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Topic: ? on UPSELLING!

John T. Hendrickson, Jr
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 889
From: Freehold, NJ, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 04-28-2005 07:50 PM

You make a valid point, Mike, especially if the line is moving along slowly because of the upselling. This can also happen in concession when it's busy and lines have formed.

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Stephen Jones 1
Film Handler

Posts: 62
From: Tulsa, OK, USA
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 04-29-2005 05:06 PM

I would never endorse upselling in the Box Office line. Not unless someone specifically asked about movie dollars or gifts cards. Upselling in concession is essential to profits in the concession stand. It is outlined to my staff that the reason we upsell is 1) to offer the better deal to the customer and 2)increase profits at the theatre. It's not secret that upselling helps bring in the money, but my staff is also instructed to stop as soon as the customer say no. The employees who have more experience with it, know when to give a gentle push if needed and many of them can sell it well without it being so blatant.

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1904
From: Los Angeles, California
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 04-30-2005 12:10 AM

quote:
Of course, in a right to work state, you, or the employee, can decide to [e]nd employment, at any time, with or without, just cause or explanation.

This sounds more like "At Will" than "Right-To-Work." But perhaps I'm mixing up the two. Can someone with experience in this area please elaborate on the difference between the two, and are there any others?

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David Buckley
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 525
From: Oxford, N. Canterbury, New Zealand
Registered: Aug 2004

posted 04-30-2005 12:42 AM

Got upsold at the supermarket checkout today.

Total was 298.15 NZD, and the girl goes "Sir, for just another dollar eight-five you could have another fly-buy point" (you get a point every 20 dollars)

So I bought 2 Christmas vouchers :-) I get the fly-buy point, seller is happy, and I can still spend the vouchers on what I need to buy at Christmas time, rather than some unwanted magazine or sweetie from the impulse stands.

Good result.

The only upselling I actually like is where the seller gives me the same for less money, ie the combo rather than the individual items.

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Dustin Mitchell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1865
From: Mondovi, WI, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 04-30-2005 01:36 AM

He was referring to 'Employement at will.' 'Right to work' makes closed union shops illegal.

And lets not start a union debate here please, there are enough threads for that.

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Robert Burtcher
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 194
From: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 07-04-2005 03:51 AM

quote: Daniel Wright
The AMC 20 in Tulsa, Ok had a good way to boost drink sales. I am not sure if they are still doing it but one day a week the small bags of popcorn were free.

It's called MovieWatcher Wednesdays. When you buy a ticket and use your moviewatcher card, you get a free small popcorn on Wendesdays only. I'm not 100% for sure if the free popcorn deal is still going on, but it was when I left AMC in 2002.

quote: Charles Everett
AMC doesn't believe in upselling.

Absolutely untrue. They were always going on about upselling and suggestive selling to the point where none of the employees wanted to do it. :-P

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Paul J. Neuhaus
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 126
From: Iraq.. Again!
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 07-07-2005 01:04 AM

I am absolutely disapointed in managers within this topic saying that you shouldn't upsell and sugestive sell.
Are you an employee or a manager. Sounds like you are employees. Every Manager should have a vested interest in the profitability of your theatre. Do you know what your theatre is there for? TO SELL POPCORN! Sure, your presentation has to be good and friendly but when it comes down to it it is about what you sell when they come in the door!

The answer: you make them upsell and sugestive sell on every transaction till it becomes second nature. You reward those with better average transaction sales. If you don't you are doing your theatre/company a dis-service. SAD [Frown]

It is called selling. If the customer comes up and asks for something you haven't sold them anything. Nothing at all. Only when you get them to buy something that they had no intention of buying in the first place have you truly sold. If this is not you or your employees then you shouldn't be in sales in the first place!!

The same goes with project pictures. If you just decorate your lobby that doesn't increase sales. You have to tie in outside buisinesses and create traffic that would not have existed otherwise. Make people want to come see what they are hearing so much about. When you increase your traffic it is stupid to not try and increase sales.

Poor lobby design hurts concession sales. Most cannot do anything about the card they are being dealt but I have seen affective use of barriers to funnel people to their concession stand.

