Businesses of all sizes encounter hundreds of customers every day. People counting devices effectively keep track of anyone who enters the store. These systems collect vital information you and your staff can use to guide your decision-making, increasing revenue and enhancing your relationship with customers. But, how can a people-counting device help your business or organization? Here are just a few of the ways you can benefit.
4 Ways People Counting Devices Can Enhance Your Operations
People counting devices are used within offices, retail locations and large corporations worldwide. But what benefits do these innovative technologies offer their users? Let’s take a look.
1. Driving Sales
People counting devices allow you to dive deep into how many people enter your store and whether they make a purchase. The resulting number is known as the conversion rate, providing valuable insights into what’s working for your company and what can be improved. Most stores only see a 20% conversion rate on average.
It’s vital to understand aspects like the impact of staff interactions or the configuration of your checkout lines. As a result of using people counting devices, you can achieve a 1% increase in your conversion rate, and even this small change can help your business tremendously.
2. Cutting Costs
Data collection for online sales is quick and cost-effective, with websites effortlessly providing visitor estimations and allowing for instantaneous analysis. Automatic counters operate similarly to online website sale trackers, with hourly and daily customer information offering 95% to 97% accuracy ratings. This hands-free solution utilizes horizontal and overhead sensors to track in-store happenings and allows you to analyze conversion rates in real-time using intuitive software.
Manual counting may save on upfront costs, but you’ll spend more on labor expenses and risk human error in your data collection. Instead of your staff watching the door during even the slowest periods, they can focus on crucial, value-added activities to optimize your business in other areas. In the long run, people counting devices will save on labor costs, optimize your productivity and even reduce risks of theft.
3. Reducing Stress on Staff
Workplace happiness is at an all-time low, with many businesses experiencing staffing shortages nationwide. Half of all workers report their companies being understaffed, and 45% of these understaffed employees say morale is poor where they work. Consequently, employees are more likely to quit, be less productive and display a negative attitude toward fellow staff and customers.
Technology can be used throughout a business to reduce the stress felt by the staff, which is even more valuable in understaffed organizations. While people counting devices eliminate the need for staff to participate in such a monotonous task, they also help everyone stay on the same page. These devices provide information you can use to create clear business objectives and expectations, avoiding any confusion and ensuring your team is working toward the same goal.
4. Improving Visitor Experience
As technology continues to innovate, the techniques businesses use to optimize their services and best satisfy customers’ needs will skyrocket. And the people agree — 90% of customers believe retail technology is key to improving their shopping experience. People counting devices can help businesses enhance the visitor experience by collecting useful data.
Monitoring footpaths, analyzing busier times of day and identifying the most popular areas of your building will allow you to customize your strategy to enhance customer experience. You’ll ensure promotions are in the ideal locations and your best-performing staff are on the floor during high-traffic periods.
Work With Traf-Sys for Your People Counting Devices
People counting devices hold a wealth of untapped potential for your business to grab onto. Our products can help you create an informed strategy and tailor the customer experience to drive sales and save money. When you use our Traf-Sys people counting systems, you can rest assured that your business will live up to its full potential! Contact our team to learn more, or request your free quote today!
Accurately monitoring foot traffic through your facility helps you make better, more informed decisions. Through dedicated and sophisticated software, you can accurately monitor your foot traffic and make the necessary changes within your organization to save money and time, manage facilities more effectively, direct your staff and take advantage of traditional marketing strategies.
People counting can assist with many aspects of your facility management, such as infrastructure, staffing, hygiene facilities, resources and equipment. Most importantly, it helps you ensure your facility is running smoothly and at optimum efficiency and profitability. Make wise choices with robust visitor traffic counting software — learn about it here.
Libraries
Installing a people counting system in your library can have many benefits. Many libraries are reaping the rewards from this software by using it to save money, justify the library’s existence and improve library services. Some advantages include:
Recording the total headcount in the facility at any given time.
Reporting metrics such as visitors per hour, day, week, month or year.
Discovering which areas of the library are most popular.
Reducing queues.
Discovering which days and times are the busiest and improving staffing and service during those periods.
Monitoring paths visitors take through the facility.
Understanding and monitoring the library’s circulation rate to customize the visitor experience.
Most of the benefits listed above aim at improving an individual’s experience in the library. Libraries have to prove their worth every time technology evolves, as people often see them as redundant. By using monitoring software such as a people counter, you can customize the library experience.
You can achieve this by having more staff during busy times to avoid queues and frustration and supplying more information and books that people find interesting based on the library’s busy sections. Understanding the patterns and habits of library visitors can help you plan ahead and save money on staffing and resources people don’t necessarily use often, increasing your efficiency within the college.
The university entrance is probably one of the busiest places at a school at any point in time. This entrance provides entry to every lecturer, student, staff member and delivery person, plus anyone else visiting the university for the day.
Tracking the number of people at the college entrance during certain times of the day helps ensure the college has the proper funding and organization to keep everything running smoothly. Funding may seem worlds apart from entrance monitoring, but with people tracking software, you can monitor daily foot traffic and wear and tear. This knowledge helps you propose budgets for infrastructure improvements and maintenance, as you already know what physical changes that area will experience within the next semester or year.
Entrance tracking can also ensure colleges have enough staff members present during peak times and fewer faculty during slower periods. You can decrease staff costs by avoiding unnecessary over-staffing throughout the day.
Different college departments can also adapt their physical marketing strategies accordingly — like hanging up posters — and market to the right people at the right time. Students may be more likely to remember the advert and take action on it if they feel like it was tailored to them. You can then adapt your marketing to make your promotions translate to traffic.
Large amounts of data can be collected through entrance halls, and it becomes easier to do profiling of various demographics for marketing purposes. This information is also easy to present to key shareholders at a glance, as the software will provide users with charts and graphs to display the information collected.
Colleges are more than just educational centers — they become a place of entertainment, food, socialization and fitness for their students. Learners will spend more time at their college studying, researching and socializing with their friends if it is an enjoyable place. With campus occupancy counters, you can see whether your students are spending their money on food and coffee at your facility as opposed to somewhere else.
A big part of keeping your students at your food facilities is improving their experience. If they have a great time, don’t have to wait in queues, enjoy the food and coffee and receive great service, they are less likely to leave campus and enjoy their time somewhere else.
