The Business of Fun
The Business of Fun
Redemption Plus
There’s just something about that smile.
It’s the smile on the face of a child, hands and pockets stuffed with tickets
won through skillful play on game machines, perusing the array of choices at
the redemption counter of the local family entertainment center.
But that child isn’t the only one smiling as those tickets turn into prizes.
Ron Hill is smiling too, from his office in Lenexa.
Hill’s company, Redemption Plus, provides those prizes to customers throughout
the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and the Bahamas,
most of whom order through a secure online network that ensures just in time
delivery, with all items digitally tagged to simplify stocking, display and
dispensing.
Creating such a system would seem like a natural for Hill, who owned a computer
training business in Seattle before returning to the Midwest to start his now
nearly 10-year-old company. But, he admits, it took him a couple of years to
truly understand the redemption business.
“My first client was a tutoring company that wanted to create a reward system
for their young clients,” Hill says. “Once that challenge was solved, I was
hooked. But I wanted to make certain that I could really offer a truly differentiated
approach.”
What he learned is that redemption is more than tchotchkes that toddlers take
home from their local game parlor and soon forgot about. Instead, he discovered
that a link exists between a satisfactory redemption experience and repeat business
for his customers.
“When people have fun and take home a prize or two, they are more likely to
return to the business,” Hill says. “So, the prizes have to be of good quality,
relatively accessible to players of different skill levels and – most of all
– available when the customers are there.”
He also found out that most family entertainment centers have limited space
to store prizes for long periods of time. This led to the development of his
online ordering service. Monday, he says, is the biggest day, as customers take
stock from the previous weekend and prepare for the next. He has enough business
the rest of the week to require two shifts in the distribution department of
his 25-person company.
As Redemption Plus has grown, so too has its relationship with Missouri Bank.
“It’s been clear to me all along that Missouri Bank wanted to build a relationship
that would help me be successful, not just see me as a customer,” says Hill.
“I’ve had other banking relationships before and there’s just no comparison.”
“They treat me the way I treat my customers. I can’t ask for anything more.”
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