Individual sound in your location

When we began the process of developing a survey surrounding sports sound in your restaurants, I was fairly sure I knew what the results would show. I have 20+ years of experience operating sports themed locations and my experience told me that sound is a nice luxury, but it’s not that important to guests.

Boy was I wrong…

Time to listen to your guests

To start, only 19% of you play sound all day every day. And since only 13% of you have a system for delivering individual sound, that means that most of you aren’t providing this level of personal service to your guests. Given the volume of programming that you buy, it was shocking to learn that so few of you offer this additional experience enhancement for your most loyal and die-hard guests.

There were several other revelations that the survey provided, but the most potent was the 38% of you have had a guest walk out of your restaurant because they couldn’t hear their game. We all understand how passionate the average fan is about their team, but it’s amazing to think that more than a third of you have had a guest go elsewhere because you couldn’t provide the service they sought. You’re losing out on a lot of money.

Equally impressive was the 30% of you have had guests asking you daily to access the sound for their game. This is a clear sign that sound is a point of differentiation that guests value. Just a few guests choosing your location because they can hear their game can and will add up to increased revenue pretty quickly. It is equally important that they won’t be going to your competitors because you can provide them with this additional level of service.

Stand out from your competitors

Back in 2001, I operated a 23,000 sq ft sports themed restaurant. One of the unique features we built into the infrastructure was an individual sound unit at each booth. This was cutting edge stuff at the time and created a powerful point of differentiation for our location. It was also incredibly expensive, requiring thousands of feet of cabling and pricey devices to manage the sound. We were able to build on that extra service to increase revenue as compared to our competitors, but the cost made me consider it a marketing expense and not worry about its profitability.

Today you don’t have to go into debt to provide that level of service to your guests. Individual sound made available directly to your guest’s device is now attainable and affordable. And as the survey proves, a real opportunity attract and retain loyal guests.

Apple Watch Winner

Congrats to Fritz Proehler, the winner of a new Apple Watch for taking the Audio Everywhere survey.