Fixing crappy management

avatar for twentyfive
twentyfive
Living well and enjoying my retirement
Have any of you guys or gals, for that matter ever suggested to any of the managers that they read the reviews on this site or any of the others like this one. The reason I'm asking because over the last few months I have noticed that the clubs in my area have been generally deteriorating and I don't just mean mileage. I'm talking about charging different cover costs than posted, I'm noticing inconsistent drink prices and little things about customer service going downhill. The few times I have suggested to managers that they read some of the reviews and comments on this site I got the impression that other than SW they had no idea that there were any other websites or discussion boards out there. If I was a club owner I would require that my managers read some of these postings especially the ones reviewing the club they are at and the others in the local area. As a club owner this would be a great resource and if some of the criticisms were addressed they would see both revenue and profits rise considerably. what do you mongers think should we be informing them about this website>

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avatar for shadowcat
shadowcat
9 years ago
I tried once and it was futile effort. I made copies of about 20 reviews for the Columbia Platinum Plus complaining about the loud music and obnoxious DJs. I hand delivered them to the corporate headquarters and gave them to a hairless ape. I never heard a word and nothing has changed after 10 years.
avatar for chessmaster
chessmaster
9 years ago
I agree. I think it's a futile effort. Plus, this site does not represent the "casual" pl.
avatar for rockstar666
rockstar666
9 years ago
OMG yes. I know the owner of my club, and when he's around (which is rare) I tell him all kinds of things, like to let the dancers pick their own music and to publish the dancer list on line. He ignores my suggestions. Oh well.
avatar for thunda99
thunda99
9 years ago
As I get more familiar with the local clubs one of the things I noticed is that most if not all don't put much effort into their website up keep.
avatar for rh48hr
rh48hr
9 years ago
Good luck with that. You have a better chance of winning the lottery then trying to get an sc manager to listen to a customer.
avatar for twentyfive
twentyfive
9 years ago
I hear you guys I realize that they don't listen that often to suggestions but as a business owner myself for many more years than I care to count I personally am very attuned to customer complaints I have learned over time that one complaint over time costs more than a dozen words of praise ever generate. A bad reputation is harder to overcome and will put you out of business faster than anything else especially in a device business.
avatar for twentyfive
twentyfive
9 years ago
That should have read service business
avatar for mjx01
mjx01
9 years ago
I've come to the conclusion that casual customers greatly out number regulars. Even though the regulars may out spend the average casual customer... the greater number of casual customers means the net spending by all the casual customers out weights the net spending of regulars. The clubs dont think making any improvements will effect their bottom line
avatar for gawker
gawker
9 years ago
Probably true in device business, too.
avatar for rickdugan
rickdugan
9 years ago
The problem is that, for every good suggestion, like turning the music down from concert level, they get two dumb ones. For example, not so great ideas include things like posting dancer rosters online (even though they cannot guarantee that the girls will show and they would be saying "don't come" to any guy who didn't like the roster) and letting dancers pick their own music (seriously now, some of these girls would dance to Metallica on dayshift in Boca if you let them, nevermind all of the girls who would put on rap if you let them).

They also often have reasons for doing some of the things that they do, even if it pisses off some customers. For example, some clubs jam the music up due to some study that showed that loud music leads people to drink more. Now we may suspect that this is counterbalanced by the people who do not go because of it, but who knows who is right on that one.

Idk. There are usually enough club options in most areas that I just go to another club if I am that turned off by something.
avatar for TheeOSU
TheeOSU
9 years ago
Management wants to fix us. It would probably start with having us handing over our credit cards when we enter and blindly signing the receipt when we pick up the card on our way out.

