MAXIMISING YOUR OPPORTUNITIES ON YOUR BEST DAYS

Let’s talk about peaking the peaks …

Are you still holding on to the belief that you shouldn’t plan promotions on the weekends, shouldn’t allow players to redeem offers on weekends, should focus all your efforts and marketing dollars on the slowest days of the week, month, year? Friday night and Saturday are already busy … stop spending money on players who will come on the weekends anyway … try to drive weekday visits with special events, entertainment, and offers for Monday-Thursday.

But this is not the case for every club…

Look at your particular market and explore your database to understand where your revenue comes from and consider your competition.

• Are you primarily a locals market where it’s easy for your players to visit any day of the week?
• Are you a destination venue where many of your players are happy to travel at least 30 minutes to an hour to reach your destination?
• Are your players Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm, blue or white collar employees, with little shift work?
• Most importantly, are you and your management team spending time on your gaming floor during the peak periods of your business, evaluating your business flow and revenue opportunities?
• Do you look strategically at how much room there still is to grow business during the busiest times, often the easiest times for your players to visit?
• Are there free seats at machines still during the busy periods.
• Does you carpark fill on busy nights or are there still some spaces available – can you offer special parking for high tier players to accommodate them on busy nights?

You must still continue to look for pockets of valuable players who are able to and do visit off-peak, and midweek. The ability to massage our databases and leverage our increasing knowledge of guests provides many opportunities to drive visits with personalised, appropriate offers to players who can take advantage of them. Locals can often be persuaded to make an incremental, midweek visit. Retired customers have more freedom in their schedules.

But this doesn’t mean that we should stop trying to maximise our most lucrative business periods, so long as we can continue to offer a good gambling, hospitality and service experience. If we have room for more players on weekends and during peak times, it’s easier and less costly to attract them when they are available. And it’s easier to steal them from the competition if they are more available, as well. Experiment, test, look at opportunities to expand your weekends with offers earlier on Fridays and later on Sundays.

 

There are some things to consider….

Be careful about displacing your key players … favourite machines, parking, restaurant seating, must be considered when trying to expand business during peak times. If you are a footy club its already pandemonium on home game nights so there’s no point increasing the pressure on staff.

Be aware of staffing so that your service levels don’t suffer; creating longer lines in bars and bistros and making your players wait forever for beverages won’t lead to a positive result. Make sure that your management team and best employees are on the clock during your high-volume hours … they are the people who are most experienced at handling conflicts, supporting staff members, and providing the attention that your players crave.

There is no industry blueprint for gaming revenue. Every venue is different, every customer base is different. If you have been following old rules or struggling with the restrictions forced on you by old patterns, it may be time to break the paradigm. Look at the needs of your customers and take the revenue when you can get it. Stop fighting against the tide of what works for your club.

The bottom line is, after all, the bottom line. There may be value in maximising your highs. Go ahead … peak your peaks!

 

Written by Toby O’Brien for Raving Consulting and adapted to an Australian audience from an article first appearing here >>> New Thinking: Maximizing Your Opportunities on Your BEST Days – Raving (betravingknows.com)