Dear Fred
Great food for thought! I always love reading your blogs.
Just wanted to comment on your last blog. I agree completely!!
Knowing a rain dance that worked
would be a great thing. Cold weather sure isn't a bad thing but if these are
the only things we have going for us, our industry is in trouble.
I know that most of the centers close
to ours close on certain days or cut back their hours in the summer. A few even
close for 3 months. The reasoning I hear most is that “Nobody wants to be
inside in the summer”.
I think we often use excuses, valid or not to explain
why we aren't busy. At a staff meeting a few years ago I pointed out to my
employees, managers and even my business partner the danger of looking for an
easy way out when it comes to having slow periods of income.
1) Summer – Nobody wants to bowl or even be inside during the
summer
2) August/September – People are getting and paying for their
kids back to school.
3) August/October/November/December/January and the first
week of February –
Football
4) When they aren't watching football its basketball, then
baseball or even NASCAR.
Don’t let me get started about soccer.
5) October – All those Halloween parties that weren't there
15 years ago are taking over.
6) November – First we lose the Friday after Thanksgiving and
now Thanksgiving due to
early shopping.
7) December – Everyone is shopping and nobody has extra money
8) January – Everyone is paying off those Christmas bills
they made
9) February – Everyone is still broke from Christmas and now
they are spending on
Valentines’ Day.
10) March – The weather is getting nice. I sure do hope it
rains this weekend
11) April /May – Kids are all outside. We can’t get any
business until dark, if then.
We all know that
there is even more excuses than this but listing them all here would take too
long and do nobody any good. As you can see there is always an excuse that can
be used.
Should we just except that sales will continue to dwindle and there is
nothing to do about it except hope for rain? I think not, many of these things
can be used as marketing opportunities if done right.
Pretty strange that
even with all these challenges the movie industry has went from barely existing
in the 1970’s to thriving, the restaurant industry has seen people go from
eating at home 90% of the time to eating out 90% of the time and they now sell
more game system than ever.
If you think
everyone wants to be outside when the weather is nice just drive past a movie
theater in the summer. Even on Mondays, Tuesday and Wednesdays they busy while
most bowling centers close on those days.
We must set goals
and come up with ideas on how to obtain them. Spend more time creating business
than complaining about business. Take a positive approach with our customers,
employees and ourselves rather than looking at just the bad.
We must set very
high standards when it comes to customer service. When your staff does a good
job let them know about, when they do an excellent job let everyone know about
it and If they fall short address the issue and show them how to correct it.
Train and involve
your staff in coming up with new ideas (Example: How can we be busy this
Halloween season?) and big dividends will follow. Have employee meetings on a
regular basis and make sure that you talk with and not at them. Make things fun
for them and they will make things fun for your customers.
Market your
business every month of the year, not just August and maybe springtime. Why not
invite people to your center during the “busy” months too?
Afraid of a waiting
list? If you market your way to being too busy during the hours everyone wants
to be there come up with off hour specials and events to drive them from
prime-time weekend hours to late night, early morning or weekday business when
you have lanes available.
The bowling
business can be like a snowball rolling downhill. If we have more business than
normal in the winter we will have more business than usual in the spring, more
business in the spring than usual and you can have a better summer and of
course a better summer equals a better fall. REPEAT-REPEAT-REPEAT.
The opposite can be
true too. The worst thing we can do is cut marketing, hours, staffing, days of
the week we are open.
Would you drive to a restaurant if you didn't for sure if they would be open? Why do we think our customers
would drive to a bowling alley under the same circumstances?
Lewis Sims,
Director of Fun and Co-Owner Operator
Dynasty Lanes 3105
St. Rt. 103 Willard Ohio 44890
