Caversham AFC

Worldpay provides Caversham AFC with reliable products, good rates, impactful reporting and exceptional service

With more than 750 participating players ranging in age from under five to under 18, as well as adult male and female teams together with over 170 coaches, Caversham AFC is the largest youth grassroots football club in Reading Berkshire, U.K.

According to Robert Phillips, chairman at Caversham AFC, the organization has been around since 1970 and has positively impacted the lives of thousands of local children and families over the last half-century plus.

“Our vision and mission at Caversham AFC are to provide fun, safe and engaging football at the heart of the community,” he says.

Payment needs

Robert mentions the club needs rock-solid reliability from payment devices that work in a sports field with no Wi-Fi connection.

“We wanted fast transaction times without having to connect to an app on a mobile phone, in order to reduce queuing, improve the customer experience and increase sales at our annual fundraising and club celebration event. We also wanted competitive prices and excellent support – plus great reporting we could access via a dashboard.”

Worldpay’s reputation and Trustpilot rankings

Robert cites Worldpay’s standing and name brand in the payments field as a contributing factor in the club’s decision-making process. “We compared the offerings from a few different payments providers, noticed the excellent Worldpay reviews on Trustpilot and decided they would be a great choice.”

Event day challenges to be met

Caversham AFC hosts their yearly summer presentation day, an event that has only ever been run with cash.

“We’ve been talking about moving to payment devices for a few years now,” Robert notes, “but it has also been too challenging to set it up in a way that would work for our organization. We needed a solution that would cope with the amount of traffic on that day.”

Robert says that although the club’s customers are their players, their direct patrons are parents who pay Caversham AFC during face-to-face transactions via Worldpay devices.

Easy set up

Regarding implementation, Robert says it was very simple and smooth.

“We received an email from Worldpay with our Merchant ID number, which we keyed into the three devices, and we were up and running in minutes. We were also able to launch the Worldpay Dashboard very easily, along with our SaferPayments portal to ensure we are PCI-compliant.”

Robert is also quick to point out the support the club receives from their account manager. “Our Worldpay rep provides us with exceptional advice – plus, we receive great rates.”

Improvements noted

Lastly, Robert states the club’s volunteers have had no issues taking card payments with Worldpay and all transactions are clearly delineated, so it’s easy to measure success.

“Using Worldpay for our payments processing, we’ve improved the speed of transactions and made queuing much faster – which is very helpful, particularly at lunchtime. Worldpay played a key role in helping increase our revenue from last year’s event by more than 20%.”

At a Glance

Objective

Evaluate and select a payments provider that offers easy-to-use products, great rates, an insightful dashboard and first-rate support.

Worldpay solutions

SMB Payments Capabilities; Worldpay Dashboard; SaferPayments

Impact

• Process payments of all kinds
• Faster transactions; Less queueing in lines
• Better reporting and management

"Worldpay played a key role in helping increase our revenue from last year’s event by more than 20%.”

Robert Phillips, Chairman, Caversham AFC

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