How winter weather impacts traffic at your club

Today's post is going to be about the weather! What's more fun than talking about strip clubs? Talking about WEATHER and strip clubs!

Weather is important because it's the biggest since variable factoring into your club's traffic, aside from time of day, day of the week, and season. Pre-scheduled events like holiday parties are predictable because they're usually anticipated in advance, and while most weather is predictable to some extent, many club managers do not understand how small variables like a few days of snowfall can add up and have a big impact over time. 

Instead of resigning a bad night to the unpredictability of the business, it is a good idea to understand as much as possible about how your industry operates, all the way down to the basics. In other words, you can be leveraging the weather to your advantage for maximum efficiency. Contrary to what you might think, you can take advantage of unfavorable conditions and you can be reactive by adjusting elements that you do control to bring talent and customers in.

The ideal conditions in the nightlife industry are dry, warm weekend evenings. These conditions are common in places with mild climates like Southern California, Phoenix, and Las Vegas, of course. But for those of us living in areas with more extreme climates, such as in the Midwest, we don't have the luxury of comfortable weather most of the time. Ironically, the reverse is also true--a summer thunderstorm or extreme temperatures in the Midwest don't really affect club traffic as much as they would in a milder climate, since those events are to be expected depending on what season it is.

Nothing does as much damage to the vitality of your club, however, as a fresh snowfall of several inches or more. In places that experience heavy snowfall, such as in the Great Lakes region, traffic can fall to virtually zero on a night with bad roads even though snowfall is expected in the winter and snow events are forecasted well in advance. How do you get people in the door? Do you close early anticipating the conditions? After all, managers know all too well the headaches of trying to call girls in on slow nights.

Take advantage of the winter weather by offering discounted tipouts to your talent. You can adjust the tipout discount depending on the type of conditions. For example, if your staff is reduced by 50 percent because of the weather, offer a 25 percent discount on the tipout. If you only have a handful of dancers, offer a bigger discount, perhaps 50 percent or so. This may sway the decision between your girls staying home and coming in and they will appreciate you for anticipating their needs.

You can also offer discounted cover charges to your guests as well. This is where real-time social media channels like Twitter really punch above their weight. Discounted cover charges give guests an incentive to come to your club, even if they weren't planning on going that particular evening. Some places will waive cover and booth fees entirely if traffic is significantly less than expected. Doing so creates a favorable impression in the customer's mind, and he'll be more likely to remember that generosity on a night with more typical traffic.

Finally, you can arrange for alternative transportation options. Many clubs are located near airports, and many taxi and limousine operators have contracts with clubs that utilize their services frequently. You may want to encourage taxi drivers and shuttles to ferry in customers on nights with inclement weather, perhaps by providing a small incentive to them or by other means.

The good thing about these techniques is that they can all be used at the same time. Obviously, good judgement fares best here and you should only advise people to come in if it's safe to do so. But an empty club is a club that's losing money! So embrace living in a winter wonderland--your talent and guests will appreciate you for doing so. A little snow should never stop the best show in town!

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter at @CabaretMG.

When should you celebrate Valentine's Day at your club?

In this post, we’ll be discussing Valentine’s Day and gentlemen’s clubs. Because of the unique dynamics of the holiday and the highly niche focus of the sex industry, Valentine’s Day represents something of a conflict of interest for most gentlemen’s clubs patrons, and is often a tough sell for the clubs themselves.

Valentine’s Day is a rather interesting holiday in financial terms, as it has traditionally been the subject of large amounts of discretionary spending. According to the National Retail Federation, total Valentine’s Day spending is expected to be roughly $17.3 billion in 2014, slightly down from the $18 billion spent in 2013. So, Valentine’s Day can be quite a lucrative holiday for certain industries.

The problem, though, is that February 14 typically runs a little bit thinner than nearly any other day of the year. Many of your key dancers will be out enjoying the evening with their partners and/or spouses, and ditto for several of your staff members. Additionally, some of your regular customers will be absent for the same reason. Complicating things is the fact that this year, Valentine’s Day falls on what is usually the second busiest night of the week.

So, the question naturally becomes “what should we do for Valentine’s Day?” The go-to answer would be to run some kind of promotion or party as with any other holiday or special event, of course—but is it really effective? After all, many of your married customers are going to be home with their wives, and some of your single customers will specifically avoid clubbing on Valentine’s Day because they feel stigmatized about not having anyone to celebrate with, whether it’s justified or not.

Our advice regarding Valentine’s Day is going to be somewhat short and sweet (no pun intended). In the best interests of profitability, having a dedicated promotion on Valentine’s Day itself is effectively useless. It seems logical to run some kind of event or party on February 14, but it is actually counter-intuitive. This is because Valentine’s Day is one of the hardest holidays to convert in terms of consumer behavior and their spending habits. An analogous comparison would be like running a party directly on Christmas Day, or New Year’s.

