GameTime
The Client
GameTime is a family entertainment center with multiple locations throughout Florida that offer fun indoor attractions with a full-service dining experience and event services. Each location offers a mega arcade with video arcade games, simulators, prize machines, and mini-bowling or full-lane bowling at certain locations. Guests can also lounge in a beautiful, modern sports bar complete with over 50 HDTVs throughout its venues and a full dinner menu. On top of its expansive offerings, GameTime also hosts and caters to group events and birthday parties for all ages. GameTime’s first location opened in 2010 in Miami, FL, and has since expanded to Daytona Beach, Fort Myers, Ocoee, Tampa, and Kissimmee, with a seventh location in Plantation coming soon.
Challenge
Boasting a full-service restaurant and bar with gameplay, party bookings, and reservations created a unique challenge for GameTime owner Mike Abecassis. In 2018, while opening his fourth location, Mike decided it was time to find a better strategy to operate his business and improve in-house communications. GameTime enlisted Semnox Solutions for its all-in-one integrated solution that pulled everything together into one platform across all six locations.
Like many entertainment venues, staffing has also been a challenge for GameTime, more so than usual. Today’s challenge was finding and retaining quality staff, while finding a way to reduce the redemption process for arcade prizes, which was a significant drain on labor hours.
“The redemption process in the past was slow and painful, often resulting in frustrated parents and staff members, and long lines,” explained Mike. “Kids would change their minds about what prizes they wanted, and parents would become more impatient as they waited for staff to count points and issue prizes.”
As business began picking up again after COVID in 2021, the need for more staff became apparent. There had to be a way to process things faster and more efficiently to help ease staffing pains. Luckily for Mike, Semnox had a solution for that too.
Solution
Hiring has been an issue for most businesses post-COVID. With the help of Semnox Solutions, GameTime decided to make some operational changes to help reduce labor needs, which led to the removal of all game card host stations to make way for self-service kiosks instead.
“We had a positive shift in guest behavior when we implemented the self-service kiosks for game card purchases, so adding the redemption kiosks just made sense,” explained Mike. “About 55% of redemptions have moved to the redemption kiosks, which removes the selection process and cuts back on staffing. We were able to really impact not only labor but the guest experience because it's a better self-driven experience.”
As self-service kiosks became the new normal, there was a substantial shift in the guest experience that resulted in 65 percent of transactions being done on the kiosks with a 14 percent increase in upsells within the first 30 days. With the success of the self-service kiosks, implementing the Semnox Self-Service Redemption Kiosks was a no-brainer.
The redemption kiosks provided an easy and efficient way for customers to redeem their game points for prizes without requiring the assistance of a staff member. They are integrated with Semnox's award-winning RFID card system, which offers customers the convenience of using a single card for both gameplay and prize redemption. This allowed staff members to focus on other tasks, such as dining services and maintenance, and freed up valuable labor hours. Another bonus to having all locations on the same system was the direct link to online central reporting and HR functions between venues.
“Semnox was that kind of bridge between the systems where we could take on the complexities of our business, and work through the challenges of growing the software with them as partners,” explained Mike. “We knew we had an outcome that would get us to where we're at today and certainly, tomorrow's outlook looks even better.”
Outcome
After successfully installing Semnox Solutions in all GameTime locations, Mike Abecassis has a POS system that communicates seamlessly with the kitchen and the mega arcade. The arcade runs on game cards distributed through self-service kiosks, RFID Lumin card readers allow for “tap-to-play” functionality, and centralized data reporting allows for cohesion among venues. Mike continues to work alongside Semnox to improve customizable configurations to self-service kiosks which help create a more user-friendly interface.
“Support has been wonderful. The partnership and getting the growth of the platform are probably what stand out the most. As we go to them, we work through where we think things could be improved and it doesn't fall on deaf ears,” Mike said about his partnership with Semnox.
“They come back and give us wireframes or designs or examples of how they can make it work and how it would be applied. That type of collaboration is what really allows their platform to grow stronger and benefit other customers as well. There are just so many things it does differently than what we knew and what we still see anybody else doing out there.”
Gametime recently rolled out the Semnox Self-Service Redemption Kiosks at two locations as well and plans to implement them at all six locations. Not only did they make the redemption process faster and more efficient, but they also improved the customer experience. The Kiosks allowed kids and parents to redeem their arcade points more quickly and easily, without the need of a staff member. With the implementation of the Self-Service Redemption Kiosks, Gametime is leading the way in enhancing the guest experience and streamlining operations in FEC venues.
“We’re coming up on five years of our partnership,” said Mike. “Our software and hardware are 100% Semnox. Other industry POS systems just didn’t have the complexity in their operations that we have, and Semnox was able to take on those complexities and work through the challenges of growing the software to give us the desired outcome we have today.”
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