17th June, 2024
The quality of integration across your main systems can be the key to hitting the highest levels of operational efficiency, or the villain that costs your business a lot of time and money in the long run.
Attractions often end up with various software providers to cover different needs. The problem is that multiple standalone systems don't always integrate well with one another, which in turn wastes time and causes issues with data sharing, security, manual processes, human error, lack of automation, and poor workflows.
So, how do businesses avoid these issues and ensure that all their systems are working together seamlessly? Here are three common scenarios in which a well-integrated tech stack can make a world of difference.
Today’s guests are more demanding than ever. They expect a feature-rich user journey from the moment they land on your website, and a brand identity that makes your attraction stand out from the crowd. That’s in addition to the basics: what's on offer, how much it costs, and when they can visit.
Integrating an on-brand ticketing platform with your website allows visitors to buy tickets directly from you, while also gaining access to detailed real-time data insights. This keeps third-party OTA fees down and gives you more control over your booking process and site-loading speeds. When you consider that Google says that 53% of consumers will abandon their purchase if a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load, that matters.
Offering real-time ticket options, memberships, and merchandise all in the same place – while also providing a variety of payment methods – makes for a much better website experience. You might even go one step further by integrating an interactive event calendar or timetable with your ticketing system, making it easy to keep track of sales, capacities, and refunds.
West Somerset Railway is a good example of a brand that does it well. Its timetable view is a great way to immediately orientate visitors on current availability, different ticket types, and top experiences. The site is designed in such a way that visitors are never more than 3-4 clicks away from making a booking – nifty, huh?
Many attractions rely on purchases made through online travel agencies (OTAs) to maximise their revenue; yet visitor footfall isn’t always easy to predict and bookings are often made on the same day.
Being able to collate purchase data from sites like GetYourGuide, Expedia, and TripAdvisor with direct website sales is a major plus for those in charge of operations and admissions. That makes a powerful channel management tool a key cog in the modern attraction’s tech stack.
But that’s only half the challenge. Ideally, data from your channel management system should integrate with your staff scheduling software, making it easy for managers to account for rises and falls in guest numbers. Operators can also set up purchase notifications which will notify them every time a sale is made, which often proves useful with overall planning.
Intuitive dashboards offer a quick view of staff-to-visitor ratios, letting managers know whether to increase or decrease staff provision, or shift resources from one day to another. This can make the difference between running a profit or loss on any given day.
All attractions aim to get people through the gates as smoothly as possible, and an electronic point of sale system (EPOS) that allows staff to scan tickets and offer additional purchases goes a long way towards keeping the queue moving.
Taking this one step further, integrating your EPOS system with self-service kiosks helps ease the demand on staff, while still ensuring a seamless payment experience at every point of contact. It enables simple, automated ways to upsell additional spend on food and beverages, memberships, and merchandise, which in turn increases staff efficiency and guest satisfaction.
Guests today expect more autonomy when making purchases, and more choice over how they pay. Automating key processes also feeds back into staff scheduling and can help attractions save on staffing costs, especially during peaks and troughs.
Meanwhile, the data gained from EPOS and kiosks can be compiled and aggregated to give managers a clear picture of which systems are performing well in terms of speed and revenue generation. This information is crucial to inform strategic direction, highlight trends and uncover ideas for ongoing optimisation.
Dealing with a bunch of separate systems that don’t communicate with each other can be a headache, often leaving attraction operators to do the manual work they thought they were paying to avoid. That’s why we’ve created a suite of dynamic products that can be plugged in whenever the need arises – all of which integrate seamlessly with one another.
Don't hesitate to reach out for more details and make sure to download your free copy of our latest report – Your Roadmap to Selling More Tickets in 2024 – for more expert insights and industry trends!
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