5 Reasons You Need a Robust Point-of-Sale (POS) System

As you think about opening or expanding your family or location-based entertainment facility, use this guide to understand your facility management and reporting needs.

Whether you’re opening a brand-new entertainment venue or expanding your offering, it makes sense to consider not just the attractions and design, but also the systems and capabilities you’ll need to support your business now and in the future.

Your point of sale touches every guest and every dollar, so it’s a critical component of your success. That’s why we’re sharing these five scenarios that might suggest you need a robust facility management solution.

No 1: You operate a multi-attraction venue.

Many venues open with one or more anchor attractions, rides, experiences, and games. And even if you’re starting small, it makes sense to plan for future growth. Adding new attractions can be a terrific way to entice new and repeat guests and increase facility revenue year after year.

In order to maximize each attraction’s potential, you may need to manage capacity and throughput differently. Consider whether or not you’ll want to sell guests a specific session of laser tag, such as the 12:00pm experience, rather than simply selling the attraction and having guests wait for an available session.

In addition to capacity management considerations, if you’re thinking of adding axe-throwing or go-karts, it might also be time to incorporate liability waivers if you aren’t currently requiring waivers for your attractions. A facility management software that has an integrated waiver can help you maximize reporting and marketing potential of your new (and existing) attractions. Plus, trying to make do with a pieced-together solution with different systems, service agreements and licensing fees can be time-consuming, frustrating, and expensive.

No. 2: You want a streamlined party scheduling experience.

Parties and group events will likely be a critical part of your business and most likely where you spend a lot of time. As you grow, look for ways to streamline your party processes and guest event communications.

One way to do this is by using a party booking platform that is already incorporated into your point of sale. This streamlines the booking experience for guests booking in person and online, manages the tracking of deposits and event settlements and reduces the potential for human error when scheduling.

The larger your offerings, the more complex scheduling your attractions, party rooms, and food and beverage needs can get. A solution that provides a cascading scheduling option will help streamline your parties so party coordinators don’t have to manually schedule parties and capacities. Automated party flows will keep your schedule tight so that guests can move from laser tag to go-karts to party time with food and beverage all the way to your arcade, all while factoring in walk-in traffic and advanced reservations, making it easier for you to manage your experience and reduce confusion.

No. 3: You want to deliver an extensive food and beverage operation.

As guests’ food and beverage expectations continue to change, many family entertainment and amusement facilities have been taking an “eatertainment” approach to their offerings, delivering more sophisticated options than ever.

With a more sophisticated food and beverage operation, you may now have advanced needs for recipe building, kitchen display systems for food preparation, inventory management, ordering, and table, seating, and check management.

Like other areas of your business, you can save yourself headaches by using a POS solution that can handle those needs while still fully integrating into your POS so you have one place of truth for all the revenue that comes into your facility. This not only creates more efficiencies for you behind the scenes but also provides your guests with the ability to purchase food and other offerings at the same time from anywhere you want them to at your facility – making it easier for your guests to do business with you.

No. 4: You want to offer memberships and other loyalty-driving programs.

Competition for your guests’ entertainment dollar is fierce, and you’ll always be looking to entice more repeat business. Many facilities are considering offering membership programs to strengthen guest loyalty, increase per capita spending, and boost repeat visits – while introducing the potential for a new recurring revenue stream. By offering a monthly membership program, you can offer guests the chance to buy a larger ticket item with a lower cost of entry and lower monthly fee. This helps broaden the adoption of some of your higher-priced offerings.

Creative loyalty rewards programs can go a long way to rewarding your best guests. The best programs entice your guests with unique rewards and offers while providing your facility with important insights about customer demographics and spending behaviors.

Creativity is the key to a successful program, though, so don’t be afraid to consider combining different membership plans with loyalty rewards programs to create entirely unique and compelling tiered membership offerings.

No. 5. You want access to critical spending and visit data to manage and grow your business.

You need a firm grasp on what’s happening in every area of your business, and you’ll need a system that delivers more than what’s being sold each day.

As a start, you need insights into:

• Guest demographic, behaviors, and spending data
• Front line sales performance by team member, station, or product
• Group sales performance by team member, gratuities, or product
• Labor vs sales cost analysis

It takes time you may not have to regularly gather and manipulate different pieces of information to provide you with the business intelligence necessary to make quick decisions that can impact your business. Look for a POS that can consolidate data from multiple areas of your business into one place and delivers a dynamic platform that gives you access to your data in the way you wish to see it.

If you can relate to any of these scenarios, we can help. Schedule a demo today to see CenterEdge in action.