One thing that I am terrible at remembering to do each month is update the top 10 on our homepage (www.ebash.com).  I run a report from Smartlaunch to show me the top 20 (in case an employee cracks the top 10 who don’t count) gamers in both stores from December 1 until January 1.  I combine the records from both stores and rank them 1-10 based on time played.

These numbers are pretty accurate except that with our day pass customers we sometimes forget to log them into SmartLaunch when they are on console because their time automatically expires at the end of the day.  The PC users MUST login to SmartLaunch to access the game menus so they are almost always the highest users.

The top 10 for December looked like this:

1.	creedalba [TH]	+5	208
2.	dingo [TH]		197
3.	Soupernoob [EV]	-2	175
4.	ace [TH]	NEW	172
5.	KITH [TH]	NEW	161
6.	blackjack [TH]	NEW	158
7.	jde [TH]	NEW	126
8.	beastmaster [TH]	NEW	126
9.	AlCapwn187 [EV]	NEW	121
10.	Gorogon [EV]	NEW	102

As you can tell there are quite a few customers that spend some serious time playing each month at our stores.  ALL of these customers are VIP and use our inexpensive weekday pass prices (only $7.50 per day) so the funny thing is that they are not always our top customers based on money spent.

Looking at the list you can see the top 2 are quite a ways ahead of the general group in hours spent.  Creedalba (who is a great guy and always is asking to work for us but I have to tease him that if we hired him then the store would close without his business) spent at least an extra day over Dingo and Dingo spent an extra 2 days over Soupernoob from the Evansville store.

If the average time spent per day is 7 hours that would mean Creedabla was in our store 29 of the 31 days in December.  I know he misses at least a day per week so his average per day is probably more like 8 or 9 hours.  All of the guys in our top 10 visit our store at least 20 days of the month and that extends down to the top 30-40 in the Terre Haute store.

Our Terre Haute store in 7 years has built up a steady base of “regulars” that keep the store ticking.  On the slowest of slow days the Terre Haute store will still see a nice batch of customers because of these regulars while the Evansville store is still building that customer base.

I started thinking about all of this today because yesterday was one of those down days for both stores.  In Terre Haute yesterday we had 25 players in the store which is a terribly slow day for us, but the Evansville store only had 3 players the entire day.  It is funny how the days fluctuate in people in a similar pattern for both stores even though they are almost 200 miles apart.  The jumps are just more drastic for the Evansville store because they don’t have the core base to sustain it yet.

So when did we reach the point in the Terre Haute store that we could sustain with our core base of customers?  The funny thing is that the core base of customers for the store was actually more dedicated when we first opened.  Our core group was the ONLY people we had in the store.  It wasn’t until 2006 in our 3rd year that our core group was big enough to maintain the store.  That would lead me to believe that this year is the most important for our Evansville store to reach that promised land.

I would say that if you have 25 customers in your store on the WORST day you can remember then things are pretty good. 🙂

One thing that I have done since we opened back in 2004 is always try to keep up with what other game centers are doing here in the United States.  From day 1 the best place to do this was as a member of iGames (www.lancenters.com) in their private forums.  In 2005 and 2006 I probably spent 2-3 hours each day browsing the threads, giving my opinions, starting posts and most importantly sharing and gaining awesome ideas.

It seemed that in those first few years for us there were always 20-30 new game centers opening their doors each month.  Obviously the economy was much different during those times and most likely the ability to easily borrow money were probably the main reasons things seemed to be exploding.  However the scary difference now is the fact that the iGames forums have become a ghost town.  There are still some lurkers who pop-in now and then but as a whole there are now only about 3-5 new posts PER WEEK!  Compared to 5 years ago when there were 20+ new posts PER DAY!

I am not going to get into the reasons for so many failures over the years nor am I going to spend time looking at individual centers that are successful.  I just wanted to put together what I am predicting (and in some cases hoping) for our industry in 2011:

1 – The total number of operating video game centers will continue to drop.  There are no indications that borrowing is going to become any easier this year.  That leads me to believe that even fewer new stores will open.  However stores will continue to close at the same rate as in 2010 so the overall number will continue to fall.

