CEC Walkarounds

[CEC478Worker]

Now so we are not spamming the Newington NH thread :p

I believe we NEED NEED NEED this to happen to ensure we're makin magic everyday regardless of labor! Remember our saying... :If we're not serving the guest we should be serving someone who is."

Just out of curiosity... anyone who works at a CEC tell us what you do for your walkarounds.

[sungun12]

This reminds me of 2 things that ive experienced back in the day that made me realize how important chuck e is....

first one: was a cm back in the day. i was asked to be chuck e and i whined and cried about it. didnt want to. my gm said, ok, thats fine. if you dont want to do chuck e, you dont have to. but if you dont, you have to walk up to that mom over there and tell her that her kid isnt good enough to see chuck.....i got in the suit.

second: was a new manager in erie, freshly promoted. i opened that day. when my gm got there, she figured out i didnt have chuck out all day, grabbed me and took me outside. asked me what the sign said on the front of the building. chuck e cheese of course. she said, oh ok, i thought this was pizza hut because without chuck, thats all we are.

[amelovesjasper]

That GM rocks the house. I wish my GM was more like that. I would have no problem being Chuck.

Usually for my Walkaround, I go to every table, and say hello to my guests. I give high fives, and hugs, and I do a lot of laughing. I have no idea why, but when I'm Chuck, I like to make him really cocky, and confident, giving him this outrageous strut. When goofing around with kids, I pretend to flex my muscles, and on the RARE occasion I get kissed on the nose (this happened once, lol), I get all shy, and hide my face. I like to play with customers for some reason - one time a man was facing the show room, watching the big screen, and I stood in front of him. Haha, he got a good laugh out of that. Also, I like to interact with not just kids, but with the adults. I'll give Dad's, or older brothers, a high five - and then I bother my fellow co worker's, tapping them on the shoulder while they clean a table.

But uh, I'm rambling. I probably sound so dorky!

[CECTV]

Just a quick question....where do you see out of the Chuck E. Cheese costume? Because evertime I go to a CEC's, there's always two people escorting him around like he doesn't know where to go. Does that happen often?

[ChuckEZone]

Just a quick question....where do you see out of the Chuck E. Cheese costume? Because evertime I go to a CEC's, there's always two people escorting him around like he doesn't know where to go. Does that happen often?

Chuck should have an escort anyway.. that's basically to prevent people from taking advantage of the person in the costume, and also to "speak" for Chuck. If kids ask a question, they obviously won't get a vocal response so the escort can handle those situations. But to answer your question, the performer can see both out of the eyes and the mouth.

[Rapid T Rabbit]

I'm sorry if I repeated this before, but back in the good ol' franchise days at Union NJ, they made sure they had Chuck E. out and about each and every day, at least regularly (hourly+). And if a guest didn't see Chuck E. around but asked for him, he would certainly come out.

And for the 9 years I was cast there, on my working days I kept Chuck E. out almost ALL the time (at least 95%), and had the reputation of being the friendliest mouse ever in the store.

Sadly, since corporate conversion just over 4 years ago, Chuck E. is hard to come by there nowadays. I wonder if any longtime guests have noticed.

[CEC478Worker]

I still don't care what anyone says. Chuck E needs to come out every hour.

[Aaron]

Out here we keep Chuck on the floor, but we have our priorities set up differently than up there.

After our live shows, Chuck walks around the entire store and is out for about 30-45 minutes. That's done after every live show, and Chuck is always out for walkins, and does a walkaround after those, too. However on a busy Saturday I'm not gonna look at my watch and say 1pm... line at kidcheck... time to get CEC on the floor. I think the priorities should definitely include CEC on the floor, however you need to be able to run a quality shift before you can add another element.

[CEC3066]

Hey Aaron has your store ever had to do a Live,Birthday Show and then a Roadshow in one fell swoop. This is why my local CEC has stopped doing LIVE shows. they feel it takes too much time and is hard on the performer to do 3 shows one right after the other. While I do kinda agree w/ what they have said th LIVE show IS part of the package.

[amelovesjasper]

We don't have Chuck E. out at all. Only for the live show, and then our manager quickly pushes us back to get out of the suit and go do what we're suppose to be doing. ...

[CEC3066]

Your Manager Isn't following Standards. is the person in the suit scheduled or is someone just thrown in the suit?

[amelovesjasper]

Your Manager Isn't following Standards. is the person in the suit scheduled or is someone just thrown in the suit?

No one is schelduled to be in the suit. I only know this because, I'm always scheldued for Kid Check, and then everyone and a while before a liveshow they will go up to me quickly and go "We need Chuck."

Yup...

[CEC3066]

wow No one is even Scheduled on the Weekends?

