Compared to Who?

It is that time of year again, when many entertainment venues, especially bowling centers, are working over time to make sure their league customers are coming back, that their centers are in the best possible shape and that their staffs are trained and ready to go.

At the same time this full court press on league development is occurring, these same venues also make critical decisions on open play pricing; new league and casual play product offerings as well as how to best communicate these offers to their customers. Too often, these decisions are based on what other bowling centers are doing. The comparison is usually only made between one center and neighboring centers.

Now, if there are similar centers with similar services and similar price/value products, how will the customer choose? What will make one center stand out over others? What benefit, or set of benefits that you can implement, will persuade the customer to choose your center instead of "the other guy"?

The problem is in the comparison.
You're measuring yourself against the wrong matrix.

Compare your entertainment center to Disney or Nordstrom or Zappos.com or any of the great service providers. These providers are your benchmarks, not the center down the street, around the corner or across town.

When I was a high school basketball player and wanted to improve my basketball game, I had to play against better players to learn better moves and to to have my skills challenged. It didn't do me any good to play against players of similar skill levels or lesser levels; after all what could I learn?

If you continue to measure yourself similar centers, you are comparing yourself to businesses with similar skill levels. What will you learn? What can you improve? What benefits and attributes can you take away from these other great providers and apply to your center?

Raise the measurement bar, compare yourself to better service providers and you will raise your customer awareness, initial attendance and repeat business.

So when you say your center is "better" or gives "great customer service", ask one more question, "compared to who?"