Boring.

Marie and I checked into a Florida Hampton Inn for about 4 days and I remarked to her how unremarkably remarkable this hotel is. In fact it was the same hotel I stayed in Detroit, Dubuque and Des Moines. They’re all the same…give or take a few wrinkles here or there.

But over the last 10 years, something has been happening in the hotel rooms. When Holiday Inns used to advertise that “the best surprise was no surprise", they were right for the time. Back then all the weary traveler wanted was comfort, convenience, ease of service, reliability and quality.

But that was then and this is now.

As David Brooks commented in the New York Times recently, “It’s easy to forget how much more boring the marketplace was just a two decades ago – more boring cuisine, more boring restaurants and more boring hotels.”

Recently, there has been a creative brand explosion within the hotel industry. It’s called boutique hotels. And while a $339 night hotel in Soho NY can be sold out and $139 Hilton Garden Inn goes begging for rooms, I ask myself why that is?

Simply because people will pay extra not to be bored.

People are no longer buying things. Do you really think the IPad, the big screen TV, the bazillion Internet gadgets and devices are being bought are being bought NOT because they are just “things”, but because they represent “experiences."

So the basic rule of consumer happiness is:  Buy Experiences, Don’t Buy Things.

If you are still selling things, you have a problem with the new consumer and more importantly if the hotel industry, which used to be a commodity can differentiate by turning itself into an emotional experience, why can’t the bowling industry?

Clues of this starting are beginning to be seen. From the "all open play experience" to the "private lanes" to "the boutique centers"  to the FEC with bowling as an anchor, we are seeing this trend s-l-o-w-l-y starting to take shape. and it needs to start moving faster. We need to get an emotional arousal from our customers because the Internet has taught them to expect more and thus they are culturally more competent than ever and more informed to make better choices that won't result in boredom.

But far too many proprietors are holding on to the past.  And while it is expensive to change; it is far more expensive to remain the same and be viewed as just plain old BORING!

The Crackerjacks Effect

Any good marketing person will tell you that the first objective of any direct - mail - campaign is to get the prospect to OPEN THE ENVELOPE. 

And so there has been a lot of research done on sizes of envelopes, color, shape, address (printed or handwritten), copy on envelopes vs. no copy on envelopes, return addresses vs. P.O. Box return addresses and, first class vs. bulk rate

I have found that there are only two types of envelopes that will get a reader’s attention in a pile of mail. 

One is a handwritten envelope.

The second is a bulky envelope. I call it the “Crackerjacks effect” that promises to contain more than just another bill or boring letter. Most people are naturally curious. If there is a prospect of getting a gift or a treat, then at the very least they are going to open up the letter to find out what’s inside. This is one of the reasons why the Crackerjacks effect is so effective.

Curiosity is a tool that you can use to your advantage when working on a direct mail campaign.

Think of small items that you can include in your letter that will make the envelope bulky and therefore make your readers curious enough to open it. Be careful to only use items that will remain intact. Biscuits for example will just end up as a handful of greasy crumbs.

Campaigns with chocolates are best done in the cooler winter months otherwise that too can end up as a sticky mess. If you don’t want to use plain pictures then consider sponge cut outs. This could be a very effective way of making your envelope bulky but ensuring that your message remains intact.

Why should I read your letter?

With direct mail campaigns, you need to give your prospects a compelling reason to open and read your letter. Because people get bombarded with so much information and so many sales pitches on a daily basis, you need to find a creative way to get your prospects attention.

Give them something to be curious about and you already have a foot in the door. Here are a few ideas that are very effective:

·         Include a headache tablet with the phrase: “If thinking about something to do with the family this weekend is giving you a headache? Happy Lanes can help. Then go on and explain your program pointing out the benefits of affordability, quality time, feelings of accomplishments, team spirit, etc.

·        Attach a matchstick to the top of the letter. In your introduction you can explain “Here’s a burning idea that’s all about Good Time family Fun.” Happy Lanes is the place to cool off with family and friends this weekend>

·         If you are a promoting a special event or corporate party, you can include a balloon. “Dear Peter, if you are thinking of ideas for your next company party or celebration we can help you….”

