There is a simple formula to attract the maximum number of customers to your Laser Tag centre. First, identify your catchment area, and then grow it. The key insight is straightforward: double the travel distance your customers are willing to drive, and you quadruple your catchment area. There are three main options to achieve this: provide more entertainment services, increase game time, or repackage your games.
Identifying Your Current Catchment Area
The duration of the entertainment experience has a direct impact on how far customers are willing to travel. Generally, people will travel 30 to 40 minutes for a 2 to 3 hour experience. A standard laser tag game lasts only 8 to 15 minutes, which means customers are typically only willing to travel 10 to 15 minutes to play. This is a significantly smaller catchment area compared to other entertainment offerings.
To put this into perspective, consider the following travel distances customers are willing to accept for different types of entertainment:
- Laser tag (8-15 min game) - 10 to 15 min travel radius
- Bowling / Mini-golf (30-40 min activity) - 30 to 40 min travel radius
- Family Entertainment Centre (FEC) (2-3 hours) - larger travel radius
- Theme park (4-8 hours) - significantly larger travel radius
Identifying Your Potential Catchment Area
The goal is to increase the total entertainment time your centre offers. By doing so, you grow the distance customers are willing to travel - and by extension, your catchment area. Because the catchment area is calculated as a circle around your location, doubling the travel distance results in four times the area. This is the most powerful lever available to you.
Strategy 1: Providing More Entertainment
Family Entertainment Centres succeed because they provide a variety of activities that keep families engaged for longer periods. Some options to consider adding alongside laser tag include:
- Climbing walls
- LED dance floors
- Laser maze
- Mini bowling
- Mini golf
- Arcade rooms
- Redemption games
- Bumper cars
- Rope courses
- Inflatables
- 3D / 4D rides
While these additions can be extremely effective, they may not always be feasible due to the cost of investment or the physical space required. Fortunately, there are other strategies that don't require major capital expenditure.
Strategy 2: Increasing Game Time
Many operators instinctively believe that longer games equal better value for the customer. Delta Strike's experience suggests this thinking is flawed.
Player enjoyment begins to decline after 10 to 12 minutes of continuous play. The adrenaline that makes laser tag exciting peaks and then crashes after approximately 15 minutes. Beyond that point, fatigue sets in and the experience becomes less enjoyable.
From a business perspective, doubling the game time does not allow you to double the price. The result is reduced income per hour and lower overall profitability. Longer games are not the answer.
Strategy 3: Repackaging Games
Discounted Combos
Instead of making games longer, package multiple shorter games together at a discounted rate. This increases the total time customers spend at your centre without reducing the quality of each individual game.
Example A (4 games per hour, 10 min game):
- 1 game - $7 / 15 min total visit
- 2 games - $12 / 30 min total visit
- 3 games - $15 / 45 min total visit
Example B (5+ games per hour, 9 min game):
- 1 game - $6 / 12 min total visit
- 2 games - $10 / 24 min total visit
- 3 games - $13 / 36 min total visit
Introducing Breaks Between Games
Adding structured breaks between games is one of the most effective strategies available. It increases the total duration of the customer visit without requiring longer games.
Example C (4 games per hour with 15 min break):
- 2 games + 1 break = 45 min total visit
- 3 games + 2 breaks = 75 min total visit
A 50% increase in visit duration can translate to a 100% or greater increase in your catchment area. Additionally, breaks create opportunities for extra income from arcade machines and food and beverage sales. Your centre also looks busier to passersby and potential customers, which is a powerful form of marketing in itself.
Implementing Efficiencies
To make these strategies work, time management is critical. Your staff and systems must be infallible in their execution. There are five key areas to focus on:
- Staff - Your team must be trained and confident in upselling multi-game packages to every customer.
- Systems - Ticketing, booking, and payment systems should be automated and streamlined to eliminate wasted time between games.
- Layout of Rooms - The physical layout should support fast throughput, allowing one group to exit while the next group enters without delay.
- Briefing Video - A pre-recorded briefing video ensures consistent, efficient player onboarding without relying on staff availability.
- Superior Equipment - Equipment that supports automatic color assignment, remote start and stop, fast score generation, and high reliability is essential. Every minute saved in operations is a minute that can be sold to customers.