One thing I used to do for my employees besides recognition in front of their peers -a must !!!- was to trade passes with local buisinesses and get stuff like dinner gift certificates, free cd's or movies, and much much more. Movie passes are gold use them. They not only help out your employees but they tie your theatre into your community.

In closing ask yourself this: "Am I a professional buisiness manager?" if the answer is yes upselling/sugesstive selling is what you need. if the answer is no GET OUT and leave it to the professionals. upselling does not = rude. That is just your jaded perception.

Good Luck,

Paul

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Paul J. Neuhaus
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 126
From: Iraq.. Again!
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 07-07-2005 01:05 AM

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Carl Martin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1424
From: Oakland, CA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 07-07-2005 02:53 AM

how about asking yourself, "am i passionate about showing good films and presenting them as well as i can, while not polluting the experience with crass bullshit like upselling, commercials, and movie tunes?"

if the answer is no, get out and leave it to those who care about film culture.

carl (speaking for himself, not as the representative of the company he works for or any other)

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-07-2005 05:59 AM

What Carl (err "carl") said.

Long-term profitability doesn't come from selling people stuff that they didn't want, but rather from making their experience enjoyable and memorable enough that they will want to come back. Part of making the customer's experience enjoyable includes the idea of "not being obnoxious." I consider most attempts at upselling to be obnoxious. If someone orders a "medium" popcorn, then he probably wants a "medium" popcorn, not a canned lecture from the concession attendant on how a large popcorn is "only fifty cents more." It's a waste of time and insulting to the customer's intelligence (OK, most customers aren't intelligent, but most would still perceive the comment as insulting.)

I truly believe that the best way to (for example) sell more popcorn is to make sure that the popcorn at the theatre is the best that the customers have ever tasted, not by telling people that they are stupid and that they really should be buying something other than what they ordered.

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Dave Williams
Wet nipple scene

Posts: 1836
From: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 07-07-2005 09:27 AM

quote: Paul J. Neuhaus
Only when you get them to buy something that they had no intention of buying in the first place have you truly sold.

So we should all become used car salesmen? When I get upsold at a consession line, I do one of two things, I either politly say no and never return to the concession line, or I just walk away and never return to the theater.

I like many other people, do consider my decision to be god when it comes to my money. When some underaged concession person tells me I was too dumb to notice how much money I could have saved had I actually paid attention in school, if offends me, holds up the line, and deprives me of my actual choice.

Consultative sales is what is required here, not upselling.

Have you ever noticed that upselling only breeds more upselling? Are your profits actually increasing every quarter without fail due to upselling? How long to you think you can keep this up? Why is presentation not your primary goal?

Any theater that makes upselling thier primary goal, can usually mean that other areas are going to have to suffer, because the focus on profits has changed from what a theater is to what it has become, a cash cow for owners and shareholders.

I can name you ten theaters in my area that have become just that. And ALL of them have suffered miserably in the presentation area, ranging from horrible to JUST GOOD ENOUGH!

So no offence here, but to tell us all that presentation takes a back seat to upselling? I made a much higher profit margin by NEVER upselling. Respect your customer and thier choices, don't treat them like children.

Ciao

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Mark Ogden
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 943
From: Little Falls, N.J.
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-07-2005 09:41 AM

quote: Paul J. Neuhaus
upselling does not = rude

OK, so upselling does not = rude. Fine. What upselling DOES = is trying to force something on the customer that he doesn’t really want. What upselling DOES = is trying to get the customer to buy what you want him to buy, instead of what he or she wants to buy. And while you may pound your chest congratulating yourself on your managerial acumen, for me, and others, it has come to this:

Last Wednesday night I went to the Westside Pavilion Cinemas on Pico Blvd. In L.A. to catch a movie. Now, whenever I go to an independent or small chain owned theatre I try to be supportive and buy a concession item or two, even if I am not especially hungry. So I go up to the stand and ask for a small popcorn and a small Diet Coke. Immediately, the zit-faced twit behind the counter starts going into his act.

