In 2013, Disney Parks unveiled a billion-dollar initiative called MyMagic+ — a vacation management system that involved cutting-edge RFID wristband tickets and data analytics to tease out guest preferences. The intention was “to make visiting Disney parks less daunting and more amenable to modern consumer behavior.”
They say that when Disney makes a move, it moves the culture. But in 2008 — a full 5 years before Disney’s culture-defining move — Semnox kickstarted a revolution in solutions for the entertainment and leisure industry, with software modules and RFID technology tailormade for venues of all sizes.
Since then, Semnox’s Parafait ecosystem of products and services have been deployed at 2000+ indoor and outdoor venues across 55+ countries. The outdoor venues here include Adventure Parks, Amusement Parks, Aqua & Wave Parks, Zoos & Aquariums, Trampoline Parks, and Water Parks. Over the years, Parafait has evolved into a comprehensive theme park management system.
This puts Semnox in a unique position to facilitate seamless 360° digital transformation of entertainment venues. This guide will walk you through all you need to know about implementing such a transformation. You will discover the various solutions available and learn how each solution can help you automate processes, cut costs, expand your reach, grow revenue, and create memorable moments for your guests!
The guide is divided into 4 parts. Please feel free to read any specific section that grabs your attention:
Part 1: Create a Great First Impression
Part 2: Go Cashless, Keyless & Contactless
Part 3: Up-sell, Cross-sell & Boost Revenue
Part 4: Maintain & Manage With Ease
Part 1: Create a Great First Impression
Creating a great first impression is especially important in the leisure and entertainment industry — one bad impression might mean no more chances to make a better impression. One bad experience and the guests will refrain from coming back to the venue. It is therefore important to make your guest feel good about your venue right from their first interaction with the venue. This could begin even before they visit your venue and are booking their tickets or buying a card online to visit your venue. You don’t want guests to wait in a long queue to book tickets. You do not want them to get bogged down by a cumbersome user experience on your website. You want the ticketing and entry experience to be as seamless and quick as possible, without compromising on safety and security.
Your theme park ticketing system can have both online and onsite components — an online ticketing module on your website, and ticketing kiosks and Points-of-Sale at your venue.
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Expand Your Reach with Online Ticketing
The Online Ticketing Module for parks is a plug-and-play system that allows you to sell tickets directly to guests and indirectly through agent partners. It is a simple, fast, and secure way for guests to make purchases. Integrations with Online Ticketing Aggregators like Viator can also help you further expand your reach. For added convenience, you can send receipts and transaction-related information directly to guests on WhatsApp.
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Cut the Queue with Ticketing Kiosks
Ticketing Kiosks like the Parafait Klassic and Kulinary help your guests purchase RFID tags, check the balance, make recharges, and place orders quickly. With an intuitive user interface, these kiosks allow you to up-sell and cross-sell with ease. They accept payments from credit cards or in the form of paper currency and coins. The kiosks also support waiver signing and validation.
Entry tickets can take the form of RFID cards/tags/wristbands, barcodes, QR Codes, and more. The wristbands are waterproof, making them suitable for waterparks. You can also configure access criteria, including time-based entries. Semnox is a leading RFID solutions provider for parks and the RFID system is also part of its cashless management solution. More on that in Part Two.
When it comes to Access Control, you can choose between flap barriers, bridge turnstiles, or tripod turnstiles. These access gates can be mounted with one-tap, all-weather deducting agents that can validate an entry, allowing guests seamless access to the venue.
Part 2: Go Cashless, Keyless & Contactless
Once your guests are inside the venue, you want them to have a good time without having to worry about anything else. After all, that’s what they pay for! This is where the versatility of RFID technology comes into play.
RFID Solutions for Theme Parks
RFID tags and cards combined with RFID readers can facilitate cashless payments. They can also be used as digital keys to RFID lockers.
- Cashless Payments: Tags that are available in the form of RFID, Barcode, and QR Code can be used for all transactions at any of the touchpoints across the venue — be it retail, rental, food kiosks, or merchandise counters.
- Keyless Lockers: Guests no longer need to carry locker keys — the RFID wristbands double up as digital keys to RFID lockers. Wallets, bags, and other items can be stored away safely in the locker and guests can have a hands-free experience at the park.
- Analytics & Branding: RFID technology allows operators to track spending easily and run real-time promotions using the accumulated data. The wristbands and tags are customizable to your brand, further increasing brand visibility.
- RFID Readers: Cutting-edge RFID readers like the XTER and XCESS Readers from Semnox allow guests to simply tap their RFID ticket and enter the venue quickly. These water-resistant and rugged devices have a large screen area with vibrant visuals for easy validation of entry.
RFID technology is secure and the tags are non-transferable, thus eliminating fraud and pilferage. The result of deploying RFID cards/tags, readers, and lockers is that you can free up staff to focus on what matters most — serving your guests!
