This is an unsolicited w/o interview review of Play in Roswell Ga.
Overview
Play is an awesome facility where children have the opportunity to enjoy trampolines, ball pits, inflated moon walk type jumpies, playing with parachutes, slides and other gymnastic type equipment. They have play areas for little kids too; sand tables, trains, and more. Play is a great place to take the kids for a birthday and they even offer opportunities to drop your kids off on Saturday nights.
Play also has a parents lounge but it seems to need a little work at least on the weekends. I would suggest Internet access, coffee and perhaps playing something on the tv.
Experience
We visited Play last weekend for a birthday party. They always do a great job of getting the kids involved in the activities and the kids working the parties are well trained. They know how to interact with the children and are good about keeping to a schedule that keeps the kids interested.
We have not hosted a party there but based on how they organize it I would be willing to.
Online presence
Play’s online presence consists of a web site and a Facebook page. They also maintain a news letter.
I signed up for the news letter the other day and did not receive an introduction news letter. I also signed up to be added as a friend on Facebook and have not yet been added. This is almost a week ago now. The web site is great and provides all the details about when they are open, when you can bring your kid in to Open Play and when they offer “Kids night out” or babby sitting. They also have classes and even free offerings such as story hour. It’s great that they list all this on their web site.
Recommendations
I believe Play is missing a few crucial opportunities to leverage their existing web site and electronic media for marketing purposes and to bring in additional business.
For a business like Play it makes sense to send an initial news letter/Autoresponder along with a coupon for signing up. Anybody who signs up for this news letter obviously is a potential, if not already a, customer. Since this customer went to the trouble to provide you an email address an is inviting you to stay in communication with them you should give them an incentive to come in and Play. The news letter is the perfect opportunity to do this.
Facebook – The Facebook page can be a real opportunity to create a community between all of your customers but it won’t work if you don’t get people interacting immediately. I would also move from the Friend page to more of a Fan page.
A Facebook fan page is searchable by the search engines and someone looking for Play type activities in Roswell might find the page and Bam New customer. In the fan page you can host conversations and get an interactive conversation going. You can also host pic’s and video that your customers might enjoy. The other major advantage to Facebook Fan pages are the ability to advertise on Facebook. Facebook PPC (pay per click) advertising is incredibly well targeted. You can advertise to women between the age of 27 and 40 who live in specific postal codes. The integrated Fan page gives an excellent place to direct those parents to. Also there is less administration because anybody who wants to can become a fan.
Finally if were examining Play’s online strategy I would consider a blog. The blog can be updated weekly with video testimonials, each week’s events, and even child safety or child care type tips. The blog could be linked from the existing web site which is excellent and provide parents a way of staying in touch with Play and other Play parents. Play might even consider video taping a Story Time or some other event to help bring the Play experience to parents on-line.
I don’t have any business suggestions for Play today as I’ve only been able to observe the operation and online strategies. I believe Play has an excellent operational strategy in place since all employees seem to be well trained and enjoy working with young kids.
All in all if you are a parent in North Atlanta you need to take your kids to Play and check it out. They are awesome.
