Let’s Get Social!
News and Notes
Summer is coming to a close and with the seasons changing, so should your hours of operations. For many, the summer gives you extended hours to help get more kiddos into your playground. As school comes back into session, and the sun setting sooner, you should adjust accordingly.
Memberships typically retract in August and September. One of the best tools you have is the ability to suspend memberships. This key tool can keep otherwise cancelled members in your fold. The best advice is to follow up with guests who send in their cancellation request with a phone call or email. This has a bonus effect of acknowledging their request to cancel, and providing them with an option to suspend their membership. It can range from 30-120 days. For those on reduced plans this is a huge selling point as a suspended member can keep their existing rate. Save cancellations by doing this and in the long run you will retain more members and also keep up the customer service by reaching out to them and keeping the good in customer service.
Inside The Numbers
July 2022 Top 5 Revenue Streams
Parties:
- Chino: $27,758
- Metairie: $25,008
- Dublin: $21,191
- Norterra: $19,706
- Riverside: $14,918
Food/Beverage:
- Norterra: $ 21,766
- Riverside: $18,355
- Stockton: $17,177
- Surprise: $16,566
- Metairie: $16,187
Entries:
- Riverside: $52,600
- Norterra: $46,390
- Stockton: $43,270
- San Jose: $42,289
- Grapevine: $37,290
*Arcade:
- Norterra: $23,547
- Grande Prairie: $21,667
- Surprise: $14,270
- Sutton: $14,003
- Chino: $12,677
*Partial numbers, please see your own records for complete analysis
*Active Members:
- Surprise: 506
- Norterra: 491
- Chino: 360
- San Jose: 266
- Phoenix: 259
*As of July 31, 2022
Our Corporate (Portal) Website is where you can place purchase orders, submit warranty requests, grab “to go” marketing graphics and mingle with your fellow franchisees.
Past Issues of Newsletter are now in the portal. Check them out by clicking the blog tab on the company portal.
Update: We have a pending shipment of 14,000 pairs of socks that is currently in transit to the warehouse. We appreciate your patience as we work to fill up our sock reserves in the next month.
- Toddler- Currently Out Of Stock
- X-Small - Currently Out Of Stock
- Small - Currently Out Of Stock
- Medium
- Large
- X-Large - Currently Out Of Stock
- XX-Large
- XXX-Large - Currently Out Of Stock
Please use the company portal to place your order. In order to expedite these orders, we are requesting orders of 200 per size, which is 1 box per size.
Also, check out our Franchise Blog, it has timely information and updates on training and development. The blog showcases tips and tricks for increasing revenue and buy in.
Please check this regularly, as new content will be posted weekly to assist each of you succeed! Do you have your own tips and tricks? Please submit them and we can use it in a future issue.
Revenue Stream Spotlight
August is the return of school for many of us across the nation and into Canada. Field trips are a key resource to keep your facility running during the week when your traffic typically dips. Past issues of the newsletter have great resources on how to execute these trips, from conception to operations.
From Sophia’s Desk
Some of you may have experienced your Embed system crashing this month for a day or two which we understand is very problematic when you have kiddos wanting to purchase cards to play games.
We conferenced with Embed and High Score recently to see what could be done in the future to avoid this happening again, and they recommended installing malware protection on your systems to help protect against any future threats.
From our partners at Embed... .
A good practice for security could be to sign up with a managed service security provide such as overseemyit.com which will allow them to properly monitor and manage the security and patches for all their technology. This would give you the increased security you need to prevent external threats.
-Stephen Griffith, Embed Support
For those locations that were affected Bob from High Score sent out a message with the following information to assist in resetting your Embed servers, see below.
- Microsoft has a very straight forward guide on how to reset Windows. Please reset the main server PC using the steps outlined in this link below:
If you have any questions or problems with doing this, please contact Embed Support directly by email at support@embedcard.com or by calling 469-521-8000 and they can assist with walking you through these steps.
Insurance Reminder
If you have not updated this, please use the following information to get this done!
Questions? Email Sophia below
Marketing 101
Increasing Traffic
A couple great ways to increase traffic is through a few simple steps of updating your local listings and responding to reviews. Below is a bit of information and the importance of each. Plus, with the help of SOCi you can do this all on your phone in a few quick minutes,
Improve Local Listings
How does a business keep all the information about their business in the age of the internet correct? You can attempt to update everything on your own on each platform, but it is a time-consuming task. That is why we are loving SOCi and the local listings feature. It allows you to update information about your business, hours, special events, pictures, and so much more all in one convenient place. Their platform then works with the various providers to make sure all the data is consistent and accurate which help to keep you ranking in the top for searches. Keeping our local listings accurate and updated will help to boost your visibility, “on Google, customers are 70% more likely to visit and 50% more likely to consider purchasing from businesses with a complete Google Business Profile.
Plus, adding updated current photos can give you an edge. People are visual and having images in searches greatly helps your ranking. Having great photos to represent your location allows consumers an inside view of what they can expect. Most local directories allow you to include photos of your business, so consumers know what to expect when visiting your business location.
Reviews
Love them and hate them, reviews are what guests look at and receive their first experience with your location. I am sure your guests have been told by guests how much they love it. Ask for the review. Incentivize the review. Leave a review get $2 Off your next visit when you show a team member before you leave. But also responding to reviews is a must. Negative reviews have an impact and as a local owner they can be a bit personal, but did you know that 87% of guests have a willingness to change a negative review depending on how you respond? If you take the time to respond to negative reviews and tries to make the guest feel like they’re heard, you are increasing your chances that they will change their negative review. SOCi has great templates that make responding a breeze for both positive and negative reviews which also allow for modification.
If you need more information about utilizing SOCi for listings or reviews check out the SOCi Knowledge Center for tips and tricks https://support.meetsoci.com/hc/en-us#KB
SOCi Reminder
As a reminder we are continuing to build out marketing materials on SOCi. This is a great resource to utilize for scheduling out social posts as we have a ton of graphics readily available, responding to reviews, and managing listings
Set Up a Time to Chat With Christina
As always please reach out if you have any questions or want assistance to build your program of offerings. Schedule a meeting below 👇
Brand Colors
Training and Development Corner
Aluvii Updates
Over the past month, we have heard from numerous franchises on reconciling and reconciliation issues with the POS platform. We have had active discussions with Robert and his team on getting items corrected. But we need to hear from you. If you are seeing that your credits and debits are not adding up to what Aluvii has on their books, we ask you to email us, or cc Edward or Sophia on your correspondence with Aluvii. We are working to remedy the situation and will keep the feet to the fire on any other issues that may arise. We need your help in doing so.
Reminder, you can suspend memberships in house, use the link below to get started.
Site Visits
Site visits will be conducted over the fall and winter. We typically do these each year. Due to Covid-19, these visits were suspended. The format will follow the same visits we did in 2019. These typically are 1-2 day visits and would prefer to have you present. With that in mind, be on the look out for an upcoming email as we get you scheduled. Thank you to Chino and Riverside for your hospitality with my recent trip to your playgrounds.
With the seasonality of our playgrounds, one of the ways you can set a plan in. For questions, please email me at edward@luv2play.com and I will be happy to elaborate or offer one on one or group training.
Luv 2 Play Monthly Conference Call (Franchise Check Up)
Each month we want all Franchisees to take an hour out of their day to discuss the daily operations with us. We go over staffing, pricing, competition and MUCH MUCH more. It’s our way of keeping a pulse of each of you and to better help you succeed in your business. We would LUV to speak with you. The corporate team of Edward, Christina and Sophia are eager to help.
To set up a time use the link below 👇👇👇