How to Maximize the Use of Mobile Stations in Your Water Park or FEC

Upgrade your guest experience and increase revenue and efficiency with these six tips.

Mobile point of sale stations are a no-brainer in large facilities with a fluctuating traffic flow, but nearly any size facility can use mobile stations to improve operations in the front and back of the house. They allow your park to operate flexibly so that you can provide your guests with the best experience and fastest service possible. But are you doing all that you can with your mobile stations? Read on for six ways to take full advantage of mobile stations in your park – and reap all the benefits.

1.    Line bust at admissions or check-in during high-traffic times.

Use ruggedized hand-held mobile stations to allow team members to line bust and help increase throughput during peak traffic times. It’s a good idea to position an enthusiastic welcome ambassador at admissions to help direct traffic to waiver stations and party check in. Armed with a mobile POS, they are able to speed up guest throughput by checking in season pass holders or selling admission tickets in the crowd. Review throughput reports to get a sense of traffic trends in your park so that you can make a plan to schedule a floating team member when it makes the most sense for your park.

2.    Increase onsite party bookings at a celebration station.

There are busy times at your park when it makes sense to position your party pros at welcome tables or party showcase stations near the front of your facility, a new attraction or another area you’d like to call out to guests. During these times, be ready to remove purchase barriers by situating party sales staff with mobile stations loaded with Advantage Groups to seamlessly book and schedule events in the moment. Book events, take deposits, sell event upgrades and send email confirmations right from the stations and start delivering exceptional service from the start.

3. Give event hosts more power to upsell in the moment – without leaving the party.

As a best practice, party hosts should remain with their party focused on the birthday child and making his or her day the best day ever. This can’t happen if team members are having to run out to point of sale stations to add on extra food and beverage or upsells. Equip party hosts with mobile stations so that they can quickly add on adult food to birthday parties, last minute player cards or anything else that would enhance attendees’ experience. You could even add value or entitlements to player cards that have already been distributed to party attendees and are out in use in your facility. This not only wows your guests, but also helps ensure that add-on items aren’t missed on invoices and increases revenue by eliminating the hassle factor hosts may feel if they have to run back and forth to a point of sale.

4. Offer poolside or tableside service.

Few things say luxury experience like lying by the pool and being served food and beverage. Mobile stations allow you to offer poolside or tableside ordering, sending items purchased to print at kitchen or bar printers or display systems. Servers can sell individual items and take payment immediately or maintain an open check for guests who wish to run a tab for an extended period. Payment can be taken by cash, credit card or using your wristband or other RFID media, with bluetooth printers on hand to provide guests with receipts. Once kitchen or bar items are prepared, increase service speed by having runners bring items out while your sales staff assists the next guest. Customizable graphical seating charts in your point of sale make the process seamless in any area of your park.

5. Deploy pop-up snack or merchandise carts.

Make offering in-the-moment purchase items a breeze in your park. Give guests the ease of purchasing ice cream bars, sunscreen or anything else your facility offers without them needing to go back to a restaurant or to admissions to make those purchases. Any items that you sell can be configured on point of sale screens customized with just certain items – making it easy for team members to conduct transactions easily. Any revenue received at one of these carts can be tracked by item, revenue stream, where it was received and by inventory stockroom. Cashier and station reports help department heads assess team effectiveness and to reward and coach frontline sales staff.

6. Manage inventory more efficiently.

Inventory for your mobile carts can be tracked to different stock rooms, simplifying ordering processes. Additionally, mobile stations actually make receiving inventory easy for department heads to manage. Many vendors will provide you with digital packing lists (DPLs) which you can compare items received with DPLs at the time of delivery and then verify and add items to your quantities on hand – eliminating extra steps and confusion. Further, built-in scanners on your mobile device can be used to scan barcodes for faster and more accurate receiving of inventory items.

Mobile stations can make your life easier if used effectively in your park. If you are interested in trying a few in your park, contact us at info@centeredgesoftware.com.