What do Facility Managers Need to Know about Point of Sale Systems (POS)?
I have recently participated in two major facility openings where POS systems have a significant effect on the overall guest experience, and cannot emphasize enough or too often how important a fully functional POS system is to not only revenue generation, but to the overall guest experience. Thus, I am republishing this column from months past.
Point of Sale (POS) systems make a significant positive impact for facility managers in maximizing their food and beverage income. With that in mind, I checked in with well-known industry expert Chris Bigelow to get his view on the issues and opportunities for today’s facility operators.
A POS system compiles and manages a great deal of information that operators should already know, such as inventory, available piece count and sales. However, without this information being contained in one operating system or produced in a real time basis, there is no coordinated method with which to make decisions or react to opportunities.
A Point of Sale system has the ability to react quickly to change prices, creating opportunities for inventory specials and the use of dynamic pricing for a variety of event types and conditions.
In addition, while it is unfortunate, in today’s world we are seeing challenges with our employees’ ability to add, subtract and make change. A POS acts as an adding machine ensuring that customers get an accurate transaction.
A POS system allows for integrated credit and debit transactions. From a pure customer service standpoint, we know that our guests want to be able to choose their method of payment. When they do not have the same choices at our sports and entertainment facilities as they have in their daily lives, it devalues the experience.
The investment in a POS for any size facility creates opportunities. Small theaters, large arenas and stadiums then have the flexibility to integrate a “Value Added” or Customer Retention Management (CRM) program into the customer relationship, creating a higher attendee per spend and satisfaction.
A POS is now an operational reality and customer necessity expected in all areas of the facility, not just fixed stands. The lack of a POS in portables and/or bad WiFi connections for the vendors throughout the building costs the operation money.
The final ingredient in the calculation is found in current studies, which show that operations with a fully integrated POS system and full credit and debit capability achieve a 15% to 25% increase in sales. The psychology behind this appears to be that in using credit/debit cards, customers do not feel the same as when they are reaching into their wallets and handing over cash. Bigelow refers to this as the “Vegas Mentality,” chips do not hurt as much as cash.
It is true that up front costs can be an issue. Consider a university stadium with six (6) home football games a year. It may not be cost effective to integrate a full POS system. However, creative solutions can be executed that would assist the operation and the customer. An example would be placing hard-wired credit/debit card machines in as many stands as possible.
Colleges and universities have an additional opportunity in that students do not carry cash, so the strategy of incorporating the student dining card into the POS system can, and usually does, yield a positive return on food and beverage purchases to a significant part of the stadium population that has been absent in the past. POS concession terminals can be portable and used in a variety of the universities sports venues throughout the year.
Another trend that is gaining some traction is to move to mobile phone and tablet terminals, which can bring hardware costs down but do require connectivity.
BOTTOM LINE: No matter what situation you are in, something positive can be done. The purchase of a $150 cash register at Sam’s or Walmart, or a simple big button adding machine paired with “friendly” or rounded up pricing to make transactions easier for staff, can make a positive impact on our revenues and customers’ satisfaction.