How to implement a cashless system at your festival: a practical guide for organizers
How come the festivals have adopted the cashless as a standard
If you organise a festival, already know that manage payments at cash is one of the main headaches: tails at bar, errors of till, robberies, and at the end of the event a manual count that never stable in its entirety.
The system cashless at a festival is that at which the assistants pay by means of bangle cashless or another support NFC, deleting the cash of the enclosure. The system cashless for festivals resolves all these problems of stem. At place of tickets and coins, the assistants debit balance at a bangle NFC or RFID and pay with a toc at any point of sale of the enclosure. Everything stays registered automatically.
Today the cashless is the system of standard payment at most of European festivals. At this guide explain you how implant it at your, what need and which decisions have to take before the event.
What need to implant cashless at your festival
A system cashless complete for festivals has three principal components:
1. The physical support: bangle cashless for festivals, cards or stickers The bangle cashless for festivals is the most habitual format, with chip NFC or RFID integrated. It Is comfortable, resistant at the water and difficult to miss or transfer. For fairs or corporate events use cards; for events of a day, stickers.
The election of the support depends of the type of festival, the number of assistants and the estimate. The bangles have a more unitary cost tall but offer better experience of user and minor tax of incidences.
2. The terminals of payment Each point of sale of the enclosure (bars, food trucks, shops of marxandatge, lockers) needs one compatible terminal with the system cashless. These terminals read the chip of the bangle, discount the balance and register the transaction at real time.
The number of terminals depends of the bulk of assistants and the distribution of the enclosure. As a general reference, recommends one terminal for each 150-200 assistants at events of tall rotation as a bars of festival.
3. The software of management Is the brain of the system. Since a central panel can view at real time the sales for zone, the loaded balance and consumed, the most sold products and any incidence. Also it manages the recàrregues online and face-to-face and the returns at ending the event.
Steps to implant cashless at your festival
1. It Defines the model of recàrrega
Before any one other decision, have to decide how will debit balance the assistants. There are two principal options:
Recàrrega online previous at the event The assistant debits balance since the web or app of the festival before arriving. Advantage: it arrives at the ready enclosure to pay since the first moment, which thing reduces the tails at the points of recàrrega. Recommended for festivals of several days.
Recàrrega face-to-face at the enclosure The assistant debits balance at points enabled in the festival. More flexible for the assistant but generates tails at the onset of the event. You Need to dimension well the points of recàrrega to eschew collapse.
Most of festivals combine both options: recàrrega online available since days before the event and points of recàrrega face-to-face as a support.
2. It Dimensions the points of recàrrega
The payment cashless at festivals requires to dimension well so much the terminals of sale how the points of recàrrega. They Are one of the most habitual bottlenecks at festivals that implant cashless for the first time. If there is few or are bad situated, generate tails that thwart at the assistant and generate complaints.
As a reference: it compounds a point of recàrrega for each 500-700 assistants and distribute them strategically near the entries and of the zones of main consumption. At festivals of several days, the first day is always the of main demand of recàrrega face-to-face.
3. Form at the personnel of bar
The system cashless is intuitive, but the personnel of bar needs basic training to manage incidences: what make if a terminal does not read the bangle, like annulling an erroneous transaction, like attending an assistant that says that his balance does not square.
A session of training of 30-45 minutes before the event is sufficient for most of the personnel. Assure you to have also a squad of accessible technical support during the festival to resolve incidences at real time.
4. It Communicates the system at the assistants before the event
The main problem of the festivals that implant cashless for the first time is not technical: it is the communication. If the assistants arrive without knowing that the festival is cashless, generate turmoil and unnecessary complaints.
It Communicates clearly at all the canals (social meshes, e-mail, web of the festival and FAQ) that the payment will be exclusively cashless, and recarregar balance, what passes if sobra balance and whither are the points of recàrrega. How much more information give before the event, less incidences will lasting.
5. It Manages the returns after the event
At ending the festival, the assistants with excess balance will want to recover it. It Defines before the event how will manage the returns: term, method (banking transfer, PayPal) and if there will be some commission of management.
It Enables a form at the web of the festival to solicit the return and communicates the term clearly. A transparent management of the returns eschews complaints and improvement the perception of the festival of face at future editions.
Frequent Errors at implanting cashless at a festival
Few points of recàrrega Is the most common error. If the assistants have to expect 20 minutos for recarregar balance, the experience of the cashless is negative although the system function perfectly. Sobredimensiona the points of recàrrega the first time.
Not communicating the cashless with antelació The assistants that arrive without knowing that the festival is cashless hear surprised and thwarted. The previous communication is as important how the technical installation.
Not having plan of contingency Although the systems cashless function without internet, always can have a prompt incidence. Have a clear protocol for exceptional cases: what makes the personnel if one terminal fails, how manages if an assistant misses the bangle.
Elect a supplier without experience at festivals A system cashless for retail or restoration is not the same that a designed for festivals. The bulks of simultaneous transactions, the operative without internet and the management of thousands of bangles concurrently require a supplier with specific experience at events of big format.
How much coast implant cashless at a festival?
The cost depends of several factors: number of assistants, days of length, dotted number of sale and model of implantation (purchase of squads vs hire).
For festivals that do not want to invert at own squads, the most habitual model is to hire the complete kick with a skilled supplier: bangles, terminals, software and technical support included. The cost structures usually like a commission for transaction or a fee fixed for event.
This model deletes the initial reversal and moves the technical responsibility at the supplier, which thing is especially recommended for festivals that implant cashless for the first time.
Cashless at festivals: frequent questions
The cashless functions if there is not coverage at the enclosure? Aye. The balance is stored at the chip of the bangle, no at the cloud. The terminals can operate at offline mode and synchronise the data when recover connection.
What passes if an assistant misses the bangle? It Depends of the system. The best systems cashless permit to block the stray bangle and transfer the balance at a new, protecting the money of the assistant.
I Can use cashless at only a part of the enclosure? Aye, although it is not the recommended. The mixed systems (cashless at some zones and cash at other) generate turmoil and reduce the operative benefits of the cashless. The ideal is to implant it at all the enclosure.
The cashless is only for big festivals? No. There are solutions cashless escalables for events since 500 assistants. The point of balance where the cashless commences at profitable being for the organiser depends of the dotted number of sale and the bulk of transactions expected.
How long before it is necessary to hire the kick? How sooner better. For festivals with more of 5.000 assistants, the recommended is to shut the supplier with at least 2-3 months of antelació to have time to configure the system, customise the bangles and make proofs before the event.
At Exyt take years managing systems of payment cashless at festivals and events of every Spain, since small local events until festivals of tens of thousands of assistants. If you are thinking at implanting cashless at your next festival, can aid you at dimensioning the system, elect the most suitable format and guarantee that everything function the day of the event.
→ It Discovers our system of payment cashless for festivals and events
