Quick question: How are you collecting feedback from your players?

If the answer is a vague “Oh, the Games Master asks if they had a good time”, or, “We send them a link to review on TripAdvisor”, then you’re probably missing out on useful value (for both you and your customers). Traditional methods of collecting feedback don’t convey much subtlety.

What if instead you could effortlessly capture the thoughts of every player that walks through your doors? What did they love? What improvements might they suggest? And the all important, ‘Will they recommend your room to a friend’?

Post-game surveys are an escape room’s most powerful tool in their marketing and PR arsenal. When used effectively they can start an honest dialogue with your community, dig into exactly what players love about your venue, reward your best performing Games Masters, help identify unexpected friction points in the customer journey, or simply to remind players of all the fun they had for when they come to write their review!

Here are some of the key advantages to using a post-game survey at your escape room:

Subtlety: It’s all in the details!

When asking a sample of escape room owners what tools and methods they use to collect customer feedback, we heard a lot of different responses. From phone calls, to questions on the booking page like ‘how did you find us?’, to a casual conversation between the Games Master and the players at the end of a room. More surprising was that many escape room owners aren’t collecting feedback at all - instead opting to keep an eye on their reviews on TripAdvisor, Yelp and social media!

Whilst there are some benefits, these methods of feedback collection are limited and don’t leave much room for subtlety. Yes, a player might say they’ll recommend your room, but why? What did they love about it? And, as a business owner, what can you learn from that customer about how to build your next room better?

The most effective way of collecting feedback is the tried and true method of a post-game survey. Typically sent in an email to all participants a day or two after their booking, you’re giving them the space to sit down and tell you exactly what they loved about their escape.

Try asking open-ended questions in your survey and you’ll be amazed at what you discover. Your customers might even surprise you!

A simple multi-box option might tell you that they enjoyed their briefing, but an open-ended question with a text box might tell you that they particularly loved the strawberry scented hand sanitizer and a throwaway joke their GM said at the start.

Want to know what your players think? Let them tell you in their own words!

Identify escape room trends, as they’re happening

Data, data, and more data! Do you ever wish you had more data about the types of players that are playing your room? Oh how much easier marketing would be!

So, what’s stopping you?

A post-game customer satisfaction survey can quite literally capture any data that’s useful to the day-to-day running of your escape room business. The qualitative and quantifiable data your players volunteer in a survey is a game changer. No more guessing from the booking details, straight up ask them their age, how many rooms they’ve played, did they bring their family? Kids? Colleagues? Estranged cousin?

A smart survey system will allow you to really interrogate your audience and compare rooms, GMs and sites rapidly and in bitesize chunks. As an owner, you’ll be able to learn from your players, identify short and long term consumer trends, and use real data to make smarter decisions.

Learn from your best performers

If your new wizard-themed room is outperforming, pat yourself on the back! But how can you apply the successes of that room, to your legacy, under-performing submarine-themed room? You might assume that wizards are more popular than submarines, and you might be right - but can you really afford to make big business decisions on a hunch?

Post-game surveys can typically be highly customised to each experience booked, and allow you to really interrogate what’s happening when a customer books and plays your game.

The same rules apply to your team. When a Games Master is going above to deliver outstanding customer service, your players will be the first to tell you! By using the post-game survey as a space to identify your best performers, you can reward those members of the team that are doing amazing work, and use those insights to improve training and support new members of the team.

By comparing rooms and, if applicable, different sites - you’re empowered to make a positive change across the whole venue and stay competitive in the market. After all, you don’t know what you don’t know until you know it.

Players want to share their opinions

A well written post-game survey can also show your players you care deeply about their experience, but the best part is that almost all players want to share their thoughts. Who doesn’t look forward to their Games Master asking “well, how was it?” at the end of the room?

Even the most enthusiastic players, who had nothing but praise when they played, will likely have some valuable feedback. By sending the survey a day or two later you give your teams a chance to sleep on it, and a space to sit down and collect their thoughts honestly.

It would be a mistake to assume it’s a one-time transaction, as loyal customers will be more likely to recommend you to their friends and family, be the first to queue up when you have a new room opening, and will go on to purchase gift cards at Christmas!

Players are at the heart of everything we do. Nurture your community kindly- yes! Even the critics- and you’ll reap the rewards for years to come.

Conclusion

Adding a post-game survey to your customer journey is one of the quickest and easiest ways to nurture your community and grow your escape room business, and the best tool is here. Buzzshot’s brand new survey feature does all the hard work and more, leaving you and your team free to focus on the fun stuff, creating amazing escape rooms!

Whatever tool you choose, the benefits are countless. From automating the customer journey, to providing real qualitative data so you can identify trends, compare sites, rooms and Games Masters, and show your customers that you care. Players who fill out your survey will be more likely to then go on and leave a review - the best part? They’ve just been reminded about all the things they loved!

Find out how a post-game survey can improve your escape room business today. It takes just seconds to create your first survey on Buzzshot, and you could be collecting useful feedback right away.

Sign up for a free trial at Buzzshot to get started - even if you’ve had a trial in the past!