TWIT: Are you sure you don’t want mediums? It’s only 25 cents more each.

ME: No, smalls please.

TWIT: Are you sure?

ME: Yeah, I’m sure.

TWIT: (picks up a medium cup and popcorn bag and starts waving them at me) Are you sure? Only 25 cents more . . .

ME: Thanks all the same . . . (picks money up off the counter, leaves with nothing).

No offense, but I go to the movies a lot and I am not going to get into a goddamned argument every time I want a soda from a concession stand. I want what I want, and you either want to sell that to me or you don’t. I hope you can find enough willing sheep to shakedown for a few more cents per sale, because for this 40 to 50 movie-per-year cinema-goer the policy from now on is upselling = [fu]

and no sale.

[ 07-07-2005, 11:54 AM: Message edited by: Mark Ogden ]

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R. Andrew Diercks
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 232
From: Marion, Iowa (In the middle of everywhere)
Registered: May 2003

posted 07-07-2005 11:26 AM

quote:
Only when you get them to buy something that they had no intention of buying in the first place have you truly sold. If this is not you or your employees then you shouldn't be in sales in the first place!!

By this philosophy you suggest that when you go to a car lot to LOOK FOR CARS you are not ever intending on purchasing one? Why the hell are you there then? Good salesman don't sell you something you don't want, they just help you validate your decision. Salesman need repeat customers too and by selling people something they don't want or need, this won't happen. My father has been a salesman for 35 years and been very successful being honest and not obnoxious. If a deal isn't right for the customer at the time, he told them so, but they return to him again and again.

Taking a vested interest in profitability is more about making sure you get every customer to go to the concession stand, not taking advantage of the 60% that go there. Why not sell something to everyone instead of everything to some. Pop fresh popcorn, sell a quality product so they "need" it at the theatre. Friendly concessionists that enjoy their jobs and share that joy with the customers will sell more than any smart ass that tells them what they want.

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Jeremy Fuentes
Mmmm, Dr. Pepper!

Posts: 1168
From: Corpus Christi, TX United States
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 07-07-2005 11:48 AM

quote: Paul J. Neuhaus
You reward those with better average transaction sales.

So, do you also reward those projectionists with better presentation? I mean they are involved in the biggest transaction at the theater. People go to the movies to watch a movie, not to be talked into buying a few more ounces of Coke(Pepsi sucks). Let them decide on their own. Thats not saying that you cant display the words somewhere in the concession, or on the menu. Make it stand out..."5 Star Special 2 Large Drinks and All You Can Eat Popcorn...$8.50." Right at the top of the menu...works for us. They usually see it and ask for it before we can even get a word out. Visual suggestive selling..the future of concession!!

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Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 07-07-2005 12:38 PM

The thing I hate the most is the "automated robot response" by theatre (or any) employees. That monotone "thank you for coming to ________ . Enjoy the show." Customers aren't idiots. If it's scripted, the customer knows the employee couldn't care less (and by extension that the theatre couldn't care less).

The same is true at the concession stand. Up-selling at the concession stand is the equivalent of "want fries with that"? It's one thing to be truly helpful -- it's quite another to treat a customer like an idiot. For every customer who takes the up-sell, there's another who now hates you and will avoid coming back or avoid purchasing snacks.

There are several ways to increase business in theaters. Up-selling is one. There's also repeat business. Want me to come back more often? Then create an experience that I as the customer can love:
1. Film Done Right: every aspect of the presentation must be as perfect as it possibly can be.
2. Showmanship: play the right music before a show. Use the curtain if there is one, etc. Care about every aspect of a presentation.
3. Cleanliness: The theater, lobbies, bathrooms, etc. must be SPOTLESS.
4. Concessions: Don't rip me off just because you can. Carry some products that I actually care about and want to consume. Not everyone wants to eat expensive crap. You might be making money on the people who purchase concessions, but what about the majority of your customers who don't? Maybe you should concentrate on selling before you emphasize up-selling.
5. Overall atmosphere: The theater must seem like a special place. A stained carpet down a cinderblock corridor isn't going to cut it.

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