A strong entertainment marketing strategy starts long before an ad campaign. It begins with the small operational details that shape the guest experience inside your FEC.
You have probably
heard some version of the Broken Windows story.
In 1969, Stanford
psychologist Philip Zimbardo left abandoned cars in two very
different neighborhoods: one in the Bronx and another in Palo Alto.
The Bronx car was
quickly vandalized and stripped. The Palo Alto car remained largely
untouched for more than a week.
Then Zimbardo
deliberately damaged the Palo Alto car.
After that first
obvious sign of damage, other people joined in.
Years later, James
Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling popularized the term Broken
Windows Theory in criminology.
There has been
considerable debate over the criminology and policing conclusions
associated with that theory, and I am not suggesting that running a
family entertainment center has anything to do with policing.
But I think the
broken window metaphor is incredibly useful for attraction operators.
Because customers
are constantly looking for signals about what kind of business you
operate.
A burned out light.
A bathroom nobody
checked.
Three arcade machines with OUT OF ORDER signs.
An employee who
doesn’t look up from their phone.
A phone nobody
answers.
An outdated website.
A negative Google
review where the owner publicly attacks the customer.
None of these things
individually destroys a business.
But together they
communicate something:
This is what management considers acceptable.
And your customers
are paying more attention than you think.
Your Customers See the Things You Stopped Seeing
One of the biggest
problems in operating a physical attraction is something I call owner
blindness.
You and your
employees see the building constantly.
Your customer may be
seeing it for the first time.
Those are completely
different perspectives.
Today, most of my
attention is focused on growing our marketing agency, so I’m not
physically inside our attractions every day. We have managers running
our locations.
That has actually
given me an interesting perspective.
When I come back to
a location for an inspection after not being there every day, I
notice things immediately.
A light bulb is out.
There’s dust
accumulating in a corner.
Something has been
scratched and hasn’t been touched up.
A speaker isn’t
working correctly.
Part of an
attraction isn’t functioning as intended.
A sign has moved.
Something is sitting
somewhere it doesn’t belong.
And sometimes I’m
amazed that nobody who works there every day sees it anymore.
I do.
If I see a plastic
cup sitting in a corner, I pick it up.
If a sign is
crooked, I straighten it.
For problems I can’t
fix immediately, I’ll walk the venue with the manager and make a
list.
These seem like tiny
things.
That’s precisely why
they’re dangerous.
Big problems get
attention.
Small problems
become normal.
The First Five Minutes Tell Me a Lot About an
Attraction
When I walk into an
attraction, I can usually tell within about five minutes whether the
owner really cares about the business.
The first thing I
watch isn’t the arcade equipment.
It’s the employees.
Do they have
urgency?
Do they acknowledge
customers?
Do they smile when
they speak with someone?
Do they look like
they’re happy a customer walked in, or does the customer seem like an
interruption?
Then I look around.
Is the facility
clean?
Is everything
working?
Is the venue
adequately staffed?
You can spend
hundreds of thousands of dollars building an attraction, but the
person making $15 or $20 an hour at the front desk may ultimately
determine whether the customer wants to return.
That is something
attraction owners sometimes underestimate.
Your Employees May Matter More Than Your
Expensive Technology
I learned this lesson particularly clearly from operating axe throwing venues.
At some locations,
we invested considerably more money into interactive projected
targets. Customers could select different games and play with
relatively little employee involvement.
At other locations,
we had conventional targets.
Instead of relying
on technology, we developed different mini games and trained
employees to interact with guests, teach them games and keep the
experience moving.
You might assume the
more technologically advanced venue would automatically provide the
better experience.
That wasn’t always
what we saw.
At the more
traditional locations, employees were constantly interacting with
customers. We saw enthusiastic reviews mentioning our staff.
Employees earned tips. The interaction itself became part of the
entertainment.
At locations where
technology handled more of the experience, employees sometimes became
bored. Phones came out. There was less interaction.
The expensive
technology wasn’t bad.
But technology
didn’t replace hospitality.
That’s one reason
I’m skeptical when I hear predictions about completely automated
entertainment venues.
Automation can
absolutely improve operations.
But location based
entertainment is fundamentally a human experience.
People are coming
out of their houses to do something with other people.
Don’t automate away
the part they came for.
Customers Often Remember the $5 Detail, Not the
$500,000 Buildout
I was traveling in
Europe and ate at a nice Japanese style restaurant.
