Check It or Forget It

Several interesting marketing items to report.  

Basically about customer service. OH, do you NOT separate the two and think that these two elements are two sides of the same coin?  I hope you do. Because you can market the best, the most innovative, the most unique program, but if no one cares about the delivery of the product at the center level, guess what?  You lose a customer that you worked so hard to get.  And that would be a shame.

Last week, some jackass hijacked, hacked, cracked and smacked my email.  I thought that was an easy fix. HA!  He had also cracked jacked and smacked my Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Linked-In account.  In fact some 2000 people on my blog list, Facebook list and twitter list were affected.  If I haven’t apologized to you, please accept my apologies now.

It literally took me the better part of half a day to fix this stuff.  But before I took it on, I decided to give all these high tech companies a shot to test their customer service skills.

Here’s what I found out:

1.   They all suck, with the exception of one which I will tell you about.

2.  It is virtually impossible to find a phone number to call; a friend turned me onto a website about phone numbers for these companies so I was able to access them.

3.  Minimum hold times for any of them were one half hour plus; I left after a half hour.

4.  God forbid if you accidentally turn your phone off or another call comes in and you lose the tech call; you re toast and have to start ALL over.

5.  You are guaranteed to be asked your name, account number, password, social security number, first born’s weight at birth and your second grade teacher’s middle name.

6.  You will eventually be transferred to someone from India, Pakistan, China or some other country where the accents create a bit of a listening problem; at least for me.

7.  These folks will try as hard as possible to solve your problem, but ultimately you end up with “the high tech supervisor” who also tries to take care of it and in half the cases is successful.

8.  Rest assured that after it is fixed, another problem unrelated to the first will occur or a pop up will appear asking you if you want to buy “PC Protection.

9.  The only company that got back to me in a reasonable time was “Carbonite” that discovered my “in the cloud account” and was able to restore it in less than 5 minutes as well as send me a confirmation email

10.  The machines always win and you and the tech folks are mere pawns when the winds of tech turmoil blow.  I am still out of business about sending my blog out to a different list on a different server that refuses to accept my new password.

 

With that being said, I implore you to check your customer service policies.  Here is a story I heard that a proprietor bragged to me about. Seems that a woman and three children came in at 4pm to take advantage of a special that started at 6pm. 

The desk person refused to honor the woman’s request even though there was NOT one lane running.  And the proprietor told me that the desk person did the right thing!!.  I flipped out and told him that the woman will now go home; knowing she and her family will never come back, and no doubt told at least 14 other people about the “dumb” desk clerk.

Now I’m not saying this happens at your center, but with the season getting under way, this might be a good time to check your customer service and retrain your people.

A wise proprietor friend of mine, Wally Hall, said, “The successful business is one that offers a unique service or product.  Your unique service or product is  YOUR customer service.

Check it or forget it.

Black and White

“He sees everything as black and white”, said one of my colleagues and I immediately understood what he meant; that the person he was talking about was “Yes or No, Right or Wrong, Good or Bad – no shades of gray here. Just absolutes.  Lots of folks judge that way.  doesnt make them bad people, just a little bit narrow

But yes there are shades of gray, almost an infinite number of shades for that matter and for those of us who are inclined to see the world greater degrees of shades of gray, we probably have more choices. but, I think, a more complicated psyche.

So if you own a bowling enter or an FEC, you have the choice to see things as black and white or in various shades of gray.

For example, if you run a promotion, let’s call it "bowl your brains out" – you know x hours of bowling for $y dollars at a specific time – you have choices to add more or less hours, raise or lower prices, add more options like food and beverage and various prizes and surprises when people bowl and even add music or keep it quiet.  Lots of choices, if you see it that way.  Much, much fewer choices if you  see it as just bowling, rental shoes, time and price.

The real question is how does your potential customer and existing customer want to see it and are you offering that.  Oh, you don't know?  That's cool. here;s what you do: ASK THEM.

