The Challenge:
To provide a single solution to manage all areas of
the business including admissions (online and
on-site), retail shop sales, catering, memberships
and event management for educational tours and
dive bookings. A rapid rollout was required to
ensure no "down-time" to the business.
The
Solution:
Deep Sea Leisure chose the VENPoS suite
of solutions composed of head office, back office,
point of
sale, online ticketing, membership and event booking
solutions. The system was installed overnight
at its two sites.
Benefits:
- Faster admissions
- Increased revenue and cash
flow
- Improved customer service
- Ease of use
- Increased cash control
- More accurate stock control
- Upselling opportunities
- Improved reporting
Queue busting at
peak periods
Deep Sea Leisure owns and operates two major aquariums
in the UK; Blue Planet Aquarium in Cheshire
and Deep Sea World in Fife. The aquariums boast
many
attractions including a 70m-long aqua tunnel
and the opportunity to dive with sharks! Last
year
the aquariums generated revenues of over £6
million and attracted around 700,000 visitors.
Such large numbers of people coming through
the tills, often visiting the attractions only
at
peak times of the year, means that dealing with
queues was always considered extremely important.
Repeat visits and selling merchandise and food
is also crucial to the company's revenue. So
fantastic customer service and technology to
help improve
its retail and hospitality offering has been
implemented to ensure that everyone's happy.
Rapid
installation
The company previously had a DOS based EPoS
system which wasn't very easy to use and not
suited to
its growing needs. So late in 2005, Deep
Sea Leisure chose a market leading hospitality point-of-sale
and head office solution, called VENPoS, from
VCSTIMELESS. The new EPoS software went in overnight
on 14 tills during January 2006 for Blue
Planet Aquarium; and on a further 8 tills overnight mid-February
for Deep Sea World. This meant that there was
no 'down-time' and so no potential impact on admissions.
At the same time, all the tills were installed
with Chip & PIN to improve credit card transaction
security.
Membership and Events Management
A new customer relationship management (CRM) booking
system has been developed specifically for Deep
Sea Leisure, to help keep on top of important
contact and sales histories for previous customers.
This bespoke module was added in May, again being
implemented overnight. The system is used in conjunction
with the selling of annual passes (or the booking
of group visits, or diving with the sharks), primarily
to exploit the data and use it to help plan targeted
promotions.
Enhanced customer service
Sue Elaiho, finance director at Deep Sea
Leisure,
says that she's noticed staff smiling more thanks
to a new, easier to use point-of-sale system. "The
new technology is touchscreen and very straightforward," says
Elaiho. "So lengthy training is no longer
necessary, which is important in an industry with
a very high turnover of seasonal staff." Customers,
too, are happy. Thanks to the development of an
online ticketing service, also hosted by software
provider VCSTIMELESS, customers can now book online
ahead of their visit and save up to an hour queuing
to get in.
Improved cash flow with VENPoS Online
Results have been very positive since completion
of the implementation: Elaiho says that visits
to their website were only around 300 in January,
and went up to around 1 million in February once
the new online ticketing service had been launched
(a generally quiet time of year). The online ticketing
system also helps with cash flow, she says, by
encouraging people to buy and pay for their tickets
in advance, often at off-peak times when income
might otherwise be lower.
Improved management of
the business is also a major benefit. The new system
is totally integrated, so
that anyone in head office, catering or retail can
see, for instance, if a school group is on its way:
and so "whether to organise staff for a special
educational tour; see when to get the burgers on;
or set up a lunch for a shark awareness course."
Accurate
stock control
On the retail side (the company runs 2 gift shops
and a dive shop), 13 digit product codes - which
staff had to remember before and type-in for each
transaction - have been replaced with automated
bar codes. Not only is this a good deal easier
on 400 different products, but it translates into
a lot less mistakes and customers no longer being
incorrectly charged; not to mention more accurate
stock control. Up-selling opportunities have also
become easier. Elaiho explains that because of
a swifter process through the tills and happier
staff and customers, add-on sales are more likely.
For example, guide book sales have increased since
installation of the new technology. In catering
too (the company has a few themed restaurants),
speed of service has massively increased through
the tills.
Increased security thanks to better reporting
Reporting across the business has been vastly improved,
including pin-pointing areas where sales can be
increased or stock cleared, mainly because of
the ease of pulling off data and accessing the
system. Cash control is another area which Elaiho
says has particularly benefited from the new system.
" We
operate in a largely cash orientated business,
so security is very important. The VCSTIMELESS
solution
flags up any discrepancies, which helps us keep
on top of any theft concerns, such as through dishonest
staff - an unfortunate reality in our business."
For
more information, visit: www.blueplanetaquarium.co.uk;
www.deepseaworld.com
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