USIndoor's Official Magazine is a quarterly publication, dedicated to owners, managers, program administrators and other professionals, startups and providers involved with indoor recreational sports facilities.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/204891
EVERY BIRTHDAY INTRODUCES A NEW CUSTOMER by Beth Standlee, TrainerTainment B irthdays may be one of the most important avenues to growing your business. Often I tell the story that my children were never invited to a skating party. So guess what? They never skated! Busy families are busy! Come to think of it, they were never invited to a soccer party either and–you guessed it–we did not play soccer. It's unreasonable to think that everyone should play soccer-or is it? You see, in business, it might be a great idea to be a little unreasonable. What if you decided that your mission is that every child gets exposed to your game at least once in their life? To me, this is a far more compelling reason to grow your birthday program than simply increasing revenue through your party product. Call me crazy, most people do. But I think it would be so much easier to train and inspire your staff to get behind a program that helps ALL children have the opportunity to play soccer. We get them through the door because just one friend (the birthday child) invites them to their party. Once they come to the party, we have "coach hosts" that teach, interact, and play throughout the entire party. Some of those party guests are going to get hooked on soccer! Hey, there's the title for your birthday party initiative… "GET HOOKED ON SOCCER!" (or another sports specialty.) 8 In my mind the way to create a compelling party program includes these top 10 best practices: will even go ahead and book their child's party before they leave the party they were invited to. 1 Learn to allow your product to sell itself, rather than simply "tell" others about it. At TrainerTainment, we are helping clients daily by creating custom "sales scripts" that train staff to handle the phone call in a "sales way." 7 Make every moment of the party exciting. One way we do that is by using "Fast Lite Candles" from www. redemptionplus.com. When you light one candle all the candles light up. It creates an "Ooh! Ah!" moment every time. 2 Make sure every individual party has a dedicated host/coach that is assigned ONLY to that party. 8 Sometime during the party, have the party coach ask, "Who has the next birthday party?" This is a great way to invite those children to consider having a soccer party, too! greet and the 3 Meet andchild at Momfront door with birthday the an airline style welcome sign that says "Happy Birthday." 4 We love to identify the child as the birthday superstar and do so with an LED lighted "It's My Birthday" button that you can find at www. stuffshop.com/. birthday queen 5 Since theidentifiableking orthe "It's is easily with My Birthday" button, we encourage you to teach every staff member to stop and wish that guest of honor a happy birthday! 6 Interact, interact, interact! Did I mention how important it is for your party coach to interact with EVERY guest at the birthday party? This is one of the best ways I know to build your program. An engaged, interactive party host can literally create bookings for other children at the party! Sometimes an impressed parent 9 Include a bounce-back offer that includes a free return visit on another day for every party guest. Make it part of the package. 10 For other ways to grow call your birthday party business, TrainerTainment. Our programs have helped well over 100 centers across North America increase their party sales from 15%-80%! Our phone number is 817886-4840. If there are just three ideas in this article that you can commit to implementing in the next thirty days, I believe you would begin to see increases in your birthday program immediately! Best of luck to you. I hope every child gets "HOOKED"!