Lollipops Playland is a children’s entertainment center franchise in Australia. One of their franchise locations is in Penrith, just outside of Sydney. Lollipops cater to families with small children, primarily focusing on birthday parties. Birthday parties are divided into various themes, which parents can select when booking their event for their child. Lollipops also offer general admission passes, gift cards, and a bundle of 10-visits available as a single package.
In the past, Lollipops’s online sales were not strong with their previous point of sale partner, who they worked with for five years. “We were with another software provider, but their system wasn’t nearly as advanced as ROLLER, and online booking wasn’t very good,” said Jessica McDonald, Owner, and Operator of Lollipops Playland Penrith. When guests have trouble booking parties or purchasing tickets online, the friction can be so detrimental that a significant amount of revenue and attendance is lost, even from guests who would consider visiting.
Smoother operations
Jessica states that managing bookings was a hassle and required a significant amount of administrative effort on her team. Too many functions were being done via pen and paper, which left ample room for error. For instance, the pandemic prompted Lollipops to issue several credits to return. This needed to be done manually on the previous system, which resulted in several headaches of tracking the credit usage. “We had a lot of manual labor in the back-end, with no scheduling for time slots and sessions, and we had to write down gift cards manually.” Now, Lollipops can issue gift cards electronically, without confusing paperwork. With ROLLER’s gift card function, venue operators can easily manage sales of gift cards, whether in-store or online, with robust reporting that provides a quick snapshot of your revenue and liability.
Increased revenue
The idea of committing more sales in advance was the catalyst for switching to ROLLER. “We originally moved to ROLLER to improve our online bookings.” And they did. Lollipops have benefited substantially from an increase in online bookings, without any of the hassles of admin work they were dealing with before. “We’re getting a lot of online bookings and are making money while we sleep. We get an extra $600-$700 per day from online bookings, and we don’t have to chase up bookings, all of it is straightforward, and guests can book themselves online.”
Now that bookings have increased, the process has become more streamlined, and the bulk of the busy work has been taken off their plate, Jessica can now focus her attention on working on her business rather than just working in the business.