To make your college or university a place your learners enjoy, it is important to customize certain aspects of it. With people counting software, it is easy to monitor your peak times and provide adequate numbers of staff during those periods. You can monitor which days are busiest compared to other days based on the menu or available specials. This information can help you understand your customers better and point out exactly what they like and dislike.
Most learners these days spend their time on their laptops completing homework, researching and studying. People counting software lets you observe busy times and prepare your infrastructure for higher engagement by upgrading the Wi-Fi to handle high demand and ensuring there are enough charging points around the restaurant.
When everyone is able to plug in and log on, they’ll be more likely to spend their time in the cafe or restaurant and eat and drink more. This improvement is great for budgeting and can become a very profitable part of your institution.
Fitness is a part of the college experience many students focus on. Exercise can be a stress reliever for many people, and gyms offer a place for individuals to work out and feel good about themselves. Tailoring the gym experience for students is just as important as personalizing any other location on campus. No one likes standing in queues for a machine or being unable to stretch properly because the gym is too full.
By monitoring the amount of traffic going in and out of the gym at certain times of the day, you can adjust staffing to ensure there are enough staff members during busy and quiet times, which helps you save costs. Knowing your gym’s capacity also lets you make equipment adjustments as needed. You may realize some machines are hardly ever used, or there isn’t enough of a certain machine type to accommodate every visitor. Understanding what does and doesn’t work helps you stay on top of machine hygiene and efficiency.
Get a Free Quote for Traf-Sys People Counting Software
The benefits of people counting software cover every inch of your college campus. By tracking the number of people in and around your facilities, you can focus more on providing a tailored experience and providing students with a comfortable and accommodating place of learning. Plus, you can do all this while still cutting costs and making the most of your marketing strategies.
To start putting our custom solutions to good use, contact Traf-Sys today for a free quote.
As retailers and other businesses plan for long-term success, they often want to track their visitor traffic. These companies’ evolving needs require them to understand their traffic patterns on a deeper level. Some are exploring occupancy tracking for the first time. Others are wondering if they’ve outgrown their manual counting system.
If your business is ready to start counting visitors for the first time or is considering an upgrade, Traf-Sys can help. We offer people counting solutions to fit many commercial environments. Let’s compare manual and automatic people counters, and help you decide which is right for your business.
The Rise of People Counters
Automatic people counters have been around for years. At Traf-Sys, we’ve been installing them for all sorts of businesses for more than a decade. They’ve long been a fantastic tool to measure daily traffic patterns and conversion rates. The technology has matured over the years, and more businesses have invested in them. Recent trends have helped the technology improve rapidly, and retailer adoption has likewise grown.
The coronavirus pandemic jump-started a massive trend in businesses adopting automatic people counters. Retailers suddenly discovered the need to count people in real time. Stay-at-home orders shifted consumer shopping behavior dramatically, and stores could no longer rely on their usual patterns. Shoppers fearing a long-term lockdown flocked to grocery stores in droves. As customers rushed to stock up on essentials, stores needed a reliable way to keep everyone safe. After all, these crowds were exactly what they needed to avoid.
First, stores solved this problem with 6-foot markers and one-way aisles. Safety regulations and social distancing guidelines soon called for capacity limits. In Maine, for example, buildings can only admit five visitors per 1,000 feet of publicly accessible space as of June 2020. In California, retailers must keep their facilities at 50% capacity as of July. Many states have set similar capacity rules. When capacity guidelines aren’t available, many stores have instituted their own occupancy limits to keep their staff and customers safe.
At first, many stores monitored occupancy using pen and paper. When it became clear that these regulations would become the new normal for the foreseeable future, many stores realized how impractical this method was. They had to have at least one employee standing at the door to tally visitors during all store hours. Even with paper in hand, it’s easy for someone to lose count. Not to mention, it’s one less employee available to keep up with the store’s rigid new sanitation needs.
Time-of-flight overhead people counters made it possible for stores to handle their occupancy counting automatically. Paired with the right software, an overhead door counter device can track capacity in real time. Convenient interfaces can tell employees and customers how many people are in the store and how many more can enter. As soon as this technology became available early on in the pandemic, it exploded onto the retail scene.
Here at Traf-Sys, we offer our clients the SafeEntry occupant monitoring systems. As retailers continue to recognize capacity limits as a long-term reality, we’ve seen more and more businesses adopting this cutting-edge technology. Live capacity monitoring has undoubtedly seen an enormous uptick in attention recently. And it’s more than just a fad. This technology has both immediate and long-term benefits that will continue to serve businesses long after the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us.
If people counters are new territory for your business, you’ll be glad to know that they can benefit your business in multiple ways. Here are just some of the benefits of people counting systems:
1. Improves Safety
The most immediate need for many businesses is following safety regulations. If your state has capacity rules for retailers, you need a way to count who enters and exits your building. An accurate system lets you serve the most customers possible while remaining safe and compliant.
The SafeEntry capacity monitoring systems have many features that make it easier to maintain safe building occupancy to meet different retailer’s safety requirements and budgets. The SafeEntry system lets employees input manual data on smartphones, tablets, or computers and tally the building’s current occupancy instantly. As the next step up, the system uses the latest overhead counting technology, the Vector 4D sensor, to track occupancy in real time.
Some of the safety features of these systems include:
Real-time data and alerts: The SafeEntry system update in real-time. The system can also alert you when your store is nearing or at capacity.
Customizable occupancy limits: With the changing regulations and phased reopening plans, your capacity limits may change. Our occupancy tracking software lets you set and change your thresholds as needed.
Filtering for staff and children: Some states count children in their occupancy rules, while other states do not. The Vector 4D sensor can approximate heights and count children separately from adults. Special, anonymous lanyards allow you to include or exclude staff members within your occupancy counts.
Employee-facing interface: The employee-facing visuals tell employees how many people it is safe to admit and your current capacity. It will also provide a chart of your occupancy throughout the day. This simple interface takes the guesswork out of monitoring capacity. When occupancy is low, employees can focus their attention on other duties. They’ll receive alerts when your occupancy is approaching its limit so they can manage the situation.
