Technology Literacy

While working with a local sports bar, the owner approached me with many ideas that I would have to research and implement. In this particular situation, he wanted to find a way to reward loyal customers and entice part-time frequenters for their patronage. He settled on the idea of a kiosk that customers could use to check-in and accumulate points. Until now, we had been using Facebook Places and Foursquare, but found that they offered little flexibility in what we can offer and not all customers had internet-enabled smart phones.

I began to research pre-built systems on the web to accomplish this, but I quickly learned that they are very expensive. The owner was content with spending the money even though it was way over budget. I did more research and proposed the idea of customizing our own software and hardware. This proposal would save thousands of dollars and provide a little more control over the experience.

I found a company on the web called PatronFlex that writes customer loyalty software. The software allows us to register users, assign loyalty cards, track purchases, and reward customers for repeat visits. It also allowed us to maintain a database of customer contact information that would allow us to perform email, SMS, and physical mail marketing. The software was perfect for what we wanted to accomplish and was still in active development. I worked closely with the software development team and was able to get new features implemented that I felt the system lacked. Some of these include the ability to import external lists of contact information and create pre-planned schedules for SMS delivery.

While we were customizing the software, I had to find a hardware solution that would allow us to utilize the system properly. Pre-built kiosks were priced at $4,000 and up! I convinced the owner that I could build a faster system from consumer products. I purchased an HP touchsmart PC and had it mounted and secured to the wall. I simply established network connectivity, set administrative security, and installed PatronFlex’s software and we had a hardware solution with the same, if not better functionality. I purchased a magnetic card reader, thermal receipt printer, and customized loyalty cards and we were all set. Customers simply signed up for a card, swiped it to earn points, and used the touchscreen program to print out coupons and rewards.

I believe that this project shows mastery of technology literacy because the project required knowledge of hardware, software, and how to make them work together properly. We started with an idea and used the internet and technical know how to make it a reality. We also saved thousands of dollars by custom building it. I will definitely use the lessons I learned from this project as an example of how thinking outside of the box can produce great cost-effective results. I think it is an example of a success that I can reference at future job interviews.

Below you will find a link to the client log-in we established for customers to update and monitor their reward accounts.

www.patronflex.com/romasportsbar