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Would Towers benefit from Self-Service machines?

Would the park benefit from self service machines?

  • Yes

    Votes: 29 80.6%

  • No

    Votes: 7 19.4%
  • Total voters
    36
Bert2theSpark

Bert2theSpark

TS Member
Alton Towers has been seeing places like guest services become busy because of how many people buy stuff like fastracks, MAP's, AP's etc. Then places like Fried Chicken Co and CCL Burger Kitchen can accumulate big queues due to the shear amount of guests wanting to eat on park.

Many places nowadays use self service machines to get customers through quicker, such as KFC or McDonalds using self service machines to serve six or so customers at once instead of having three or four customers being served at once with the traditional method of ordering a meal.

I think that self service machines could reduce the wait time in places like Guest Services and various food places around the resort which could increase guest satisfaction as they would not have to queue as long getting stuff like car parking tickets, fastracks, F&B etc. The Rollercoaster Restaurant already has a similar procedure in place with the iPads which work well in reducing queue time to get in.

Places like Guest Services could be rerouted to include self service machines for AP's, fastracks, maze tickets, pre-booking fireworks etc could reduce the queue in guest services by a huge amount and would help take the stress off the staff at the start of season swarm Guest Services seems to get.

However one disadvantage of using Self Service machines is that Towers/Merlin could see it as an excuse for budget cuts and layoff staff.

So what is everyone's thoughts on this? Could this actually benefit the park?
 
Bert2theSpark said:
Alton Towers has been seeing places like guest services become busy because of how many people buy stuff like fastracks, MAP's, AP's etc. Then places like Fried Chicken Co and CCL Burger Kitchen can accumulate big queues due to the shear amount of guests wanting to eat on park.

Many places nowadays use self service machines to get customers through quicker, such as KFC or McDonalds using self service machines to serve six or so customers at once instead of having three or four customers being served at once with the traditional method of ordering a meal.

I think that self service machines could reduce the wait time in places like Guest Services and various food places around the resort which could increase guest satisfaction as they would not have to queue as long getting stuff like car parking tickets, fastracks, F&B etc. The Rollercoaster Restaurant already has a similar procedure in place with the iPads which work well in reducing queue time to get in.

Places like Guest Services could be rerouted to include self service machines for AP's, fastracks, maze tickets, pre-booking fireworks etc could reduce the queue in guest services by a huge amount and would help take the stress off the staff at the start of season swarm Guest Services seems to get.

However one disadvantage of using Self Service machines is that Towers/Merlin could see it as an excuse for budget cuts and layoff staff.

So what is everyone's thoughts on this? Could this actually benefit the park?
Click to expand...
I don't think they should have a standalone set of fastrack kiosks but instead just a simple contactless reader at fastrack entrances, one tap does a single shot with overall spending capped at a platinum fastrack cost per trip.

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At the Chessington Burger Kitchen they have self service points where you can order food. It seems to work ok but the service doesn't seem to be any quicker.

Presumably it does require less staff, or at least it will in the future as most people still seem to prefer to order at the counter.
 
ihaveaspergers said:
I don't think they should have a standalone set of fastrack kiosks but instead just a simple contactless reader at fastrack entrances, one tap does a single shot with overall spending capped at a platinum fastrack cost per trip.
Click to expand...
That doesn't sound particularly workable in practice.

You would need some means to understand how many guests could access the ride in a particular period of time. If you're in a group of six and there is room for the first five of you and the sixth is denied, that doesn't work well.

Plus, it would be helpful if you had means to book or buy Fastrack for a ride at a specific time later in the day from elsewhere in the park - without trekking from X Sector to Galacticair to find out there is no allocation for the rest of the day.
 
Rick said:
That doesn't sound particularly workable in practice.

You would need some means to understand how many guests could access the ride in a particular period of time. If you're in a group of six and there is room for the first five of you and the sixth is denied, that doesn't work well.

Plus, it would be helpful if you had means to book or buy Fastrack for a ride at a specific time later in the day from elsewhere in the park - without trekking from X Sector to Galacticair to find out there is no allocation for the rest of the day.
Click to expand...
A screen with a number?

Sent from my Swift 2 X using Tapatalk
 
Self service quencher refills would be nice, and cut the queues of people ordering F&B.

Using QR codes on the cups to activate the machine would also give data about refill use.

Would probably be expensive to implement though.
 
Rick said:
Hardly ideal but they have done crazier things. In this case I think the loss of the opportunity to cross/up sell on the day and in advance of a visit would be a big drawback.
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I imagine such a system would be supplemental to current fastrack sale methods.

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I think self service fast tracks out side the rides are a good idea, it will save queuing up for them at the Box Office. I think that the time you would walk across to the box office, queued up, you could have spent that time queuing in the queue lines.

When I had my digi pass, I would have loved to of have a self service machine for scanning my digi pass. You were often stuck behind someone deciding which photo that they wanted and the picsolve sales person trying to sell them a digi pass for the day.

As for self service in the food places, I have found them to take longer in the regular fast food places (outside the themeparks) than using the normal counters.

They already have self-service machines for the car parking which appears to work well.
 
When we we to Winter Wonderland even the photo booth was self service on the Olympic Looping, I couldn't believe it when we walked off and there was nobody there hassling me to buy a photo. Our local cinema has self service booths all over the shop to pickup your film ticket, dunno why Towers couldn't do this for entrance tickets, fast track etc.
 
Merlin trialed self service ticket and fastrack machines at the Eye over the summer last year.

Mr Varney included this in one of his investor presentations at the end of the year and said it had been a success and that they will be rolling it out to all attractions over time. Of course his definition of success was that it was a good way of cutting staffing costs.

When Towers started pulling down the ticket kiosks and making changes to the plaza over the winter I assumed that self serv was on its way but it didn’t happen.

I suspect it will happen sooner rather than later. I think it would be a good time saver for customers as long as there are staff around to help those who need it.

As already mentioned Chessington have self serv machines in the Burger Kitchen and have done for some time.
 
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