Customer-facing interface: A customer-facing screen shows visitors if it’s safe to enter and how many people are inside. This lets your customers know you’re taking social distancing guidelines seriously. They can also make informed decisions about their safety when entering your store.
2. Improves Customer Service
Live occupancy data can help stores improve their service in real time. For years, historical traffic patterns have helped store managers improve shopping experiences. Live data improves this analysis and helps stores handle unexpected rushes. When capacity is high, stores can use their alerts to focus their attention where it’s needed most. When traffic suddenly shoots up, store managers know to place more people on registers and get more shopping carts clean and ready to use.
Tracking traffic data over time provides insights stores can use to improve the customer experience. For example, stores can identify their most popular entrances and optimize their layout for each entrance’s traffic flow.
3. Provides Useful Data
Besides occupancy tracking, people counters offer data that business owners can analyze to make smarter decisions. Store marketers use foot traffic data to measure conversion rates. When you compare your daily foot traffic to the number of transactions, you can pinpoint your conversion rate. This data illuminates how in-store marketing, layouts and product selection influence sales.
Foot traffic data is also helpful for facilities managers. It helps them set maintenance schedules that coincide with how often certain areas get used. Businesses can also use visitor data to schedule employees around predicted busy times.
Manual People Counting
Many retailers have relied on manual people counting methods to gather foot traffic and conversion data in the past. These manual methods have become much more challenging to manage. Retailers using manual counting methods use one of three tools:
1. Pen and Paper
Paper and pencil is the least sophisticated and least accurate way to count people. With this method, an employee stands by the door and makes tally marks as people enter the building. If you have several entrances, you need one employee at each door to tally visitors. This method is acceptable for approximating a daily visitor count. If store employees start a new tally at the start of every hour, they may be able to approximate hourly visitor counts.
It’s not easy to use this method for real-time occupancy tracking. To monitor capacity, you need to keep track of people entering alongside those exiting. Pen and paper could never keep up with a constant flow of traffic moving in and out. If traffic is less consistent, employees could do the math while the entrance is empty. If your store has many entrances, they would then have to reconcile this math with the employees stationed at the other doorways.
In any case, this method is subject to the most human error. Even if you’re just looking for daily visitor counts, humans make mistakes. They could get distracted, accidentally count someone twice, or lose track of their count while talking to a customer. They could also forget to mark someone down after counting them in their head.
2. Tally Counters
The next step up from paper and pencil, a tally counter, is a small mechanical counting device. It looks like a small odometer or a combination lock. With the click of a button, the number wheels rotate to display a count. An electronic tally counter may display a plus and minus button, making it easier to track occupancy.
As with pen and paper, it’s difficult to use a tally counter for detailed insights. To keep a current occupancy count, the user would have to turn back the dial whenever someone left the store or use a separate counter to track people leaving. To track hourly visitors, someone would have to write down their counts every hour. When employees are stationed at many entrances, they would have to reconcile the data often.
Manual store counters work best to track daily visitors. Like pen and paper, this method is subject to human error. Employees get distracted, second-guess themselves and stop to assist customers.
3. The SafeEntry System
Digitizing the tally counter is the most efficient way to take a manual count. The SafeEntry occupancy monitoring software gives stores more sophisticated data than a tally counter. It works similarly, except it’s a digital people counting app compatible with your existing phones, tablets and computers.
Employees stand at each entrance and tap separate buttons to mark people coming in and out. The software automatically calculates the combined in and out totals at each entry. This feature lets employees at every door see a synchronized occupant count and the number of people it’s safe to admit.
This system allows stores to implement more accurate manual occupancy tracking quickly. It requires no additional hardware and gives you live data as your employees count customers. Because it connects to unlimited entrances, employees can make decisions on who to admit with complete visibility. You can set occupancy thresholds and adjust them as local guidelines and store policies change.
An automated people counter tracks visitors without staff members standing at the door. Depending on the system, an automatic counting device can achieve up to 99% accuracy. Any device easily outweighs manual counting. By not having to pay someone by the hour to track your visitors, you can save a lot in the long run. Plus, with automatic counters, you can gain more detailed and valuable insights. These sophisticated systems can connect with software that graphs traffic by the day and by the hour and compares visitor counts between locations.
Automatic people counting systems generally come in horizontal or overhead counters.
Horizontal counters count visitors by projecting an infrared beam across a doorway. They count visitors by how many times the beam breaks. Some horizontal counters can even sense whether people are coming or going.
Overhead counters track the number and direction of the people passing below them. They use camera lenses, thermal imagers or infrared time-of-flight sensors to count people.
Automatic people counters offer many benefits to many industries, including:
Retail stores: To make sales, retailers need to first get people in the door. Then, they must convince visitors to make a purchase. Retail traffic counters track how many people enter the store and how that number changes over time. This can measure the effectiveness of promotions and signage. By comparing their traffic to the number of transactions, retailers can determine their conversion rate. This data indicates how effective their layout, sales staff and in-store signage are. They can also use the data to schedule staff around busy and slow times.
Shopping malls: Malls use people counters to aid real-estate negotiations with retailers. They can back up daily visitor counts with reliable data and show prospective tenants how many visitors use each entrance. They can also use this data to position security staff around their busiest entry points and times of the day.
Libraries, museums and other public facilities: Public spaces use visitor counts to support funding requests. The data lets them justify their costs based on how many visitors will benefit. Libraries can use this data to understand their circulation rate in relation to how many people visit. Traffic data also helps facilities managers optimize their supplies and staffing.
Casinos: Casinos need automatic people counters because they deal with huge crowds. They also don’t often issue receipts to track their visitors. They can use people counters to determine what buildings and areas of the facility see the most traffic and how their promotional efforts affect visitors.
Universities: Colleges need to make sure the buildings and spaces they invest in will benefit their students. They want to make sure students use them to their fullest and identify underutilized amenities to repurpose. Traffic counters let them find out how visitors use their spaces. They can pinpoint their peak traffic and compare counts between buildings and entrances.
Manual vs. Automatic People Counters
If you’re trying to decide between manual and automatic people counting systems, it’s helpful to compare the two directly. Manual and automatic people counters both offer some advantageous features. Let’s examine how the two stack up.
