of miniature golf for $5, and afterwards spends $8 on go-kart rides. He also cannot find anything to do with the $2 he has remaining, so he decides to leave the facility with his debit card with the expectation he’ll use it when he comes back to JunglePlex.

Although the above examples are simplified, they are quite common. If these scenarios happen 100 times in a day, then FunRUS has lost the opportunity to receive an additional $200; while JunglePlex has received $200 in additional cash with little to no cost. It is true that Matt might return and spend that $2; however he will probably also return with another $20. Additionally, depending on your local income tax laws, you can usually defer the $2 in revenue and not pay taxes on it until it is used later.

By utilizing a cashless system, you can avoid one avenue for “leaving money on the table.” Stay tuned for more advantages that can be offered by using a cashless system.

Checking In Large Skating Groups

In the skating industry it is very common to sell large groups private sessions in your facility. Often these groups get a discounted admission rate, but the individuals attending are still expected to pay for their own admissions and skate rentals. While this can be easily accomplished by using a discounted button on your POS screen, this provides only a limited ability to track the sales figures historically for each organization that books your facility.

This is where the ability to process sales for groups through POS comes in handy. Simply book the event in the Groups application, and then you can select it in POS and have all the sales your ring in and payments you take applied to the group for historical tracking.

Additionally, you can use the special "Select and Lock" function to speed up the admissions. If you use this function, after you complete a transaction the next transaction will also be rung in against the same group. This way you don't have to repeatedly select the same event for each transaction, and you can use the group tracking feature without sacrificing any of your transaction speed.

New Employee A/R System

One of the cool new features we've added to Pathfinder Advantage Release 7.3 is the Employee A/R system. We've had a bunch of customers request this feature, which allows you to process employee sales at your POS stations and charge it to an account for that employee. You can then either take payment later, or just deduct it from their paycheck.



One reason for using this system is to ensure that employees don't handle their own cash while they're working. It can also be used to increase revenue from employee sales.

Pathfinder Advantage Release 7.3

For those of you who missed the e-mail we sent out last week, Pathfinder Advantage Release 7.3 is now available. Follow the link below to read about all the new features we've added for this highly anticipated release. In particular, we've added a lot of features that should be great for the skating and FEC industries.

Note that you'll need Adobe Reader, which you can download for free from Adobe, in order to read the document.

Pathfinder Advantage Release 7.3 Information

As always, upgrades are free to all customers with a current support contract. Just contact us at (336) 598-5934 or support@pfasoft.com to request an upgrade.

Welcome!

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