However, for businesses in the service industry—specifically nightlife establishments such as strip clubs—much of our business is seasonal and/or event based, and a large part of your success is simply knowing which events to promote and when to promote them. In other words, if you want to promote Valentine’s Day, simply hold your party on the weekend immediately before the 14th. Do NOT run your promotion on Valentine’s Day directly!

It’s a win-win situation! Having your Valentine’s party the weekend before allows your talent, staff, and guests to spend the 14th with their loved ones without feeling guilty, and it even gives your guests more time to get the stripper smell off of them before hitting P.F. Chang’s with the wife (just kidding…sort of). 

And remember, you’ll still be open on Valentine’s Day itself, as there will be people who’d rather be there on the 14th for a variety of reasons.

For our next post, we’ll be covering the effects of weather on club traffic and how to adjust accordingly. In the meantime, we’re out of chocolate Kisses—off to the grocery store for more!

7 easy ways to increase customer satisfaction

As we saw in our last blog post, the answer is yes--customer service does indeed matter, and it matters a lot! More often than not, the experience that your guests have will make the difference from someone visiting your club next week versus the one across the street. We talked about this in an earlier blog post discussing valet parking and first impressions. Remember that strip clubs derive most of their business from regular customers, and when you lose a regular customer, you lose an income stream.

Now here are some tips you can implement at your club right away, and with very little effort:

Be friendly and welcoming. Shake hands with your guests. Hold doors for them whenever possible. Give first-time guests tours of your club the same you would for a new dancer. The possibilities are endless!

Remember names. Make an effort to get to know your regular customers, their likes and dislikes, and their preferences. It will pay off in the long run--everyone always likes to feel appreciated and welcome!

Say thank you, and genuinely mean it. This is one of the easiest things you can do, even for something as simple a $5 tip. You never know when you're dealing with a generous tipper or not!

Take care of and recognize longstanding customers, whether they're daily staples or once-a-month regulars. They will appreciate it by providing continued business, and so will you!

Share the enthusiasm among coworkers. When customers see that your employees are having a good time, it gives the impression that they genuinely want to be there and want their guests to have a good time.

If you make a mistake, own up to it and offer to make the situation better. Sometimes, the right thing to do isn't always the easiest. Good will gestures often go a long way.

Most importantly, treat your dancers well. This one goes without saying! The dancers are the backbone of your club and without the talent, you just have an empty bar with no clientele. And without clientele, you have no business.

A good rule of thumb in business is that you treat your clients with respect and politeness so that they may pay it forward to others in the future, including you! This is probably the simplest and most compelling reason to provide good customer service: because it's the right thing to do.

Cabaret Marketing Group is always here for you when you need us, and we strive to provide premium satisfaction for our clients and vendors. Contact us today at 248.871.7540 if you'd like us to take your club to the next level. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter @CabaretMG. Happy clubbing!

Does customer service really matter?

Have you ever had a bad customer service experience from a business in the service industry? Almost all of us has at one point or another.

Think back to an experience you had that was particularly bad. I'm sure you can still remember that experience pretty vividly, even now. You probably didn't even go back to that business for a while--if at all. You even made it a point to tell your friends about it.

Well, the same thing applies to your strip club, or chain of clubs! What if a customer was treated rudely by one of your employees? What happens to the money he was going to spend? Is he going to tell others about it?

Today's topic is going to detail the importance of customer service. Being in the service industry, upscale gentlemen's clubs should have a mission of providing the best possible experience for guests, employees, and talent alike. But is customer service all that important in the world of strip clubs? Does it really matter? After all, having a cabaret license is almost like gold in many jurisdictions--you can get away with a lot if you're the only game in town.

Here are just a few good reasons why customer service matters:

Competition. It is important to understand that your club is selling essentially the same thing that your competitors are selling, and you need every method of differentiating your product as much as possible. You never know if that 30-something guy you were rude to last night is looking for a new place to have bachelor parties for him and his friends, or perhaps a new home for after work happy hours for clients. Don't miss out on lost revenue just because someone had a bad night!

Reputation. Many clubs erroneously believe that by virtue of being a strip club, they can address guests any way they'd wish. But the strip club sub-culture is rather small. Most of your customers have visited competing clubs in your city, and these customers share information with each other about which clubs to avoid. Fortunately, the reverse is also true--customers tend to look out for one another and will share information on good clubs as well. Certain upscale clubs even have guests make dedicated trips to fly in just to be entertained at their specific club. This is the type of clientele you need!

Perception. Customer service is very much applicable to the way your coworkers and clients interact with each other. No one wants to be around negative coworkers, and especially negative strippers! This energy does eventually transfer to the guests. Your staff members are a direct reflection of your business, so keep this in mind when hiring new employees and recruiting new talent. Having a good attitude is half the battle!

Branding. Corporate chains need to be especially wary of their customer service practices. If you run a nationwide chain of strip clubs and a guest has a bad experience at one of your clubs in, say, California, that customer is going to avoid every other club around the country that's affiliated with yours because your chain will be associated with bad customer service. Maintain a strong brand image by doing it right the first time and every time.

In our next blog post, we'll give you some simple customer service tips you can use right away at your club!