Our One Trick Pony Is Out of Tricks. Now What?

According to the latest Nielsen reports, Americans spent an average of 33 hours per week watching TV and about 17 hours on the Internet.  In many cases, these activities were done simultaneously.

With our industry's infatuation with all things "Internet", we have largely ignored one of the popular mediums available to us to get our message out.

The reasons for this are many, but here are a few, "it costs too much", "can't measure it," and "don't know enough about TV busying to feel comfortable doing it." Couple these reasons with the omni present reason of  "tired it and it didn't work" and you have an industry, for millions of potential customers that remains invisible.

And invisibility creates empty bowling centers.

So instead of using cable TV or radio, proprietors are pounding their data base with price off promotions and other "coupons" to get consumers to go bowling.

Yet open play across the country is STILL down.  Given that less than 15% of consumers open their email, it is no wonder. Our one trick pony may have run out of tricks.

Maybe, instead of each of us working our data base dry, we got together in our local markets and developed a multi media campaign that included TV (or radio as well as Internet marketing and direct mail) we could collectively get to where we want to go.

With gas prices projected to go to $5 a gallon, isn't it time a group of local proprietors talked about bowling's benefits of being a "close to home affordable entertainment value" and then demonstrated it with specific offers that would be relevant for each of our important segments.

It would then be up to each proprietor to implement his/her own efforts in regards to Internet marketing, outside sales and inside sales?

Isn't it time we worked together and developed this type of effort?  Maybe the BPAA could help subsidize it?

Why not do it? What do you have to lose?

Nothing else is working.

If there is a group of proprietors out there interested in developing this type of approach, you got me for a free teleconference strategy session and to act as your guide.

Yup, I have been doing this for over 30 years so I know a little bit about integrated media campaigns.                     914 592 2836 (office) or email me at fredkaplowitz@gmail.com 

Every Question You Ask Is Expensive

The good news is I have been receiving questions from more proprietors interested in finding out how to get more information about their customers. I frequently refer them to http://www.surveymonkey.com which is an on line research company that helps you to send, manage and analyze the results of a questionnaire to your data base.

The bad news is that "questionnaire writing and market research analysis" didn't usually come with the job description for a bowling proprietor.

So in this short post, here are 4 Tips for Writing a Questionnaire

1.       Every question you ask is expensive. (Expensive in terms of loyalty and goodwill). Don't ask a question unless you truly care about the answer. This means that a vague question with vague answers (extremely satisfied...acceptable...extremely dissatisfied and no scale to compare them to) is a total waste of time. What action will you take based on that? It's smarter to ask, "how much would you say lunch was worth?"

2.       Every question you ask changes the way your users think. If you ask, "which did you hate more..." then you've planted a seed.

3.      Make it easy for the user to bail. If you have 20 questions (that's a lot!) make it easy to quit after five and have those answers still count. If you waste my time and then don't count my answers, see #2

4.      Make the questions entertaining and not so serious, at least some of them. Boring surveys deserve the boring results they generate.    Don't be afraid to shake up the format. Instead of saying, "Here are ten things, rank them all on a scale of one to five..." why not let people compare things?  "We had two speakers, Bob and Ray. Who was better?

For more information on this, give me a jingle at 516 359 4874

Revolutionizing The Pefect

I read a quote the other day that went something like this, “revolution is the replacement of the seemingly perfect by the seemingly impossible.”

The record business was almost the perfect business, new records, new artists, and new sales; seemed like it could go on forever.

Then digital hit and the perfect business became revolutionized never to be that perfect again.

Once upon a time, the bowling business was the perfect business, a product that appealed to every demographic segment in urban and suburban areas across the country and around the world. 

Then competition happened. Disney land happened. Entertainment options happened, restaurants happened, affordable travel happened and we made barely a move, still clinging to our once perfect business.

Oh, we created automatic scoring, and a few other doodads, but we haven’t stretched yet to create the seemingly impossible. 

Not nearly as far as we can.  Not even close.

That’s up to you.

The Difference Between "The Wills" and "The Will Nots"

I have been on a bit of a rant lately as it pertains to customer service. maybe its because I see so much bad service in my travels that I am often astounded when I get good service. 


Some people say that today's employees just don't care; that they don't make enough to put up with customer abuse, anger and frustration so they do as little as possible.  Others say it is lack of training. These so called bad employees have never been trained or have been poorly trained to handle the rigors of retail outlets.


And while much has been written about the 99% vs the 1%, I think its not about the haves and have nots, its about "the wills" and "will nots."


We hire employees and sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't.  For every employee I have hired and had to fire, I blame me. I failed. Failed to hire the right person, failed to train the person and failed to monitor that person's progress.