It wasn’t fancy or
expensive restaurant. The food was good. The service was good.
But of all the
restaurants from that trip, there is one detail I still remember.
There was ice cubes
in the urinal.
Putting ice in
urinals is an old hospitality practice that can help with odor and
splashing. But I wasn’t analyzing the plumbing.
I just noticed it.
It was unusual.
It communicated
attention to detail.
That experience
illustrates something important about attractions.
You don’t completely
control what customers remember.
You can spend a
fortune on construction and somebody’s favorite memory might be an
interaction with a game master.
Or a funny employee
working the axe throwing lane.
Or an actor
entertaining the queue at a haunted attraction.
Conversely, they may
remember the filthy bathroom more clearly than the $100,000
attraction they came to experience.
That’s why I tell
attraction owners:
Your bathroom is marketing.
Your parking lot is
marketing.
Your employees are
marketing.
Your phone system is
marketing.
Your Google reviews
are marketing.
Your maintenance
department is marketing.
Marketing doesn’t
stop when somebody clicks Book Now.
What Are the “Broken Windows” of an FEC or
Attraction?
For an attraction
operator, I would divide them into five categories.
|
Category |
Examples |
What the customer may infer |
|
Digital |
Outdated website, obviously |
“Is this place legitimate |
|
Communication |
Missed calls, unanswered |
“If they’re this hard to |
|
Physical |
Dirty bathrooms, burned out |
“They aren’t maintaining |
|
Operational |
Closed attractions, slow |
“I didn’t receive what I |
|
Human |
Employees on phones, poor |
“They don’t care that I’m |
The mistake is
evaluating each problem independently.
A single burned out
bulb probably doesn’t matter.
A burned out bulb
beside a broken arcade machine, beside an overflowing trash can,
while an employee scrolls through TikTok tells a completely different
story.
The accumulation
becomes the message.
Attraction Downtime Isn’t Just a Maintenance
Problem
Let’s say you
operate an 18 hole miniature golf course as part of your FEC
Two holes are out of
order.
You could tell
yourself:
“It’s only two
holes.”
Your customer could
reasonably see it differently.
They paid for 18
holes and received 16.
More than 11% of the
advertised experience wasn’t available.
Now imagine a water
park where four of nine major slides aren’t operating.
That’s not a minor
maintenance issue anymore. A large portion of the headline experience
has disappeared.
I’ve experienced
this personally at Six Flags White Water in the Atlanta area.
My family has had
season passes because it’s convenient during Atlanta summers. We have
young kids, and it’s an easy place for us to spend a hot day.
We would also
commonly purchase the “fast pass” option because lines for slides
can become long.
On one visit, so
many attractions were unavailable that the park wasn’t even selling
those passes. Guests who had purchased them online were being
reimbursed.
That creates several
problems simultaneously.
The park loses
ancillary revenue.
The remaining
attractions absorb more guests.
Lines get longer.
Customers who paid
for access to the whole park become frustrated.
And the operational
problem becomes a reputation problem.
For a major regional
attraction with limited direct competition, customers may tolerate
more friction.
Most independent
FECs don’t have that luxury.
Your customer may be
choosing between your FEC, an escape room, trampoline park, bowling
center, laser tag, mini golf venue, movie theater or another
entertainment option.
If the experience
disappoints them, there are plenty of other places to spend next
Saturday.
The Most Expensive Broken Window May Be an
Employee
In our escape
room businesses, I’ve repeatedly seen how dramatically
employees affect the experience.
Escape rooms make
this especially obvious because customer service is woven directly
into the product.
The game master
controls clues.
Their timing affects
the game.
Their introduction
establishes the atmosphere.
Their enthusiasm can
increase immersion.
Their inattention
can destroy it.
You can build an
incredibly expensive room and still provide a mediocre experience if
the game master doesn’t care.
We once dealt with
an employee who had been with the company for many years and had
started abusing our phone policy. Employees aren’t supposed to be
distracted by their phones while actively running games.
Because this
employee often worked alone during slower periods, the behavior
wasn’t immediately reported.
Then we hired new
employees.
When management
addressed their phone use, the response was predictable:
Why can he do it and we can’t?
One tolerated
exception had quietly become the standard.
Eventually, another
employee was distracted by their phone and failed to notice players
who needed clues. We had to let that employee go and reinforce the
rule across the operation.