2 – The new venture by MLG into game centers will be relatively unsuccessful.  As MLG reaches out to game centers and tries to create a new alliance to host smaller events that can lead to their bigger national circuits they will quickly realize that 99% of the game centers in the US today are ill-equipped and owned by lazy and unmotivated individuals who cannot run successful tournaments.  As a dreamer I wish this program could be successful, but as a person who has worked to build a game center competitive circuit I know first hand that it just isn’t possible.

3 – We will finally start seeing some game releases in centers again.  Mark at iGames announced yesterday that they are removing the requirement for publishers to pay to have their games promoted through iGames this year which is a huge step in the right direction.  In 2010 we had very little to talk about when it came to game releases through iGames and that is probably 90% of the reason most of us are members.  He knows this is a priority for us and is working to bring us back to getting 1-2 game releases each month.

4 – We will see one or two of the top centers close their doors.  I am in constant contact with almost all of the large centers out there and none of us have a large cash pool sitting behind the vault doors to weather a bad event or another sudden dip in the economy.  We have all seen revenues drop the past 3 years and if we are still operating that is because we have trimmed the fat in our operations and streamlined as much as possible.  I could probably name a couple centers that I think will go but these are my friends and my hope is that they make it through.

5 – An outside group will enter this industry and finally start to roll-up some of the existing video game centers.  I have to admit to having some inside information into this already starting so I don’t seem like too much of a prophet.  However the wheels are in motion for a large organization who is looking to buy existing centers and conform them into a universal model throughout the US.  This has always been my prediction throughout the years and I have always stressed to owners to make sure they maximize the value of their business through good record keeping and business good will.

6 – Finally the game industry will announce the next generation consoles.  This is something that was huge for our growth back in 2006 when the Xbox 360 came out followed by the Wii and PS3.  The first year that those systems are released our store saw an enormous jump in sales.  A new generation of consoles will do the same thing.  The problem is that once they are announced this year it will still be 2012 or 2013 before we see them.

7 – A video game center will exceed 5000 fans (likes) on Facebook.   Hehe… the reason I mention this is because it is one of the objectives of my store in 2011 so I hope it will be us!  As a shameless plug if you are reading this make sure you “Like” our page found here:  http://www.facebook.com/ebashterrehaute

8 – Centers will start utilizing downloaded games for consoles as part of their game library.  Honestly I am not sure why it hasn’t happened much before this, but every center that offers Xbox LIVE should be offering their customers the ability to play Xbox LIVE arcade games and other downloaded full copies of games.  We are focusing on adding this at our stores more in 2011 because it cuts down on employee work load changing out the games, wear-and-tear on the discs and disc drives and gives the customers more options for playing.  Also as a bonus secret if you have read down this far… for every game you purchase and download via Xbox LIVE you basically get a copy free.

9 – A game center will get robbed and one of its customers will defend himself against the thieves trying to take his Nintendo DS and fight back…. in Hawaii….. oh wait… that happened already! 🙂  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYrn5MA2KtA

10 – We will all figure out a creative way to make sculptures or some kind of signs using our RROD Xbox systems that cannot be repaired.  Seriously I have been trying to figure out a good use for all of our trash systems if anyone has any ideas?  I refuse to just throw them away because I never want to forget how much pain we have suffered because of their poor design.

As always everyone and their brother uses January 1st each year as their starting point to “turn over a new leaf”.  We are all going to start doing something we should be doing, stop doing something we shouldn’t be doing or probably a fair combination of both stopping some things and starting some other things.

Just to make sure I am not left out of the game I am going to make some resolutions of my own along with some for my game center.

My first one is to prioritize my time each day to accomplish a few goals, one of which is writing this blog daily.  After 7 years in this business there is one thing I have gained through experience and that is the knowledge of what works and what doesn’t work.  There is no reason I can’t share some of those experience to help others in this industry and other similar businesses.

My Individual Goals for 2011:

1. Increase my time spent spiritually, mentally and physically staying active.   This is probably similar to most people’s new year’s resolutions, but specifically I want to spend more time with daily devotions and prayer, daily time thinking creatively and outside-the-box and some kind of daily physical activity.

2. Focus on spending time with others.  The basis for me to start eBash back in 2004 was because I didn’t want kids playing by themselves in a dark room.  I want to make sure that I follow that same reasoning.  Playing Black Ops with 5 gamers from the store is WAY more fun that playing by myself.  I want to make sure my son Zander and all the other gamers I influence have this same mentality when it comes to gaming and life.  This makes some things easier to accomplish like my goal for daily physical activity.  Going with a group mountain biking is more fun than biking by myself!

