Big Al’s FEC partners
with Embed’s new
GoTrain program
AT: Tim Baldwin
tbaldwin@amusementtoday.com
VANCOUVER, Wash. — Along the West Coast, the first of Big Al’s family entertainment centers opened 17 years ago. Today, the company has five facilities — two in California, one in Oregon, one in Idaho and the original location in Vancouver, Washington.
“There are little differences,” said Bob Wentz, facilities director. “The first location, here in Vancouver, is the biggest single-story building; it’s 65,000 square feet. We have 42 lanes and about a hundred arcade games and a big sports bar. The Beaverton and Meridian locations are the same. Those are two stories and 67,000 square feet. The arcades in those two stores are on the top floor and have about 120 games. They have an additional bar upstairs that we call a Sky Box. The two California locations are smaller. They have fewer lanes, but we expanded the arcades there to about 130 games.”
Wentz believes the quality of the facilities and the quality of service have been keys to the company’s success.
“What sets us apart is our CEO doesn’t really like to call us a family entertainment center, even though that is what we kind of fall under,” Wentz told Amusement Today. “We try to be a place for everybody; it’s not really a place geared toward kids like a lot of family entertainment centers are. We try to have really nice buildings that other kid-friendly places don’t. Our construction, furniture and equipment — it’s kind of a premium product.”
Big Al’s has partnered with Embed for its operating system in its arcades since the beginning. That now includes the Mobile Wallet app.
“[Embed] recently launched this GoTrain [program] for Mobile Wallet,” said Wentz. “We were shown this program because we went through our three oldest locations and upgraded our swipers and kiosks, which now have the ability to use the tap function. My facility’s team worked a lot with Embed throughout that process.”
Big Al’s was among the first to experience the GoTrain program training.
“We were interested in using Mobile Wallet. It’s a cool thing for guests. Everyone’s got their phone all the time. You kind of live and die by your phone,” Wentz joked.
“The GoTrain program is an in-person gamified learning event designed to educate and empower our FEC customers to champion Mobile Wallet with their guests,” said Sara Paz, chief marketing officer, Embed. “A dedicated and experienced team travels to our customers’ venues to conduct this experience-based training that provides Mobile Wallet ‘101’s, tips and tricks, best practices and hands-on learning on guest engagement and driving the digital, contactless benefits of Mobile Wallet.”
With Mobile Wallet, Wentz noted Embed provided signage for free.
“This support is offered at no cost to our Embed family; it includes valuable offerings such as best practices sharing, payment gateway consulting, continuous training, marketing resources in the form of creative kits, and limited-time complimentary access to SaaS solutions like STATS (a cutting-edge business intelligence dashboard powered by Amazon Web Services) and the award-winning Mobile Wallet,” Paz told AT.
Wentz said Big Al’s sent out materials, such as small stickers applied to games that help guests interact with the Mobile Wallet app.
Embed feels the GoTrain on-site program is a fun experience.
“The entire training session wraps up with a multi-round gameshow to reinforce the learnings,” Paz noted. “The training is available to our Mobile Wallet customers at no cost. When our FEC partners are able to drive uptake of Mobile Wallet amongst their customers, they can optimize the benefits and experience transformative results. We are already seeing this in actual practice — the 2022-2023 Mobile Wallet metrics from Embed customers across single and multiple locations show a 5x increase in average reload value ($50.57) compared to cash ($9.90) and credit card ($31.95), with 60 percent of these transactions happening before guests enter the venue.”
The goal of the program is to create ambassadors among staff to optimize all the benefits of Mobile Wallet and enable guests to have more fun, with ease and speed by using the product. This drives increased revenue and operational efficiency.
“It was a pretty good deal for both Embed and Big Al’s to go through this process,” Wentz said. “Embed came in with a good structure, and they worked in person with key folks on our staff. They had good presentations and came in prepared with [materials] specific to us.”
Amusement Today asked if working with Big Al’s enabled Embed to refine the program. “Absolutely!” said Paz. “GoTrain was piloted with two of our customers, one large multi-location (Big Al’s) and the other a smaller location. The program content was very well-received by the supervisors and leadership team that attended the sessions. With survey feedback and in-the-moment conversations, we quickly incorporated the feedback we received and implemented those into our recent sessions and delivery has been even better. Learning is two-way, a continuous cycle of improvement for the learner and our GoTrain team!”
“The benefit is that our staff has gone through this themselves,” said Wentz. “They thought it was pretty easy and can now communicate that to the guests.”
The GoTrain program excites Paz on a personal level: “Getting to meet our customers in person from all around the country gives us unique insights into what’s really going on in the field. It lets us experience the similarities and differences across all sizes and types of FECs and gives us the powerful ability to cater to the unique needs of each locale instead of a one-size-fits-all training solution,” she said. “Ultimately, seeing the attendees’ excitement, watching the ‘light-bulb ah-ha’ moments and sharing of new technology is a rewarding and magical experience for the participants and us. The end goal of helping our customers grow and succeed in their business is rewarding!”
With Mobile Wallet, lines at kiosks to check balances are a thing of the past, as customers can do it right at the game.
“It’s a quicker reload,” said Wentz. “I compare it to a restaurant. If you are thinking about that second drink after dinner and the server doesn’t make it there in time, you might not do it and just ask for the check. We’re hoping we will see that — adding 10 more dollars or 20 more dollars — if the guest doesn’t have to look at a line and get turned off.”
“We are looking into new training platforms, methods and incentives (like certifications), and we can’t wait to evolve our GoTrain training sessions and elevate them to the next level!” Paz said.
Embed also provided Big Al’s with significant marketing material.
“Our customers transcend mere partnerships to become esteemed members of the Embed family, an elite community of fellow trailblazers — the best of the best FECs that shape our industry today,” said Paz. “Presently, the industry lacks proactive customer success initiatives, and there’s no greater testament to true customer-centricity than our commitment to assembling a dedicated team, known as the Success Squad, focused solely on assisting customers in optimizing their Embed systems.”
