MAGICIANS FOR FAMILY RESTAURANTS

May 18

Hello, for over 2 years now I have been working at the Boston Pizza Big Bend location every Sunday entertaining the patrons. I have learned a few things of value on how to work on these restaurants, and why family restaurant owners should consider magicians for entertainment purposes and I would like to share them here:

1. Increase the customer experience and bring back return customers. It's a broad topic and a good magician needs to do many things here to increase the customer experience. They have to be good at what they do, the timing to approach a table is after the drinks have landed on the table and after the dinner menu items have been ordered. The Magicians job here is to welcome your customers, wow, them and before they have time to think, their food has already arrived. Pizza is the ultimate answer to making kids problems go away.

2. Increase the employee experience. If you are a waiter or waitress working at a Boston Pizza, it's hard to have a bad day when there's happy children and happy parents at your venue. Things that contribute to an overall vibe include, applause, social media photos, balloon animals for the kids with more photos, smiling, laughing. For me I share my personal tips that families give to me with waitresses. Yes I have a very special skillset and I am tipped for it, however I wouldn't be there in the first place if there isn't a pizza joint to begin with.

3. Marketing - People love sharing magic tricks and photos of my balloons on social media. If you are already posting pictures of your food, UFC nights, and other activities, extra content to help draw customers in is always a bonus. See a photo of my balloon cat having a coffee!

4. Added value - Once the food arrives, I go back to my table and twist a balloon for the clients. I'm proud to say, my balloons kick ass. Lots of times, balloons are made at a carnival or a fair and there are long-lineups because it does take time for the artist to craft whatever animal that they need to make. Often times they just stick with one balloon designs so they can work the lineup shorter. While the customers are eating, I come by wearing my suit, (they just saw amazing magic!) and check on them to make sure everything is okay and give a small balloon as a gift to the kids.

5. Damage control. Things don't always go right in the kitchen and when an order has been mixed up, food under/overcooked, or anything at all, the customer is not happy. Well the best way to get over something is to direct their attention to something else! It's a principle of magic and it works perfectly fine in this case. I come by, show some magic, and the order is already fixed!