1. Accuracy
Manual people counting, whether by paper or a handheld tally counter, is not very accurate. Some estimates say it’s inaccurate by as much as 15%, meaning staff will count only 85% of people accurately. For such a resource-intensive process, that level of accuracy might be unacceptable.
Many factors can influence accuracy. First, it relies on individual employees. Seasoned employees may learn that no one double-checks their counts, so they don’t worry about accuracy. New employees may also make mistakes. In some cases, store managers may direct their employees to count inaccurately. A lower count makes their conversion rate look better, so some store managers have the motivation to tweak the numbers to their liking.
Meanwhile, staff members have many distractions throughout the day. A customer asking a question can break their focus, and chatting with coworkers divides their attention. During shift changes and breaks, some visitors may get missed. A worker who didn’t get enough sleep or is experiencing issues in their personal life may also lose focus. Even someone who is determined and concentrated on counting correctly can make mistakes. After all, they’re only human.
The most accurate manual counting method is the SafeEntry occupancy counting system. Since it automatically reconciles data from all entrances, there’s less chance for arithmetic errors. Still, its accuracy depends on the staff members inputting data on the app.
Manual counting can’t compare to an automatic system. Each counting device can boast accuracy between 95% and 99%. REMOVE sentence: The Vector 4D time-of-flight sensor provides an impressive 99.5% accuracy. Automatic counters are consistent. They don’t get distracted, and they don’t need adequate sleep to perform their best. They never take breaks, meaning they work continuously to give you the most accurate data.
2. Versatility
Automatic people counters come in many different configurations. They can perform well in many people-counting environments. While employees will have difficulty counting in dense crowds, an overhead sensor can handle it easily.
Thermal sensors work well in low-light conditions, common at casinos and restaurants. Mono and stereo sensors offer excellent performance in fluctuating temperatures. They’re well suited for outdoor environments and entrances that connect to the outdoors. Horizontal sensors can provide improved accuracy over manual counting for a lower cost than overhead sensors. Many automatic sensors have the option for wired and wireless configurations. They can work whether you have a power outlet nearby or not.
3. Reporting
Manual people counting through pen and paper or a mechanical tally counter is only well-suited to provide daily traffic counts. It’s harder to use these manual techniques to track hourly traffic or real-time occupancy. A tally counter application, such as the SafeEntry system, can count traffic in real time across many entrances and provide data for further analysis.
Automatic occupancy monitoring systems, offer much deeper reporting and analysis. For example, the Vector 4D sensor can track the heights of visitors with incredible accuracy. This measurement can help you estimate how many children and adult visitors you receive.
Outside of capacity tracking, automatic people counters have the most reporting capabilities. They can link to the VisiCount people counting software, which provides a wealth of custom reports. View graphs of your visitors throughout the day or across specific date ranges. Compare visitor counts at various locations or entrances, and drill down into the traffic data at a particular site. Weather and Special Events Reports analyze your traffic based on some of the factors that affect visitor patterns.
4. Costs
Comparing the costs of manual vs. automatic people counters can get kind of tricky. While there’s little upfront investment to use a manual counting system, you’re paying a constant price in the form of hourly wages. If you have many entrances or locations, manual counting can get very costly over time.
Installing an automatic people counter will require an upfront expenditure. That investment will pay for itself over time. You won’t have to pay employees to count your traffic, and you get more reliable data and reporting. The improved accuracy and sophisticated insights help you make better decisions for your business. By optimizing staffing, you’re not paying for more coverage during ordinarily slow times. By understanding your conversion rates, you can make incremental improvements over time that lead to more sales.
Should You Make the Switch to an Automatic People Counting System?
Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you decide whether to make the switch:
1. Do You Need to Meet Safety Regulations?
If you’re using people counting to manage your occupancy, consider upgrading to the SafeEntry system. This program still uses manual data entry while synchronizing data across entrances to improve accuracy.
Leveraging the automatic Vector 4D people counter gives you reliable data to reduce your staff’s counting burden. This sophisticated sensor can also provide valuable data beyond occupancy tracking for long-term success.
2. How Complicated Are Your Needs?
Typically, the more complicated your traffic counting needs, the more you stand to benefit from an upgrade. When your business sees large crowds, it’s harder for your manual people counting staff to keep up. If you have many entry points, it becomes more expensive to station employees at every doorway. In these situations, an automatic people counter will give you much higher accuracy.
3. What Can You Afford?
Depending on how you run your business, you’re probably better off with an automatic people counter. It’s a higher upfront investment with a better long-term return on that investment (ROI). However, some companies don’t have the budget for such an expenditure. Still, they can justify hiring more staff.
If you can’t make a more significant investment upfront, note that you’ll pay more over time to keep staff members at your entrance during business hours. Automatic people counters come in many price ranges, so you can still benefit from an automated system with a lower upfront cost.
4. How Sophisticated Does Your Data Need to Be?
Automated people counters offer much more reliable and insightful data. The more information you have, the more your business decisions will benefit. However, if your business doesn’t see a lot of traffic, you might not need highly sophisticated data to know when your peaks are and how many visitors you host each day. For hourly traffic patterns, invest in an automated system.
Get a Free Quote on Your People Counting System
At Traf-Sys, we offer people-counting solutions to fit many business needs. We have both horizontal and overhead people counting sensors for various budgets, entrance configurations and use cases. We can help any business gather insights for marketing, facilities management and staffing.
To discuss which people counting system is right for you, feel free to contact our team. We can provide you with a free quote within one business day.
The casino industry is filled with opportunities for marketers to create long-term customer relationships. Returning customers encourage others to join in on the fun and improve your casino’s lifetime value. Customer loyalty is vital to keeping your casino growing. Showing your customers that you care about them by knowing their preferences and appealing to them is the best way to keep them coming back. Increasing the value of each visitor and expanding your customer base requires you to look at several aspects of your casino, including customer interaction and marketing strategies. This article discusses how to increase casino traffic and measure your improvements.
Identify the Busiest Sections in the Casino
Nighttime tends to bring in more crowds at casinos. It’s prime time for customers to be gambling, dining or relaxing in your space. One method to identify what part of the building is getting the most foot traffic is by using a people counting system. These solutions measure how many visitors attend a particular area or your entire casino each day.
