Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral, the mother church of the Anglican Communion decided to install Merlin^® EPOS systems at their admission points when the changes to gift aid came to place.

The changes meant that all charitable institutions could boost the value of their admissions by 20%.

Merlin® had been recommended to Canterbury by another Cathedral who were using the systems. Canterbury felt that Merlin^® would be the perfect answer to their problems by providing a fully approved gift aid module that could calculate the donation and process the admission at the point of sale quickly and efficiently.

Due to the large numbers of visitors at Canterbury, there was a distinct need for a system that could process the gift aid donation and the donors details quickly, without the donor having to fill out any long forms which delay the queue and often deter the donor from choosing to gift aid.

Canterbury were also aware that Merlin^® systems could also capture donor details such as post codes through the fully approved address management software. This could then be used in marketing campaigns to target potential visitors through the ACORN classification and inform visitors of any upcoming events or news happening at the cathedral.

Once the decision was made, three tills and admission points and a back office system were installed.

Canterbury has already seen clear differences that the system has made.

“Arrival of visitors has been much faster” said Theresa Heslop of Canterbury Cathedral “it’s also much more professional and user friendly and the staff have picked it up quickly”.

Canterbury have been using the additional revenue from gift aid to improve the cathedral in various areas and provide their visitors with an even more memorable experience.