Rink

t's been a fun-filled month for me. I've had two IRs die on me within a few weeks, my main server went down, I officially hit middle age with a quality bout of kidney stones, and to top it off, even had a brawl that included 60 adult soccer players at 12:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning! I was never a Boy Scout. Actually, I was a Boy Scout, but only made it a few weeks. The den mother "suggested" it wasn't a good fit for me. Apparently, there is no "moon" badge. Who would have thought an organization that prides itself on perseverance and self- reliance would be so ill-equipped to han- dle a 10-year-old that had a slightly more adolescent sense of humor? I digress, though. This column isn't about me; it's really about our industry and the trials and triumphs of our every- day world, and just like the Boy Scouts, we always need to be prepared. With the holidays having come and gone, I would hope that each of us spent the time and the resources to capitalize on skating during the past holiday sea- son. Likewise, I would hope that we all have a plan in place to get new skaters into our rinks with the Olympics fast approaching. I've hung my hat on the theory of "just making it through to the Olympics," which will lead to a full learn-to-skate program with enormous public sessions and, ultimately, rolling around in a pile of cash by March! I'm willing to bet almost all of you have said something to that effect as well, albeit you've maybe left out the cash- rolling-around-thing. Is your staff equipped to handle first- time customers coming to the building? Are they going to be return customers? Can everyone sell your programs? Can they do it with a smile and without tex- ting their friends that they only have one more hour until they're off)? What's our next opportunity after the Olympics? Spend the time to prepare your staff. It starts with them. First impressions are a must, particularly in this day of shrink- ing finances and pending economic Armageddon. It's a buyer's market. You know it and I know it, and more impor- tantly, our customers know it. They will find more convenient ways to spend their disposable income if they don't get the experience they want. My case in point: Traveling back from the East Coast, I stopped to get gas in Ohio, 25 miles after my fuel light turned on. The station looked clean, my wife was excited for a rest room break, and the kiddies assumed that it was time for a snack. I swiped my credit card, put in my zip code and thought I was ready to spend $2.87 a gallon for some 87. Then the pump told me to "See Cashier". Huh? I headed to see the Cashier. He told me that I needed to pre-pay, like I'm some sort of criminal. I offered up two credit cards plus my drivers license, which he could hold onto while I filled my tank. "No dice," he told me, "you need to pre-pay." What about everyone else that paid at the pump? "You're not every- one else, you need to pre-pay". This kid was lucky he was behind Plexiglass. Seriously, lucky. Maybe I'm not like everyone else, but I like to think I am. I headed back out to my car, used as much of the windshield cleaner as I could, wiped my headlights off with all the free paper towels I could find, told all the other people pumping their gas about my experience, then drove down the road to the find the next gas station. There's plenty of lessons to learn from this. How many of us have a smart- mouthed kid interacting with our cus- tomers? How many of us would have got- ten back into the car and went to the next station to try our luck there? How many of us have customers that will do the same? And for the record, that kid was lucky because I would have gone for my "moon" badge if my wife would have steered from the passenger seat like I had asked. ★ John Monteleone requests that you do not read this column in the bathroom and guarantees he can drink more Red Bull than you. the final cut 62 R INK MAGAZ INE january/February 2010 by Johnny "The Knife" Monteleone STARrinks.com I digress, though. This column isn't about me; it's really about our industry and the trials and triumphs of our everyday world, and just like the Boy Scouts, we always need to be prepared. ■ Just livin' the rink life. I

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