5 Ways FECs Can Use Technology to Improve Operational Efficiency

The Family Entertainment Center (FEC) industry is becoming increasingly technologically advanced. From VR experiences to chip-embedded golf balls, FECs have the opportunity to showcase products to their guests who are curious about the latest and greatest. And when technology is woven into the experience, you must also ensure that the best technology is running your business. Otherwise, you’ll fall behind your competitors. In this article, you will learn how you can improve your efficiency by embracing technology that is available at your fingertips.

Promote advance sales

One of the best ways to improve operational efficiency onsite is by encouraging guests to buy tickets in advance on your website. By offering an intuitive online checkout, more guests will arrive with tickets or passes already purchased, easing up your team from selling tickets at your entrance. A successful online checkout is one that is optimized to increase conversion rates and reduce abandoned carts, and suggestively sell add-ons that will grow the average size of the transaction. Guests should also be able to pay how they want, such as with Apple Pay, Google, and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL).

Better yet, when guests buy in advance, they have a stronger commitment to visit, so offering an online discount can help to increase attendance. Once they arrive, they can scan right in without waiting in a necessary queue and can start having fun right away.

Process waivers in advance

For venues that offer more extreme attractions that increase your liability, such as high-speed go-karts, ropes courses, or trampoline parks, waivers may be a critical part of your business operations. But instead of giving each guest a clipboard and a pen for them to fill out a paper waiver that goes into a file cabinet in a dusty office, digitizing your waiver process is good for guests, team members, and the business itself. Aligning it with the ticket purchase enables guests to buy their tickets or passes, sign their waivers, and then show up for all of their administrative tasks.

Reduce labor with kiosks

Pushing ticket sales online does not mean that you need to eliminate onsite ticket sales are ways to smooth out the process and reduce the amount of labor necessary for guests to purchase upon arrival. By incorporating self-service kiosks, guests can have more agency over their purchase experience than the traditional model of waiting in line in a box office-style sales environment. While the kiosk allows the guest to transact without needing a team member, you can still staff the kiosks. Still, instead of a one-to-one ratio that a cash register requires, you can spread out one team member over multiple kiosks to assist with questions and offer assistance, and the guest completes the transaction on their own.

Expedite guests who bought online

At the entrance to your FEC, your guests should fall into two categories: those who bought in advance and those who didn’t. By now, you recognize the importance of guests buying tickets and signing waivers ahead of their visit while also ensuring that those who did not can complete these necessary tasks upon arrival. But for guests who bought online, waiting behind guests who did not is an inconvenience and vice versa; therefore, you should split your guests into these two groups when they arrive. Those who buy in advance should bypass your onsite point of sale (whether box office-style, kiosks, or a combination of the two) and scan right in while ensuring a smooth purchase process for guests who need more time or prefer to buy upon arrival.

Automate feedback collection

Everything discussed thus far covers ways technology can support your operational efficiency before and up to your guests’ arrival, but now let’s fast forward to after their visit and how you can eliminate friction in one of the most critical areas of the guest journey: collecting guest feedback. Guest feedback allows you to strengthen the relationships with your guests while gaining valuable data that you can use to improve your operations. It can be cumbersome to collect without technology; think of the team member with a clipboard or a tablet at the exit to your venue, stopping tired guests on their way out. When the process is automated, however, you can prompt guests for feedback after their visit and connect with them promptly so that if they had a poor experience, you wouldn’t learn about it from Google Reviews. Most importantly, your automation will include every guest, not just a select few, if you do the process manually or in person.