If you could improve your event turnout and easily become the talk of the town with one small product, would you buy it? What if that product could also get you better data about both your customers and their purchasing habits, help you to track popular event features, and seamlessly accept payments for tickets, drinks, and anything else customers want to buy?
Sounds like an infomercial. “But wait, there’s more!”
While the hype is a bit “out there,” it’s entirely warranted. RFID bands, little bracelets with electronic tracking capabilities, are changing concerts and other events drastically. They’re giving a better customer experience while at the same time improving data capture and making payments easier. Plus, they seem really cool and high-tech, and fans are raving.
If there’s just one thing that could make your event stand out from every other event this year, it’s these bands.
RFID technology has been used for a few years now, notably in credit and debit cards as well as employee passes. As technology has improved, RFID tech has become cheaper, which means it can become a little more mainstream.
Taking Payments
Today, event venues use RFID chips inside bracelets as tickets, instead of scanning QR codes or – gasp! – requiring paper tickets.
Those chips can be synced with a customer’s preferred method of pay, like a bank account or card. At the venue, a quick swipe of the bracelet pays for drinks and merchandise. Some systems even automatically email a receipt instead of offering one at the register, which makes the process that much more smooth.
Restricting Access
The same chip can be used to selectively allow access to certain areas of the event, like a VIP section or backstage.
Some venues (like amusement parks) use the chips to scan customers in lines for a ride. Disney’s Fast Pass ® is an example of RFID technology used to fast track access. Customers who have a Fast Pass ® don’t wait in the long lines that other customers use but are taken past everyone else and given priority access to amusements.
Connecting to Social
A really awesome feature of these bands is their ability to connect to social accounts.
If you have a photo booth at an event, for example, a customer would need only to scan their band to access the machine, and the cost for the photos would be charged to the linked payment account. At the end of the picture-taking fun, a screen could pop up, asking if the customer wanted to share one or multiple pictures, and suggesting hashtags and location tags to improve the image online.
Of course, fans love that they get to share their exciting adventures with so little work. You’ll love that fans will increasingly be tagging your venue or event, using popular and personal hashtags, and sharing so many more photos than before.
Loyalty Rewards
Loyalty rewards are everywhere: gas stations, grocery stores, even e-commerce companies.
Why not use them for events as well? Die-hard concert fans would be thrilled with the chance to rack up points for prizes or discounts simply by attending their favorite shows. And you’re sure to see a bump in attendance as word spreads about your awesome loyalty rewards and how easy they are to earn and use.
How They Can Work For You
No matter what kind of events you often coordinate, RFID bands can improve your data, your customers’ experiences, and your brand loyalty.
When you first schedule your event and open ticketing, all you have to do is send the RFID bracelets to the customers who buy tickets. These could replace or supplement receipts.
Encourage fans to share pictures of their bracelets online with an event hashtag or by tagging the event or venue in their post. You could reward that sharing with loyalty points, and see your fans go wild as they do your marketing for you.
The day of the event, fans wear their bracelets to the venue and are “checked in” with a quick swipe of the wrist. From there, all of their activities – what drinks they purchased, which areas of the venue they accessed, or which special features they interacted with – can all be cataloged and provide you with more data for future event planning.
After the event, the RFID bracelets can be thrown away or recycled. You’ll still have all of the data you collected, and your fans will be in awe of the amazingly easy, fun time they had.