Managers know everything, that's why they're (their/there?) managers. Or so they think anyway.
avatar for chessmaster
chessmaster
9 years ago
Rickyboy makes a good point about posting dancer rosters online. But I disagree on letting dancers pick their own music. The dancer(s) on stage should pick the music. I think if its something they actually like, they have a little more energy, as opposed to just being on stage because its their turn.
avatar for JamesSD
JamesSD
9 years ago
Dancers picking their own music works okay here. Usually hip hop is allowed but rap is not. If nothing else it gives different girls slightly different flavors

I would think day shift managers would be more responsive to customer feedback since days are more regulars driven. Nights belong to casual customers who it's more about maximizing revenue quickly than repeat business.
avatar for rockstar666
rockstar666
9 years ago
In my club they play everything from dance music to industrial to classic rock. Since they already cover a wide spectrum, they might as well let the dancers decide since they're playing a wide variety as it is. As for putting dancer schedules on line, I've asked my regulars about that and they confirmed that maybe 25% of the time a dancer doesn't show, so I agree it's of limited value. Still, there are clubs that do this.
avatar for Papi_Chulo
Papi_Chulo
9 years ago
Most club managers are idiots w/ zilch business sense and I would take it that most are not hobbyists so they don't necessarily know or care what a regular strip-goer likes – and many are probably former bouncers that had been around for a while and got promoted.

I think some of them may know about TUSCL but may not necessarily take the time to keep up with reviews of their clubs and even less of nearby clubs.

I still think there is a chance the info on reviews may get back to them either by a custy mentioning to them or dancers that lurk on here.

The black clubs I go to are often notorious for cutting songs short even at 30 seconds which really pissed me off and I would complain about this in many reviews I wrote (and I write a lot of reviews) – the song-cutting shit is a lot less common these days and I doubt it was from club owners/managers reading my reviews but perhaps.

At the very least mentioning the downsides in a review exposes other custies to the info and this may cause custies to frequent less thus perhaps getting management's attention or more custies may start bringing it up to management and this may have an affect if enough people complain.
avatar for Papi_Chulo
Papi_Chulo
9 years ago
Posting the dancer roster should not be that difficult – just a simple tweet update or something like that as dancers check in for the night/day – it could probably be somehting that can get done electronically and automatically with a decent amount of IT.
avatar for shailynn
shailynn
9 years ago
I once said to management "you know you'd get a lot of more business if you'd let these girls give blowjobs back there." Yeah, that didn't go over too well, and yeah I was really drunk.

True Story

avatar for carlos_spiceyweiner
carlos_spiceyweiner
9 years ago
Shailynn, you never cease to entertain.

most of the owners/managers I've met really don't care about making the most of their clubs. They're just hoping some combination of drinks and titties will pay the bills.Hey, if they have decent Friday and Saturday nights, are able to pay their bills and pocket some money, they're pretty satisfied. They'll watch a fortune walk out the door and down the street before they pursue it. As noted before, they aren't hobbyists like us or even casual clubbers. They're just looking to invest in the SC concept and make some bucks while hoping to keep their clubs out of the headlines.
avatar for shailynn
shailynn
9 years ago
I try C-dog I try!

You hit the nail on the head... After being involved with bar managers, restaurant managers, night club managers, and strip club managers (and we are talking strictly management - as in non-owners) the strip club managers always seems to be the laziest and in a lot of cases the seediest of the entire group. I have met some good guys over the years, but they are a rarity.
avatar for Joe from NJ
Joe from NJ
9 years ago
The only one I knew that read reviews was at Sam's in LV. Although this was several years ago.
avatar for Subraman
Subraman
9 years ago
I imagine that the pool of strip club managers is not the best in the world, given that the number of people willing to do it is fewer, given that the industry isn't exactly well-perceived by society at large. And the number of what feel like completely clueless, or retarded, or ego-related, or random, or vindictive, or whatever else decisions is un-fucking-believable. No other industry would stand this level of incompetence. So don't interpret anything I say after this, to mean I'm in denial about how bad strip club management can be.

