The Evolving Trampoline Park: From Legacy to the Cloud

Trampolines bring a joyful sense of nostalgia for many people, transporting us back to our carefree childhood and summer afternoons spent out in the backyard. Today, trampolining has expanded into a billion-dollar commercial industry with over 700 park locations around the world, a number that is only continuing to increase. As the industry grows, so do customer expectations when they visit your trampoline park, and advancements in data technology are allowing park owners to operate their business and offer experiences to their guests like never before.

Out With the Old

When they first became popular in the early 21st century, trampoline parks were managed manually, with staff members handling event scheduling, guest registrations, waivers and more using legacy software systems like an on-site server. Not only did this eat up time and increase the likelihood of mistakes or misplaced information, but it also negatively affects customer satisfaction and retention. In today’s environment, people expect instant gratification and interconnectivity and to consume products, services and entertainment through mobile devices. The legacy software still used by park owners is becoming increasingly obsolete, as it is incompatible with mobile and other modern devices, and offers little opportunity to interact with customers.

These legacy systems also present problems outside of day-to-day operations. They are expensive and need to be maintained regularly to stay up-to-date and keep running, resulting in long periods without software or hardware updates. If you have more than one park location, this proves to be a very time-consuming and costly process.

Finally, there is a higher likelihood of security breaches and loss of data when it comes to legacy software. As experienced recently with one legacy software provider, loss of data is becoming an increasing occurrence with trampoline parks limited to the technology installed on-site rather than being protected behind the security of a cloud based data center, for both data protection and data loss.  Trampoline parks cannot compete, nor should they try, with the intricate technology infrastructure provided by cloud based data centers that host hundreds of companies securely and with redundancy built in.

In With the New

Leveraging cloud-based software, business owners and their staff can now manage day-to-day operations from a tablet or other mobile device, accessing their point of sale (POS), scheduling / booking of activities, customer management, merchant processing and reporting. An integrated platform allows business owners visibility into their customers’ buying habits, staff performance, financials and reporting on key business metrics so they can make better decisions on how to run their business.  With everything managed through connected devices, you create a pleasant experience for your customer while collecting, storing and referencing information more efficiently.

Gamification technology allows guests to set personal goals and participate in friendly competition amongst other visitors, increasing engagement and encouraging them to spend more time and continue coming back to your location to try to beat their high score. Club Speed’s Jump Tracker is a comfortable, wearable device that records a visitor’s highest jump, average jump height, number of jumps and more. These metrics can be displayed on screens or scoreboards in your facility so everyone can view their scores and how they stack up.

Cloud-based software is an easier and more cost-effective solution to install upfront, and new innovations are updated automatically rather than having to be adjusted onsite. This information is saved securely and protected where the hardware is hosted, rather than the infrastructure of your trampoline park. Much of the guest information gathered can be also taken a step further and integrated into a customized, branded mobile app for added customer interactivity.

Moving Forward

Cloud technology is only going to play an increasingly larger role in managing trampoline parks. Your customers come to your park for fun, and their time there should be seamless from start to finish. Outdated, on-site processes and manual data collection won’t cut it, and if you aren’t advancing along with the technology available, your guests will choose to go elsewhere for entertainment.

Let your guests make the most of their experience at your park while operating your business efficiently. Club Speed is expanding services and bringing our venue management software expertise from the race track to the trampoline park. Check out our unique suite of trampoline park offerings or request a demo here.