3. Increase my gaming time and also increase my time outside of gaming.  I found myself the last few months trying to squeeze in both outside activities and gaming around work.  It seems like the better we do at our gaming center the less I get to actually play games.  Doesn’t it seem sad that I have to force myself to play games and I own a video game center?  I would like to increase my Xbox gamerscore by 100k in 2011 and I am shooting for adding 10,000 points each month.  Outside of gaming I want to get back into fish like I was in college.  A complete overhaul of my 220 gallon tank at the office will happen right away this year.

My goals for eBash Terre Haute in 2011:

1. Upgrades, upgrades, upgrades.  That will be my theme throughout the year.  Shawn and I are going to start building and putting in new computers monthly as well as buying new generation Xbox systems and replacing our old white ones.  We plan on utilizing some of our long-time customers as admins throughout the center to help maintain systems and games also.

2. Try and get everyone to focus more on some kind of gaming goals.  The store seemed to buzz quite a bit more a few years ago when players were forming WoW guilds, battling in big console tournaments or participating in gamerscore challenges.  We are hoping to revive some of that purpose for all of the little groups at the store.

3. Reach out to the gaming community beyond our area.  In the past we have focused on just serving gamers that could visit our physical store.  Instead we are going to look at reaching out to gamers throughout the US online through online tournaments and ecommerce sales.

4. Make some money.  So many times those of us in this industry get caught up in how much we love our jobs and how much of a service we provide for our communities.  But there is nothing wrong with making some money along the way!  I want to provide a premium service and charge a premium price.  At $4 per hour many game centers in big cities think we are high priced, but in 7 years we have never heard complaints about our prices for the service we provide.

So as we kick of 2011 what are your goals?  I would be interested to hear some of the goals of other gamers and game center owners out there.  I have a few customers wanting to play some Black Ops so I am off to work on my #2 individual goal of the year!

 

I don’t like to usually put down some of my negative thoughts permanently like this but the last few days I have really been disappointed in the disregard and respect for our store.  I want to share a few of my obvious disappointments recently that just drive me crazy.  I think part of the problem is that customers do not associate their carelessness and recklessness with a cost to them directly.  However every single one of us in ANY business have to pay to repair or replace damaged items and the customers end up paying for it.

Is it appropriate to associate rate hikes immediately following these periods of customer neglect?  In our store the average age is around 14 and I feel that as kids grow up they need to see consequences for their actions.  In some cases we do not see the culprits behind the problem but in most cases we can watch our security footage and see who caused the problem.  Instead of charging all customers for a few player’s problems we could directly add a fee to the problem kids on their next trip to the store.

Let’s get to a few of my examples:

#1 – Messy Players.  This one drives me crazy.  I have a feeling that the parents (and maybe even spouses) of these customers allow them to live like slobs at home and either clean up after them or just roll around in garbage all day.  In our store we have 9 private rooms and many stations in the lobby area and customers will leave $10 worth of snack and drink carnage spread all over their station.  Bits of Butterfinger ground into the carpet.  Sticky controllers, counters and keyboards from what appears to have been a “stick as many skittles in my mouth as I can, drool sugary slime all over myself and then use my hand to spread it all over anything possible” party.  Gum stuck about anywhere you can imagine it possible to stick gum EXCEPT the trash can. (Clark where are you going to put a tree that big?  Bend over and I will show you!)

This is one I am considering adding a $5 clean-up fee to the customer’s account when they leave and the next time they will have to pay before they play.  We are not a maid service and their messiness ruins the station for the next customer and all of the customers around them.

#2 Equipment Abuse “Accidental”.  It seems like the list of broken items is never ending.  With so many Xbox 360 stations at eBash one of our big ones is always “I need a different controller”.  I bet this happens once per day during the week and half a dozen times on the weekend.  We try to add new controllers into rotation every 3-6 months but it doesn’t seem to keep up with complaints.

PC headphones and Xbox headphones (the cheap ones we rent out for $1) are also always turning up broken.  Wire snapped off, plastic headband broken, etc.  Luckily this doesn’t hurt quite as bad because the replacement units are only $10 or less.  We just try to keep extra in stock.