Technology built with the end-customer in mind can help streamline operations and save costs for operators, while also improving customer experience and building brand loyalty. The cashless management, keyless lockers, and RFID readers from Semnox are the epitome of customer-centric product design — and that’s exactly what our clients have to say.
Many new avenues for monetization open up when technology is put to play at your theme park. Let’s explore them in Part Three.
Part 3: Up-sell, Cross-sell & Boost Revenue
While implementing technology at your theme park requires a sizable investment up-front, it opens up plenty of new monetization opportunities at later stages. This is made possible primarily by the 360° Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution that helps you understand your guest’s preferences and behavior in depth.
Get a 360° Perspective on Guest Behavior
The CRM solution helps you see the world through your guest’s eyes. The Campaign Management, Promotions, Memberships, and Loyalty modules allow you to create targeted marketing campaigns and roll-out irresistible offers to your guests! Here’s a peek into Parafait CRM modules that help you increase footfall and the frequency of guest visits:
- Campaign Management Module: Use it to send out promotional emails and messages to existing guests, and to share the latest offerings and promotions at the venue with potential guests.
- Promotions Module: Use it to set up products and gameplay promotions that your guests can pay for upfront and benefit from for the duration for which it is configured. Also, create and roll-out redeemable gift vouchers through this module, giving the guests all the more reason to revisit your venue!
- Membership Module: Use it to create membership tiers and run member offers and discounts. Create a VIP tier with exclusive promotions and make your guests feel privileged and valued.
- Loyalty Engine: Use it to reward customers on purchases or gameplays, incentivizing them to visit your venue more frequently. Automate the process of building brand loyalty.
Now you might be wondering — where is the customer data coming from? Is it just from the sale of tickets and from the theme park rides?
While these are two sources of data on guest behavior, the food courts or restaurants and the retail and merchandise stores at your venue are also capturing data. As guests make purchases across various touchpoints over time, you get your hands on massive amounts of data, which can be analyzed to gain actionable insights into guest behavior and preferences.
Get Your Guests to Keep Coming Back
You can now create combos and packages with entry tickets, locker access, food and beverage items, and merchandise items — offering guests great value for money! Regular guests can be converted into a loyal fanbase using the Annual & Season Pass Management solution or the Subscription Model.
And you can communicate all of the above using vibrant Digital Signage placed strategically across your venue! Apart from adding a vibrant and colorful touch to your marketing, the signage also makes wayfinding easier and allows you to communicate critical guest safety-related information.
At this point, you must be wondering, “This system seems to have a lot of modules and moving parts! Won’t it be difficult to manage?”
The true power of a digital transformation at your venue is made visible through the integration of various modules, allowing you to maintain and manage your venue from one place. Technology helps streamline processes and automate operations, allowing you to focus on the bigger picture. Let’s take a deep dive into this aspect in the last part of the guide.
Part 4: Maintain & Manage with Ease
Setting up a theme park or outdoor venue is capital intensive. You might invest hundreds, if not millions of dollars up-front. And so, it’s natural that you want to ensure that your venue is running at peak efficiency and that your assets are well-maintained at all times. You want to eliminate wastage of resources and inventory, while also always being prepared to meet guest expectations.
Prolong the Life of Your Assets
The Maintenance Module helps theme parks prolong the life of assets and ensure guest safety by tracking the repair and upkeep of all equipment, scheduling maintenance, and logging the completion updates. The module takes into consideration the specific regulations and guidelines that need to be adhered to for your industry or region. To simplify the task for technicians and maintenance operators, this module is also available in tablet mode.
Centralize Inventory Management
The eZeeInventory Module enables centralized management of the inventory process with a headquarters and multiple sites. It ensures that the essentials are well-stocked by allowing you to manage purchasing, receiving, and costing from one place. The module is web-based, which means that you simply need to open your browser and log-in — you will have real-time updates on your inventory at your fingertips!
The Recipe Management add-on to the Inventory module helps with accurate F&B Sales forecasting. The add-on uses historic sales data to give you the ability to forecast, plan, and prepare the sales forecast of food and beverages.
Reports & Insights at Your Fingertips
- The Reporting Module helps you unlock the power of data collected from across your venue with comprehensive pre-defined or customized reports. These reports give you an overview of sales, products, customer relationships, inventory, cash flow, and more.
- The Parafait Analytics app for Android and iOS is perfect if you want to manage your venue on-the-go. With data-driven analytics and rich customized visualizations, it enables faster decision-making and gives you a high-level perspective on business operations at all times!
The Complete Theme Park Management System
As you can tell by now, Parafait is a comprehensive theme park management system and an interconnected ecosystem of hardware and software products from Semnox.
From large venues to small ones, from single sites to multiple locations spread across a large geographic area, Parafait can manage it all!
Semnox has a track record of seamless change management and digital transformations of theme parks and outdoor entertainment venues across the world! We hope that this guide has helped you understand the various aspects of a theme park digital transformation. If you wish to learn more or if you want to get Parafait for your theme park or entertainment venue, then email us at sales@semnox.com or call us now!