But Are YOU Liked

Oh sure, your center is clean and your employees smile (most of the time) and you offer price specials (when business is slow) and combo meals too. Even your parking lot is OK; the machines work and lane conditions are satisfactory.

Some people complain about your pricing, especially your kid shoe rental price, (“Hey Lady, they cost as much as the adult shoes, so I gotta charge as much”)…you mutter under your breath. But, hey, they’ll get over it.

Many people come back year after year to bowl in a league; more are leaving and your league demographic is probably approaching a median age of 50. But these new fangled short season leagues are starting to catch on, even though you only offer one or two a year. L

The kids and their parents find that your birthday parties are satisfactory, even though you have too many rules, as you efficiently rotate them in and out of your party rooms to maximize revenue on the lanes.

Your seniors are OK with your facility, even though they know deep down; you really don’t like giving them free coffee; and definitely not free donuts.

So my question is, “But do your customers like you?”  Would you be surprised if the answer was “No” or “Not so much”…I mean after all you think you have done for them.

Here’s why they may not like you.

1.     Have you taken up a charity and made it yours so everyone sees what a good guy you are. You’re not doing the charity for lineage dollars or even to make anew league out of the participants, but are doing it because you really believe in it?

2.     Have you sponsored the local little league, high school football team or some other sports venue in your town?

3.     Do people see you at soup kitchens, helping feed the homeless and making collections for toys for tots at your center or collecting food for the hungry?

4.     Are you one of the first to volunteer your facility or your time when local situations call for it.  Have you thought about establishing a job fair at your center and inviting potential employees and employers meet there?

5.     Do you take some presents to kids, during Christmas, at a local hospital?

6.     Have you had a pet rescue event in your parking lot where the local ASPCA could bring their animals and see if people would adopt them?

7.     Have you participated in the local parades (4^th of July, Labor Day or any other community function)?

8.     Do you belong to the local Chamber of Commerce or Knights of Columbus or any other fraternal organizations that are meaningful to the community?  Yeah, yeah I’ve heard you say the Chamber is useless.  But as the old saying goes: “You Get What You Give”.

It isn't the specific things that you do for the money that make people like you.

It’s the specific things you do because you genuinely love doing it that makes people like you

And that can make all the difference.