ROLLER, the ticketing, CRM and POS specialist, recently helped expERIEnce Children’s Museum, a non-traditional education facility in Erie, Pennsylvania, sell $60,000 in gift cards and memberships in a single month. The museum uses interactive exhibits and activities to engage children with STEAM (Science, Technology, Education, Arts, and Math) subjects.
To adapt to the changing needs of the museum, Julie Boam, director of operations, and Kristina Leiter, director of member and visitor experiences, decided to move to ROLLER ahead of an $18 million facility expansion due to the limitations of their current point-of-sale system.
“We went to IAAPA for the first time and filled our calendars with trials of all the different platforms. We narrowed it down to around half a dozen that we requested RFPs [Request for Proposals] for,” says Leiter.
Choosing the right solution
The pair knew exactly what they needed: a system that could handle memberships, birthday parties, digital gift cards, and—above all—assist them in launching online reservations for parties and admissions.
“We previously only did memberships online, but our POS was not connected to our website, so I would have to manually transfer memberships into the POS,” she adds. They once had to spend six weeks manually entering 1,500 memberships into the POS system following a membership campaign. “By the time we were done, we knew how important it was to manage everything digitally,” says Boam.
Leiter says: “We really wanted to push everything through our website because we were tired of trying to do it in person. The more we could get done online, the easier it would be for everybody.” ROLLER’s simple, intuitive interface stood out immediately. “We were looking for a simpler system. We needed something that would do what we needed it to do and would do it well. And a system that we could easily train our staff on and it not be overly complex. We immediately loved ROLLER – we were like, wow, that’s amazing!”
Sealing the deal were ROLLER’s onboarding training and quick, round-the-clock global support:
“The fact that support was good sold us,” says Boam. “Every time I’ve reached out, even when it’s not urgent, I hear back on the same day,” adds Leiter. “And the initial training was fantastic, better than anything we’ve looked at.”
Regulating capacity and simplifying parties
Effectively regulating visitor capacity was a crucial factor for the expERIEnce Children’s Museum to guarantee a first-rate visitor experience. The automatic capacity management and timed ticketing features of ROLLER have proven crucial in controlling the volume of visitors during peak hours.
“It was very helpful when I could introduce timed visits,” says Boam. “We required everyone to pre-buy their tickets to help us monitor capacity. We could never handle the crush of people from opening to closing, so now we can space visitors out.”
Bookings for birthday parties have been significantly simplified by ROLLER. Leiter used to spend hours every week on the phone arranging reservations, playing phone tag with visitors, and following up on payments before converting to ROLLER. Thanks to the automation of the booking process, there are now considerable time savings and increased operational efficiency.
“Birthday party bookings have gone really well. It’s a huge time saver,” she says. Since she no longer has to manually schedule gatherings, Leiter is saving up to an hour per party. With about seven gatherings a week, that is seven more hours per week—or 28 hours per month—back in her schedule.
The ability to guarantee full payments for party reservations in advance was one of the most notable enhancements to the party booking procedure. This method reduced the possibility of income loss that would have resulted from past-due or missed payments and streamlined the payment procedure. Through the use of ROLLER to facilitate advance payments and automate bookings, the museum has enhanced its event financial management while relieving guests of the burden of party preparation.
Better membership management
The museum’s membership management has also greatly improved after ROLLER was implemented. A significant turning point was the switch to online membership cards, which offered visitors a more convenient digital experience while also saving money on the expense of paper cards.
Through a smooth integration of membership sales into the online checkout process, ROLLER has assisted the museum in effectively scaling its membership programme. Consequently, since the deployment of ROLLER six months ago, the museum has witnessed 1,300 new memberships. It sold 300 subscriptions in December of last year alone, which is the most ever sold in December. Furthermore, considering that each membership card costs about $1, that alone represents a savings of $1,300 in card production costs!
Plus, the introduction of online gift cards via ROLLER has made it simple to buy and redeem gift cards, which has significantly increased sales.
“The return on investment for gift cards has been phenomenal. We sold $30,000 in gift cards in December last year. We’ve probably never even sold that in a year, let alone a month,” says Leiter. By giving gift cards as a flexible gift choice throughout the holidays, the museum has been able to increase visitor engagement. It made $60,000 in gift card and membership sales in December, in addition to the money it received from the 300 new members it welcomed!
A successful switch
Leiter and Boam recommend that other attraction businesses switch due to the income and operational efficiency improvements they have observed at the museum.
“I’m so thrilled with it, and I would recommend it to anybody,” says Leiter.
Looking ahead, with ROLLER’s assistance, the expERIEnce Children’s Museum will carry out its facilities extension project, growing its area and adding a wider variety of displays to give visitors engaging experiences.
Last month, the ROLLER team shared some of the secrets of successful shift scheduling, setting out the key elements which need to be considered for maximum operational efficiency. It offered a seven-point plan to help organisations implement its best-practice approach.