Sometimes we even do the black and white thing with employees. We see them as good or bad, positive or negative, friendly or unfriendly or energetic or lazy.  Unfortunately, when we do this, we have unfairly judged someone; simply because no one is just one thing.

And if you judge employees as having ONLY positive attitudes OR negative attitudes, you also do a disservice to them...and to you and your business, simply because your communication to these folks will be biased one way or the other

Maybe if you reinforced the positive while explaining how the negative hurts them from being happier, you could break through their narrow band of gray.  But, candidly, I doubt it.

They’re the ones you need to beware of; those folks who use words like “all”, never” “always” “none”, “everyone” and similar absolutes. They are the black and white types; they are the ones with the least amount of flexibility. So please watch for these words when you hire people, promoting people, giving them assignments and when you are making decisions that involve their participation.

Because to play the music, you need the black and white piano keys, but there are many shades of sound within that black and white band...to make REALLY beautiful music.

Every Time I Put My Shoes On...

I have written about emailing for some time now; trying to prevail upon you, dear reader, to use email to build relationships, tell stories and softly, softly sell your center or yourself as being part of the community. There's a reason it is called "Social Media" and not "Cheap Substitute for Direct Mail.

With "open" rates plunging to about 10% to 12%, you need to get better at having people (your TARGET) open your emails. The example you will see in this blog achieved that...and a whole lot more.  It added tot he value of the center's brand immensely

Futilely, I have looked for an email from proprietors to showcase an example of what I have been talking about. Instead I get appeals for “need two teams for Monday Mixers, Call Dale at happy Lanes (of course no phone number).

Or worse, someone sends me their flier for late night, great night cosmic fun starting at 11pm. Now I like cosmic as much as the next guy, but am I really the ideal target for that product?  Haven't been 18 to 34 for a few years now :).

Rarely do I ever get some “social media communique” that smacks of realism, emotion and a good story…until the other day when my great client Alley Katz sent me one that I just had to share with you.  Wood Foss and his family own and operate a bowling center in Westerly RI. It’s a beautiful beach town that like much of RI still suffers from high unemployment (I think it’s still in double digits).

 

Yet Wood and his wife Kathy and their sons David and Joe will tell you straight up that Alley Katz has been getting better and better because they “get it.” They understand how to be part of the community.  They understand the importance of planning and speaking to the customer from the heart. 

When their Westerly beach was almost wiped out by Hurricane Sandy or when a flood occurred and put the down town area in jeopardy, they were right there to lend a hand, run fund raisers, lay sandbags along with their fellow citizens and express their feelings about “their town” and emailed to their list a post that basically said, "please stop by for some coffee and donuts and a warm place to rest before going back out." 

Their results have been nothing short of extraordinary. And they didn't do it thru cheap, cheap pricing. They did it, the old fashioned way with family friendly, passionate service backed up by emails like this. Emails that puts the humanity of the moment into a business transaction.

So here is their beautiful and touching email that you need to read. Please  print and put on your office computer.  And every time you write an email think about this.  What emotions am I touching?  What human characteristic can I imbue my communication with and finally how can I stop selling and still sell?

The subject line was this: EVERY TIME I PUT MY SHOES ON..

I have 3 beautiful kids.  My youngest, Riley is almost 2. Every time I put my shoes on she says, "You going work Daddy??''  It's cute but kinda breaks my heart at the same time.  She is very young still but is also very aware of the fact that Daddy works A LOT.  I would love to spend some quality time with her and the rest of my kids for that matter. 

My parents and family that have had their kids already grow up before them always say, "it flies by"... "Enjoy them while you have them"...

NOW IS THE TIME.

ENJOY THEM WHILE YOU HAVE THEM.

SPEND QUALITY TIME WITH THEM.

Are You Ignoring Certain Market Segments?

In the city where I live, just outside of NYC, I am pleased to notice a cornucopia of different races, ethnic groups and nationalities. The friends that we have made, many who are “new immigrants” bring unique perspectives to our conversations, whether about sports, politics economics or other subjects.