THAT SAID, I had an acquaintance who had partial ownership in a strip club once, back before Deja Vu took over all the clubs around here. Talking to him gave me an entirely new perspective. He could explain what seemed like retarded management decisions to me, and he could explain to me why what I thought were my brilliant suggestions would go down in flames. In short, just like we customers say "the girls sit around on their phones because strippers are lazy & unmotivated" and SW says "the girls sit on the phones because we're all sales geniuses who have done an ocular-based customer qualification process and know for a fact no guys are buying", but the actual truth often lies someone in between ... I'll gently suggest that there are decisions strip club managers make that would make more sense if we had the same inside info they do, and some suggestions that we think are obvious that again, strip club managers have more insight (and sometimes actual experience) into why those suggestions don't work.
avatar for shadowcat
shadowcat
9 years ago
It needs to be mentioned that managers do not have the final say in how things are done in a club. That is the club owner's decisions.
avatar for chandler
chandler
9 years ago
Your best shot at persuading managers to change something is to complain face-to-face in person while you have the chance during your visit. They might be inclined to listen to you as a paying customer while you are there in the club. I've done this a few times. Sometimes it has helped, sometimes it hasn't.

To keep silent, then go home and post your complaint online, saying "in case anyone from management is reading this" is a lame move and doesn't accomplish anything.
avatar for twentyfive
twentyfive
9 years ago
I wasn't saying just post your complaint on line, I was saying to look at multiple reviews that had similar complaints actually I thought about printing out a few different reviews and bringing them to owners attention because most of the complaints are management fuck ups or policy implementation screwing around and some of the problems might be employees stealing either directly or indirectly
avatar for lopaw
lopaw
9 years ago
Many of the clubs in LA/OC area do read the reviews and comments on the local SC sites (zbone, BonedIn), and I have seen quite a few changes as a result of it. I think clubs, if they are willing to do it at all, would be more inclined to monitor local web sites since it caters specifically to that region. And if an area as big and diverse as LA/OC can do it, other cities can do it too - especially if they have local SC boards that are maintained and updated regularly.
avatar for chandler
chandler
9 years ago
Twentyfive, I didn't mean to say that's what you were doing. I was talking about all the times I've seen people direct complaints to management in their reviews. I always wonder why they couldn't have spoken up while they were in the club. I mean, they can't all be from the LA/OC area.
avatar for magicrat
magicrat
9 years ago
Subraman...could you give us an example?
avatar for crazyjoe
crazyjoe
9 years ago
Take a dump on their head
avatar for DandyDan
DandyDan
9 years ago
I did get an PM from one club owner of a club I reviewed, so I do know one club owner reads this site. I did tell a club owner of one club I go to regularly he should visit this site and he said he does and that most people on here have no idea what they're talking about or what legal hoops he has to jump through. That's the problem with any review site. Some of them probably have an ax to grind.
avatar for twentyfive
twentyfive
9 years ago
to DandyDan I'm sure some club owners do read the posts regularly and some occasionally,but for your guy to tell a bunch of mongers that most of them have no idea of what they are talking about indicates that his head is way deep up his ass and he is just too lazy to fix his problems. Before you guys jump down my throat I'm not saying that reviewers are always fair or correct, but when you read reviews you look at a bunch of them not just one, unless a club is fairly new, it usually has more than two or three and generally a consensus comes about, the club is good or bad, if there are a lot of reviews the place is more popular, when you are in the club are they glad for your patronage , do they treat you well, etc. if a bunch of reviews are positive one or two negative reviews aren't catastrophic after every one has an off day occasionally, but a smart owner will keep an eye on it, so as to use it to his advantage and fix problems before they ruin his reputation.
avatar for DandyDan
DandyDan
9 years ago
@twentyfive-
I think he was saying that people who review his club don't know what they're talking about. That's kinda sad all the same, though. I think of this particular club owner as a good owner who will explain why things are a certain way. He's not like the owner of what used to be my favorite club, who essentially had his head way up his ass and now basically lost all his customers.
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