For example, let’s say your table games are busy between the hours of 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. With the data from a people counting system, you can create strategies to improve the layout and increase staff and resources as needed during the day. Placing the people counters strategically around your casino will help ensure accurate data.
Knowing the busiest sections of your casino can also be an opportunity for advertising your most popular games and attractions. Some gamblers believe they are more likely to win when the casino is most crowded or suspect casinos change the payout of games based on the day and time. Finding where your visitors congregate can help you decide if you need more staffing or accommodations available.
Measure the Effectiveness of Marketing
Casino marketing work to increase customer volume and promote positive guest experiences. Understanding your customers is key to effective marketing. Knowing what they prefer to eat, drink and play helps you create an enjoyable visit for them. You can easily determine these preferences by tracking returning casino-goers. Additionally, opening up your market to reach younger generations can improve your customer loyalty long-term. Create fresh and relatable advertising that appeals to younger audiences without alienating your existing loyal visitors.
Stay on top of gaming trends by looking at what younger gamblers are into. Millennials and Gen Z grew up in a digital age and may be more drawn to your slots and electronic gaming systems. They may also enjoy traditional games free from electronics. In a mixed gaming environment, people tracking systems can measure occupancy and help you target audiences based on the popularity of these games.
Additionally, different generations have different preferences for casino layout. In general, millennials look tend to look for a simple layout of games available, rather than a traditional floor setup.
Having accurate, timely data on your traffic lets you determine how well your marketing campaigns are working and helps you have optimal staff and services ready to handle large crowds. Using a people counting system makes it easier for your team to adapt to your customers’ preferences. With our VisiCount software, you can import your sales data into the program and generate reports calculating your conversion rates. From this, you can see how effective your marketing is at bringing in visitors and how well your sales are doing.
Based on your traffic data, you can determine the best times to offer deals to customers. The goal is to keep the customer happy and increase their length of stay. When you use a people counter, you can find the times of high occupancy and offer promotions during this time, letting your customers feel like there are many opportunities to win and plenty of reasons to stay.
Get your visitors to talk more about your casino by giving it a big presence on social media. Having a social media presence with frequently updated links and information will keep users aware of what’s happening in your casino. You should also have a website with content that will attract your target audience. Your site can also feature promotions and loyalty programs to draw online visitors to your casino in person.
Inside your casino, be sure to make your interior just as engaging and interactive as your website. Having the right lighting and noise control can establish an engaging and comfortable environment. Consider how you can make your casino more interactive for guests, like providing enough seating and tables for them to converse with their friends. Promote games that involve the whole friend group to increase interaction and enjoyment. Make your space inviting for people wanting to play games and for people wanting to enjoy quality time and entertainment with others.
Pursue Corporate Events and Businesses
Having opportunities for your large group events at your casino can also increase your guest traffic and improve the value per visitor. Your marketing team can reach out to corporate event planners and spread the word about your casino as a venue possibility for team-building events, company parties and industry conferences. When you bring in businesses from the area, attendees at these events can explore your casino and may be more likely to return on their own later.
It’s important to present your available space to corporations with available information online. This will show your casino is credible and appealing to corporate businesses. Include any relevant information for various industries. Including photos of past corporate events and information about the amenities your venue offers on your website can build a good reputation and online presence. Let your casino appeal to businesses from all over the area to increase your customer base. After any business event, be sure to follow up with clients and attendees with surveys or promotions to increase the possibility of returning customers.
Get the Visitor Information You Need With Traf-Sys
Making your visitors happy is key to building up customer loyalty. Your business should create spaces to ensure longer customer stays and increased traffic. Expanding your focus from games to include corporate events, social aspects and marketing goals provides more opportunities for improving your visitor experience.
People counting systems help you account for space utilization, ensuring staffing and resources are available at high occupancy. Reaching out to your visitors in real-time with this data can help create a smooth experience for both your customers and employees.
Improve your casino marketing tactics with a people counting system from Traf-Sys. Get a free quote today!
If you’re a retail store owner looking to deliver a more personalized experience, attract new customers or build your company’s image, it’s important to know how to track customer demographic information to understand your customers better. In marketing, customer demographic analysis allows you to categorize different segments of your clientele according to shared characteristics. By understanding your customers’ wants and needs, you can build your branding and marketing around them.
Here’s an in-depth look at the advantages of using customer demographics analysis for your business.
Devise Personalized Marketing Campaigns
Before you start any marketing campaign, you first have to know your audience. By analyzing customer demographics, you can advertise to the right audiences with personalized advertising. These marketing campaigns reach specific, targeted users based on their demographic characteristics, interests, and values. This approach is rooted in the user’s intent — what they want to do and how they can use your company to achieve their goal.
A recent study from Yahoo shows that personalized ads are 54% more engaging to consumers. However, marketers frequently assume that their ads are more relevant than they actually are — more than 70% of marketers think their ads are relevant to their targeted audience, but only 27% of consumers think the ads they see online are relevant.
To make your ads more relevant to your target customers, use marketing segmentation based on customer demographic information. This strategy categorizes customers based on particular demographic characteristics. Because you can’t market to all of your customers in a uniform way, it’s best to have separate campaigns for different demographic groups.
Furthermore, personalized marketing relies on customer segmentation to market to different demographics and convert leads. To segment your clients, you might want to create buyer personas. A buyer persona is a character that represents a potential buyer in a particular demographic. When creating your buyer personas, you should consider demographics such as:
Age
Location
Gender
Income level
Education level
Occupation
Ethnic or linguistic background
Offer Personalized Products to Customers
For a company to be memorable enough to convert leads, it must form an emotional connection with new and existing customers. Utilizing personalization is one way for companies to make a strong enough impression on customers to increase sales and customer satisfaction rates. That said, to effectively cater to specific buyers, you’ll need to use customer demographic information.
According to Deloitte, over half of all surveyed consumers will pay more to receive a personalized product or service. For physical stores, footfall analytic hardware and people counters can help you cater to particular customers in your store, measuring how many people are entering your store. Using modern footfall analytic technology, you’ll be able to track how users move through your store.
