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With the anticipation of Clubs re-opening, we face an interesting predicament. We have witnessed only days of notice be given to teachers and NSW holiday destinations about the reopening of their industries. Will this happen in the hospitality industry? Will we be given a weeks notice to prepare to open with no set guidelines of how we should prepare our Clubs and gaming rooms? As the days edge closer, it seems likely. 

I caught up with Chris Wright on ‘The Engagement Gurus’ podcast this week to hear what we can do to prepare now. Chris is busy working with venues to recreate gaming floor plans so that they’re prepared when given the green light. He has over 20 years’ experience in the industry and has his finger on the pulse on what the leading Clubs are up to in this space. I have recapped some of his thoughts, as well as my own so that you  can get started on your gaming room re-opening strategy.

Every venue’s strategy will differ depending on its size and location. We can assume that the restrictions will echo those  in place during the final week before shutdown. Those restrictions included 1.5m social distancing between patrons, 4m square per person and 100 person maximum in rooms.

I would suggest you use these measures as a base for your planning but to also be prepared for stricter guidelines which you will be able to add into your reopening strategy. There are two areas which you should consider when making your gaming room as successful as possible. Firstly and obviously you will need to follow government guidelines however you should also be creating a space for players that they perceive to be a comfortable, safe place to spend time. I have broken down everything we know so far and hope you find value in cross checking these recommendations with what you’re doing on your floor.

1. Government Guidelines

4m square per person per room

How many people can fit in your gaming room? You may have already completed this formula, but it will be the foundation to creating a plan for your room. Work out what the area is of your gaming room and how many people can fit in the room. E.g. 10 metres by 4 metres = 40 square metres so you will be allowed to have 10 in that room. You should use a floor plan of your venue to record the maximum number of people you’re allowed in each room if this rule continues to apply.

1.5m social distancing

I believe this guideline is a grey area. The difference between measuring 1.5m from the middle of the gaming machine to the next machine v.s. measuring 1.5m from the shoulder of a patron to the shoulder of the next patron could rule out the ability to turn off every second machine.

If you decide to interpret this rule by measuring from the middle of each EGM, and you have 800mm bases, you will be able to essentially turn off every second machine (800mm + 400mm from each side = 1600mm) and the maths will be simple. Other considerations are the machines behind players. Get out your gaming floor plan or visit your gaming room with a tape measure and do the maths. How many machines will you be able to have in play if you were to leave your gaming room in its current layout?

100 people in a room

For the bigger Clubs, this is an issue. If you have 200 machines inside your gaming room this will essentially wipe out 50% of your gaming floor. Again, do the calculations to determine how many machines you will be able to have in play if this rule continues to apply.

More maths…

Once you have crunched the numbers on the above three guidelines, you will know how many people can sit at your EGMs at any one time. Now you can work out how much that will affect your bottom line. The first thing that I would be looking at is the maximum occupancy at any one time. Is your maximum occupancy greater than the number of EGMs you will have active on the floor? If you answered YES, how much will that cost you over 6 months, 12 months or 18 months? Once you have worked out these numbers, you will be more prepared to make big decisions on spending money to remodel your gaming room.

I have heard of some Clubs that have crunched these numbers and moved half of their floor to a different area of the Club. Keep in mind they may have had to change the licensing restrictions by doing so. Another large Club that Chris works with has added a wall in their gaming room to create 2 x 100 person rooms. A more cost effective alternative is to consider purchasing infills to place in between the banks to extend the space between the machines. Or you may be one of the many Clubs that has spare bases in storage. Can you utilise these to keep a few more machines on the floor?

2. Player Comfort

After months of being told that we need to keep moving and not to congregate in groups in public, once we re-open, we will be asking our patrons to do exactly that. With much discussion of what the pandemic will do to player habits it will be imperative that we work hard to show that we are taking every precaution to keep our players safe.

Screening

There is a lot of discussion on whether installing screens in between each of the machines will be made mandatory (professionals predict probably not). We know that players like to see what else is happening on the floor and the screening may change the dynamic. Consider the amount of space a screen may take up, if players are sitting back to back and the screen comes out 600mm the player will then need to move their chair back twice as far to exit the area unless they are on a corner. If the person behind is doing the same, consider how much space this may occupy. Does the perception of screening for safety outweigh the limitations they may pose? I would consider strategically placing screens in areas that will work. 

Wipes and sanitiser

Providing patrons with wipes and sanitiser at each gaming machine will go a long way to empower the customer to clean their machines and in turn feel safe to play.

Staff visibility

Staffing will be an essential piece to the puzzle when venues reopen. Being proactive in cleaning machines and enforcing social distancing will create the perception on the floor that the Club is doing everything they can to create a safe space for players.

Cashless gaming

Whilst this may be a while away due to legislation limitations, perhaps this may be the push the government needs to start the discussion of moving gaming to a cashless solution

3. Re configuring your floor plan

Undoubtedly, a lot of Clubs will have a surplus of machines that will not fit into their calculations and are not sure what to do with them. Here are some considerations to weigh up. 

