Should You Make Your Facility Cashless? – Part 2

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.

See the rest of this series on making your facility cashless:

Part 1
Part 3
Part 4