Tim Cannizzo has owned and operated The Fun WareHouse located in Camillus, New York for eight years. He has been using Gatemaster since opening his business eight years ago. Tim is our guest speaker for our April 2017 Gatemaster User Group.
The Fun WareHouse is 14,000 square ft. of indoor family entertainment center composed of laser tag and arcade. The Fun WareHouse offers birthday parties, memberships, laser tag leagues, and many other kinds of group events.
Q: How does Gatemaster help your team achieve its objectives?
A: The simplicity of it. My employees have no problem booking parties or scheduling laser tag, which is huge.Gatemaster is the only company that physically can schedule laser tag effectively. It is so simple to use, I could have a monkey do it and understand what he is doing. It’s very low end training so it is easy to cycle through employees and train new staff members how to effectively use the system, its perfect. I wouldn’t change anything on it.
Q: What is your favorite Gatemaster feature?
A: The laser tag scheduling
Q: What challenges in your business influenced you to consider Gatemaster?
A: We have had Gatemaster from the start. When considering Gatemaster, I was looking for a simple easy system that was involved in the industry. I had a couple friends tell me that Gatemaster is the only one with laser tag scheduling. I took a quick look and said “Yes! Absolutely! I’m not looking at anyone else”. Tiffany sold me the system originally and we hit it off perfect. It has been a great relationship from the get go. I don’t like dealing with corporations and Gatemaster is more like a family to me.
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Q: Why did you choose Gatemaster over other point-of-sale solutions?
A: Primarily the Laser tag and the simplicity of it.
Q: What challenges have you encountered with implementing our solution and how have you overcome these challenges?
A: No challenges. As soon as I got it in and did the training, I think there was zero challenges. It was very easy to install and any questions I did have, you guys answer it very quickly and explained it very well.
Q: Is there a training process in place for using Gatemaster? If so, what does that look like?
A: Basically, new employees are introduced into the system and watch a couple transactions to see how it rolls out. It is so easy and laid out so well that I just throw them in and watch. It is just so simple.
Q: What benefits have you experienced working with us?
A: The benefits for me especially against other companies, would have to be the customer service, willingness to help and take ideas. Other companies seem to shrug it off if I give any ideas. Gatemaster really listens. Everyone there is so willing to help.
Q: What do you like most about Gatemaster?
A: I do really like how the birthday party stuff works. It makes my life so much easier. All I have to do is hit one button and I can see when I have parties scheduled all right there.
Q: What business process has Gatemaster enhanced? Does Gatemaster save you time or money?
A: As far as saving time, yes. I have seen other facilities that don’t use Gatemaster. I watch them cashing out someone and it seems cumbersome. Gatemaster is extremely easy. I have even got other facilities onGatemaster and they love it! And they came from other POS systems. So definitely saves time and money. It saves me money in training. It takes no time to train someone. My 15-year-old employees can run the system with no problem.
Q: What is your advice to others considering Gatemaster?
A: My advice to them, would be if they are looking at Gatemaster to really look at it and don’t pass it up. Just because another company may give you a better deal, really look into the program and make sure that is what you need. If you are going to have a laser tag facility, there is no other system I would recommend.
Q: What are some of your procedural best practices you can share?
A: If you are dealing with birthday parties, always make sure the birthday child feels special. Don’t ignore the other kids, but something simple such as allow the birthday child to choose the color of laser tag they will play. Let them choose that because it makes them feel really special and when they come out of that game and the parents weren’t there and the kids say “Mommy! He let me choose the color!” That just lifts him up and makes the parents feel special that you did pay special attention to their kid on their special day.
“Gatemaster really listens. Everyone there is so willing to help.”
– Tim Cannizzo, Owner and Operater The Fun WareHouse
Creative by The Evoke Group