30-seconds booking-to-entry for attractions
Our team has been talking through the 30-second booking process for attractions. We often talk about the lapse in time from booking-to-boarding on buses, boats, or other modes of touristic transportation to take in the sights of a destination. The same is true for booking-to-entry at an attraction.
We talked to Philipp Füglistaller, our Director of Product, to get into the details with his expertise and past experience, having worked at Rheinfalls, where tourists come to visit the beautiful 150-metre waterfall attraction with boat tours and spectacular sights.
In this article, we dive into the needs of busy attractions and how efficiency and streamlining during high season are a must and can be accomplished with a robust and reliable tech provider.
Philipp broke down some of the top-level needs that attraction operators prioritise when thinking about tech providers:
- Fast POS systems
- Ability to disperse crowds
- Real-time availability
- Capacity management
- Strategic ways of selling
“Palisis is able to provide solutions for complex needs and operations”
Philipp Füglistaller, Director of Product at Palisis
What happens in the 30 seconds between booking and entry?
Philipp describes this booking-to-entry scenario for attractions based on his experience working at Rheinfalls and his current role as Director of Products:
“It starts with a traveller showing up to the counter or a mobile booking device. We help them choose the right tour in these 30 seconds, and it has to happen quickly because 50 or 60 people are standing in line, and you have the challenge of helping them choose the right product, providing excellent customer service in a short amount of time.”
In an ideal scenario, the employee could get this customer booked in 30 seconds or less, but even a perfect employee can only achieve this goal with the right ticketing system. They must have a booking system that makes it easy to find the next available time slot quickly and efficiently. So what does that look like?
An ideal booking system for tourist attractions
The ticketing system for a busy attraction should have an easy-to-use interface with all the information they need on one screen. Time spent scrolling back and forth between options is valuable time wasted. Users need to be able to look at one screen and compare their options, including updated, real-time availability.
Ideally, that would be a clickable splash screen with the most essential information prominently displayed. First, quickly identifiable products, whether they are different routes, tours, or whatever is on offer at the attraction. Second, the price. Third, the duration. Customers should be able to see which products fit their budget and time frame immediately.
After the customer has selected their product, the last critical element is having a travel tech solution equipped with a fast, reliable payment portal and quick ticket printing. An unreliable connection with the payment portal can erase any improvements from a speedy selection process. If an employee regularly has to input payment manually, that can double or triple the time the customer spends at the POS. A slow printer can do the same. These minor delays add up over dozens of customers and mean the difference between a swift-moving queue or a back-logged, over-crowded waiting area filled with dissatisfied customers or even losing business to impatient customers who would rather move on to something else than wait.
Adding a bonus team member or kiosk
In addition to the traditional counter and mobile POS devices, having one or more self-service kiosks has greatly benefited attractions that need a 30-second booking-to-entry service. These self-service machines have been selling upwards of 2.000 tickets per day for our customers. Kiosks save you money on staffing, allowing the box office to open later or having fewer salespeople depending on the seasonal demand. Also, having a self-service kiosk away from the main counter or sales point can help disperse crowds in small spaces, reducing customer frustration and increasing everyone’s safety during peak sales times.
Consider your team structure for next season and investigate how an efficient “team member” can add to the customer experience and eliminate wait times. These indoor/outdoor terminals cover labour-intensive procedures such as card and mobile wallet sales, redemptions, check-in, etc.
They also double as a customer information display and, in between sales screens, can be used as an advertisement for your products or third-party services. For the upcoming busy season, our customers are starting to adopt self-service kiosks as a part of their sales strategies to offer even better customer service experiences.
Here’s our team gathering for a team-building experience at Rheinfalls, taking in this lovely attraction and touristic boat ride just 45 minutes from our offices. This location uses our self-service kiosks for multiple points of ticketing purchasing to keep things moving along.
Philipp’s background has been beneficial in building our travel tech and continuing to support tour and attractions customers. Philipp says: “My role is to understand what the customer needs and advise development internally what they have to build. It needs to be the right product for the right audience. I represent the customer as best I can, and it’s exciting to build powerful products to make travel operations profitable and streamlined.”
Several types of tourist attractions benefit from connected and real-time booking systems:
- Observation decks
- Museums
- Castles
- Cultural or Heritage Attractions
- Historical sites
- Immersive Experiences
- Recreational Parks
- Adventure Attractions
- Amusement Parks
For example, read how the Belvedere Museum, one of Vienna’s most iconic attractions, has leveraged Palisis since 2021 to enhance its operations. Helping to expand Belvedere Museum’s reach and deliver exceptional visitor experiences. Palisis has become Belvedere Museum’s trusted channel manager and connectivity hub.
Finally, whether you are investing in a significant digital transformation or looking to upgrade your current travel technology solution that you’ve outgrown, there are many factors to consider. This article will explore the vital aspects to examine during this technology journey. Contact us with any questions.