“You must not play next to another patron”

The Pros

By keeping all machines on the floor you are giving your patrons the choice of what machines they can choose to play. You’re also empowering your customers to make the decisions about where they sit rather than limiting their choices for them.

The Cons

Your staff are going to need to police the room to ensure people are following the rules. This strategy may make players uncomfortable knowing that someone could come and sit by them at anytime or be made to feel uncomfortable to move on because someone wants to play the available machine next to them. If you have a bank of three EGMs and someone chooses to sit in the middle they would be preventing play on the two outside EGMs.

Turn every second machine off

The Pros

The positives to this option is that there is a structure to the gaming room. There is not room for disagreements as to who plays what machine next to each other and if your venue was checked by police, you would be confident that social distancing was being observed with no room for error.

The Cons

Some of the negatives to this strategy is that you are halving the choice on the floor of machines. If a member likes a machine that is turned off you may have to rearrange the floor or risk losing them.

Other considerations

You could ensure that you only having enough chairs on the floor to accommodate the number of players allowed in the gaming room. This option would need to go hand in hand with one of the above options. If you decide to take machines off the floor and place in storage, what is the cost to store them (check with your service provider)?

4. Choosing the right machines for your reconfigured floor 

Once all the above options have been considered and if you are not lucky enough to have found a solution to keep all your EGM’s on the floor, product choice and placement becomes paramount. It will be important to consider what machines you will be keeping on the floor during this time. I don’t think there is going to be a 100% fool proof strategy. Consider the variety of machines, RTP % (if you keep all the machines that have a high RTP % you may be at risk of decreasing your hold significantly), ensure your top players favourite machines are online and in the area they prefer.

I think the most important takeaway from my chat with Chris on the podcast and discussion above, is that you need to do something NOW. There will not be a one size fits all approach. You should mix and match the ideas to suit your Club and be prepared to change what is working and what doesn’t work once you open.

By preparing now, you can book your service company, base manufacturer (if required) and order spare parts nice and early to make changes. It will be extremely difficult to make these bookings once an opening date is announced. Although we do not know what gaming will look like once we re-open I think it is essential to place ourselves in the best possible position for success. It is important that we all work within the guidelines outlined by the Government to ensure we do not put the industry at risk of being shut down again.

If you want to learn more, click here to listen with my chat with Chris Wright on The Engagement Gurus podcast. 

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve walked into a CEO’s office and they’re writing board meeting minutes that are due the next day or compiling the agenda that is the size of a book, I would be able to buy at least 50 cheeseburgers!

It always puzzles me that the main decision maker in the business has to spend so much of their valuable time on these administrative tasks! There must be a better way, right? Keep reading to learn!

A few months ago, I was speaking with a CEO who had attended a Clubs NSW seminar and watched businesses present in the ClubsThrive* program.Matthew Rowan from Process PA was one of the businesses who was involved in the program and captured the attention of many Club CEOs in the room. Process PA provides the technology to significantly reduce the admin hours involved in writing agendas and meeting minutes and distributes meeting notes to attendees with a click of a button. “Wow, what kind of black magic is this?” were my thoughts! I needed to know more!

I contacted Matt at Process PA who is the Founder and CEO. He is based in Brisbane and is also the President of P & C’s Queensland. Matt told me the program is based on the ‘cloud’ (wherever that is) and is designed to make board meetings and governance easy for not-for-profit companies.

Through my chat with Matt, I found out some of the cool stuff it does..

-        Create agendas to send out to board members

-        Has file storage for all information

-        Easily collates board meeting attendees for easy reporting

-        Has the ability to send out minutes at the end of a board meeting - what a dream! (If you type them as the meeting happens)

-        Set up logins for all of the board members to access files or if the board wants nothing to do with new fandangled technology you can even click a button to collate it all into one PDF file for printing or emailing.

I interviewed Matt in this week’s podcast so he could delve a little deeper into how it all works. To listen, click on the links below:  https://theengagementgurus.libsyn.com/ep3-moving-your-board-meetings-online-with-process-pa

Matt has a 30-day free trial that you can access to see what it is all about. Visit https://processpa.com/ and use the discount code engagementgurus to get 10% off for your first year. Just in case you were wondering, this isn’t a sponsored post :)  I firmly believe that this product can bring so much value to Clubs and had to spread the word!

* In case you missed what the ClubsThrive program offered: ClubsThrive was designed to help businesses either in their start up or scale up phases of their business by validating business models, confirm they are developing a product or service customers want, build a minimum viable product (MVP) and demonstrate progress to advisors and investors. Once ClubsNSW had vetted the businesses they show cased entrants to Clubs and Club Managers. If you would like to know more about the program, here is the link: https://www.clubsthrive.com.au

Now that the JobKeeper stress has come and gone, it is the perfect opportunity to take stock of what is and isn’t working at your Club. We now have the time to really analyse what is working for the business, what days work for particular promotions and what return on investment we are seeing from each promotion. It is commonly known that it is difficult to take things away from members, especially if the promotion or offer has been in place for an extended period. The sense of entitlement can set in and once removed the backlash can be severe!