In the past, staff would stand by a store’s entryway and use a clicker to count the number of people who entered. This clicker system wasn’t completely accurate, mostly due to human error. Today, footfall analytic software and hardware such as people counters have improved alongside technology. Thanks to video sensors, thermal imaging sensors, Wi-Fi and door people counting sensors, you can analyze how customers navigate your store, which sections get the most traffic and how long people spend in a particular section.
This software for demographic analysis can help you determine your customers’ interests. As a result, you can utilize your store’s space to direct particular demographics to certain sections of your store, offering customers a more personalized experience. When used correctly, your efforts will lead to more sales and repeat customers.
Did you know that tracking customer demographics can help you target even those who aren’t currently entering your business? When trying to expand your customer base, the goal isn’t to push away your current clientele. Instead, you should rely on demographic information from your current customer base to understand your target audience. This way, you can reach them more quickly and consistently.
Also called retargeting, remarketing shifts a marketing campaign’s focus to a more relevant target audience. This strategy helps save you time by ensuring your ads are only shown to customers whose demographics already suggest they’ll be interested in your company. Typically, users will see these ads several times, which helps build loyalty and familiarity with your brand.
Understanding your current clientele and how they shop can help you uncover the right strategies for attracting a wider target audience. On the flip side, by analyzing customer demographic information, you might realize that your current customer base is different from what you anticipated and that you need to reevaluate your remarketing campaign. That’s helpful to know sooner rather than later.
Additionally, footfall analytics can help attract new customers at physical retail stores by allowing you to track who doesn’t enter your store and who’s a repeat customer. By tracking who chooses to enter your store, you can gain valuable demographic information about your current and potential customers in particular demographic groups you’d like to target.
Build Your Company’s Image
By analyzing your customer’s demographic information, you can help build and develop your company’s brand and image. It’s important to build your brand around the needs, desires and demographics of your company’s customer base. When creating your brand strategy, consider what you’re really selling. In other words, which of your customers’ needs does your company satisfy with its product or services? For example, a makeup company doesn’t simply sell makeup — rather, the company sells the idea of beauty and glamour.
To grow your brand around your customer’s needs, you first have to understand them. Analyzing your customers’ demographics can help you recognize their motivations. As a result, you can shape your marketing efforts around those needs. This approach creates a brand that puts its customers first.
Furthermore, you can use the user personas you’d previously developed when building your brand, as they help you market to real people instead of statistics. Additionally, you can grow your brand voice if you pretend your brand is a person based on your current or target clientele. Because users feel more affinity toward companies that reflect their identities, you’re more likely to attract your target demographics by building your image around your customers’ identities.
For example, when creating marketing materials, you should try to connect with your target audience by including imagery, fonts and logos that trigger an emotion. Because users are most loyal to companies that share characteristics of their own identities, you’ll want to rely on your customers’ demographic information to best understand their wants, needs and thoughts.
Contact Traf-Sys for a Free Quote
Contact our team today to learn more about the benefits of tracking information about your customers with demographic analysis software and hardware from Traf-Sys. We offer a free quote to help you discover how footfall analytics hardware and software can track your customers’ demographic information so you can better serve your customers.
The past few years have made everyone from business owners to employees and consumers rethink the role of physical stores and office buildings. Online shopping and working from home rose in popularity during the pandemic, and business owners can learn a lot from the technology that made those areas thrive.
With many offices and stores open for in-person business again, it’s time to consider how technology can make these spaces even better for workflow and generating foot traffic. “Smart” isn’t just a title. Technology actually makes a difference in how employees work and how consumers appreciate their shopping experiences.
Innovations in Smart Offices
With more people heading back to the office after over a year of unexpectedly working from home, it’s important to consider how to re-optimize office spaces for better productivity. Now it’s up to you to recreate the comfort many employees experienced when working from home, while also increasing efficiency to boost your company’s performance. Smart offices use technology to improve everything from company sustainability to responses to employee needs.
Creating an energy-efficient workspace is one of many ways to use the intelligence of technology to your advantage. When you automate your lighting and HVAC systems, you can save money on your electric bill and reduce your environmental impact. Automated systems can track when people are most likely to be in certain rooms and use less lighting or HVAC when rooms aren’t in use, meaning you won’t be paying for energy you don’t use.
Heating and cooling levels customized to the number of people in the room can make employees feel more comfortable, which can lead to better work efficiency. Consumers will also appreciate that your company is dedicated to sustainable solutions.
You can use smart building trends to better understand the opportunities for floor plan use in your office. Occupancy sensors can track how many people are in a room at one time. You’ll also know where your employees are and who they interact with throughout the day.
Automated room management services can help employees save time by tracking when rooms are open or full, so people never have to spend time searching for available workspaces. You’ll also get information about whether you can use a different floor plan to make better use of your space, whether you have enough desks and equipment per person and whether you have the office space to hire more employees.
AI Powers the Future of Smart Retail
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a software program that is able to learn and think similarly to the ways humans do. It collects and processes data to make decisions and help people and companies perform tasks. As AI gathers more information over time, it becomes smarter and increasingly useful for the specific responsibilities of your business.
Machine-learning technology is woven into the fabric of our daily shopping lives. AI is present in self-checkouts, store displays and smart shelf tags. Over the past few years, consumer behavior has actually changed due to what people now expect from AI capabilities. To get the most out of your store’s advertising efforts and consumer research, consider adapting your approach to bring shoppers what they want when they want it based on AI data. Satisfied customers will be excited to keep coming back.
AI can do more than directly relate to customers. It’s also integral to internal business operations such as staff scheduling, managing inventory and keeping up-to-date with facilities maintenance via tracking and alerts. These factors contribute to a more helpful, organized in-store experience for consumers.
People counters can gather additional information to help your business’s AI calculate the success of promotions and sales and determine how you can improve in the future.
Smart Industry Trends in Technology
Other technological innovations can also help your business make smart decisions in the coming year. The Internet of Things (IoT) works together to communicate and create a successful environment for working, advertising and converting customers.
Sensors in people-counting systems can give you more information about how many shoppers visit your stores and what they do there. You can use this information to respond to the needs of real customers by acting in real-time to adjust marketing strategies and learn how to better attract customer attention in the future.