That’s the other
side of Broken Windows Theory for businesses.
Customers read your standards, but employees read
them too.
If management
repeatedly walks past something, employees eventually assume
management has accepted it.
Don’t Let Marketing Promise an Experience
Operations Can’t Deliver
This is where
marketing agencies and operators sometimes work against each other.
Marketing says:
MORE BOOKINGS!
Operations says:
We can’t handle them.
For our attractions
marketing agency, this matters enough that we don’t
simply accept every attraction that wants to work with us.
We’re interviewing
the operator while they’re interviewing us.
We look at reviews.
We look at how
management responds to negative reviews.
We look at the
website.
We test the phone
system.
We want to
understand staffing and capacity.
If we’re trying to
generate another 20, 30 or 60 birthday party
bookings, an important question is:
Can the venue actually execute another 20, 30 or
60 parties well?
Do you have enough
party rooms?
Do you have enough
employees?
Do you have enough
operational capacity?
What are you paying
employees relative to competing employers in your market?
Because generating
demand that a business cannot fulfill can make the situation worse.
You spend money
acquiring customers who have a poor experience.
Some don’t return.
Some tell friends.
Some leave negative
reviews.
Now you’ve paid to
accelerate your reputation problem.
Marketing cannot
permanently solve an operations problem.
One Missed Phone Call Can Reveal a Much Bigger
Problem
We experienced an
extreme example while filming our America’s Top Attractions Roadshow
in Las Vegas.
One of our scheduled
venue visits canceled, leaving an opening in our production schedule.
Our producer
searched Google for family entertainment centers and started calling
venues.
The offer was
straightforward: we’d feature the venue on our attraction roadshow at
no charge and provide footage they could also use.
We found a large FEC
that looked great online.
Nobody answered.
Eventually, I used
an industry owner group to identify the owner and reached them
directly. We arranged to visit the following day.
While driving there,
I called again.
Nobody answered.
We arrived anyway.
Then we understood
why nobody was answering.
The manager was
running everywhere trying to cover different areas, birthday parties
and groups. The facility didn’t appear to have enough staff, and the
manager couldn’t even dedicate 10 minutes to the interview.
We ultimately didn’t
film the venue.
The unanswered phone
wasn’t the problem.
It was a symptom of the problem.
That’s why, when
we’re evaluating a prospective marketing client, we’ll sometimes test
what happens when someone actually calls.
There’s little value
in paying Google or Meta to make
the phone ring if
nobody answers it.
Your Website Can Create the Same Credibility
Problem
Stanford’s
Web Credibility Project developed credibility
guidelines based on three years of research involving more than 4,500
people. Among its recommendations: make contact information easy to
find, keep content current, use appropriate professional design and
avoid errors, including seemingly small ones.
That last point
should sound familiar.
Small errors
communicate something, which is why website
conversion optimization for attractions is not just
about buttons and booking forms. It’s also about trust.
This matters even
more now because generative AI makes it extraordinarily easy to
create marketing materials that look spectacular.
I see this in the
escape room industry.
Some escape rooms
are essentially operating experiences built to standards from the
industry’s earlier years, when relatively simple rooms could impress
customers because the entire concept was new.
The market has
evolved.
Today, some
operators invest $100,000 or more into individual escape room
experiences.
But an older venue
can generate a beautiful AI poster showing an elaborate cinematic
environment that doesn’t actually exist.
They can create an
AI video showing the fictional world of the game.
They can avoid
showing real interior photography.
Marketing can
temporarily close the visual gap between an outdated product and a
modern one.
Until the customer
arrives.
Then they see the
actual room.
AI can improve the
advertisement.
It cannot improve
the attraction behind the advertisement.
You might fool
someone into visiting once.
Getting them to
return is much harder.
Your Customer Journey Is Not the Funnel in Your
Advertising Dashboard
This is another
reason operators need to stop evaluating marketing entirely through
last click attribution.
A customer might:
See Facebook ad → visit website → Google your
business → read reviews → search Reddit → watch TikTok videos →
check Instagram → compare competitors → return through Google →
book.
Which channel gets
credit?
Possibly Google.
Maybe direct
traffic.
Maybe the booking
platform doesn’t properly attribute anything.
But Facebook may
have created the original demand.
This matters because
customers are evaluating your credibility across the entire journey.
