Long Island technology startup EZ-Nite has developed a radio frequency identification application designed to help businesses instantly recognize VIP customers. A company called 13th Street Entertainment is currently testing the RFID system at its restaurant, nightclub and lounge in New York City, to identify guests entering through the doors of the three venues, and thus provide the appropriate service. As part of that test, which is taking place at the building in which all three venues are located, the firm has its own staff walking through the entrance carrying their RFID-enabled ID cards. But if the technology operates as hoped, says Christian Dacus, 13th Street Entertainment’s creative director, VIP guests of the Beaumarchais restaurant, the Kiss and Fly nightclub or the RdV lounge will receive cards that can help earn them special treatment.
EZ-Nite developed the technology with the aim of creating an EZ-Nite-hosted online service that would be shared by multiple businesses so that their customers could obtain a single RFID-enabled card to gain access to, or obtain coupons or loyalty offerings from, the businesses they frequent.
Brian Chaplin, an EZ-Nite cofounder, was introduced to RFID as a college student at James Madison University, when his roommate was conducting research on the technology for his degree. When Chaplin graduated in 2009, he went to work at supporting corporate events and began exploring how RFID could be used at the events to track such data as how long individuals spent at particular sponsors’ booths. He found, however, that the expense of creating a mobile solution that would be installed and then removed at the events made his idea too impractical.
Chaplin then shifted his focus to the hospitality industry and founded EZ-Nite. “My thought process,” he says, “was focused on permanent locations that could provide a customer-centric benefit” aimed at businesses seeking ways to access their valued customers.
After development work was carried out last year, the company offered the technology as a pilot to 13th Street Entertainment, which began testing the solution approximately four weeks ago.
EZ-Nite has provided 13th Street Entertainment with two Impinj Speedway Revolution R420 readers installed at two doorways in the building, which is located at 409 West 13th Street in New York’s Meatpacking district. Inside the building’s entrance, where one of the readers is installed, customers can enter any of the three venues. There is also an exit at the back of the building, which is equipped with an Impinj fixed reader as well. While 13th Street Entertainment is using only a handful of Zebra Technologies RFID cards with built-in Impinj Monza 4QT chips for the test involving its staff, Chaplin says, EZ-Nite will provide about 500 such cards to the company to distribute at its discretion.
When an individual with the RFID card in a pocket or purse comes within 5 to 7 feet of the reader, the unique ID number encoded to that card’s RFID chip is captured and then transmitted to a local, dedicated server via a cabled connection. The software on the server links the ID to that individual’s information, which can include anything from a name and a photo to favorite foods and drinks, as well as reservation information. A staff member can then use an Apple iPhone or iPad to view that information on the server, and view an update with each new arrival of a card-carrying individual. The employee can approach the door to greet that person by name, and ensure that he or she is served quickly, or alert colleagues to ready that patron’s preferred table or favored drink. The software can also provide data to the user, such as how many and which VIP guests are on the premises at any given time. As an individual leaves the building, his or her RFID card would again be read, and the software would then drop that person’s name from the list of individuals at the venues.
For the purpose of testing the technology today, Dacus says, the system does not differentiate which of the three venues individuals attend, simply that they have entered or left the premises. Additional readers could be added if the company decided to use the technology with its guests. The trial run will continue for at least six months, Chaplin reports.
According to Dacus, the company has been looking into deploying technology that would provide a greater understanding of when VIPs enter its premises. An incident involving such a guest prompted the firm to try out the technology, he explains. During that incident, a VIP entered one of the venues and was not recognized, and although he had a reservation, he was not immediately admitted since he checked in with staff members at the door using a nickname. To avoid these types of mistakes, he says, and to ensure that personnel need not disrupt VIPs by asking questions, “We needed a system that would be effective and discrete.” The venues are all frequented by celebrities, he explains, as well as large-spenders who expect personal treatment upon arrival, but who may not always announce themselves before or when they show up. Dacus says the company will continue testing the technology before launching a full solution on an as-yet undecided date.
EZ-Nite has not yet begun offering its technology commercially, Chaplin says, but when it starts doing so, the company will charge its clients (restaurants, bars and other businesses) a monthly fee for use of the RFID hardware, along with access to EZ-Nite’s hosted server, which could then send data to iPhones or iPads used by those clients’ staff members. The firm hopes multiple businesses will sign up for its service; their customers could then acquire a single RFID card that would provide loyalty and VIP services at those businesses.
EZ-Nite is still looking for partners or investors to help launch the system on a wider scale. Chaplin says he expects to offer the technology in multiple cities, initially in New York, where a large quantity of businesses are located within a fairly small space.