CenterEdge Software Blog

How many of you dread the day that the 78 boxes from your redemption supplier show up? Unpacking the entire order and putting it in your stock room where your staff can find what they need to restock is hard enough but the amount of time it takes to receive all that stuff is by far, much worse. I used to spend hours of my day  gathering new item information like descriptions, barcode information, point totals, case quantities, cost per piece, cost per case and stock numbers  I dealt with this many times a month as a manager of a facility over the last eight years. That was before we installed Advantage Redemption from CenterEdge Software.

If you have called the CenterEdge offices lately, you might have had the pleasure of having the phone answered by our newest team member, Alisa Latta.  Alisa is joining our technical support and installation department.  She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill with a degree in political science.  The path that brought her to the CenterEdge version of the "Big Bang Theory" is too long for this blog, but rest assured she is smart enough and quick enough to handle the undeniable geeks she will be working with.  Please feel free to give Alisa a call and introduce yourself. 

Recently at the RSA/ILTA convention, I had the pleasure of speaking with Erik Guthrie, Vice President of Marketing & Sales for Zone Laser Tag on multiple topics specifically related to laser tag facilities and laser tag software.  During our conversation, he educated me on what he referred to as the "Four Core Audiences for a Successful Laser Tag Facility."  He broke down the four as:

Is your skating rink still operating using a cigar box or a cash register?  Have you ever considered adding a point of sale system to your skating rink, but thought that the benefits didn't outweigh the cost?  Well, at CenterEdge Software we don't believe that's true.  The fact is, the return on investment for a new point of sale and birthday reservation system in a skating rink really makes the decision a no-brainer.

In a fast-paced FEC, efficiency and accuracy are the keys to keeping the lines moving and the revenue flowing.  

With the NFL draft fast approaching, I started thinking about how teams evaluate the needs they hope to fill from the draft. Do they need an offensive player? a defensive player? someone on special teams?  What areas need improvement and what the best way to achieve it. This same evaluation is probably being used in your FEC on a daily basis.  Do you look at your POS as a member of your team?  With the right POS, you could find an “iron man” system, which would “play” on all sides of your FEC operation.

For any facility that books birthday parties, we strongly recommend allowing your customers to book their parties online.  As we've mentioned before, there are a lot of advantages that come with online party bookings.  However, any time you offer an online service, there are always security concerns that need to be addressed.

Recently I got into a discussion with one of our trampoline park operators on whether they should charge a transactional fee for their online tickets.  The conversation reminded me that I wrote a blog a few months ago titled "How Much Is Convenience Worth?", where I discussed the viability of charging a "convenience fee" for online transactions.

It doesn’t matter if your business is laser tag, roller skating, trampoline parks or anything in between – one thing that every family entertainment center needs is signage. Whether you are showing concession prices above your POS, movie times in your theater, or just saying Happy Birthday to one of your party guests of honor, nothing draws a customer’s eyes like a well-designed sign.

With the advent of Facebook and Twitter, advertising for your FEC has never been simpler.  If you aren't currently using Facebook and Twitter for communicating with your customers, then you are missing a huge FREE opportunity to get your company name and offers in front of not only your customers, but also the friends of your customers.  I wish we had these tools when I was in operations!