BES Xtras Plus

Yes, you read right…bowling is like onions. How so you may ask?

Over the past decade, the expectations of our customers have changed. What was once thought of as a bowling “alley” is now thought of as an entertainment center.  The role of centers has somewhat changed.  Customers are seeking more than just the fun of bowling.

You see, our job is to create layers of entertainment for our customers and help them to have an experience that goes beyond the fun of bowling…very much like the layers of onions.

You start out with a customer that is entering your facility to bowl and you start adding layers to make their entertainment experience memorable.

Creating layers of entertainment doesn’t mean you have to have multiple activities within your center like laser tag or mini golf, it simply means that you provide great service, a warm smile, an unexpected game, a random give-away, great music, a clean facility, delicious food, an interactive staff that makes the customer feel welcomed and so on. All these layers are added together to form a nice big onion.  The customer sees the value in the experience and when a customer feels their entertainment experience has met or exceeds their expectations, they have no problem paying for it.

“Okay, so bowling is like onions because it should contain layers… but onions make me cry when I peel them!”  Well, if done right, bowling should make the customers have tears of laughter as they start to experience the fun.  To watch a family take their pictures for YouToons and see them laughing and giggling about how goofy Dad looks and to see the excitement when a customer has Lucky Train choose them as a winner shows the result of providing your customer with layers to their experience.

With Halloween just a few weeks away, be sure to offer your customer plenty of layers. Here’s a few layers you might consider adding to their Halloween events:

• Offer a pin decorating contest
• Set up a costume contest
• Set the mood by having Halloween music and decorations throughout.
• HalloPin as the default environment
• Let the Crimson Creeper (Virtual Red Pin) give your customers a visit to the prize cauldron. Strike with the Virtual Red Pin in the headpin position and you win a trip to the cauldron which can contain candy or more elaborate prizes of your choice.
• Let the little ones try their hand in a sink the rat contest. Give them 3 tries to get the rubber rat into the bubbling witches brew (cauldron filled with dry ice)
• Pin the tail on the black cat
• Feature Monster Factory with contests and activities such as MONSTER MATCH or MONSTER MADNESS BINGO (Click to download)

As you can see, you have so many ways to add layers of fun to your customer’s experience. Customers are coming to centers for entertainment…to relax…have fun…unwind…visit with friends…laugh…socialize…get a little exercise…and a number of other reasons.  They have other places they could go to fulfill those entertainment needs but creating an experience made up of multiple layers gives them an experience that they will recognize as a “great value” and as a result are willing to pay for it without hesitation.

Let’s see if we can turn each of our customers bowling experience into onions…we want them all to walk out with tears of joy and in the case of YouToons and some of the other super fun features…laughing so hard they cry!!!

So let’s all try to make bowling more like onions and perhaps your revenue will be like an onion as well…layers and layers of money!

© 2014 QubicaAMF Worldwide LLC