A couple days ago the real kicker hit me.  We had an older player, I believe he was maybe college age or older, that rented one of our new $150 3D glasses SIT on the glasses when he came back from getting a drink.  The lenses are cracked and the glasses cannot be used any longer.  He brought them up right away and apologized and I believe it honestly was just a simple mistake.  But man it hurts.

#3 – Stupid, dumb, intentional, moronic, immature and childish problems.  Much of this stuff can be categorized as vandalism from my point of view.  The bathroom is where the pain starts.  We have situations with poop wiped all over the walls of the bathroom, people trying to urinate in the floor drain instead of in the toilet and kids trying to make the sink overflow with paper towels stuffed into the drain.

Next would be anger issues.  Guys getting mad and slamming the mouse or keyboard, throwing down the controllers and one of the biggest problems I have seen is people punching the screen.  We have literally lost 3 or 4 monitors over the years that have been hit with a hand, controller, keyboard, mouse or something.

This past weekend someone decided to bend one of our “Drop off Zone” parking signs from each of the four edges.  This was another one that kind of set me off.  It doesn’t make any sense but once again the customers don’t realize there is a cost to their actions.  I was able to bend the sign back but there are creases in the sign now and I am sure they will bend it up again.  The signs cost me around $150 to have made and we will have to buy new ones.  If the problems continue I will have to add an outdoor camera to our security system.  Vandalism like this could end up costing the store $1k or more in equipment and time.

I do feel a little better sharing these things and it has been a few days since some of them happened so I have cooled down somewhat.  However I still feel that I should find a way to make the customers who are causing the problems pay directly for their actions instead of passing the cost onto the other customers with increased fees and rates.

My partner Shawn and I have been pretty busy the past few weeks getting the eBash Terre Haute store caught back up in many areas.  For those close to the store it was apparent the first half of 2010 that we were just getting by when it came to store upkeep and maintenance.  We restocked the food and drinks as funds allowed instead of as needed.  By the time we were at the end of June (right before the ownership change) we literally had JUST the most popular items stocked:  Reece’s, Snickers, Mt. Dew, etc.

So the VERY first thing we did when taking back over the majority ownership on July 1st was make a run to Sam’s Club and restock EVERYTHING.  Shawn had the guys at the store literally go through SmartLaunch and list out anything we have ever carried in the past and dropped just under $1,000.00 on food and drinks.  We paid off a past due amount with one vendor that had kept us from ordering for 2 months and restocked BAWLS, Slushie Mix and Nacho chips.

Before I break down some of the sales more let’s just look at the food/drink sales for our store in the first half of 2010:

January – $4,186.13
February – $4,545.45
March – $4,353.90
April – $4,150.48
May – $3,716.45
June –  $3,677.54

As you can see throughout the year the sales gradually decreased.  Now we are in July and on pace to sell $5,130.87 in food based on the daily average.   However like anything else in the business you cannot just look at the raw sale’s numbers alone.  We need to look at the total number of customer visits during that same time and use that number to calculate the $ spent per customer visit:

January – 4876 Visits = $0.86/visit
February – 4925 Visits = $0.93/visit
March – 5059 Visits = $0.86/visit
April – 4691 Visits = $0.89/visit
May – 4046 Visits = $0.92/visit
June –  4460 Visits = $0.83/visit
July – 5633 Visits = $0.99/visit

Looking at this data our top month was February with $0.93 spent per customer visit.  Our lowest month was June with only $0.83/visit spent on food and drinks at our store.  Unfortunately unless someone out there can help me out I cannot pull the number of customer visits (as Smartlaunch tracks them) for July until the end of the month report.  So we will have to wait a few weeks to see what our $/visit ratio will be for this month.

One thing to keep in mind is that a larger selection doesn’t necessarily sell different items.  I believe that a large selection just puts the thought of food and drink in the customer’s view and then the top selling items are still what is sold.  Nothing ever comes close to the sales of Mt. Dew in our center.  We pick up the 24 ounce bottles at Sam’s Club and sell them for $1.50 each (tax included).  This month for example we have already sold almost 300 Mt. Dew bottles.  That is $450 in sales for Mt. Dew only!  The next closest drink is Dr. Pepper, same size and price, selling 121 units so far in July.

