3 Steps to Improve Processes at Your Family Entertainment Center

Creating repeatable processes for day-to-day activities is the secret to scaling your business.

In fact, dedicating some time to outline and implement effective processes should be a business owner's top priority. How else can you effectively train your staff or measure whether a new initiative truly worked?

Once you have processes in place, it's equally important to periodically review and evaluate them to ensure you're seeing improvement or change.

3 Steps to Improve Processes at Your FEC

So, how do review your processes?

How do you determine which process is helping you reach your goals and which one is not?

Consider the following three steps to help you improve processes at your facility. Increased efficiency in operations will not only make your staff more productive, it will also present more opportunities for business growth.

1. Review Your Current Processes

First, schedule time to review your processes. This may seem tedious, but creating a reoccurring calendar event that'll remind you to check things out will help you stay on track.

When you do schedule that time, start by asking specific questions about each process that will uncover whether it’s still effective, or whether you'll need to make a few adjustments. For example:

• Marketing: How are you spreading the word about your facility, the specials you may be running, etc.? Do you have a social media marketing plan? Are you engaging your guests and encouraging them to leave review about their visit?
  
  
• Booking Parties: How are you currently booking parties? Have you ever missed a party reservation and why did that happen? Are you accidentally double booking? Are you stuck chasing down deposits?
  
  
• Staff Training: What are your hiring and on-boarding processes? Does your staff feel prepared to engage with guests or to host an event? Do you have ongoing training or offer professional growth opportunities?
  
  
• Party Execution: How do you prepare for a party? Do you have a checklist or process for your host to follow before, during, and after the party? How can you make parties more memorable? What's the procedure for following up with your party guests after the event is over?

You want your processes to be detailed and easy to follow. Any  gaps should be addressed. The most successful FEC owners have solid processes that allow their team to function like a well-oiled machine.

2. Gather Staff Opinion

Most people in leadership roles wear many hats and often try to be all things to all people. The reality is, as a FEC owner or manager, you can't be everywhere, and you can't do everything. You need to offload tasks, involve your staff, and ask for their input.

They're the ones in the trenches, engaging with guests, booking parties, executing events—the list goes on! Your employees are your best source of insight when it comes to process improvement. They also want your guidance!

Consult with your staff about what's going well and what challenges they’re facing. What processes work well? What processes are broken? Where do they feel improvements can be made? Shadow different members of your team on their shifts to see what it's like for them and always ask for feedback.

Making your staff a part of of the solution encourages them to take ownership and contribute.

3. Research and Implement

Knowledge is power. 

Research your industry for applications or software programs that can help take processes you’ve flagged as weak to a level of excellence. Join peer or community groups, subscribe to industry-related newsletters and blogs, and attend trade shows. Get out there and speak to people in your industry.

Having solid processes at your family entertainment center or events facility is critical to your success and continual growth.

By periodically reviewing processes at your facility and making improvements, you can start working smarter, not harder.

Leave a Comment, We'd Love to Hear Your Thoughts!

Please leave a comment below to let us know what you thought of this post. Do you review your processes? Let us know!

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1. Identify the core elements of your unique playbook.
2. Get your team to buy-in.
3. Manage and maintain the build-out process.

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