Card Sharks
More FECs move to cashless systems
by Mike Bederka
 WITH CARD READER TECHNOLOGY IMPROVING, more and more family entertainment centers have moved away from jingly tokens for their games and attractions.
Experts say the cashless systems—which allow people to store their playing money on a card—offer a bevy of benefits for venues and guests. However, others think the idea still hasn’t quite matured enough for their audience.
FUNWORLD talked to some industry leaders to get their 25 cents.
Advantages
Simplify, simplify. iT’Z uses cards in its three U.S. locations, says Brian Cohen, vice president of operations. The facilities range in size from 45,000 to 75,000 square feet.
“It’s almost a must-have,” he says. “It’s already very hard to manage all the moving parts of an operation as complex as ours. Adding the tracking of tokens would just get too cumbersome.”
With tighter controls, internal theft also takes a hit, Cohen notes.
Saving Time and Money. A card system eliminates the need (and staff) for weekly time-consuming token pulls, says Gregg Borman, senior vice president for the FEC division of Palace Entertainment, headquartered in Newport Beach, California. Eight of its 22 parks now run with cards, and Palace will eventually put them in all its locations.
In addition to the labor savings, facilities can limit the money spent on token supplies and wristbands, says Ken Withers, general manager of Boomers! in Irvine, California.
Smart Cards. Unlike their token counterpart, cards allow operators to collect information on their guests, such as birthdays for special promotions, Cohen says.
Plus, if a young customer loses his pocket full of tokens, he won’t get them back, Borman explains. A card, however, can be registered. So if it goes missing, the FEC deactivates the old one and replaces it with the same value it had before it went awry.
The ability to register the card also gives the guest a sense of ownership and creates loyalty, says Misty Romero, general manager for Boomers! in Modesto, California.
Improved Guest Experience. In the past, 80 percent of customer problems in the arcade came from some type of tokenrelated issue (jams, etc.), says Al Graziano, general manager of Boomers! in Boca Raton, Florida. A card reader on each game has reduced coin-op problems, which has improved overall guest satisfaction and allowed the technicians to focus more time and energy on larger repairs.
 Customers experience simple front-of-house transactions as well, Withers says. They purchase cards from multiple kiosk stations around the center. The ease continues at the game or attraction—just “swipe and play,” he describes.
Real-time Data. The card reader on each attraction and game records daily activity, providing real-time revenue data, Graziano says.
This info helps ensure he receives the appropriate revenue credit based upon actual guest usage. It also identifies malfunctioning or underperforming devices and allows management to react and address the problem more efficiently. Labor can be monitored as well, Borman says. “If the go-kart track made $300 an hour, and they had five people working there making $10 an hour, maybe that wasn’t the smartest scheduling decision.”
Added Flexibility. Prices can be preprogrammed to automatically change during specific time periods, Graziano says. Packages can be customized to have offers that include point value or time play.
Making Money. Guests using play cards are less likely to be concerned about the price of individual games or rides and more likely to spend additional dollars per visit, says Gene Muncy, general manager for SpeedZone, in Dallas, Texas. FECs also can charge for the initial issue of a card to offset its cost and to generate additional revenue, he says.
For Consideration
Guest Preference. Not all FECs have jumped on card systems. Chuck E. Cheese’s, for example, only features them in about a dozen of its 543 locations, says spokesperson Brenda Holloway.
They installed them three years ago as a test and have no plans to expand, she says. “We can’t decide if it’s right for us.” Holloway finds that her guests, generally a younger crowd, prefer tokens over cards.
Computer Glitches.Malfunctions will happen every once in a while, so managers should opt for a system with redundancies. Equipment from CORE Cashless Inc., in Lenexa, Kansas, works off twin servers, says E. Brooks Lilly, director of development. The second kicks in if the first one goes down. The company also backs up all data off site, he says: “If a water leak ruins everything in the back room, it doesn’t make a difference.”
Barriers to Spending. FECs may miss out on some spontaneous play with cards, Cohen admits. Guests used to casually pop a few quarters into a machine. Now, they have to go to a kiosk first, perhaps causing them to think twice before spending more money.
Education Process. Longtime customers may be resistant to cards at first. Staff should always offer a quick tutorial on how the system works and its many advantages, Borman says.
Contact Contributing Editor Mike Bederka at mbederka@IAAPA.org.
Redemption Tickets Go on the Cards, Too?
Besides using cards to pay for redemption games, guests now have the option to collect their tickets virtually, as well.
“Kids see the advantage of accumulating value on their account and cashing it in later,” says E. Brooks Lilly, of CORE Cashless. “Instead of walking out with a plastic spider, they’re going to come back and get something of value.”
iT’Z experimented with e-tickets, seeing mixed results, says Brian Cohen. Parents like them because they don’t have to worry about carrying handfuls of paper tickets. However, they lack the excitement of traditional tickets. “We haven’t gotten to the point we want to be at,” he acknowledges, “but I believe e-tickets are viable.”
Gregg Borman, of Palace Entertainment, agrees: “We tested going ticketless for a very short period. Kids still want tickets coming out of the machine.” That may change in a few years, Borman adds. |
|