We have never put any of our products into combos, either with other snacks/drinks or with a game time product.  I would be curious to hear from a few centers to see what their experiences have been using food/drinks together to promote the sale of other items.

Energy drinks I feel like should be a bigger part of our center but the price points are sooooo freaking ridiculous.  We make a big effort to keep our margins the same for all of our food/drink products.  That is literally impossible for energy drinks if you want to get the same kind of interest.  We can’t find anyone to supply us energy drinks at less than about $1.30 per can so we price them at $3.00 each or 2 for $5.  We get a bit more interest at the 2 for $5 price point but not enough to push it to the front of customer’s minds.

One thing that I have a problem with when it comes to energy drinks is that the customer usually will spend a set amount of money in our store on drinks.  Let’s use the example of a customer spending $5 on drinks while they are playing at our store?  They can get 2 energy drinks which gives eBash $2.05 in profit after taking out the cost and the taxes.  If they buy 3 soft drinks for $4.50 we will get $2.26 in profit.  The kicker is that the customer also gets 3 drinks instead of 2.

We offer a few frozen items that we sell for more filling options but they really don’t sell a ton.  Frozen pizzas, hot pockets, corn dogs and similar items are nice for the younger kids that cannot leave the store but the older crowd still just runs out to get some food when they are ready for a meal.  We feel like it is something we need to keep for the younger crowd but it is not a money maker.

Candy is an entirely other story.  We sell the crap out of snacks like Slim Jim’s and candy bars.  We have really two categories of snacks:  $1 for candy and candy bars and $0.75 for chips.  The chips really do not sell as much as any of the candy items which is probably good since chips can be kind of messy.

We allow our customers to take their drinks and snacks to the rooms while they are playing.  Many people question this decision but I know that to make the customer’s stay longer and be more comfortable they need to have their drinks and snacks with them while they are playing.  That is one reason we try to stock the drinks with bottles and hence CAPS to keep on the drinks to prevent spills.  Sometimes I question this after I see a room with a Butterfinger smeared into the carpet or a counter all sticky from a drink but I always come back to a room full of happy gamers with drinks and snacks spread out all around them.

I am curious to hear some other center’s feedback on their experience with concessions.  Maybe someone can help us figure out the energy drink side of the business?  I know some have full restaurants attached to their center and I wonder if that helps keep people in the seats longer?

**** UPDATE ****  I have updated the report above to show the July food sales.  This was with a complete restocking of our concessions for the month.  Our visits were WAY up this month but even still we increased our food/concession sales to nearly $1 per customer visit!!!!

A recent flurry of feedback from our customers in the eBash Terre Haute store has me thinking of the age old saying “The Customer is always right”.  I am not sure I can buy into that customer service mentality these days when I think of people who complain about anything at restaurants or browse through the awesome pictures at People of Walmart (www.peopleofwalmart.com).   It seems like these days all you have to do is get angry and throw a fit at a store to get whatever you want for free.

I want to share a link to our forum thread that I have now complied all of the complaints and feedback into a new eBash Terre Haute Comment Box format.  This started from my recent 3D blog and quickly bloomed into “everything wrong with eBash” but in a somewhat constructive way.  The cool part is that I have been inspired by a few of the comments and also had a revelation that I will share in my blog tomorrow.

eBash Terre Haute Comment Box: http://www.ebash.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=9441

Reading through the thread brings a few things to mind that I want to highlight and get some feedback from other game centers and customers.

#1 – If comments or complaints seem to be repeated or have a theme then there is more than likely a problem that needs addressed.  Many times there will be certain customers you can’t please no matter what.  They have super awesome triple processor liquid cooled mega machines all over their house and your systems cannot stand up to their 3DMark test.  However if 3-4 different people mention the same thing then it is probably worth looking into further.

#2 – Try to look into an underlying message beneath the surface of the actual comments.  Is the customer missing a feeling they used to get when coming to your center that has been removed through a change in store hours, pricing package or remodeling project?  Much of the theme through the thread on the eBash forums to me says “We really want to be proud of our store and hang out there but…..”

#3 – Like a parent protecting their children it is hard as a game center to hear anything “wrong” with the store and not immediately go into defensive mode.  You can see that in some of my responses.  I start to pick apart the comments and tell the person where the holes might be in their complaint instead of addressing the actual problem.

