This is a re-post that was requested by a number of shop managers
who have been using some form of this competition to create member interest since its
original posting in 2010.
Depending on the facility, shop credits either won by or awarded
to members/regulars can vary from zero to a significant percentage of the
overall business. I’ve talked to many pros who say their members hold their
credit until the end of the year and they manage their Christmas business and
end of year inventory on the outstanding credit still to be redeemed. Because
of cutbacks in trying times many tournament favors are now shop credits instead
of especially bought favors. The point is shop credit is important at most
facilities and like any other part of the business deserves to be looked at as
a part of the business worth creatively attempting to increase.
The football season is almost here and its
high profile marketability provides an opportunity to create some shop
excitement. The following example can obviously be tweaked according to
facility and clientele but let’s call our hypothetical approach “The Big Game”.
Place a clipboard on the shop counter with
the appropriate sign –up sheet where you list the ten NFL games that are going
to be involved in this week’s random drawing. Anyone interested in
participating signs up next to one of the ten slots on the sign –up sheet and
owes $25 to the pot. Our signee can play as often as he wants but only once per
sheet. When the sheet is full we move on to the next sheet hoping to fill as
many sheets as possible.
On Sunday morning before the games each
sheet will have the ten games involved drawn and posted next to the name on the
list corresponding to the number of the draw. Ritualistically every Sunday
morning this drawing is performed in the shop in front of any crowd that might
form and until each name on each sheet is paired with a game. Each sheet is its
own pool and has a winner. The winner per sheet is the guy or gal with the
highest total points per game on the sheet. The winner wins $250 worth of shop
credit.
The interest in wagering on football needs
not be documented here, it is incredible. Even members or regulars who aren’t
fans of the game or trying to pick winners may find this a fun $25 endeavor.
It’s difficult however to find ten to one odds on football wagers without
betting multiple games so you have some appeal to die-hard gamblers as well.
The staff could be incentivized to talk up
the clipboard and sign people up and the interest in the Sunday morning ritual
of drawing games to names could have people stopping in who may otherwise not
be in the shop.
Four sheets per week is $1000 worth of
shop credit. The real beauty of the concept is that it is a seventeen week
season. Multiply 8 sheets per week times 17 weeks and you could be talking
about generating 10% of this year’s revenue in some shops.
