NFC (Near Field Communications) is something out of science fiction. Walk up to a register, swipe your phone and credits are taken away from your bank account. Straight out of Brave New World, eh?
This has become a reality with Google Wallet, which debuted in September.
What you get with Google Wallet (or NFC in general) is eliminating one more thing to carry around in your pocket. Just swipe your card, punch your pin in, and you’re good. You can start to eliminate things in your life. That’s what technology should be for, make things simpler, easier… consolidate. This isn’t always the case (how many more social nets are there to join?) What does this mean for sports?
There has been a lot of focus on moving fans to electronic tickets. This saves money on printing costs, is greener without all that useless ticket stock that gets used per year and will combat fraud with fake tickets. The adoption of this however is the challenge (as most new technologies) and getting fans to transition to using e-tickets instead of their tide-and-true paper tickets. With Google Wallet you can have your “loyalty cards” on your account, so in theory, your Subway card could be on there (if Subway went electronic with their card), your Disney Park card could be on there, Southwest Airlines Frequent Flier Card and yes, your favorite sports team loyalty card. That loyalty card can hold your tickets. Want to go into the game, swipe your card. Want to forward your tickets, swipe your… wait, your friends don’t have a loyalty card. BUT they might have a Google Wallet account and with that, the potential to sign up for a Trail Blazers loyalty card.
In addition to having your tickets in a easily distributable mechanism, teams can provide additional benefits to both the fan and the organization on this loyalty card. This is something that we’ve been looking at doing for our Season Ticket Holders in Rip City United (our Season Ticket Holder loyalty program).
- You can bonus concessions or merchandise to the fan on their loyalty card, or pass automatic $$ off at the register. This can now be just on their phone
- As with most RFID/NFC devices, the club can be notified when people are entering the building. So if a high touch customer has walked through the gates, you can be alerted on where they have entered and if you have some proximity sensors, know where they are.
- The ability to track purchases and habits of Season Ticket Holders in concession stands is extremely valuable for the organization that would be otherwise tough to capture. This might creep some people out, but knowing that Season Ticket Holders consume more of a certain beverage, or consume a specific candy at a certain time, is valuable information. This information will help organizations make better decisions when planning menus and adding on additional items. There is also additional revenue potential by going after potential sponsors that would offer discounts or exclusive tastings for new products in market.
