CenterEdge Software Blog

Practice stress management techniques, be proactive and stay thankful to help manage this busy holiday season. 

With the turning of the calendar, the holidays are in full swing! While this time of year can be magical, it can also be overwhelming to you and your staff. But with so many new guests visiting your business for the first time this season, you can't afford service hiccups caused by a stressed-out team. Read on for five tips to help you keep your team, happy, engaged, and ready to wow this holiday season. 

Get the key insights learned from a recent negative Facebook review that you can use to improve guest experience in - and out of - your facility. 

Guest service has been on my mind lately, but not for the reasons you might think. Read how restaurant reviews in a local Facebook community inspired important lessons to consider in your facility's guest experience.

Drive results by giving your best to each and every team member. 

During a time when hiring is so difficult, retention efforts become more important than ever. Pay, flexibility, and a fun work environment can all help keep retention high. 

One of the best ways to improve morale and promote a healthy work environment is to provide your team with thoughtful coaching and mentorship. And it's something that the best leaders do daily.

Today, we're sharing ten questions to help you jump-start meaningful coaching opportunities. 

User-generated content can create brand awareness, build trust, and help you engage with your audience - with less of the heavy lifting.  

Family entertainment businesses have no shortage of opportunities for social media gold. But many marketers often feel at a loss for what to post and when.

Some of the beauty of this type of marketing is that it's more accessible than ever before. While some content should be polished and professional, other posts can and should be organic and edgy.

Photo and video content often increases your reach and generates more engagement than other types. But before you groan that you'll have to coerce one of your team members to be the "talking head" in your next video series, don't forget about the untapped potential of user-generated content (UGC). Today, we're sharing seven tips to help you encourage your guests to create and share pictures and videos. 

You could be doing more damage than you realize: from what you let slide to the promises you break. 

Managing others is no easy feat, and it can sometimes feel like a thankless job. You're under a lot of pressure to keep everything running smoothly - but you're not alone.

When you're feeling stressed, overworked, and frustrated, it can be easy to slip into a few bad leadership habits that can damage your team's morale and, ultimately, their performance. And the sad fact is, many of us have slipped into those habits more often than we'd care to admit.

But the costs of negative leadership traits and damaging behaviors can be too high to ignore. Read on for five ways you (or your managers) could be hurting your business - and what to do about them.

Redemption Plus' Megan Burtch shares important tips to help maximize the impact of this important offering.

No matter what kind of game room experience you offer, your redemption experience matters. As the last guest service touchpoint you have with your audience onsite, this experience can leave guests excited to return - or excited to be leaving.

This week, we sat down with Merchandising Expert, Megan Burtch of Redemption Plus, and asked her to share her insights into building a strong redemption strategy, mistakes to avoid, and other common questions operators ask. 

"Sweat the details. Pay attention to them. If you don't, your competitors will."  - Chef 

Last week I attended the spring graduation ceremony at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, California. One of the Chef Professors, Chef Thomas Wong, doled out advice to the class to help them succeed in the competitive restaurant and hospitality industry. 
 
He reminded the graduating class that talent doesn't guarantee success, and that great preparation trumps raw talent any day of the week. In his words, "Success is in the details. Sweat the details. Pay attention to them, because if you don't...your competitor will." So true. 
 
The need to focus on the details is not limited to food preparation, and it's something FEC operators often share that they struggle with. That said, it is possible to train for attention to detail. Read on for six tips to help you teach this often-overlooked skill to your team. 

Q&A with Splash Kingdom Waterpark Founder, Johnny Blevins   

Nearly every amusement park or family entertainment operator is continually searching for ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Over the last two years, we’ve seen a huge increase in demand for outdoor attractions. National and state parks have seen record attendance, RV sales are through the roof, and many consumers are looking to get outside with their families and friends.

Water features and attractions have become a popular choice among operators adding outdoor entertainment to their mix. We sat down this week with Johnny Blevins, Founder and Owner of Splash Kingdom Waterparks and P2:3 Consulting, a consulting firm that specializes in adding and optimizing water attractions in location-based entertainment, and asked him to share some of his insights about doing just that

The holiday season is here! Use these three tips to stay sales-ready in the busiest of times! 

With the end of IAAPA week upon us, it's the unofficial start to the holiday season!  Things will certainly get busier in the coming weeks, and it can get overwhelming if you're not careful. Make sure your facility is equipped to take advantage of all the sales opportunities this celebratory time of year has to offer.

Read on for three tips to help you maximize every moment of the holiday season.

Today’s blog was written by CenterEdge Trainer, Alex Buenrostro, with input from two FEC industry veterans from our training team, Andy Rye and Matthew Mayer. 

By Alex Buenrostro

There has been a recent influx of onboarding new FEC and amusement team members and that includes a lot of new supervisors and managers. We’ve been getting a lot of questions about onboarding new managers and the skills they need to be able to run effective shifts and oversee operations. So we put together this getting started guide to help new managers build a strong foundation. And as always, we’re here to help.