Your members’ visiting habits have come to a dramatic halt. This is an ideal opportunity to make changes to existing offerings and/or introduce new promotions that will be ready when you re-open. Make sure you take advantage of this rare time while you can. I’m sure your Members will be so grateful when the Clubs do reopen, and their attention will be captured by any new promotions you’ve introduced rather than focusing on what is no longer.

Although this may seem like a huge job, my advice is to dissect each promotion and use the below considerations to work out if improvements or changes need to be made. If you would like any assistance with the process, please give me a call.

Raffles

Members who love raffles are often the most resistant to change, now is the time to make those changes to get the most out of your raffles

Considerations:

-        Reassess your budget and determine if there are any changes that will make your raffle more profitable

-        Analyse who is participating in raffles and what they are worth to your business

-        Ask yourself whether you are running your raffles at the correct times and days

-        Are your prizes on point? Can you make the raffle more appealing to different demographics for when you re-open?

-        Can you up-skill your staff who announce raffles by providing more training during this time?

-        Can you improve the technology so they can run more effectively? If you are not already, can you sell your raffle tickets from your POS terminals and add an incentive for members to swipe their membership cards? By making this change you’ll be able to:

  o  Analyse who is purchasing raffle tickets

  o  Have the freedom to sell tickets from multiple locations in your venue

  o   Easily implement raffle ticket offers which might include allocating your VIP’s free raffle tickets when they swipe their cards

Loyalty Programs  

I believe loyalty programs still have a place in Clubs and are nicely balanced with Instant Rewards. Unfortunately I have spoken with some Club managers who feel they’ve been backed into a corner with their loyalty program spend and cannot take anything away from their important members. They are under the impression that they can’t follow the trends and changes in the loyalty space without increasing their promotions budget.

Now is the time you can re-evaluate your program. Make tweaks and adjustments so you have the flexibility to mix and match your programs when you need to in the future.

Considerations:

-        The number of members you have in each tier

-        What you have on offer

-        Can you change your loyalty structure to include an instant reward strategy?

-        Reassess your technology and look to implement tools that can assist in communicating with or identifying members. Great examples of these are Impact data, RedeemX or Player Elite. Many of you will already have this technology, giving you the opportunity to reevaluate its purpose and to learn how it can be more effectively utilised in your business

-        You can refresh the branding and relaunch your loyalty program. This would be a great reopening strategy and an opportunity for you to touch base with your VIPs

-        Can you up-skill your staff during this time so they can provide better service upon reopening? It is often hard to get all staff in a room at the same time so take advantage while you can

Members Badge Draws

This is a Club favourite and a promotion that has often been in place for a lifetime! This means that Managers are often reluctant to make changes out of fear of repercussions from members. Over the last year I have seen more Clubs’ mixing their badge draw up without having to change their budget. This has resulted in an extremely positive response from patrons and a much larger participation rate.

Considerations:

-        Look at the night the promotion is being run and ask yourself, does it service my business?

-        Can you change the structure to make it more enticing for members? E.g. increasing the prize over more weeks

-        Number and timing of draws each night

-        How are you communicating with members when the badge draw reaches a certain amount? Can your communication strategy be improved?

Weekly or monthly promotions

Get rid of those promotions you have been too scared to touch that don’t serve your Club! I see Clubs’ regularly keeping promotions that no longer serve their purpose in fear of members not coming back.

Considerations:

-        Create an annual promotions schedule to ensure all promotions are rotated regularly. This will remove the ‘expectation’ that often takes hold when a promotion stays stagnant for too long

-        Even if you find a promotion working well, there may be some cosmetic changes you can easily make to give it a new and exciting feel

-        Consider your communication strategies to see if you can improve how you let members know they are in a promotion. I would recommend sending targeted marketing to members who have tickets in a draw. Do you have the tools to achieve this?

Membership Prices and Renewal Strategies

Please keep in mind that modifying membership prices and dates of renewals are constitutional changes so must be voted on at an AGM. If you have found some fundamental issues with how your membership structure is set out, now is a perfect time to work on fixing them.

Considerations:

-        Creating an option for online renewals

-        Does your pricing structure need a change? I often wonder why a new member and a renewal costs the same. If a renewal is cheaper than a new membership would that encourage more members to renew?

-        Some Clubs find it difficult to change their subs paid date or move from a rolling 12-month membership to a certain subs date. This may be the time to put in the work and rip that band-aid off

-        Can you improve your membership processes?

Improved Technology

The technology in the Club industry is growing at a rapid rate and it's a great time to see what is on offer. Do you already have a great tool but know you aren’t getting the most out of it?

Considerations:

-        Is there a better analysis tool you can be using?

-         Can you upgrade your kiosk or promotions tool?

-     Run refresher courses for relevant staff members to ensure they have a full understanding of the technologies in your venue

-        Are you getting the most out of your systems? I often find that we barely scratch the surface of how powerful some of the tech in the industry is, as we never have the chance to really learn how it works. Can you or a JobKeeper staff member research how to can get more out of a system you are already paying for?

I hope this article has given you some ideas on where to start your promotions audit journey. Imagine how great it will feel re-opening your doors knowing you have taken control of your promotions strategy and budget.