Cashless Customer Journey

With Howler Cashless, customers can experience fuss-free payments at events while giving organisers access to all sales and spending data at the event.

There are a few variations of the customer journey, depending on which services you choose to use with Howler.

The optimised customer journey and complete service delivery includes selling tickets through Howler, driving online and in-app topups and using the Howler Cashless service at the event.

The cashless journey is similar across all events but the process to topup deviates based on the service offering. In this doc you'll see an outline of the overview customer journey as well as a step by step guide to topup for each variation of the customer topup flow.

Terminology

Topup - The action of paying to preload credits to spend at the event.

Cashout - The action of requesting and paying unspent credits back to the customer. Cashouts for an event will generally open at Midday on the Wednesday after the event and remain open for 1 month. This may vary for some events.

Autocashout - A customer can load their banking details onto their Howler account and request that their unspent credits are automatically paid back to them when cashouts open. Autocashouts will only need to be enabled once for a customer to receive autocashouts for all cashless events. *This required Howler access control to be used at the event.

Live topups - This is a feature that can be enabled to allow customers to topup online throughout the event. This feature can be enabled across all cashless events with online topups. This feature is dependant on network stability at the event for all operating Howler devices.

Woov App - This refers to a new parternship between Woov and Howler to deliver an integrated customer experience of managing tickets and topups through the world-class customer engagement app, Woov. The Woov app offers an interactive site map, personalise lineups with reminders, notifications and chat groups to engage with customers. Contact your account manager to find out more about the Woov app service.

Howler Cashless Customer Journey Overview

This is the typical journey of a cashless customer from purchasing tickets to cashing out remaining funds.

The online topup journey varies between different service delivery options.

1. Purchase tickets on Howler.co.za event.
2. Download the Woov App.
3. Add a topup while purchasing a ticket, online at howler.events or on the Woov app ahead of the event.
4. Enable autocashouts, within the initial topup journey, online or in the Woov app any time before cashouts for the event open. (autocashouts may be disabled for certain events)
5. Arrive at the event, scan tickets to have your online topup applied to your wristband
6. Tap to spend at the event.
7. Topup at a topup station for more credits. When live topups are enabled, topups can be done online at howler.events or on the Woov app throughout the event.
8. Remaining funds are automatically returned after the event if autocashouts are enabled or customers can cashout online at howler.events during the available cashout period.

Live topups

When the network is stable at an event and there is wifi access for all Howler devices throughout the event, it is possible to enable live topups for your event.

When live topups are enabled, customers can topup online or through the Woov app at any time during the event when more credits are needed. This alleviates on site operational pressure as less cashiers are required to process on site topups.

Howler does offer a network-independent solution. In the case that network is not stable, online topups will need to be disabled before the start of the event.

Howler Ticketing + Howler Cashless Online Topup Flow

This is the ideal and optimised customer journey. When online topups are enabled before tickets launch, customers are able to topup their tickets within the ticket purchase journey or online any time between purchasing tickets and arriving at the event.

In this case, you can topup within the ticket purchase journey when buying tickets at howler.events or you can topup later.

To topup later;

1. Find your ticket at howler.events/tickets.
2. Select "topup" on the ticket you wish to topup.
3. Enter or select a topup amount.
4. Proceed with your chosen payment method.
5. Enter your banking details to enable autoashouts.
6. Your topup will reflect on your ticket at howler.events/tickets and will be applied to your wristband when your ticket is scanned at the event.

Woov + Howler Ticketing + Howler Cashless - In-App Topup Flow

This is another ideal and optimised customer journey. In this case, customers can topup through the Howler website or the Woov app.

In this case, customers can topup online as per the case above or topup within the Woov app as per the steps below.

1. Download the Woov app.
2. Join your chosen event.
3. An in-app browser will launch where you can sign in or sign up to your Howler account.
4. Find your ticket in the "wallet" tab of the app.
5. Select "+" on the ticket you wish to topup.
6. Enter or select a topup amount.
7. Proceed with your chosen payment method.
8. Enter your banking details to enable autoashouts.
9. Your topup will reflect on your ticket in the app and will be applied to your wristband when your ticket is scanned at the event.

Third party ticketing + Howler Cashless - Online Topup a Barcode Flow

In some cases where tickets are not sold on Howler, an integration with a third-party ticketing provider may be possible.

The customers will need to claim their ticket barcode to topup.

In this case, the online topup journey is;

1. Create an account or login to howler.events.
2. Your ticket should display with a “TOPUP” button. If your ticket does not show, select “topup a barcode” and enter your ticket barcode number.

*Make sure that you’ve logged in using the correct email address or entered the correct barcode. The topup will be applied to the wristband linked to the ticket barcode provided. 

1. Select your topup amount and complete payment. 
2. You’ll receive an email confirming your topup and your credits will be applied to your wristband when your ticket is scanned at the event entrance. 
3. Enable autocashouts to have your leftover funds automatically transferred back to your account after the event. 

Third party ticketing + Howler Cashless - Online Topup Voucher Flow

In the case where tickets are not sold by Howler, we can offer a topup voucher flow where customers can pre-purchase their topups that acts as an additional ticket to be scanned at the event to apply their pre-purchased topup to their RFID wristband at the event. This is an alternative to the topup a barcode flow in the case that there are complications with the third-party ticketing integration. This flow is not supported on Woov.

In this case, the online topup customer journey is;

1. Buy your Cashless Credit Voucher at howler.events. A ticket with a QR code will be sent to your email address and can be viewed or downloaded at howler.events/tickets.
2. Enable auto cashouts to have your leftover funds automatically transferred back to your account after the event. 
3. You’ll receive a Cashless wristband when your ticket is scanned at the event. Make sure to also scan your voucher ticket at the wristband collection point to have your credits applied to your wristband. 
4. Tap to spend credits at the event. 
5. Cashout remaining credits and view your transaction history and invoices at howler.events/cashless_tags when cashout open. If autocashouts are enabled, customers will automatically receive their leftover funds when cashouts open.

Woov + Third party ticketing + Howler Cashless - In-App Topup a Barcode Flow

In some cases where tickets are not sold on Howler, an integration with a third-party ticketing provider may be possible at an additional cost.

In this case, customers can topup online or in the Woov app before the event. The in-app topup flow is;

1. Download the Woov app.
2. Join your chosen event.
3. An in app browser will launch where you can sign in or sign up to your Howler account.
4. Once you’ve signed in you can add your ticket.  Either tap the Add button at the top left, or tap “Add ticket” in the middle of the screen.
5. Step 1: Enter the ticket barcode and tap ‘continue’.
   *Make sure that you’ve logged in using the correct email address or entered the correct barcode. The topup will be applied to the wristband linked to the ticket barcode provided. 
6. Step 2: Top up your ticket to link it to your account: Enter a topup amount and confirm it to proceed with payment. 
7. Once the top up is successful you will be redirected to your Wallet, and your preloaded ticket will appear.
8. Your ticket is now activated.  
9. To top up again, simply tap the ‘Top up’ button on your ticket.
10. You’ll receive an email confirming your topup and your credits will be applied to your wristband when your ticket is scanned at the event entrance.