[CEC478Worker]

Same at my store we are more concerned with labor than makin magic

[Aaron]

Okay, time for my rant.

I don't believe labor is more important than magic, but if you need one person who stay in the suit to make magic... then you need a new job. I would rather not have a boring, dull, unmotivated Chuck on the floor at all when I can have a good, energetic Chuck out after each birthday wave. You can still do a walkaround, suggestive sell... so much could be done. I just think Chuck always on the floor doesn't make him being out such a big deal whereas when he comes out after the parties here everyone is excited. What is there to be excited about when you see a mouse walking around a restaurant nonstop? If I were a parent, I would think it's a stalker in a suit.

That's my way of making magic.

[CEC Kid Check]

I agree with Aaron (whoever disagrees needs to learn)
My store works like Aaron's. We wake up Chuck for the b-day waves, and right after that, he walks around the store and makes his way to KC for a Road Show. He throws tickets, everyone is happy, and he gets to go to bed...
Now-a-days the only reason kids want to see Chuck is because they know he is going to throw out tickets as long as you watch him dance to Happy and You Know it, the Hokey Pokey, or w/e song.
My store just recently got a new manager, he came from a very high-profited/busy store. He tried to impress all our managers with the whole Chuck out at the top of the hour deal, but he soon realized it doesn't work so well. When Chuck comes out, he stays out for at least 30-45 mins. (because of B-day waves-walkaround-Roadshow) and it isn't fair for the performer to only get a 10-15 min. break before he has to hop back into the costume to go do a walkaround and then roadshow...then repeat the process for the B-day waves...and so on...
Everybody complains about doing CEC at my store...we only have a selected few who will do it without asking questions..and that's why we stick with the Roadshow after B-day wave schedule.
Like Aaron said, if they had Chuck out non-stop, it would just get boring watching a mouse run around. Plus, it will get boring and tiring for the entertainer...he/she would need to find new things or ways to make magic, and for most that's playing games...which at most stores is a major NO NO. If CEC plays games, its neglect to the guest, unless they are playing along with the guests.
The bottom line and moral is that EVERY STORE IS DIFFEREN'T and runs things differently. That's just how it works and everyone here needs to learn to accept that. Sure there are standards and rules...but hey rules are meant to be broken. All managers know there standards, but they most work with that and there CM's + labor hours to suit everything together to pursue a operating store. Everyone is differen't, hence differen't ways of how a store operates.

FYI, with this new B-day program, there are NO MORE live shows...its just the 4 minute B-day song with your choice of either 2 or 5 minute countdown in front of it. The Live Show songs are still on the show discs, and can still be selected, but only if you want to do a Road Show in the showroom...if a Live Show is playied before the new B-day show, it will throw off the entire first half of the B-day Live show, since the first half is basically getting the kids to chant "Chuck E." to get him out of his "closet."

[CEC478Worker]

Now why on earth do you guy's just do the birthday song for the parties? I still give them the live show and then the birthday song.

[CEC Kid Check]

I'll quote myself again:


The bottom line and moral is that EVERY STORE IS DIFFEREN'T and runs things differently. That's just how it works and everyone here needs to learn to accept that. Everyone is differen't, hence differen't ways of how a store operates.

Well according to you guys: its all about making magic right? Now I don't know about your store, but mine gets a ton of repeat guests or "CEC Regulars" as we call them. They come in for parties every year and when its not little Johnny's birthday, they come in to play games and watch the show (yes families do watch the show, thats another thing everyone here needs to learn) Now when these regulars come in for parties, they usually get the same treatment as last year, since we don't get a new b-day song or live show every year...and that gets marked down on Comment Cards.

After watching the live shows, my managers agreed that they are completely pointless since no kid comes up and participates, even if a host/hostess encourages them to come up, they play with Chuck for like 30 secs. before they get bored and run away to play games.

Plus, with this new B-day program, B-day song, and schedule, the last minute in the countdown before the B-day song starts, B-day Hosts/Hostess gather all the kids to a corner in the showroom and tells them to start yelling "Chuck E." to get Chuck out of his room. Once the show starts, Chuck runs out of his room to the kids and for the first minute of the song, marches around the showroom with them (thats why there is a long instrumental in the beginning.) Then the song turns into B-day Star, then the award ceremony, and the end with the photo op. It doesn't make much sense to have Chuck out to do a live show, then walk into his "closet" only to come back out to the chant, since kids already saw him with the live show, (as metioned in Aaron reply) they will lose interests and not participate with the chanting and marching.

But just remember every store does things differently! What I mentioned above is basically how my store does it...which I am not going to say is the right or wrong way, its our stores specific way on how we do it. If you have live shows before the B-day song, good for you. Just remember the moral.