So I wondered just how these groups affect our bowling and entertainment businesses.

After doing some research, I noted that the US Census reports of 2012 indicated that there are 53 million Hispanics and 42 million “African Americans”, add in another 13 million Asian people and you have about 103 million “non white” Americans.  No doubt there are many other nationalities that live here, but these three main groups represent 33% (1 out of 3 of all Americans (319 million).

My conclusion is that if you own a bowling center, there is a pretty good chance that your market area includes members of these ethnic groups.

And I’m sitting here scratching my head why I haven’t gotten ONE question about how to market o these folks?  Are you ignoring them? Are you concerned about your market mix? Or do you just not know how to motivate them to go bowling.

It’s probably all of the above.  Just like your existing customers, ethnic groups have the same physiological and psychological needs, but thank goodness they have their own ways of expressing their identity.

Rule #1.  Don’t talk at them.  Learn their preferences, their “cultural nuances, food tastes, and what they do in their spare time.

Rule #2.  Find key leaders in the groups whether it be religious, business or political figures. Ask them for advice.  Ask them about their constituency and what they think would get them to bowl.

Rule #3.   Never forget the power of the free game or of two free games and the opportunity to get people into your center and, oh, make sure that you print your free game cards in at least two or even three languages. and your signage should also be “culturally” appropriate.  In California, where “Whites” are in a slight minority, many California proprietors have, for years, learned and practiced Hispanic and Asian marketing.

Rule #4.  Do not close your eyes to these groups or ignore them.  In many states they are the fastest growing segments and will portend the future of your business.

So You Want To Be Cool?

“You know Fred”, said my client, the other day, “the problem with bowling is, it just isn't cool. The kids don’t think it’s cool and the older folks don’t even think about it as something to do”.  Now if you can make it cool, you’ll be a miracle man.”

Which got me thinking.

Could we just do this? Could this actually happen? You know make bowling into the next American Idol or Dancing with the Stars?  Wouldn't that be great?  

Sure would…and then I woke up.

The problem isn't about bowling being cool; the problem is much easier to define. 

Its YOUR center that isn't cool.  The center above is cool. It's Brooklyn Bowl that does something no other center in the NY metro area does. It books big name bands. Concert type bands every week. It is an "Honest to God Music Venue" surrounded by bowling and old fashioned comfort food

Oh, maybe your center is cool and you’re doing great because you stand for something and you have a brand identity.

Look at these 25 bowling centers in this link and see why they are cool and why they rated a mention. http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/americas-coolest-bowling-alleys

The answer is because in their market they are different.

It may be because your center is old school and has no automatic scorers, old wood lanes and scoring tables and all the employees wear old funky bowling shirts and everything down to the last detail is “throwback retro cool.”  

But it's real and its honest and that's all that matters for it to be cool. Because being honest and authentic is something, unfortunately, that is all too often uncommon and definitely not cool.

It may be because your center is high tech, high touch, great food and beverage, laser tag and beautiful servers and is just a “WOW” when you walk in.  Your first words are of course “Awesome, Unbelievable.”

Or maybe it’s because you have installed cherry wood lanes in your center and it’s the only center in town that has it.

The point is, if you want to be cool, you have to be different. 

You have to surprise, delight, entertain, amaze, astonish, flabbergast, and startle the imagination of your customer because you have something that no one else has and then you can be cool.

Don’t get me wrong, I love modern new bowling and entertainment centers, but if you look at your center or get a fresh pair of eyes to look at, maybe you can find what you do differently than your competition and if what you do differently, you really do better.

If your center is old school, then keep it old school, but make sure it is “authentic, real and truly a 50’s throwback.”

For those of you that renumber the Old Petersen Classic tournament, you’ll know exactly what I mean.  You’ll know how they made rudeness, bad service a fun time.  It was brilliant!  

And it was cool.