#4 – In our business, most of the time the customer probably IS right.   If they are pointing out a problem or making a suggestion you can almost bet that something needs to be changed.  The situation is probably not of the same magnitude that the customer perceives.  “All of the headphones do not work on the computers” probably means they tried a couple stations and then got frustrated and stopped looking.

#5 – Get the customers involved.  Turn that problem into an opportunity.  In our case it seems like we need a regularly scheduled walk through and testing of our PC equipment.  I am going to work with a few of the customers who are the most passionate about these problems and give them free hours to help us with weekly maintenance.

My final opinion?  Yes, customers are always right.*  With an asterisk next to it because the customer may not know exactly what the problem is or the actual level of concern but underneath the surface they are probably on to something.

My good friend Mike DeCarolis who owns and runs The Battlegrounds in Vernon, CT yesterday chatted with me on Facebook for a bit about employees playing while on shift.  This is something that I have gone back-and-forth with over the years but after many problems just finally made it black and white and said no gaming while on the clock at eBash.

Mike told me that he lets his guys play while they are working because honestly on slower nights the employees can get some fun LAN events started that regular customers won’t do on their own.  There are obviously some great arguments for letting them play but recently he arrived at The Battlegrounds to find the store completely full of customers and his description was that the store was in “chaos”.  Both employees who were “working” were in League of Legends matches and no one was really running the store.

I have found that when employees are less than stellar at their jobs first I have to do a self-evaluation on my management tasks (This has nothing to do with Mike BTW but just for me personally).  Have I given each of the employees defined lists of the tasks they need to perform and trained them on how to execute those tasks correctly?  Am I doing a good job of following up on task lists and praising the employees who are doing the jobs correctly in our bi-weekly meetings instead of thrashing the ones who are under performing.  I am sure over the years I have lost many employees that I poorly managed for the wrong reasons.

However, let’s also be realistic.  The guys and gals I am employing (and most other LAN centers are in the same boat) are between 17 and 24 years old.  Many of them this is their first job or have only worked at fast food or other retail.  They are not exactly the most motivated and driven bunch of workers like a small business owner.  If there is a chance to get their checklist done and then hang out in AOL chat for a few hours or surf Facebook then they won’t go looking for more work to do.  I have had really good workers over the years who have to be reminded numerous times of a task they should perform before they actually get it done.

My biggest beef with allowing the employees to play is that the customer has to INTERRUPT the employee to get service.  “Hey would you mind selling me a Mt. Dew?”  I would literally blow my top anytime I heard a customer complaint that someone was too busy playing their game to help them with a technical problem or sell them some snacks.  As corny as it seems the employee should be looking for people to help, almost like they are being paid a commission to help them.  As new people come into the store and wonder around looking confused a simple, “Welcome to eBash, can I help you guys find anything?” will give customers the green light to ask questions if they are shy.

So what should you do if your store is slow and the employee isn’t busy at the front counter?  My theory is always have them do something that might help with the reason that they are not busy.  What can they do to try and get more customers in the store?  I give my employees the liberty of throwing a special out on our twitter or facebook accounts.  I want them to go through our facebook wall, website forums and any other forums looking for people to connect with to invite to events at the store.

Of course there are also tons of jobs around the store that need done besides “if you can lean then you can clean” tasks.  A big problem for small business owners is taking the tasks that we think are super-duper important and delegating them to those working for us.  For example I don’t do our accounting tasks because I have Tucker do it, who has worked for eBash almost 5 years now.  He is studying to be a CPA and honestly he is way better at it than I am because I am not detail oriented.  (the electric bill? bah… that can wait a few months I need to run a few sweet tournaments instead!)

The problem Mike had at his store is that leaving the employees the ability to CHOOSE when it is appropriate to play leaves a ton of GRAY area in the rules.  Most individuals will always find a reason that they should be playing instead of thinking of a reason why they shouldn’t be playing.  In my opinion it just leaves the situation too open for interpretation that will lead to a conflict down the road.  And while our employees almost always love their jobs they might not be mature or experienced enough to recognize the benefits of working hard.

What does everyone else think?  Is there actually a way to pinpoint a good time for employees to play while they are working?