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| Are you brave enough to look? THE ANTHONY WILLIAMS COLUMN | | ||||||||
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| When did you last make an anonymous visit to a cinema as a paying customer? Maybe too long ago to remember. Do you really know what it’s like for the people we depend on for a living? How easy do we make their visit? How pleasant? What obstacles do we put in their way? How difficult is it to find out what is showing and where — and when? People in any business usually become so close to it that they no longer see it objectively. I strongly suspect we fail to register many of the hurdles our customers have to overcome before they get to see a film. Perhaps they look in a local paper, the traditional and still a very important place to find out ‘what’s on’. Chances are they won’t find an advertisement for the nearest cinema. If they do, it might refer them to a telephone number or a website. It is also possible it might be confusingly laid out — just try and fathom some of the Evening Standard classifieds. Maybe it is a large display advertisement placed by a distributor — will it have a legible list of the cinemas showing the film and the times? Most likely no, forcing our prospective customer to search out further information. How many don’t bother? Suppose they telephone “the cinema”. Will their call be answered by a helpful human? Try it and find out!!! More than likely it will be a computer or a series of menus or a call centre. How many people give up in frustration before they hit our target and make a booking? Perhaps more than enough to cover the cost of providing a human service. Market research reveals time and time again how many people hate never ending menus and call centres. If the call goes direct to a cinema, will anybody answer the ‘phone and if they do, will that person quickly and politely provide the information wanted? Oh, but we have a great website you might think — not helpful for the many people who still don’t have any or easy access to the web. And if ones does find one of the search engines, the criteria may demand information they don’t have. If a potential cinemagoer connects to a circuit website — which are steadily becoming more user-friendly — this will sadly not be much help if that circuit doesn’t have a cinema nearby. Many websites contain confusing third party advertising or are simply poorly designed and difficult to navigate. Some do not offer online booking or even a contact number that will be answered. Even if a potential customer reaches a seat booking stage, will they then be faced with a confusing menu of too many prices? Then what sort of welcome does our customer get when they arrive at the cinema? Is essential information such as when the doors open, when the films are showing and seat prices easily displayed? Are we increasing their stress levels with badly managed queues? Are we negating some of the benefits of Orange Wednesdays by insisting on ‘doors only’ ticket sales and creating congestion at the box office (if there is one — don’t start me on that issue) and upsetting non-Orange customers even more. Are the staff smiling, helpful, knowledgeable and efficient? Is the retail offer clear or muddled? Is there too much conflicting information on display in the foyer? Do the staff greet you and direct you to the right screen? If the lights have gone down, is there a member of staff to show you to your seat? Does anybody patrol to check on the picture and sound and deal with any disturbance? Is the duty manager anywhere to be seen, especially when you leave, ready to deal with any potential complaint — or maybe even a compliment!! Nikki Ratcliff, head of research services at Which? will be presenting her experiences of being a cinema customer at the UK Cinema Industry Conference on 20th of this month. Are you brave enough to hear what she has to say? And shouldn’t you be turning yourself into a cinema customer for a night to find out for yourself? (Not at one of your own cinemas, of course.) When you have, don’t keep quiet. If there is something you think is not right, tell the cinema owner — they need to know for all our sakes. Anthony Williams is a specialist cinema consultant | | ||||||||
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