If you’re a family fun center owner, then this could possibly be the most important Facebook post you read this year:
Sandra Levin, of Orbit Skate Center, brought up two fantastic points.
- Your website MUST be accessible to your customers on a variety of devices. Mobile responsive web design is a great, cost effective solution.
- You need a party booking solution on your website to meet the needs of your customers.
Fortunately, these are very easy fixes for you and your family fun center. The best thing about these updates is that you will be able to see tangible results, just like Sandra and many other center owners who have updated their web presence recently.
57% of users won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site. 40% have turned to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience.
– The Mobile Playbook by Jason Spero
Your Website’s User Experience Matters
I typically think that the best way to explain a good website user experience is to have clients tell me what frustrates them about going to other websites. They often say things like,”I can’t find the information that I want” and “the website is just too busy.” Now that many markets experience around 50% mobile website visits, it’s also important to consider how users experience your website on smartphones, tablets, and even televisions. My conversations with clients usually circles back to the fact that they need a clean, professional looking, mobile responsive website. The good news for family fun centers is that “clean design” does not mean you have to be boring or bland. It just means that we want to really focus on the overall flow and layout of your website. Here are a few things to consider when developing a new mobile responsive website.
- Clearly layout your website navigation (menu). Make sure that customers can easily find important information.
- Make it easy for people to contact you. Have your phone number, address, and a contact form easily accessible. We suggest adding your phone number to the very top of your website.
- Remember, less is often more. A cluttered homepage can often overwhelm your users, which leads them to go back to Google and then to your competitor’s website (see above quote.)
- Simplify your site even more for smartphones. With mobile responsive web design, you can strip out image sliders, banners, and more that usually look great on a desktop, but clutter a phone screen. This can also improve load time, which contributes to your search engine rankings along with your website’s user experience.
Creating a mobile responsive website is an easy, and inexpensive upgrade for your business. Our monthly clients benefit from a 62% discount on their new mobile responsive website that we use to manage their web presence.
Party Bookings Made Easy
Having a working, easy to use party booking solution is essential for all family fun centers. Sandra mentioned in her Facebook post that her last birthday booking came in after 3AM. Clearly, your customers are making decisions at all hours due to their schedules. They need choices when it comes to contacting your business about skate sessions, party bookings, corporate events, and more. Here are 3 easy solutions that our clients use for their party bookings.
- CenterEdge Software: CenterEdge is a popular point of sale solution for family entertainment centers across the country that lets you easily tie everything from your scheduling to your customer database together.
- PartyWirks: PartyWirks is an online booking and scheduling service. It’s easy to use and it’s a great solution for many business owners.
- Party Center Software: This is a fantastic, affordable POS and party booking platform for Family Entertainment Centers. Their party booking is easy to manage, and even easier for your guests to book. A big plus is their mobile responsive design, which we feel is extremely important for FEC’s.
- Custom Website Form: If booking software isn’t something you want to use, you can also have your webmaster build a custom party booking form and database for your website. You can accept credit card deposits directly from your website, or if you prefer, call the customer back to confirm the details of the party and receive payment during your conversation.
Making Sure that Your Website Is Working for You
Creating a great user experience and properly optimizing your web presence insures that your website is putting in the work for you to generate more sales for your family fun center. When properly maintained, your website becomes a self cleaning oven that produces a strong return on investment (ROI) for your business while you focus on other important aspects of running your roller skating center.
Contact us today if you have questions about improving your website’s performance and party booking ability.
