Events are expensive. With 22% of the average total event budget ranging from two to five million dollars, event planners are constantly trying to find ways to save money or boost revenue. That’s where RFID technology can help.
Whether you’re in the event’s industry or not, chances are you’ve heard of RFID technology. That’s because RFID solutions hold the power to reduce the average transaction time from 90 seconds to 15 seconds, diminishing attendee frustration and increasing satisfaction. If that statistic wasn’t tempting enough for planners, implementing RFID wristbands into your next event has been proven to increase guest spending by 15 to 30 percent due to the speed of the transaction.
But what exactly is RFID technology? How does this event technology increase event profits for you? We’ve surveyed event professionals in our State of Live Events Report, and created this how-to guide to answer these questions and more. Check it out.
What is RFID Technology?
RFID, or radio-frequency identification, is a technology that wirelessly transfers data. For events, this technology is commonly embedded in wearables, like wristbands, tags, and badges, but because RFID is a chip-technology, it can be integrated into almost anything, like a sticker, a wristband, a card, and more.
How RFID Technology Can Increase Planners’ Profits While Saving Them Money
1. Cut Wait Times
No matter what the size of your event, check-in-lines and crowd management is critical to avoid. Not only do large lines decrease attendee satisfaction, but they can overwhelm your event staff. But with the help of RFID technology, long event lines will become a thing of the past.
By implementing RFID technology into your next event, attendees can simply tap their RFID wristband to a scanner, like an access control portal, to be checked into your event. Some of these access control portals can check-in up to 2,500 attendees per hour, making it a faster and more profitable way to check-in attendees to your event. Furthermore, to ensure your lines are minimal at your next event, you can mail the RFID wristbands to attendees before the event or set up self-service kiosks where attendees can quickly print their tag or wristband themselves.
Not only does RFID technology minimize lines at your event, increase attendee satisfaction, and your event’s ROI, it also reduces the number of event staffing needed to manage check-in. With RFID wristbands, you no longer need registration tables, which saves you money. In addition, staff members can focus on engaging with attendees and capturing lead information, which will further increase your event’s profits.
2. Go Cashless
In addition to increasing profitability by cutting wait times with RFID, the technology can also be used to reduce attendee transaction time, securing more sales and revenue for you.
Your event attendees can connect their credit and debit cards or bank accounts to their RFID wristbands, so they can automatically pay for tickets, drinks, souvenirs, and more at your next event. Some RFID technologies reduce transaction times from 90 seconds to less than 15 seconds. Not only does this mean that your payment lines will be shorter, but you will have the capacity to make more sales while increasing the satisfaction of your event attendees. In fact, companies who have switched to cashless payments have seen increased revenue at their events from 46% to 87% in the first year.
In addition, by implementing an RFID cashless payments system, you receive an immense amount of data and analytics.
This allows you to not only see the most popular items sold and the most popular vendors but also gives you insight into where you aren’t capitalizing on your revenue. With this information, you can make real-time changes and make changes to your event to ensure an increase in ROI.
3. Go Paperless
Attendees have come to expect planners to incorporate sustainability into some aspect of their event. To help planners increase their event sustainability, profitability, and save money, you can utilize RFID technology. Instead of printing collateral and business cards, you can utilize RFID technology at your next event. For instance, attendees can digitally exchange and collect contact information with fellow attendees by simply tapping their badges together.
In addition, if you use RFID technology for check-in, you can live-print attendee badges, ensuring you don’t waste printing badges or wristbands for no-shows. Lastly, another benefit of cashless payments is it can eliminate paper receipts at your next event. Not only does this save you money, since you don’t have to print any receipts, but it also shows your attendees that your event is committed to eliminating paper waste and going green. These benefits will ultimately increase your attendees’ satisfaction and help drive profitability.
Another Win for Planners
In addition to increasing profits, RFID has the potential to increase attendance at your next event. How?
Recent research has shown that the number one thing 79% of attendees want from their events is cheaper tickets. By saving money and increasing event profitability from RFID technology, planners can decrease ticket prices, which in turn can drive more ticket sales. If you see declining attendance at your event, this can be a good strategy to implement without acquiring the losses of decreasing ticket prices.
Conclusion
So RFID technology can increase the profitability of your event, by cutting lines, reducing transaction time via cashless payments, eliminating paper at your event, and in turn, increase your attendees’ overall satisfaction with your event.
Are you interested in implementing RFID into your next event or just learning more about all the ways RFID can save you money? We’ve curated a 4-Step RFID Event Check Guide that will help you discover if RFID is right for you. Download the free guide here.