·    You can include chocolates. You can even personalize the chocolate wrappers. Then in your introduction you can say something about having a sweet deal to tell them about.

·    Include a sweatband and a comment: “Are the costs of your weekend family fun making you sweat?  Does it feel like an endless marathon effort? Happy lanes can help!

For most people getting a surprise in the mail is a welcome diversion from an average stressful work day. A bulky envelope with a handwritten address is far more likely to get a person’s attention than a corporate looking printed envelope.

Not every letter needs to be bulky mail especially if you are sending out a series of letters. You can decide at what point it will be most effective in your campaign.

Be creative and have fun with it. If you do you can be sure your readers will enjoy it too.

As always, I strongly urge that you use a multitude of tools in  CONJUNCTION with your mail campaign,  which may include a series of letters + an email campaign + daily posts on Facebook and a “YouTube” video,  strategically timed and placed.

And finally it is better to go after that segment which is tightly defined to represent your best prospect for buying the offer you are selling…even if it represents fewer in numbers. 

Give me 1000 great prospects vs. 10,000 suspects any time!

Bowling vs. Time

It’s holiday time and the kids, parents and grandparents are spending quality time while busy consumers are spending time during their free time to go shopping.  Later when they get home they will try to have some down time or free time or alone time or “chilin’ out” time.

You see time has become classified so many different ways that it has become, in many instances, even more precious than money, because once time is gone, you can NEVER get it back. With money, you always have a chance, even if it the lottery. 

It stands to reason then that when choosing how to spend their down time, family time, quality time, spare time and recreational time that consumers have become very choosy, especially since there are so many more options than ever.  Yes, very choosy indeed.

And there you are sitting in your nice bowling center waiting for them to come to you. This time of the year, they DO choose you more frequently than other times.

Why this time of the year only?

Because they have discovered that you represent a good value for their time, a way to spend quality time with the family and also can be a fun time. The fact is you have trained them to go bowling over the holidays. Is it because they like you MORE over the holidays then they do during other times of the year? Or is it because you’re close, convenient and relatively affordable?  

So how do you replicate Christmas week every Friday night thru Sunday and to some extent Monday thru Thursday after 9pm?  

It's about the battle for the consumer's time. And the battle for the consumer's time is a battle of survival. 

Restaurants, Casinos, Vacations,  Big Screen TVs, X Boxes, Movies, Hobbies, Roller skating, Ice skating, Little League, Soccer, Lacrosse, Basketball, Football, Golfing, Business meetings, Religious gatherings, Theaters, Concerts, Second jobs, Exercising, Visiting family and friends and God knows how many more venues compete with you. 

And because you say so little about your business, people forget you are there. The less you do, the more the consumer forgets about you.  Do you think these other guys are sitting around doing nothing? Heck No. They don't let us forget.They are in our faces every day.

It starts with letting the people, who come in this week; know you are available in January and February. If you can’t get their name or email, then hand them an old fashioned bounce back coupon with a real good offer to get them to come back.

Spend some time this week thinking about how you can be more valuable and likable during other weeks. How can you be one of their top three "time choices?

Oh, one other thing, if the consumer is coming to your center to spend some time, why aren't you charging by time instead of a game?  But that's a whole other rant!

Yeah, take some time. 

The Baby Boomer and Bowling.

72 million Americans are between the ages of 50 and 68 years old who are approaching or have reached the age of retirement. Some will have an easy and prosperous retirement, while others will be working a long, long time.

I’m not sure where I will fall in this spectrum based upon new health care laws, tax laws and the fact that I still like what I do. I never ever thought I had a job, but rather that I had work to do. It was my career and my career (and work) contributed to who I was a man, a husband and father.

N o doubt there are lots of people out there that perhaps feel the same way and as they look around at their options, they ask “What shall I do? Where am I going?

And yet we, the bowling industry have lost this fastest growing segment, actually two segments; older boomers 65+ and younger boomers 50-64.

We lost them because they moved to a more affluent suburb when they were younger and bowling was not “de rigueur.”  None of their friends bowled.

We lost them because they too viewed their work as a career and not a job and made sacrifices like traveling two or three or even five days a week to gain advancement. No time for bowling.