Beacons give promotions and coupons to shoppers through your store’s app based on their in-store location. Bluetooth tracks customers’ locations to send them promotions based on what section of the store they’re in. Shoppers can also receive reminders about products they may have shown previous interest in online. Customers are more likely to buy items when they’re already in the store looking at those options.
Smart technology can help you maximize your supply chain efforts. By knowing more about customer demand, you can strategize your inventory. You can save money by only making the number of products customers will buy, and you can also increase revenue by making more of the products that you continuously sell out of. All of this will improve customer experience by providing just what shoppers want when they want it.
AI, beacons and people-counting technology all contribute to a better customer experience. Your business’s job is to make stores enticing for consumers, and that means creating environments that customers feel connected to. Shoppers want to feel known and valued by your stores, and they’ll remember those positive experiences when deciding where to make future purchases.
Smart building industry trends such as tracking footfall analytics can help you create a shopping experience that customers will feel personally connected to. Knowing how many customers enter your store, where they go and what they look at tells you valuable information about their interests and needs. You can study this data for trends such as what products are often bought together, and use this knowledge to your advantage when developing future marketing strategies.
Request a Quote From Traf-Sys Today!
The future of smart buildings is here, and taking advantage of helpful technology has never been easier. From smart offices to AI, people counting systems help make consumer and employee satisfaction possible. Take your business to the next level with reliable, accurate people counting services from Traf-Sys.
The heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems used in commercial buildings are highly energy-intensive. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), about 30% of the energy used in commercial properties goes to waste. To increase sustainability and decrease operating costs, your business must reduce the amount of energy wasted from powering HVAC systems and equipment.
Take the following steps to improve your HVAC system’s efficiency and save money on your energy bill today.
Automating HVAC Systems Can Optimize Energy Consumption
Make your building HVAC automation even smarter with accurate people counting data. Automating control of HVAC systems based on space utilization ensures your energy usage is better aligned with demand. Adjust HVAC support to meet the needs of dynamic occupancy levels as they fluctuate throughout the day or week. The building operator can monitor and adjust the facility’s temperature to better fit your unique schedule. You can reduce HVAC energy consumption on low foot traffic days while maintaining comfort in occupied areas or on days with increased traffic.
Knowing how many people enter or exit your building and which rooms they can occupy enables you to locate spaces of limited use that can be closed or let go of completely. Other benefits of people counting systems for automating HVAC control include lower operational costs and less environmental impact. Optimize workplace policies for efficient space utilization to minimize your carbon footprint. HVAC automation can also improve employee retention and customer attraction by demonstrating your commitment to helping the environment.
Overhead people counting sensors give your building HVAC automation systems the data they need to be as efficient as possible. When paired with programmable thermostats, smart sensor integration makes managing your cooling and heating requirements easy. Program automated HVAC settings that occur under certain conditions. For example, you can program the HVAC system to reduce its output after office hours and cut down a significant portion of your energy waste. Your business can use Traf-Sys people counters to save money by only using an optimal energy output when needed.
Energy-efficient building operation requires a preventative maintenance program with operational strategies to keep energy use low. Operation and maintenance best practices serve to minimize energy usage without significant capital investment. When your HVAC system operates efficiently, you also prevent unscheduled downtime, improve equipment longevity, reduce operating costs and maintain comfort for employees.
Here are three commercial HVAC tips to ensure efficient system operation.
1. Change Your HVAC Filters Regularly
Most cases of HVAC system inefficiency or failure are caused by dirt and neglect. Clogged filters restrict airflow, overworking the heating and cooling systems, so they become less efficient. This scenario often leads to higher operating costs and poorer air quality. Dust and dirt buildup may even cause expensive repairs or early system failure.
When you replace dirty filters with clean ones, your HVAC system consumes 5% to 15% less energy. Check your air filters every month, especially during seasons of heavy use. Change your filters at least every three months or whenever you notice dirt accumulation. Air filters are typically designed for user-friendly replacement, meaning you can start enforcing this preventative strategy today.
2. Schedule Periodic Equipment Checkups
Faulty performance causes greater energy consumption. As your HVAC equipment ages, regular quality maintenance will keep your systems from wasting energy. It is essential to find a qualified technician to perform periodic checkups on your HVAC equipment. They will correct any faults, prevent future problems and improve overall performance.
Your technician should complete HVAC system maintenance each spring and fall. Avoid waiting until winter or summer to schedule equipment checkups, as these are the months when you will most need a working HVAC system. Schedule maintenance around the beginning and end of daylight saving time every year to help you avoid potential downtime, minimize unexpected repair costs, and maintain client comfort.
3. Replace Systems That Surpass Their Lifetime
Once your building’s HVAC system or equipment reaches the suggested life span, it’s time to replace it with a newer, more efficient model. Consider replacing old units with products that have earned the ENERGY STAR label. Certified air conditioners may reduce heating and cooling costs by up to 20% — improving sustainability with a high-efficiency product. An ENERGY STAR qualified boiler will be 5% more efficient than a standard replacement, while ENERGY STAR qualified furnaces serve to improve efficiency by around 15%.
Choose Your HVAC System Wisely
To ensure the right system for your unique needs, consider the following factors before purchasing:
Size
In addition to cutting your energy costs, the right sized HVAC equipment will increase your system’s lifetime and reduce pollution. According to the Consortium of Energy Efficiency, at least 25% of all rooftop HVAC systems are oversized for their needs. An HVAC unit that is too large leads to increased equipment wear and energy costs. Meanwhile, HVAC systems that are too small won’t reach all areas of your building.
Location
Your location provides crucial information about overall climate and seasonal temperatures, factors that could impact the specific HVAC equipment you install. For example, dry areas with hotter climates require a more powerful refrigeration unit than standard. Consider how temperature fluctuations and extremes may also impact your HVAC systems.
Brand
Once you determine the best HVAC system for your needs, you want to invest in a trusted brand. Research different manufacturers of the equipment you need. Buildings without space for huge air ducts may require a ductless system to provide adequate cooling or heating for the entire area. A packaged system could benefit smaller buildings by handling both heating and cooling with one unit.