It wasn't until I found out that the person I hired was a "will not" person.  they will not work at what they were hired, will not go the extra mile and will not learn from their mistakes.


But I finally cured that.  Now i try to hire athletes. It worked for Tom Landry, the legendary coach of the Dallas Cowboys. He hired Bobby Hayes, at the time the fastest human on the planet - did 9.2 seconds in a 100 yard dash, and then trained him to catch footballs.


Bobby Hayes had a "will" personality. he will learn, he will be trained. He will listen. He will learn from his mistakes and he will want to be the best he can be.
So the moral of today's story. Look for "Will" personalities. People who will achieve and have demonstrated it before. People who will learn and have demonstrated it before. People who will fail and pick themselves up and promise to do it better next time and have demonstrated it before.


Start with some of the people on the local high school or college athletic teams.  They wouldn't be playing sports if they didn't want to win.


They have the WILL to win.


And I imagine so do you.

Stupid John, The Customer Service Nightmare Maker

So there I was knee deep in mud, trying to get my SAAB away from the tree that it decided to visit into when I thought I better call a tow truck operator. Alex’s Towing was recommended by a bunch of people here in Elmsford, NY so I called the place and they sent someone out to separate the two love birds.

The next day when I called the company and said I would like them to take my SAAB to SAAB hospital in Manhattan and all I had was $150 in insurance towing, the employee, John, but I prefer "Stupid John", answered with, “No I can’t do it for that, no way. 

“Ok”, I said, “I would like to keep the business local, can we make a deal”. Gruffly, he said, “No deal. That’s the price. Take it or leave it”.

I think I will leave it I thought. “Ok”, I said, “I will come and pay you the $80 this morning and make arrangements to have the car towed by another company”. 

“Hey” he said, “who told you $80, that ain’t the price”.  “Your employee who towed it”, I said. “He can’t tell you nuthin'. He’s an idiot and he’s not all there.” 

Nice, I thought. Who wouldn’t want to work for you? Heck, I’ll bet you have a lineup of people just waiting to work for you, JERK!

After making arrangements with my insurance company to have the SAAB towed by another operator I called John and told him I would meet him and pay him.

“OK, c’mon over” as he slammed the phone down. Of course I go to the yard and there is no John.  I call him and tell him I am at the yard and he says, “Well I am at the office”.  “Why didn’t you tell me that before?” I say.  “Whatever, you comin’ or not?”  “Oh I’ll be there”, I said.  

Of course when I get to the office he is on the phone, not even acknowledging me and ignoring me for about 5 minutes. When he finally gets off he says, “You here to pay for the SAAB”.

No I came to discuss Advanced Calculus with you, I thought. “Yes” I say. “Ok, says he, “$85 bucks ($5 more than his “idiot” quoted) and that’s cash only".  

What no credit card or even check?  “Thanks for making it easy to do business with you”, I say.  His sneer, coupled with his tattoos made me feel that this was just a bad guy having a bad day and maybe I should just walk away.

Nah! Not my style.  


So I said I would meet him at the yard when my tow truck showed up in 15 minutes. 15 minutes later when my tow truck arrived, there was no John.  

Again I called him and he said he would be there in 10 minutes. 20 minutes later he showed up, jumped out of his car and went for his flat bed which he cranked up and conveniently parked in the entrance of the yard to make it difficult for my tow truck driver to get in.

When I finally got my car safely on the flat bed and out of the yard, I walked up to him, got real close to him and said, “I want to thank you for a wonderful customer experience and in fact I am going to tell as many people as I can about how wonderful this was”. 


In typical stupid John fashion, he shrugged, put on his sunglasses and drove away.

I will send this letter to the owner. Everyone says he is a decent guy, been around for 20 years and treats everyone fairly.  But he should know what a disservice this employee is doing to his business and much he is undermining 20 years of good will.  

What would you do if you got a letter like this from me about one of your employees?  Would you respond? Would you refund my money or would you just  ask John his side of the story, believe him and do nothing?

Seriously, what would you do?


I will keep you posted if I get a response :)


p.s.  Received two nice comments from Ken Paton on my blog about social marketing and from C.J. Fox about telling it like it is on birthday parties

Give Some Love. 6 Rules Guaranteed To Increase Your Birthday Party Sales

This one is a little longer than usual, but I humbly assure you, it will be worthwhile. Please stay with it to the end. 

Call 10 or 20 bowling centers to get information about their birthday parties. I almost guarantee that you will get one of three answers. 

1.  Uh, can you call back later and speak to the manager/owner/supervisor)?  
2. Hold on, let me get someone who can answer that (wait 5 minutes, come back to the phone). Guess what? Customer is gone!  
3. Sure we have three parties and let me tell you about them?  Read from brochure on the desk, never stopping to ask a question).  Customer asks questions, maybe a sale is closed.  Maybe.

