How will they “Spin” this?

There’s a cool, new club in New York City called Spin. Much like cigar bars and pool clubs took off five to ten years ago, Spin is making a big bet that ping pong will become the next craze among the New York club crowd who are quick to find the newest progressive and creative themed venues. 

Right now, Spin’s near term future looks pretty bright.  I attended a special charity tournament a few weeks back and was a little surprised to see just how packed the place was (on a Monday night.) It was fun to see how dozens of seemingly normal club goers became competitive and talented table tennis players once the jackets and ties came off and the paddles started to swing through the air. Naturally, ping pong isn’t the only activity of choice at this club. The crowd hanging at the chic long bar was just as rowdy as the players they were watching.

I’ve heard from friends that Spin is on fire right now. The place continues to pack ‘em in. That’s not surprising because Spin’s owners were smart enough to catch a rising trend in America… the growth of ping pong as a cultural sport.  And, they’ve created a nice formula to tie it into a real club scene. Unfortunately, it seems that the organization doesn’t understand (or simply doesn’t care) that success can be ephemeral. Especially, when the business is solely based on the fickle and ever changing wants of trendy consumers.

Which leads me to discuss my issues with Spin. For the last three weeks, we’ve tried to book a day time birthday party for my 10 year old son at Spin. (He’s an avid ping pong player.) The responses from the club have ranged from indifference, to rude, to plain idiotic. The women who are functionally charged with booking these types of events have lost our file, given us the wrong email addresses, told us they’d call back and then never did so, and have plain forgotten who we are (after multiple conversations.) I’ve spoken to two other friends who both shared the same type of experience as I.

In my mind, Spin’s staff either doesn’t give a damn, or is so confused and disorganized that they have no idea how to create customer loyalty. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. My belief is that it might happen tomorrow, next month, a year or even two, but Spin will fail if it doesn’t change its modus operandi pretty quickly.

I’m not writing this post to bitch about a business that frustrated me. Spin is but one example of a very real business issue that exists today. Trendy restaurants, clubs and other consumer facing businesses come and go for the reasons I highlighted above. Once that frenzy is over, only the really customer focused, savvy businesses that can provide superior products/services then survive. To do that, these businesses have to focus from the onset on how they can build a solid base of loyal fans who will provide the core sales revenues (to stay afloat) when all the hip and cool early adopters move on to the next trendy theme.

My guess is that the heads of Spin’s management are ‘spinning round and round’ right now in a state of euphoria and confusion. They are probably ecstatic about their new found success and have no idea that it’s time to shake off that feeling that they are conquering the world and start looking at the basics of how to build a business from the ground up. Of course, that all starts with delighting the customer.

Comments

[Bomberpete]

Spin is near my house and it is great. However, the attitude is ridiculous, especially towards something as profitable as children's parties.

Perhaps the owner/entrepreneur is overwhelmed by all the attention he's been getting, including the gossip about his relationship with investor Susan Sarandon. It may not help that he's the son of the notorious Malcolm Bricklin, a guy with a long track record of schemes that start out great then blow up in his face.

[Pam Moed]

Just an update...we had a fabulous party at Bowlmor instead. I planned it just 2 days ahead of time. The staff could not have been nicer and everyone had a great time. We also just received a hand written thank you note from the event planner at Bowlmor and a $50 gift card to come back-which we will definitely do!! They should teach the folks at Spin a thing or 2 about customer relations!

[lia]

That's too bad about the party. I've passed the venue multiple times coming out of the subway station at 23rd St. and thought it looked cool, but I'm disappointed to hear it's one of those quick to rise, quick to fall NYC venues. Good to hear, however, that Bowlmor, is still going strong. Might be worth an anonymous email to the folks who didn't get back to you over there to show them where your business went instead...

[ed moed]

Thanks for the comment, Lia.

I tried. I emailed and a friend, who knows the owner, also spoke to him. I didn't get any communication back, though.

Oh well....

Ed