PLAYING THE PERFECT HOST
Like "Cinderella," Choreographing a Promotion is Half the Battle in Making it Successful.
by Charles L. Martin

In much the same way that a host/hostess sets the stage for the experience guests will enjoy at a party, successful bowling centers also have hosts or hostesses who shape bowlers' experiences at the lanes. Indeed, the social atmosphere at bowling centers where one or more managers or employees play the host(ess) role tends to be more relaxed, more festive, and more social.

Analytically, the hosts' presence reinforces two great truths about bowling and bowling centers. First, bowling is a much broader experience than the mere act of knocking down pins per se. Bowlers enjoy the interaction with hosts and hostesses who enrich the bowling experience.

Second, bowling centers don't run themselves. Hosts/hostesses stay up with the many details involved in operating the business, and enhance customers' bowling experiences by ensuring that a customer focus surfaces from that sea of details.

I've noticed that most successful bowling centers embrace the host(ess) concept in one form or another, formally or informally. Some hosts and hostesses are easily recognizable by their job titles and/or job descriptions. 

For example, a host assigned to a new league may be responsible for that league and expected to continually interact with league members to monitor and ensure customer satisfaction. In this formalized role, the host is the key contact person for the league and the quality assurance coordinator who makes certain the settees are clean, score pencils sharpened, and the lanes otherwise ready for bowlers' arrival. The host may or may not attend to these details personally, but ensures that someone does. At the end of the season, the league's host may receive a monetary bonus or prize if bowler surveys indicate high levels of satisfaction, or a high percentage of league members commit to the following season.

Less formally, the role of host or hostess may be folded into other roles or job titles. The host(ess) may be an owner, a manager, or the employee who works behind the customer service desk most of the day and seems to know everyone's name.

Regardless of whether hosts or hostesses have name tags identifying them as such, bowlers know who they are. The host(ess) is the bowling center rep who seems to be at the lanes whenever you're there. He/she's the person who recognizes you by name, asks about the family, and takes an interest in your bowling. He/she's there to "shoot the breeze" or to listen. He/she seems to know what's going on and has the answers to your questions, or is eager to find the answers. He/she cares about customers, about the bowling center, and about bowling. He/she's always cheerful and upbeat, the kind of person that customers enjoy talking to. 

The host(ess) is not only someone customers like, but someone they can trust. When a problem arises, bowlers intuitively know whom to contact. They know the host(ess) will take action to address the issue, whatever the issue might be.

The necessity of having one or more managers or employees play the host(ess) role seems to be more critical when employee turnover is high, when workers tend to be inexperienced, or when the center relies on a high proportion of part-time employees. Under these circumstances, most employees may never learn customers' names or otherwise get to know them. Both service and a sense of belonging suffer when the cast of employees changes from one week to the next, so that customers and employees interact with each other only in superficial, transactional ways (e.g. "Could I have a lane, please?" or "That'll be $6.50"). In contrast, the presence of one or more hosts or hostesses with whom customers can interact in more meaningful ways can strengthen the bond between the bowling center and its customers.

There can be a sharp contrast between centers which have one or more hosts or hostesses and those that don't. Those with hosts and hostesses feel more like home. Bowlers are more likely to feel welcome and appreciated. Bowlers view themselves as allies of management - even partners at what they may describe as their bowling center. 

With effective hosts and hostesses, changes in operational policies and procedures are taken in stride. The host(ess) keeps customers informed and is always ready to explain the changes in palatable terms. When prices increase, for example, bowlers are led to understand that the hikes are necessary to keep the service level up to the standards they deserve and have come to expect.

Bowling centers that don't have any workers playing the host(ess) role are more likely to be perceived as cold and impersonal. Owners may be viewed as being too "corporate," interested more in garnering profits than ensuring positive customer experiences. Managers who spend their days "hiding" in a back office or out of the center may be seen as aloof and, hence, uncaring. Justifiable or not, the realities of owners' orientation or managers' time styles matter little; it's customers' perceptions that count.

When hosts and hostesses are noticeably absent, bowlers are likely to perceive greater uncertainty about the bowling experience itself, because they perceive less staff continuity and less managerial control from visit to visit. For example, they may believe the lanes to be slick one week and bone-dry the next, or the restrooms to be dirty and poorly stocked on alternating visits, but it's not clear whom to report the variation to or if the recipient of the complaint will bury it or pass it on for action. Nor is it clear if anyone will follow up to ensure action to prevent future discrepancies.

Regardless of the severity of the service shortcomings, in the absence of a host(ess), the uncertainties associated with service may turn into customer anxieties which can magnify the problems. Again, the realities may be one thing, but the perception of the customers is what matters. Without a host(ess) to ensure customer satisfaction, customers' perceptions may run out of control.

However, the presence of a host(ess) can affect more than customers' perceptions. For example, hosts and hostesses often play a corresponding leadership role in the bowling center and influence other employees' behaviors. Their influence is usually accomplished with a combination of examples they set and requests they make. In either case, they establish customers as a high priority and help other employees to understand how everyone's job directly or indirectly affects customer satisfaction. In short, the perfect host(ess) won't hesitate to assist customers as needed, or to redirect other workers' attention to serve customers' immediate needs.

By contrast, without highly visible hosts or hostesses, employees may perform their duties in a robotic-like manner and not make the connection between their jobs and customers' satisfaction. Workers' job descriptions may reinforce robotic behavior by listing task-specific "to do" lists rather than charging employees with the responsibility of taking care of customers.


MOVING FORWARD
Again, most bowling center managers already rely on hosts or hostesses to some extent - formally or informally, explicitly or intuitively - even if they assume that role themselves. Yet it may be time to proactively implement or formalize the host(ess) concept in your bowling center.

If so, consider several questions: Which employees are already playing the role or have the potential to do so? What information, authority or other forms of support could help them to be more effective as hosts or hostesses? How could their job descriptions best be altered to reinforce the importance of their host(ess) roles? Specifically, what are management's expectations of hosts and hostesses - greet customers, learn and use customers' names, compliment bowlers, build rapport, facilitate social interaction between and among groups of customers, monitor customer satisfaction, handle complaints, report systemic or ongoing customer concerns to management, educate and coach bowlers, respond to bowlers' questions and requests, create awareness of upcoming events and relevant bowling center policies, orient customers to the bowling center, work with other employees to ensure that customers' experiences are positive and memorable ones, and so on?

Whom should the host(ess) report to? Who should report to the host(ess)? Which leagues or other groups of bowlers would be most likely to benefit from a formally assigned host(ess)? How many hosts or hostesses should the bowling center employ? What steps should be taken now to train or develop future hosts or hostesses? 

While the emergence of hosts and hostesses is probably a natural evolutionary phenomenon in most bowling centers, embracing the concept need not be left to chance.