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Reviews! Read All About Em
Do you have your own review or guest experience? Submit it to edward@luv2play.com for future submissions!
News and Notes
5 years ago, the world was a different place. Time changes, but the Luv 2 Play brand endures. From Metairie to Appleton, to Killeen and Surprise some of the longest locations have flourished and remained dedicated to the communities they serve.
Socks, supplies and other items that your playground needs to restock, replenish and repair are weeks away. We expect all product to be in the warehouse by the middle of December. Our goal will be to fulfill as many orders as possible by the end of 2022. We will keep you updated via the company portal and the Facebook Group. Not in our Facebook Group, click here to get an invite.
Maintenance Tip: Your air compressor needs weekly service to maintain its effectiveness. All hot dog style compressors have a valve switch at the bottom of the tube that needs to be drained WEEKLY. This keeps your lines dry and maximizes the air pressure to your ball guns and ball drop cranes. All air blowers, in ball pits usually, take an air compressor bottle and blow out the debris that settles at the opening where the air comes out. This prevents build up and keeps air moving at an optimal rate.
Inside The Numbers
October 2022 Top 5 Revenue Streams
Parties:
- Dublin: $47,102
- Sutton: $34,143
- Metairie: $30,420
- Stockton: $27,322
- San Jose: $22,710
Food/Beverage:
- Riverside: $ 16,091
- Appleton: $13,532
- Stockton: $13,313
- Norterra: $12,056
- Surprise: $11,462
Entries:
- San Jose: $34,964
- Riverside: $34,460
- Stockton: $32,761
- Appleton: $28,657
- Fairfax: $27,964
*Arcade:
- Grande Prairie: $20,240
- Sutton: $16,001
- Stockton: $15,794
- San Jose: $11,984
- Norterra: $11,765
*Partial numbers, please see your own records for complete analysis
*Active Members:
- Surprise: 674
- Norterra: 618
- Chino: 504
- San Jose: 390
- Appleton: 388
*As of October 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 will be able to fulfill all orders of socks by the end of this year and we do not anticipate any more disruptions going forward in terms of supplies. Included with this shipment are many of the supplies your playgrounds needs to upkeep your facility. This includes balls,
- 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
- Booties
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. Booties come in quantity of 5,000 per box.
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 bi-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
Riverside has been a constant source of entry revenue since they opened. They have done a great job sharing with the community what they do, and how much fun it is. With innovative marketing ideas and a team effort, we have also seen a huge increase in the membership base. Great job, and keep up the Luv!
From Sophia’s Desk
During off seasons we know how hard it can be to think of new and fun ideas to gain attention for your business. I wanted to share with you a great idea that Lacey is trying out at our Phoenix location. It’s a very inexpensive way to attract attention to your facility during slower times and keep your staff busy when they’re not cleaning. Plus, it adds a little fun to the workday for employees and allows them to step out of their comfort zones to engage with guests. If you are interested in more information please reach out and we can share details on where to purchase.
Franchisee Survey Reminder
Hello Franchisees!
Over the next month we will be collecting the attached franchise wide survey to gather feedback from each location. Our goal for this survey is to get a better understanding of where each location is at currently. Including feedback on some of the improvements you may have seen over the last year, as well as any challenges that have come up. Your opinions are important to us, and this survey is your chance to express those opinions, and suggestions.
When you complete and submit the form you will be entered into a raffle for your chance to win a $200.00 credit to use toward select items from Indoor Playground International.
We sincerely appreciate all the hard work you and your teams put in to running the playgrounds. Thank you all in advance for your participation in this survey we look forward to you input!
Questions? Email Sophia below
Marketing 101
With 2023 fast approaching now is the time to review your business and determine any changes for the New Year. Often, we discuss our business in segments- Membership, Parties, Café, Arcade. What are your goals for next year? What are areas your location could benefit from focus? It is important not to try to change too much but pick one or two to focus. It is better to do something well then to do everything haphazardly.
Doing market research and learning what your local competitors are offering if you have not checked in awhile is important to do. This will help you be able to analyze areas you might be able to adjust to remain competitive. What membership or pass options do they offer? What time options? Do they charge for adults? Socks included? Food options? Programs or rewards? Party Packages? Prices? These are all important areas to review prior to determining changes.
Changing up employee goals and incentives is another way we have discussed increasing revenue streams, as the team is your front line of communication. Encouraging customer engagement. How often do you hear about team members? What forms of encouragement and celebration are you utilizing for your team? Are your tracking successes, creating friendly competition and moments of celebration? These are key areas to increasing team performance and the overall culture in your facility.
Now is also a natural time to determine price shifts for the New Year as the rest of the country also adjusts. Make sure to submit these requests early so there is no lag on the changeover.
Membership
A major focus for our overall brand is Membership as we have seen increasing this revenue stream provides sustainable income. But how do you increase this revenue stream? We have implemented the Just Play Membership to help with this, if you have not yet implemented this mini membership the New Year is a great time to do so. Lastly, providing value to your membership. We discuss the perks of membership but are you fulfilling on those promises. What can you do to make membership more special for your members? Monthly Membership events is a great way to start small in adding value to the membership.
Parties
Parties is also an important focus. Do you need to refresh your party packages? Will you add new packages? Add value to current packages? What do your customers ask about? What is important to them? Time? Food? Décor? Goodie bags?