BrightLocal’s
2025 Local Consumer Review Survey, based on 1,026 U.S.
adults, found that only 4% said they never read online business
reviews. It also found that 74% of consumers who use reviews consult
two or more websites on average.
Your reputation
therefore doesn’t live exclusively on Google.
A prospect may
encounter your beautiful advertisement and then immediately begin
trying to prove that your claims are true.
Your marketing makes
the promise.
Everything else
supplies the evidence.
How You Respond to Bad Reviews Is Marketing Too
One thing I look at
when evaluating an attraction is how management responds to negative
reviews.
I’m less concerned
that a negative review exists.
Every established
business eventually gets unhappy customers.
I want to see what
management does next.
If the owner starts
attacking the reviewer, arguing over every detail or publicly trying
to embarrass the customer, that’s a warning sign for me.
Remember: your
response isn’t primarily being written for the angry customer
anymore.
It’s being written
for the hundreds or thousands of potential customers who may read the
exchange later.
Sometimes a review
contains claims you believe are completely unreasonable.
You don’t
necessarily have to prove that publicly.
People aren’t
stupid.
You can calmly
explain what happened, apologize for the customer’s disappointment
where appropriate, offer to discuss the issue privately and
demonstrate how mature management handles conflict.
The prospect reading
the exchange can decide who’s being reasonable.
A bad review can
actually become an opportunity to demonstrate your standards.
Google Is Reading Some of These Signals Too
Not every broken
window is an SEO ranking factor, and we shouldn’t pretend it is.
But some of the
basics overlap directly with Google’s own guidance and with local
SEO for attractions.
Google
recommends keeping Business Profile information complete and
accurate, including hours and other operational
information. It recommends responding to reviews and adding photos
and videos.
Google also states
that review quantity and positive ratings can contribute to local
prominence.
So fixing digital
neglect isn’t merely cosmetic.
It helps customers
understand whether your business is active, credible and relevant
while also supporting the information Google uses to represent your
venue.
Stop Buying New Things While the Old Things Are
Broken
I see attraction
operators become excited about buying the next thing.
New claw machines.
New arcade games.
New technology.
New attraction.
Meanwhile, several
existing machines have OUT OF ORDER signs taped to them.
Before adding
attraction number 21, ask whether attractions 1 through 20 work
properly.
This applies to
staffing too.
Owners sometimes
proudly tell me how little they pay employees.
I don’t
automatically view that as good business.
What happens when
you become busier?
Can you retain
people?
Will employees want
to work the busiest shifts?
Can your team
deliver the customer experience your marketing promises?
Cheap labor that
creates expensive customer service problems isn’t cheap.
Spend More Attention on Culture
One area where I
think attraction operators often underinvest is company culture.
At our agency, we
have a weekly team call and repeatedly reinforce our core values.
At our
brick and mortar businesses, we also organize employee events.
Being in the
entertainment industry gives us an interesting advantage: sometimes
we’ll trade experiences with another attraction. Their employees
visit us and our employees visit them.
I particularly like
taking employees to similar businesses.
If we operate mini
golf, axe throwing and arcade games, visiting another entertainment
venue lets employees experience the industry from the customer’s
side.
Suddenly they notice
things.
How were we greeted?
How clean was it?
What did their
employees do better than us?
What was
frustrating?
What did they have
that we don’t?
It’s difficult to
understand guest experience when you’re always standing behind the
counter.
Sometimes your
employees need to become customers again.
Run a Broken Windows Audit Before Increasing Your
Marketing Budget
Before spending
another dollar trying to increase traffic, walk through your
attraction like you’ve never seen it before.
Don’t start in your
office.
Start where the
customer starts.
1. Search for your business
Search Google.
Look at your
Business Profile.
Check your photos.
Read your reviews.
Check the hours.
Click the website.
Call the phone
number.
2. Try to buy
Do what a customer
does.
Can you understand
pricing?
Can you find
birthday party information?
Does the booking
system work well on a phone?
How many steps does
it take to give you money?
3. Arrive like a customer
Look at the parking
lot.
Entrance.
Doors.
Windows.
Signs.
Front desk.
4. Watch your employees
Don’t announce an
inspection.
Observe.
Does someone greet
the guest?
Are employees on
their phones?
Do they look
engaged?
Do they have
urgency?
5. Inspect the physical experience
Check every
attraction.
Every light.
Every screen.
Every speaker.
