With the recent staff shortages, facilities must find ways to improve the guest experience with less staff. How do we create time with less staff? The answer, make your sales guest driver. I have a long-time belief that if you make it easy for the guest to buy, they will. By utilizing mobile ordering systems and e-commerce sales, guest can use their own devices to buy at their control.
What are the benefits of this, you may ask?
- No Cash Handling or Theft
When the guest is doing all the purchasing using your eCommerce or mobile ordering system, there is no need to train staff to make changes or have policies for cash handling. Limiting the guest to cash-only transactions at the ticket window prepares them for the experience inside. Guests can add money to their season pass or add a credit card to their account profile. With no cash in the register, there is nothing for the employee to steal. No cash reduces the time at the end of the night, counting cash and the bookkeeper time totaling out registers.
- Speed of Service
A colleague of mine asked me about his experience with a hotel pool and how I would solve this problem. He explained a single staff member was so busy running around taking orders, fulfilling them, and delivering them. As a result, the service was slow, and he felt bad for him. Every guest had a designated area with two chairs and a table at this facility, like a restaurant.
Adding a QR code to the table with a table number allows the guest to view the menu and process the purchase. This single staff member could have serviced far more guests if he wasn’t the one taking all the orders. His one task would have been running orders out for delivery. Your system should create time and maximize the staff’s ability to serve as many guests as possible. By utilizing QR codes throughout your park, guest can access ordering menus for the different locations. Choosing options like pickup or be able to select delivery for areas like cabanas or bungalows.
- Reduces equipment
Cashless systems will allow you to reduce the amount of equipment required at a Point-of-Sale station. In some cases, it also reduces the number of Point of Sales stations entirely. For example, if the guest uses mobile ordering, they will use their device to make the sale. If it’s a Point-of-sale transaction, there would be no need to have a cash drawer as the staff would be scanning the guest account to process the sale with the previously added funds or process the credit card on file.
- Reduce Labor
A client of mine decided to implement mobile ordering into his waterpark this season. With staff shortages and end of season staff loss, the last two weeks of the season they only had three F&B staff members. Mobile ordering allowed them to operate with reduced staff while still serving the guests. By enabling guest drive sales, they were able to operate with less staff and therefore had reduced labor cost. Creating an increased profit margin, while maintaining exceptional service.
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