Café
Over the last few months when we have discussed café, we have chatted about simplifying the menu especially for prepared options and increasing grab and go options. This strategy allows your team to make what we do offer well, reduce labor needs, and reduces waste. It is important to remember what our business is about; we are not a gourmet restaurant and people are not flocking through our doors for the food. This of course does not mean what we make should not be good. Many successful fast restaurants attribute success to their simplified menus. Look at your menus, what are you really selling? Are there areas you can simplify?
Arcade
Are there ways you can increase your arcade revenue line? How often is your team upselling? Check in is the perfect opportunity to upsell arcade. Set small goals for your team to sell game cards per shift. Start small, give them a tracking sheet.
Programs
Are you thinking about adding new programs to your facility? Rewards options through punch cards, school incentives, fundraising, team sports, crafts, or story times. When adding a new program, it is important to get team engagement and ownership, this will assist with the overall sentiment in your facility. If your team is excited, they will promote.
We hope one of the ideas above provides some ideas into areas to review. Do not try to tackle everything. If you are already doing well in an area focus elsewhere. Feel free to reach out to the team if you have ideas or need help fleshing them out. We are excited for what the New Year brings and cannot wait to help you build on you business.
Improve Email Open Rate
People can’t click on your call-to-action if they don’t open the email!
Here are some tips to improve the open rate:
Personalize the subject line — most email platforms today allow you to add the person’s name to the subject line. It makes the message more personal. This is why you should always ask for at least their first name on your email sign-up form.
Avoid spammy-sounding phrases — these will land you in the spam folder and you’ll have less of a chance of getting seen at all. Phrases like: ‘Free trial’, ‘Increase sales’, ‘Earn money’, Best price’, and ‘Guaranteed’, may trigger whatever spam filter your prospect uses.
Your name, company name, and URL in the return address — When you add your name to the “From” line, it’s also more personal and more likely to get opened. Having your company name URL rather than “Gmail” or “HotMail”, gives you more credibility. And please don’t put “no reply” — that, to me, is the coldest most robotic thing to do. Be human. People prefer to deal with humans. If they want to reply to your email with a question or comment, let them!
Use the headline analyzer — this isn’t just for blogs! You can use it to compose an enticing subject line.
Use emojis and keep the subject line short — look and sound friendly, not spammy.
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
IAPPA Summary
IAPPA had all the bells and whistles for Family Entertainment Centers. Over the next month, many of the ideas and inspirations will be shared with you to grow your business. From meetings with Funlandia, Aluvii and High Score, we have identified some of the key areas to do a refresh, or switch out items. In edition, many of the conferences that were attended by our team will be shared with you over the next few months. Our #1 priority is to help you GROW your business. We appreciate your patience while we gather the information you want. In addition, we can discuss this and more on our next conference call!
Bouncing Back From The Pandemic
Success Stories
TEEG is Bringing the Fun Back
The Entertainment and Education Group (TEEG) operates more than 315 family entertainment centers (FECs) in Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and India.
As reported by Funworld earlier this year, TEEG got through the lockdowns by keeping its personnel (the Fun Squad) engaged through education and retraining and by maintaining flexible operations by redeploying employees, as needed, to locations that were open but short-staffed. Most of all, TEEG did its best to keep employees feeling supported and cared for, as everyone in the company waited for the pandemic to recede. (Read more about TEEG’s investment in employees at IAAPA.org/NewYearFECs.)
This attitude has paid off for TEEG. According to Group CEO Sonaal Chopra, over 98% of TEEG’s venues have reopened for guests, thanks to its positive approach to human resources—plus keeping its FECs clean, safe, and ready for business.
Now that TEEG is open again, the company is focused on its bright future, rather than revisiting its pandemic experiences. Key to this vision is TEEG’s strategic plan for getting large numbers of guests into its FECs.
“Our strategy is to bring the fun back to our guests,” Chopra says. “After the stressful period we’ve just been through, we are committed to providing happy, joyful, and, most of all, safe spaces where our guests can make up for lost fun.”
The online world is central to TEEG’s post-pandemic success. “A large part of our guest engagement and acquisition strategy is through digital channels, where guests can engage and interact with us anytime,” Chopra says. “For instance, we’ve recently launched the Timezone Fun App, which has already seen over 100,000 downloads.”
TEEG’s post-pandemic strategy is already delivering results to the company.
“Within weeks of reopening, we have witnessed strong growth to pre-COVID levels, including record comparable venue growth in some markets,” he tells Funworld. “The only exception being regions where government regulations on onerous capacity restrictions still apply.”
Chopra emphasizes that the public is searching for fun experiences.
“Everyone needs to get their fun back, and our Fun Squad is ready to deliver,” he says. “We feel guests look forward to returning and having fun, especially in the modern and safe environment we offer.”
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 Norterra and Surprise 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 👇👇👇
Special Thanks
Thanksgiving is a tradition unlike any other for many of us. We want to take this time to give thanks to you, our franchisees. From the inception of the Luv 2 Play brand to today, we have had many highs and lows. Not unlike a family, and we are tremendously thankful for your commitment to the brand, to your business and to the guests and employees you serve. The family component is a central theme to us, and we wish for a bright and restful day for you. On behalf of the entire corporate team, I want to wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving.
Respectfully,
Julie Caricato