Every game.
Every bathroom.
Every OUT OF ORDER
sign.
6. Experience your own product
Actually play.
Throw the axe.
Play the escape
room.
Walk the mini golf
course.
Use the arcade card.
Book the birthday
package.
You may discover
that what management believes is happening and what customers
actually experience are two different things.
7. Read your worst reviews
Don’t ask:
“Was this customer right?”
First ask:
“Is there anything here we can learn?”
Those are very
different questions.
If you want to go
deeper, we’ve also built free
marketing resources for attraction owners covering
marketing, influencers, operations and attraction growth.
Marketing Doesn’t End When the Customer Walks
Through the Door
Attraction owners
understandably focus on customer
acquisition.
How many leads?
How many bookings?
What’s our cost per
acquisition?
How many birthday
parties did the campaign generate?
Those numbers
matter.
But I think our
industry needs to spend more time thinking about customer lifetime
value.
If marketing gets
someone through your door once and they never return, you acquired a
transaction.
If the experience
makes them return multiple times, book a birthday party, bring
friends and recommend you to other families, you acquired a customer.
Email marketing can be one tool for driving
those repeat visits, especially through post visit,
win back and loyalty campaigns.
That distinction can
be worth far more than squeezing another percentage point out of an
ad campaign.
IAAPA
recently described guest experience as a shared responsibility across
attraction departments and specifically highlighted
small operational details such as queues, signage, cleanliness and
communication around downtime. That’s exactly the point.
Marketing and
operations aren’t two separate businesses.
They’re two parts of
the same promise.
The Small Stuff Isn’t Small
Excellence in an
attraction isn’t one giant moment.
It’s hundreds of
little decisions made when the owner isn’t standing there.
Does someone pick up
the cup?
Does the employee
put the phone away?
Does somebody
replace the bulb?
Does maintenance fix
the game today instead of next month?
Does someone answer
the phone?
Does management
respond professionally to the angry review?
Does the website
accurately represent what the customer will actually experience?
Your customers are
reading those signals.
Your employees are
reading them too.
And every time
management says, “That’s good enough,” you’re teaching
both groups what your standard really is.
That’s why the small
stuff matters.
Not because one
broken light bulb will destroy your FEC.
But because eventually, people notice what you are willing to leave
broken.
About the
Author
Dmitry
Mikhaylov is an attraction operator and founder of
Attractions Marketing Pros. His experience operating location based
entertainment businesses in multiple states gives him an
operator first perspective on FEC marketing, customer experience,
acquisition, and retention.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Broken Windows concept in customer
experience?
Applied as a
business metaphor, the Broken Windows concept means that small
visible signs of neglect can influence how customers perceive the
standards of the entire organization. For attractions, these signals
might include broken equipment, dirty facilities, outdated digital
information or disengaged employees.
It should be treated
as a management analogy rather than proof that criminological Broken
Windows Theory directly predicts business outcomes.
What matters most in an FEC customer experience?
There is no single
universal factor, but employee interactions, cleanliness, attraction
uptime, communication, ease of booking and whether the delivered
experience matches what was advertised all contribute to the guest’s
overall perception.
How does customer service affect FEC marketing?
Customer service
determines what happens after marketing acquires the customer. Strong
service can contribute to repeat visits, referrals and positive
reviews, while poor service can undermine the value of
customer acquisition spending.
Why are online reviews important for attractions?
Reviews allow
potential customers to evaluate experiences before booking.
BrightLocal’s 2025 U.S. consumer research found that only 4% of
respondents said they never read online business reviews, and many
consumers consult more than one source.
Should an FEC respond to negative reviews?
Yes. A professional
response shows future customers how management handles problems. The
goal shouldn’t be to win a public argument. Correct important factual
inaccuracies when necessary, acknowledge the customer’s experience
and demonstrate that management takes feedback seriously.
Should an FEC increase advertising if operations
are struggling?
Usually, operational
capacity should be addressed alongside increased marketing. Driving
substantially more customers into an understaffed or poorly
maintained venue can magnify service failures and potentially create
negative reviews and weak repeat visitation.
What should an FEC audit before increasing its
marketing budget?
At minimum, audit
attraction uptime, staffing, phone response, reviews, website
accuracy, online booking, cleanliness, bathrooms, signage, customer
service and the actual guest journey from discovery through
post visit follow up.
Attractions Marketing Pros
