PR_6-10-2004

Seattle- June 10, 2004

Toys in Your Business

Many businesses have toys on hand with the purpose of keeping children from disrupting the sales process. Yet this practice may be producing very negative results and hindering business. Thoughtful toy selection and care are necessary to successfully disengage children from the sales process.

In waiting rooms toys have been used in the health care industry to lower the noise level and keep the calm for many years. With children being towed along to all types of businesses today, the predominance of toys for this purpose has gained wide appeal. The underlying reason why businesses have adopted this practice is address the parent/customer conflict.

The Parent/Customer Conflict Dynamic

The need to manage a customer’s child is essential to closing sales and transacting business smoothly. The conflict occurs when a sales/office person competes with a child for their parents attention. Business employees often remark “Parents just let their kids run wild.” They do not realize they are the culprits, they demand the parent to give over their attention to the business/sales process, leaving the children with zero supervision.

Tug Of War for the person in the middle

Staff Objective	Customer/Parent Objective	Child Objective
Close a sale and/or transact business	Buy, gather useful information, finalize	Not be bored
Up-sell or provide additional goods and services	Keep track of child	Interact with Parent
Gain 100% of customers attention	Keep child appeased	Control the relationship between the staff and the parent

Parents who stay in proximity to their children while leaving them unsupervised maintain a higher level of anxiety. As sales people try to keep the customer focused, the customer is riddled with concern for their childs safety and the manner of how they are acting. Embarrassment often follows causing the parent to give up and leave with their child.

Are toys worth it?

There are 3 approaches businesses have taken when addressing children in their environment. The first is to do nothing. To simply ignore the child in the process and in quite a few circumstances encourage the customer to leave their children at home. The second approach is to bring in some toys and deposit them in a part of your business or in a more elaborate approach, dedicate a space to a play structure. The third approach is to appropriate time and expense for managing children in the sales process.

To the first two ends, businesses have failed to realize and correctly exploit the parent/customer and customers-child relationship.

3 Approaches

Do Nothing/Discourage traffic that includes children	A toy bin – or play structure	A Managed Toy program
Unless the business has a steady flow of customers and no need of developing prospects, this approach is dangerous to business growth.	Businesses put in toys and then do not maintain them. In most cases, parents are revolted by the dirty condition of the toys and are afraid to have their children handle them.	Toys are specifically aimed to disengage the child from the business process.
The business operator is often resentful of children being brought into their business and find themselves personally reprimanding bad behavior of their customers children.	There is no ability to maintain control over the toys as kids leave behind objects and garbage that is deposited into the bin. Built in structures often separate the child from the parent creating anxiety issues.	A method for assuring customers the toys are safe and clean is essential. Eliminating worn out or broken toys is very important.
This approach is a result of the Conflict Dynamic. The demand for the parent/customers attention is a classic tug of war that tears apart business transactions.	Inappropriate toys cause interruption in the business transaction and lead to disruption elsewhere in the business.	Providing a method for distinction between the managed toys and toys left behind is also required.

Safe, Effective & Engaging

Yet, toys can be disruptive to the business environment instead of helpful. The choice of which toys to have on hand is not easy. Books thought of as good for quieting children often encourage the child to distract their parents so they may be read to, exactly opposite of the desired effect. Effective toys must create quiet and calm, keep a child close at hand yet disengage the child from the parent so the parent may focus on the business transaction.

Toys in businesses have long been the bane of parents wary of infectious disease. More recently health care organizations have begun the process of removing toys from many areas because of “nosocomial transmission,” the occurrence of contracting infectious disease at the hospital or care provider.

In these litigious times, monitoring toys for safety issues and recalls is simply too much for a business attempting to practice good will. Very few businesses keep records and checks lists of safety checks, a necessary practice. Just keeping track and getting rid of toys left behind by customers requires diligence.

Toy Service Businesses

There would be no toys in businesses if there was no need. While business owners have long realized the need to occupy children during the course of a sales or business process, few have clearly identified the Parent/Customer Conflict Dynamic and have gone on to develop a program designed to manage the conflict. Automotive Dealers and Restaurants have become early-adopters of a new type of business which manages toy services. This emerging business sector has elevated the thought and study of managing the Customer/Parent Conflict Dynamic.

Good Clean Fun LLC offers it’s Something For Kids Toy Service as an all inclusive monthly service which retains ownership of the toys, mounts them to unique boards and provides a toy station complete with disinfectant wipes. The company offers a best practices standard by proving engaging toys that are maintained for safety issues.