We lost them because things got expensive and their wives worked not only for the money, but for fulfilling the role of the “New American Woman”.  Finally women were liberated enough to feel confident enough to pursue any career they wanted.

We lost them because bowling alleys weren't healthy. Fewer and fewer of them smoked and bowling alleys were places where people smoked and drank and maybe even cussed.

And finally we lost them because new and more inviting entertainment options became available where they didn't have to commit to a 36 week schedule; which we refused to change…until we had to.

So here’s the question, how do you get a 55 to 64 year old to bowl?

The “old think” traditional answer is to form a 55 to 64 yr old fun league for 12 or 14 weeks. But that’s not the answer.

What you really need to do, I believe, is to view this group as a new segment that might have bowled in another lifetime, but today, well, it isn't even on their radar.

But birthday parties and anniversaries and celebrations certainly are. When was the last time you had a marketing campaign that targeted 50, 55 60 and 65 year old birthdays.

Surely if you begin to get a few of these “millennium nostalgia parties” going and create an atmosphere with 50’s and 60’s music, they might bite.  And as you get more of them, then and only then can you offer a fun nostalgia league that offers premiums like gift certificates for restaurants, vacations, gift certificates for professional pictures of them and their grand kids as well as other items you can think of.

But first start with a great party plan. Nail down everything from decorations to desserts to service levels and expectations. Then invite a few of them for a free party and take videos for them. Get testimonials. Get glowing testimonials. Send out press releases to senior centers, to the Council on Aging in your community. 

Send it to www.cafemoms.com who have parents that are 55 to 65 year olds and probably help plan the parties. Send information out to party planners if you don’t have a data base of 55 to 65 yr olds, go buy one from  www.InfoUSA.com and test a direct mail piece for a birthday party.

They’re out there. All 72 million of them, just waiting for you. If you want to work at it.

p.s. The Boomers also have the most discretionary income of any age group!

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.

It's Hard to Get Great Sushi in South Dakota, Not Like NYC

Nothing against the good people of South Dakota, but sushi is hard to get there.  Not a lot of water close by and Sushi needs to be really fresh to be great, so even if it is imported, it is a bit “old” before it gets there.

I make this statement because it leads me to this blog:  You Can’t Get Great Marketing Inside Of Your Center.  Oh sure you can train your people to sell inside, and we certainly do that with our clients and you can develop email campaigns and Facebook campaigns that have solid content and great graphics. 

You can even produce beautiful fliers and great posters as well as graphic presentations for your overhead flat screen HD monitors.

And that leaves something we all call “outside selling”.  I don’t know why we call it that. (I guess to distinguish it from “inside selling”). It’s just sales 101”, a) getting visitors to become leads, b) getting leads to become real prospects, c) getting real prospects to become customers.

Now I could write a thesis on “outside selling” for bowling centers, FEC’s, mini golf courses, amusement parks, water parks, etc. There different yet similar.

But here is the thing that just amazes me and blows me away.  So few centers have even a part time person dedicated to selling.  Here’s why:

1.    Can’t afford it, too expensive

2.    Can’t measure it; what about the sales that come in over the phone?

3.    Can’t pay the person enough

4.    I have hired them in the past and they always leave

5.    They know I’m here, they will call us to have their party

6.    My center is too small, I have leagues first shift every night

7.    It’s just one more thing I will have to do or my manager will have to do and he doesn’t like selling

I know there are a lot more reasons, but this probably covers the waterfront so let’s break it down here for you

1.    You cannot afford to not have someone selling. Even Google and Amazon have huge sales organizations. They are called account managers and they sell advertising solutions to big companies that want to advertise on their sites. Think about it. High tech companies have a sales force. So does Sysco and Pepsi and Brunswick and AMF and your local distributor.  In fact, you’re the only one in the industry that PROBABLY DOESN’T HAVE A SALES PERSON. C’mon, man.

2.    What do you mean you can’t measure it!? If you hire the sales person and you start to get more parties, special events and group outings, your sales increase. All you have to do is compare it to last year (same week and days). It ain't rocket science.  Just give your sales person at least 60 days before things start to kick in.

