As a business owner, after your clients have finished playing in the escape room, then it’s important to understand exactly how they feel. It's not good enough just to ask them if they had a good time. Or wait to see what they say with a review on TripAdvisor. The problem with both of these examples is that there’s often no place for the grey areas which are so important. If you make use of the more traditional methods for collecting feedback then you'll miss out on a lot of that subtlety. Actually a better bet is to try and capture the thoughts of every player about all aspects of the game. In other words, what improvements do they think should happen? What did they love and what did they dislike? And finally, the all important, would you recommend this escape room to a friend?

A More Detailed Approach For The Win

If you ask a room full of escape room owners what methods and tools they’re using in order to gauge customer feedback, you're probably received as many different methods as there are owners present. Everything from questions on the booking page to phone calls. Or a conversation between the game master and the customers at the end of the playing session. At least all of these show that some effort was being made. At the end of the day, you'd be surprised just how many owners are not collecting any feedback at all. They rely solely on reviews appearing in Yelp, TripAdvisor, Facebook and other social media platforms.

We will be the first to admit that there are some benefits to this. After all, you're receiving reviews without making any effort in order to get them. The problem here is that, if for example there was an issue during the gameplay, it's quite possible that the player will negatively point this out in a review. Yet it’s something that a simple conversation with the games master could have solved at the time. If you’re a business owner, then shorely the best idea is to constantly monitor feedback in order to build a better business. Though it sounds rather old fashioned, we must confess the best way of collecting feedback at the end of a gameI is still the good old post game survey. Normally this is sent out to players a day or two after their booking by email. Coupled with some sort of small insentive, many players are happy to sit down and spend 5 minutes filling out a form telling giving you their feelings about the hour they spent playing your escape room game.

We strongly suggest that you stick to asking only open-ended questions. This allows so much more detail in the answers. And you may well see things that will surprise you. Of course, having a multi-tick-box option where they can simply tick off pre-given answers makes life much easier. After all, an open-ended question requires a more detailed answer. But it’s going to prove much more useful in the long run, as it gets into the nitty-gritty of every possible aspect of the whole escape room experience.

Understand Escape Room Trends In Real Time

In all businesses, the collection of data matters. If utilized correctly then you can never have enough data. All post-game customer satisfaction surveys can provide huge amounts of useful data that can that be translated into improving the day-to-day running of your escape room business. It doesn't matter if the data is quantifiable or qualitative. Just as long as your players are happy to volunteer it. No longer will you have to guess from their booking details such things as their gaming experience or whether they would like to bring the family or work colleagues. Of course, we're going to assume here that you're asking to the point and smart questions. If done correctly, then your business will learn and be able to identify best long and short term customer trends within the escape room industry space. At the end of the day, this will prepare you for any changes that will allow you to stay ahead of the curve.

Learn From Your Best Players

Because many escape room games offer a variety of different rooms, a post game survey will allow you to see almost instantly why one room functions better than another. If you look at the booking data and recognize that one room is steaming ahead of the others, then it's easy to make assumptions based on your own escape room experience. But by asking the right questions to players who've played games in all your rooms, you’ll discover the differences directly from those who are paying for the experience. Looking through their answers, you'll be able to do a deep dive into the reasons why customers are happy to pay for one room and yet reluctant to pay for another.

Keep in mind that these post-game surveys should not just focus on the game's themselves. But also apply to the whole team of staff who had any contact with the customers from the moment they walked in the door. All escape room games are essentially customer-facing. Therefore it's important that you get feedback on every interaction that takes place between a players and the members of your staff. Remember, a single rude or lazy receptionist, or unsympathetic games master, can make or break your escape room business with a string of bad reviews on social media.

Players Love To Share Opinions

Because there are so many escape room games on offer in every city around the world, many players look to reviews left by other players in order to see whether a particular business is worth their custom. And that's why you'll see so many reviews by players who are only too happy to share their thoughts. If you’re relying on your games master simply asking the players how it was, then the probability is you're just going to receive very generic positive responses. But give the customer a day or two after the game. Once they're able to fully consider what came to pass. And you're much more likely to get a more truthful response. After all, you've given them a couple of days to collect their thoughts. Keep in mind that you want customers to, not just recommend you to new and potential players, but also to return themselves to try different room. As such, it’s important to remember that everyone who is ever played in your escape rooms is now part of your community. And if there's one thing the internet is good at, it's getting people together. Every comment shared with interest helps to mould a community based around your business. If you take this approach, then you'll reap rewards in the future.

Remind Players To Return

If you're not already doing so, we strongly suggest that you consider adding a postgame survey for all players after their whole exit room experience. In order to make changes, you need to be aware of what exactly needs changing. And the only way for this to happen is if the customers tell you. Many escape room business owners become blinkered and simply assume that every aspect of that games is perfect. In reality the only point of view that matters is that of the paying customer. Another aspect of a post game survey is that it shows your customers that you care about them. Probably one of the best part of filling out a post-game survey is the fact that they're reminded of the wonderful time they had. This is the key to having a customer recommend you to others. As well as returning to try another escape room game.