Duke Article
Going Wireless on Sales
by Vicki Powers
Duke University Stores sports mobile technology in its concession stand sales.
On a typical day of college football, stadium sales can be as brisk as the weather. Smoked turkey legs, barbequed meats, fried chicken, and deep fried onions evoke the midway at the state fair. But while the choices of Duke game-day delicacies—edible, wearable, and otherwise—was high, payments options weren't. To address this customer service issue, Duke University Stores, Durham, NC, which operates the food and clothing Blue Devil Concessions at football games, decided to invest in wireless technology to solve this problem, and improve concession stand service.
In the past, lines formed at food concessions with a cash "hand-in-fist" retail system—sales people generated a total and figured change in their head using an apron full of money. Duke's five food concessions only accepted cash and the on-campus DukeCard—no credit cards. In addition, Blue devil Concessions also manages about 10 independent food vendors at the games, some of whom were limited to only taking cash, while a few could take cash and the DukeCard. Three clothing concession tents operated from a cash box, and manual credit card transactions were processed over several days through the finance office.
The potential for human errors to occur in these manual processes could have led concession stands to lose money. Tracking inventory is a critical element in food concessions, yet Duke couldn't be sure how much consumable food was at a stand at any one time.
"We've been looking for years for some sort of inventory and POS apparatus we could use," states Ken Blevins, Blue Devil Concessions food manager. "The biggest thing for me is inventory control—to look instantly and tell if someone in a stand was out of a food item or to get a pre-warning that they were about to run out of an item."
MOVING AWAY FROM THE MONEY BOX
Although Duke University Stores comprises 27 retail, book, and office service operations on the Duke University campus—including clothing and food concessions at all Duke University sporting events—campus sales in the past were generally confined to the four walls of a store, describes Jim Zaorski, CEO, Sequoia Retail Systems. Now, with new technology, Duke is able to more effectively sell with remote kiosks and portable, handheld wireless devices with real-time, on-the-spot inventory, ordering, and waste management capabilities.
"Portable sales are the latest breakthrough in five years," Zaorski says. "It moves the sale to the customer." According to Zaorski, these portables have applications within the college store as well as during remote sales events. For instance, a customer waiting in a long line within the store can find a roving college store staff member with a handheld device and check out right there; your entire staff can become portable checkout stations if need be.
Duke Stores started meeting customers' needs of convenience and speed by gradually expanding its technology reach into outside sales, selling school supplies and shirts remotely at freshman orientation. Duke also conducted various textbook buyback programs using wireless handheld devices and Sequoia software. In April 2004, the DukeCard office introduced its own wireless devices and tested them, in conjunction with Duke Stores Blue Devil Concessions, at the Spring Fest 2004 event, which signifies the end of classes for undergraduates at Duke.
"We felt confident they worked," says Tom Craig, retail sales general manager at Duke. According to Craig, Blue Devil Concessions decided it needed a significant number of wireless devices to cover all sales areas, and clothing concessions decided it should piggyback on the plan.
Duke Stores purchased 48 wireless, handheld Palm Pilots for use at Duke University sporting events. It kicked off its wireless concessions experience in September 2004 during the first football game of the year.
"This was a sizeable undertaking considering the breadth of the concession offerings at sporting events," relates Brian Buttram, associate director, Duke Stores. "It has helped move Duke Stores further into the forefront of technological advances in the bookstore industry."
TEACHING TECHNOLOGY
Zeke Zechini, manager of Duke mail order and clothing concessions, helped train the nonprofit groups who work in the clothing concessions. This mix—from teenagers to senior citizens from community school groups, church groups, and civic groups—attended training before football season to learn how to use the devices.
Zechini says the younger volunteers picked up the technology immediately and had no problem with the devices. One-on-one training proved helpful during the first few games, for any last-minute questions. Local high school students from the computer engineering department stayed with the different concession groups for extra assistance on the wireless technology. These students were familiar with the devices and received extra credit for their time.
"The process went smoother than I thought," Zechini says. "Now we can swipe credit cards right in the Palm and be validated in five seconds. It's also eliminated human error."
Blevins says the food concession group worked through many processes and procedures to learn how to best staff for events. What works best is for one sales person to stand in the middle of two lines, with the middle person ringing items up and collecting money while others serve as food runners for the two lines. The system's ordering and cash/inventory accountability processes make Blevins' job much simpler, he says. Now, Blevins can look in his laptop during sporting events to determine accurate inventory counts based on sales with the wireless Palms. He reports that waste of products has dropped to almost nothing compared to what existed in the past. "I can't stand to throw food away," Blevins says. "That cuts into our profits and the stands' profits for the charity groups selling at them."
LIVING THE UNEXPECTED
The Duke wireless project did hit a few snags along the way, even though it was tested many times in advance. One of the initial challenges using wireless Palm Pilots at football games revolved around connectivity issues. Although the concessions group completed several testings at the stadium before the football season started, they didn't realize that large numbers of bodies tend to weaken signals. TV cameras also created unexpected interference during game day. As a result, they started moving the wireless access point around—higher or closer to the food stand—and by the last few games the group had worked it out.
Another challenge in the transition was Duke's training of the nonprofit groups that run its concession stands. These community groups earn a percent of concession revenue in exchange for handling sales at each game. Many groups have participated year after year, but turnover obviously occurs from game to game. With a total of 75 to 90 volunteers at football concessions, the numbers are not small.
REAPING THE BENEFITS
The biggest surprise in the transition, according to Pat Walker, general manager of operations, was the ability to monitor real-time inventory and distribute products to the food stands before they called with a need. In the past, stands called when they ran out of food products and waited for more to be brought over. One stand might have 200 hot dogs, while another is sold out. No one ever knew exact inventory to track sales during the game.
"The wireless system helps the food salespeople concentrate on selling, which is wonderful," Walker says. "It really helped us to get products to the stands or switch products between stands when they have too much food in one area and not enough in another."
The new system also contributes to an increase in sales, according to Walker, since concession stands with the wireless devices can now accept credit cards as well as the DukeCard throughout the stadium. Previously, only certain food stands accepted the DukeCard, and other food stands were on a cash-only basis. Less waste also contributes to a decrease in inventory, which, in turn, decreases costs.
Craig believes the benefit of capturing and gathering information at the point-of-sale has proved one of the best benefits, such as determining which items are bestsellers or tracking transaction times with customers.
"It's one thing to hear someone tell you that an item doesn't sell," Craig relates. "But when you can see a report and analyze it, it carries more weight. It's great to have this technology available. Wireless has allowed us to do that without adding cabling and registers in an environment where you wouldn't be able to adequately protect them."
Wireless devices also ensure accurate pricing, notes Craig, which affects the accuracy in reporting. Second-guessing on price is gone now. When an item is in the system, it rings up at the right price.
"The use of the wireless Palms has brought significant improvements to our concession operations and is just one of the many ways over the past several years that Duke Stores has taken advantage of leading-edge technologies to improve operations, and most importantly, service to customers," says Jim Wilkerson, director of trademark licensing and stores operations. The benefits of real-time inventory, accurate pricing, and quicker processing provide plenty of reasons to embrace this new technology.
Vicki Powers is a Texas-based freelancer who writes frequently about business and technology.
© 2005 The College Store
|
|