3.    You can’t pay the person enough. Have you heard about draw and commission based programs.  It’s been around awhile. Call me on this if you’re unsure and I will be happy to help.

4.    Yup, they leave for a variety of reasons; a) you have no goals for them, b) you tie them up in paper work having to report every minute, c) you haven’t given them some slick sales tools or let them do some direct marketing or take out a booth at a business “fair” in your town.

5.    If you believe this, do you still believe that ‘the check is in the mail?”

6.    Your center is too small. So was my Uncle’s Brother’s Father. So what?? You still have to maximize your income dedicating a sales effort is key.. Doesn't mean that you can’t figure out how to get more sales as well as the “other guy.”  C’mon man.

7.    Yup that’s why they call it work. But you don’t have to make it so hard on yourself if you added selling resources to your 2014 bowling center model.

But you know what?

It’s Hard To Get Great Steak In NYC. Not Like In South Dakota.

It's All About The Customer

With the holiday season now getting into full gear, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend  and your lanes were full.  If they weren't, then you need to examine what your marketing programs are, who you are targeting and how you are communicating your offers.

There is, however; one other important element that many of us take for granted and that is our 

employees and their customer service skills. As more people come into the center, some for the first time since last holiday season, they will have a certain expectation of customer service level.

And you may be surprised that it is higher than it’s ever been. The reason is simply that your customers have been in other establishments where management has emphasized service, managing customer complaints and exceeding customer expectations.

So what have you done to prepare your employees for “the more traffic and selling season?”  "Hmm, not much", you’re saying?

OK, think about a few of these suggestions to give your employees:

·        Answer the phone by at least the third ring: “Hello and thanks for calling Happy Lanes, This is Fred, how may I help you today?

·        “Yes we have lanes available and if you will give me your name I will place you on our VIP list so when you come in, your lanes will be the next available.” Oh you can’t do this? Your existing customers who have been waiting will get angry?  Really? This happens to me every week. The airlines put me on their first class seating list and then when someone comes along with super platinum elite status, I get bumped back to coach!  Put up signs in the center and on your website to tell people to call before they are leaving their home to give their name to your “Customer Service representative,” so they can be put on your Premium VIP list.

·        Customers come to the service desk. What do you say first?  The answer is not “What size shoes do you need?  The answer is: "Hi I’m Fred and welcome to Happy Lanes. We’re going to do everything we can today to make sure that you have a great time today".  (Now reach across the desk and shake hands with the adults and wave to the kidlets. May I take a moment and tell you about our specials.  Yes it’s corny. Yes it’s unexpected.  But you know what?  Customers love this and it puts them in a nice mood.  During the course of this “meet and greet”, please find out if they have ever kept score before, if they feel like they need help with the scorer set up and if they need light weight house balls for their children? Don’t forget to tell them about the bumpers for the kids! And please, go down tot he lanes and find out how they are doing? You're not a desk person, you're the maitre'd.

·        “Oh I am so sorry that happened, let me see how I can fix that to your satisfaction right now”.  Invariably there will be a problem. The food will get delivered late, the kids might trip and fall, the scorers or lanes might develop a virus; and all sorts of things could happen.  Your response is to FIX THE CUSTOMER’S PROBLEM NOW. Don’t wait for the boss to fix it or the M.O.D. to fix it. You fix it. Fix it the way you would want it to be fixed and fix it fast. Research says that if you fix the customers problem immediately, there is a 95% chance they will come back. If you wait a day or two, there is less than a 25% chance they will come back.

·        DO you have a “quickie menu?”  You know: your 5 or 6 fastest moving items that your customer service representative can offer your guests as part of the  “meet and greet” process.  You will get more food orders than you can imagine right there.  Just be sure your operations and control systems are set up to handle that transaction and get it to the kitchen pronto!

 So while you are out promoting your center, your offers and your new leagues for January, don’t forget to delight your customers NOW. You’ll be glad you did

And one last thing:  ask for their names and emails. Offer them a chance to win $25 in FREE bowling and slip an entry card into their shoe rentals so they will fill it out. 

And a pencil too!!