Obviously, none of these approaches work really well with the first two being death. The third, a feeble attempt at offering information is just barely scratching the service.

So I thought I would give you a sure fire way to almost guarantee that your birthday party sales get stronger and your close ratio higher.

But first, a little philosophy. 

Realize that people are calling you about your most precious asset: their child.  And they want to feel that you or your staff is really interested in their child as a person and them as a parent. So your attitude on the phone is a dead giveaway as to whether or not they want to entrust you with their MVA (Most Valuable Asset).

RULE #1: SHOW SINCERE INTEREST IN THEIR BIRTHDAY PARTY INQUIRY.

And you do that by asking questions and asking questions until you can provide Mom or dad with information that meets THEIR needs

MOM: Hello. Can you tell me some information about your birthday parties

You: I sure can. May I get your name? And what is your child’s name and how old will he or she be?

MOM: Amanda Jones and his name is Johnny and he will be 8

You: Well, Mrs. Jones here’s wishing a happy 8^TH birthday to Johnny from all of us here at Happy Bowl. Do you have a date and time in mind for his party?

MOM: Yes March 15^{th .}  Oh, probably around 3pm

You: Great we have that time available and I am sure Johnny will have a fabulous time here. Now about how many children do you plan to invite

MOM: about 10 or so. 

You: Great:  I am sure you will be so happy having his party here, we do lots and lots of them and all are special to us.  Now Mrs. Jones, do you have a planned budget in mind since we do have several options to choose from and I wanted to make sure that we meet your requirements.

Rule #2: GIVE THE PROSPECT WHAT SHE WANTS NOT WHAT YOU WANT

MOM. Oh probably around $150.

You:  Great. I think I have just what you are looking for. Our “Striker” party includes (blah blah blah) and will be $14.95 per child so for 10 children you are right at your budget. May I reserve that spot for you

RULE #3. ALWAYS BE CLOSING?

Mom:  Well, let me think about it and call you back?

RULE#4:  OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

You:  I completely understand that. I would want to do the same thing if it was my child.  Other Moms have said the same thing.  Is there any one thing I can clarify?

RULE #5:  FIND OUT THE OBSTACLE(S)

MOM:  Well, uh, uh, do you have anything cheaper?

You: We certainly can accommodate that. We have our Spare package. It’s only $11.95 per child but doesn’t include (blah blah blah) 

RULE #6 (SEE RULE #3)

You:  I can reserve that day and time for you right now, OK? Would you like me to reserve that for you?

MOM:  Yes, yes, that’ sounds better.

You: OK you are all set and I just know that Johnny will have the time of his life and you won’t have to worry about your house getting messed up. We’ll do all the work and your son will have all the fun.  May I have your credit card # so we can hold a $XXX deposit for that space?

At that point you also want to get the customer’s email so you can send a confirmation and a happy birthday card to Johnny about 3 to 4 days before his birthday.

The whole point is not to necessarily have a script, but to have an attitude of gratitude that someone wants to entrust you with their MVA and you take that responsibility seriously enough to do everything you can to find out what Mom wants.

And then give it to her...with some love!

Tell Me a Story

If you open up or view lots of Facebook pages from businesses, you kind of get a feeling that far too many businesses are using Facebook as a substitute for a direct mail promotion. And that is just one big turnoff to your “Facebook friends and fans.”

It’s an easy trap to fall into. 

People have agreed to “like” you or join your “tribe”, as it is popular to say.  But just because a person has agreed to be your fan or friend, doesn’t mean you should only converse with her about what you are selling.  Would you entire conversation with your friends only focus on what you want your friend to buy from you?   I don’t think you would have a best friend very long.

Isn’t that the trap of Facebook?  

We just sell, sell, sell and our “friends” who eventually say, “Oh that is so boring, I am outta here” and out goes a prospect.

Instead, tell a story about your center. Tell a story about something funny that happened at the center. Tell a story about an employee. Give your center a PERSONALITY.  Become more than a mortar and brick facility that gives good service.  Big deal.  Everyone says it.  Very few prove it.

Remember when your folks would tell you stories and how you remember them to this day.  It’s because they told you a story. It became a memorable impression. Imagine if you can tell a story on your Facebook page in words and pictures/videos on a consistent basis without selling so hard, but much more subtly. 

Example “tell a birthday story of how Mom’s birthday cake fell while getting out of her car and how one employee ran to the store to get a birthday cake that Mom forgot. And oh yes, we would do the same for you”.

Please, it's called social media for a reason.