A feel-good approach to your customer service

One of the 1980’s most iconic TV shows, “Cheers,” has a valuable lesson for every industry – the value of customer service. “Cheers” ran for a total of 275 episodes, spanning eleven seasons, and the show centered on the lives of a Boston bar’s patrons. The repeat customers at the bar continued to go back to Cheers not because of the menu, but because of the true sense of community, where, as the theme song mentions, “everybody knows your name.” If you want to make your bowling center more of a feel-good locale that attracts repeat customers, there are ...

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What size shoes?

Customer service is one of the few areas where focusing too much on “efficiency” can be detrimental to your business. It may seem paradoxical, but it’s true. Customer service is not about the numbers. It’s about the people and the customers’ experience. Sure, it would be quicker to greet all of your customers at the front counter with a simple question “Shoe size?” But the less efficient greeting that encompasses making the person feel comfortable with the pricing structure, the setting, and even the “bowling vernacular,” are all good investments into ...

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Feature Interview – Technology in Today’s Bowling Centers

In last week’s blog post, we talked about the dangers of accepting the “normal” and the status quo in our bowling centers. This week, we want to expand upon that theme and to do so, I interviewed someone who has perfected the art of avoiding the normal – Glenn Hartshorn, the owner of New Center Consulting. Glenn is considered a true innovator in our industry because of the many ways in which he incorporates technology. His innovation rests on one key thing – he never settles for the routine or “normal.” Jim: What is your approach to technology for bowling ...

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Don’t settle for “Normal”

As a bowling proprietor, are you satisfied with “normal”? The definition and synonyms of “normal” point to why we should spend less time chasing the “normal” route and attempting to achieve the “normal” outcomes. “nor-mal” | conforming to a standard, usual, typical or expected.  Synonyms: usual, standard, ordinary customary, conventional, habitual, accustomed. Noun the usual, average or typical state or condition. Habitual. Conventional. Ordinary. In other words? Boring. Those synonyms of “normal” are precisely why we, in this industry, ...

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Maximizing Digital Marketing

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! On this three-day weekend, we are doing a special blog post on how to make sure your marketing program is ready for the new year. Like everything else in the bowling industry, marketing has changed over the past few decades. Today’s marketing in our industry has made as many changes as other aspects of this dynamic industry. Consider, for example, just a few of the transformative changes we have seen in our bowling centers over the last several years. Lane surfaces have gone from wood lanes to high tech synthetic lanes, stack ...

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A New Kind of Blog, with Bowling Proprietors and Managers in Mind

Regardless of whether you’re a newcomer to bowling center proprietorship or you’ve been managing bowling centers for decades, chances are that you would benefit from resources and ideas for how to take your center (or centers) to a new level. Ten Pin Marketing is known for its unique digital marketing designed for family entertainment and bowling centers. And today, we are launching a new feature – a blog with frequent posts about how to achieve even greater success in this industry. As a lifelong bowling center enthusiast and decades-long proprietor, I will ...

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Social Media Isn’t Just For Kids

As Millennials get older, so do the tools they use to communicate with each other. In today's world, those tools are vital for any establishment's success. To make it more complicated, you need to have people know about your online presence. You can have a great Facebook page and post stellar website content, but without an audience no one will know you're out there. Basically, you could have your microphone but have no one around to hear you perform.

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Why Redesign Your Website?

Gone are the days when the website was the last thing to do. Nowadays, websites are more than flyers but information hubs that interact with your organization’s social media channels. They act as the foundation for your multimedia marketing plan, connecting your customers to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, EventBrite and more. And, without the right kind of website you can run into problems reaching those customers. Websites that are not compatible with smartphones, the ones that users cannot easily navigate on the iPhone or Android phone, see less traffic and fewer ...

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