Ensure Properly Sealed Heating and Cooling Ducts
Forced-air heating and cooling systems use ducts to distribute conditioned air throughout buildings. Proper sealing prevents hot or cool air from escaping on the way to its intended destination. Leaks, holes, and poorly connected ducts cause your HVAC system to work harder. The increased heating and cooling requirements result in higher energy costs. Minimizing air leaks and improving air duct performance can make your HVAC system about 20% more efficient.
Ducts are often concealed in attics, crawlspaces, basements, walls and ceilings. This can make it challenging to check and repair those housed in enclosed spaces. Ensure your ducts are sealed with mastic, foil tape or an aerosol-based sealant. You can enhance the sealing effect by insulating any ducts you can access, such as those in the attic, basement or garage. Ducts in these areas tend to be unprotected, so the added insulation will significantly boost efficiency.
Look for a qualified HVAC contractor who will also repair ductwork. Your trusted HVAC technician will help ensure all your bases are covered so you get the most out of your HVAC system. Regular checkups that include your heating and cooling ducts will make your HVAC equipment more efficient and less resource-intensive.
Improve Commercial HVAC Optimization With Traf-Sys
We provide information and analysis on people counting to help you manage which rooms require more or less HVAC support. Monitor how many people enter and exit certain areas of your facility and create custom occupancy levels based on the space utilization. Knowing the number of people in your building and which rooms are open can help you adjust your HVAC equipment for increased efficiency.
We understand the unique challenges that come with controlling a commercial HVAC system. Our comprehensive software and systems help you understand your customers and their habits, improving their comfort and reducing energy waste in unoccupied areas. To learn how you can optimize your commercial HVAC system, contact Traf-Sys and discover what a people counting system can do for your business.
Most jewelry stores tend to have peak seasons. It’s no surprise that the time between November and January accounts for plenty of jewelry sales, as people purchase gifts for family and friends — in fact, 40% of all engagements happen around the holiday season, too. These peak seasons present a valuable opportunity for retail stores to track customer data, helping inform them of behaviors and practices that can drive sales.
Take a look at how you can measure your jewelry store traffic using a foot traffic counter.
The Benefits of Customer Counting
With foot traffic trackers, you can measure several key indicators to help improve store performance.
First, you can more easily identify the customers’ behaviors. Insight on when and how often a customer comes into the store can help prioritization regarding the store’s organization. Additionally, traffic flow can signal the right amount of staff members you need to schedule, which helps the store provide customers with a high-quality level of service.
Counting traffic can estimate your store’s daily sales. This information can tell you how significant your sales are on a daily basis and whether your employees are going above and beyond to maximize the experience for the customer.
Additionally, you can measure overall conversion rates. Having a count of how many customers come into your store is beneficial, as you can measure that figure against how many of them are making purchases. As a result, you can look at which factors are deterring people from buying your jewelry, such as customer service or pricing. Configuring your store’s layout in certain ways also plays a role in customer behavior.
Here’s a closer look at how you can use customer counting to improve your business in two areas — marketing and staff scheduling:
A retail store traffic counter provides an opportunity to measure and grow marketing efforts. No matter the marketing campaign focus you pursue, you can see how it influences customers. For larger jewelry stores, you can see how effective your marketing is at bringing customers into your store. Alternatively, smaller businesses can measure the impact of digital marketing ad campaigns like those on Facebook.
If you just released new ad campaigns, you can tell whether they were able to reach new customers and gauge their level of success. This information can help you identify whether your store needs to change its marketing efforts to be more successful. A business that sees an influx of customers after releasing a certain ad campaign can better understand what types of advertising their audiences prefers.
Optimize Staff Scheduling
Depending on the location of the store, the current season, and demand for the product, the number of customers entering your store can vary. Using store traffic counters to record the footfall of entrances and exits can ensure you have enough staff members in the store. As a result, overstaffing and understaffing are less of a problem.
Thanks to optimized staff scheduling, you can ensure your customers get the best customer service possible — and that your employees aren’t overwhelmed when the store is filled with customers. It also helps avoid downtime, where workers can feel bored or unproductive during working hours. Therefore, your staff will be just busy enough without feeling overworked.
When customers know that a store has a dedicated staff ready to answer their questions, they’re more likely to return. Prioritizing staff scheduling ultimately creates customer loyalty. That’s a significant benefit, as customer retention is incredibly important for your store’s profit and growth. It makes more financial sense to retain the customers you already have than spend money trying to attract new ones, and foot traffic data helps with that.
How This Data Can Increase Jewelry Store Sales and Conversions
To boost sales and conversions, your customer experience, customer service and marketing efforts all need to be effective. Through tracking the customers who come into your store, you can grow in these areas.
Customer Experience
By being able to track the customer’s gender, age, past purchases and interests, you gain more insight into how to make their shopping experience meet all of their expectations. If your customers are satisfied with their experience, they’re likely to return and make more purchases in the future. Additionally, they’ll often engage in word-of-mouth marketing to spread the word about your business.
Employee Schedules
Counting store traffic in a jewelry store helps correct employee scheduling, which becomes beneficial for building relationships with customers during their customer journey. If there aren’t enough employees during peak times, you can’t create more personalized shopping experiences, build customer relationships or make enough sales. When you schedule the right amount of employees, customers have a one-on-one shopping experience, allowing sales employees to maximize conversions.
Store Layout
Using foot traffic counters also helps optimize store layout. For example, you can measure the effectiveness of highlighting pieces of jewelry that are on sale or are new in the store. Certain signs or display cases can focus on urging customers to check out the pieces and encourage them to make a purchase. Using heatmap data of the store can show which areas of the store customers visit most and which ones you could improve.
If customers are coming into your store and not making any purchases, further testing on the store layout can happen to see if there are areas to improve the shopping experience. As a result, you have a chance to design the perfect store layout that encourages customers to browse all of your products and make a purchase. A confusing, staggered store layout can prevent customers from even entering the store. Therefore, prioritizing an accessible, streamlined layout is crucial for sales.
Work With Traf-Sys to Measure Your Jewelry Store Traffic
For your jewelry business to maximize sales and conversions and get the right insight on areas of improvement, using a people counting system is essential. Traf-Sys provides accurate and reliable people counters for more than 17,000 locations. No matter the size of your jewelry business, we offer foot traffic solutions to benefit your store.
To start measuring the performance of your business, request a quote today!
