Shorten Time Between Games (Now)

Before activity really ramps up, consider if your time between games is still appropriate. Some venues are still at 30 minutes because of COVID, others are at 20, and some at 15 or even 10 minutes. Do some math to see what it might mean to have a shorter gap and another round of games on that week between Christmas and New Years. Make the change now to get your staff acclimated, and be ready for the revenue increase that results on busy days.

If this idea makes you hesitate, here are 3 things to work on first to make it easier to bring that time down:

• Escape rates - The days of a 30% escape rate being attractive to customers are over. Guests like to win and your return business will be higher with a higher success rate. On the operations side, if 80%+ of games are getting out, this gives you extra time to work with before the next group. Still aim for at least a 52+ minute average escape time to create the right mix of success and challenge in the room.

• On Time Starts - Get people started as soon as they are ready to stay on schedule. Tracks the actual game start compared to the booking time. Track wait times for each person in the lobby, and set up audio and visual alerts when someone enters an empty lobby. Greet those guests quickly and get them in the game as soon as they are ready!

• Fast Resets - Not everyone tracks reset times, but we think you should. Everyone doing fast, accurate resets is key to shortening downtime between running games. Have staff compete for fastest time to keep it positive. Make leaderboards to create a fun competition!

Prepare Your Team

Have individual conversations with staff about how they are doing. Try to base these on numbers and facts. Here are a few things to track by staff member:

1. Escape rates
2. Average escape times
3. Avg number of props forced open for players
4. Percentage of times they get a review or rebooking
5. Avg hint response times

Using numbers helps keep these conversations less subjective and less emotional. It is easier to maintain a positive tone as you quantify the gap and discuss together how to close it. It becomes "us against the number" not "me versus you".

These metrics are also a helpful datapoint for deciding on recognitions like Gamemaster of the Month in a way that can feel less biased.

Make sure every staff member has reset every room at least once in 4 weeks so people don’t forget the room details. Also make sure new hires move through training quickly, which is easier to do now than when days get busy. Build a training tracker to keep up with these things automatically, so resets expire after a designated number of weeks, and your staff can monitor their own training status.

Prepare the Venue

Review your Handyman List and get everything up to date. Schedule Tasks to do deeper room audits that include more wear and tear items. Build the full list and then knock it out efficiently with a “Painting Day” to get everything looking like new before the rush starts.

Keep Morale High

You don’t need people quitting or disengaged right before business picks up. If the slower season impacts morale, try running a competition around escape rates, rebookings, online reviews, or any other metric that catches your eye. Set a Goal and track progress through the month to give them something positive to focus on.

Capture Incremental Revenue (& Avoid Fraud)

1. Some locations are charging for highlight reels/images, or for allowing parents to watch from the lobby from an iPad while their children play a game. Typical take rate is 20% and the charge is $15-20 per group. If you provide add-ons like this, be sure to put the iPad in Kiosk mode so customers can only see that one screen.
2. Another revenue opportunity could be to run weekday specials. Run a report to see how busy you are by day of the week to find the best times to run those deals to fill the venue during off hours.
3. Fraud and Loss Prevention: It's not fun to talk about, but fraud tends to increase over the holidays as people try to stretch their dollars. Two things to consider:

• If you use Groupon, make sure staff are automatically marking the Groupon as redeemed as soon as the booking comes in. Sometimes a Groupon customers will purchase a Groupon, get the code, and then refund it but still try to use the code. Vouchers should be marked as redeemed by you in the Groupon portal as soon as the booking is made to avoid this scam. This tends to happen sporadically, and to go viral in areas once it starts, so be prepared!
• Use your the cameras to count the players in the room and compare it to the booking. This can help deter sweetheart deals and also catch when you had 7 children in that birthday party group who only paid for 6. When you have rowdy children, it can be easy for these types of things to happen, so have a system to flag if there is a mismatch so you can get payment before they leave.

Hopefully this helps give you some ideas for prepping in the next few weeks.

Drawbridge is a modern, all in one operations platform designed to help escape room operators with everything we just mentioned and more. Our goal is to help you drive operational excellence with high quality by:

• Empowering every gamemaster with the tools to give accurate hints in under 6 seconds while watching up to 6 games, and knowing remote help is available when needed

• Knowing every game host can reset quickly and without error, and that they always know what task is the most important to do next

• Helping your managers run lean, with a clean venue, and well-trained team

• Ensuring customers are having an excellent experience by seeing review mentions and rebooking results in real time

• Keeping owners connected to the business with reports and real-time access like you are at the venue

If you would like to know more you can visit our website, and request a demo.

We hope your holiday season is spectacularly busy and that these ideas have helped you prepare to make the most of this Christmas season!