[Rapid T Rabbit]

During my all-day Chuck E "walkathons" at U-NJ back in my era, I would do my best to keep Chuck'e presence interesting, for both myself and the guests...and pretty much never wore out my welcome. I played him as his true and proper role as being the host of the restaurant, always walking around to "make sure everybody is having a good time". That included bouncing from table to table, and sitting down and interacting with the guests, even the adults whose kids were off playing games somewhere. Note that antic also served to get me off my feet for minutes at a time so I could pace myself physically and save my energy in between shows. In the gameroom, I would either play-act with guests in games, or in cases like skeeball or air hockey, actually play games with them. I did have a tendency to spend a little more time with guests (regardless of age) who really did respond to Chuck E in return by engaging in virtual conversation, knowing they really enjoyed the mouse's company. After completing "one round" of the store, my next schtick was to welcome guests arriving at the front door, either before or after KidChek, sometimes as their cars pulled up to the curb at the entrance. There were many times I escorted guests both from and to their cars in the parking lot too, and they LOVED the special attention they got from Chuck E. Granted, this is likely against present-day corporate store policy, and only experienced mascots should be attempting maneuvers like that in the first place.

I guess I should also concede that the Union NJ store was larger than most run of the mill strip mall CEC's nowadays, so I had plenty of room for Chuck E. to roam and not wear out the carpet faster.

There was always magic in the air when I had Chuck E there.

[amelovesjasper]

Uh.

The place is called Chuck E. Cheese.

Its about the mouse. A costumer is going there to see Chuck E.

I don't "need to learn" anything, CEC Kid Check, if you are going to a place that is advistising its characters like that you should be able to see that character. The company kinda, uh, enforces that.

[Aaron]

It's all in the training.

No one does it the same way. I've worked in several stores, and each one does it differently, but hold the same standard. Yes, every guest sees Chuck E. However, you can accomplish that without him staying out on the floor 24/7. I'll take it one step further and remind everyone that we don't use curtains anymore (unless you have Studio C that has real curtains that still are in use) and that enables Chuck to always be seen. I'm not saying that is an excuse for not getting Chuck out, but it's not like we're hiding him behind curtains anymore.

I'll tell you how things work in my store...
:55 - Chuck E. Chant
:00 - Chuck E. Shuffle (in between we've always done the bday announcements)
:05 - New Birthday
:10 - Cake/Photos

------------------------------
:20 - w/a showroom
:30 - w/a kiddie room
:40 - w/a gameroom
:50 - walk-in birthdays

Things do change due to the level of activity, but that is pretty much how it goes. However, I will not do that and then 10 minutes later tell someone to wake up Chuck E. just because it's the top of the hour. We do ensure every guest sees Chuck E. I am not saying anyone else's way is wrong, but to me it would be weird if Chuck was always out.

Another thing about training, we don't do roadshows anymore. Possibly for school fundraiser nights, but that's a rare occasion a road show. Our priorities are different; we would rather have a clean store to keep people coming back than keep the mouse out on the floor 24/7. Priorities are different everywhere, to each their own. As long as everyone's having a magical day, it shouldn't matter how its done. (...as long as it's up to standards.)

[Rapid T Rabbit]

Uh.
Its about the mouse. A costumer is going there to see Chuck E.



You mean CUSTOMER...a costumer is someone who supposedly makes sure that Chuck E is looking good...:cecwink:

[amelovesjasper]

You mean CUSTOMER...a costumer is someone who supposedly makes sure that Chuck E is looking good...:cecwink:

Oops, spelling error.

[Aaron]

Chuck E. Cheese's doesn't have customers, we have guests.

[CEC Kid Check]

Uh.

The place is called Chuck E. Cheese.

Its about the mouse. A costumer is going there to see Chuck E.

I'm sorry, but guests go to CEC to play games and eat pizza. That's why Games are CEC's #1 sales.
When a family jumps in there car on there way to Chuck E. Cheese, this does not get said: Parent: "You guys ready to see Chuck E. Cheese today!?" It's more like: "You guys ready to eat and play!?"

[amelovesjasper]

Thats not the point; it doesn't matter why a family is going to Chuck E. Cheese, the costume is still an important aspect of it. If it wasn't, they wouldn't call the place Chuck E. Cheese.

[CEC Kid Check]

well of course its important, I never said anywhere that it's not...correct me if I'm wrong. Please re-read what you said "A costumer is going there to see Chuck E. "...no they don't. I simply said that they go there to play games and eat food. They don't expect a visit from chuck until they see him walk out...but yes every guest should see Chuck...but as the moral states: Every store is differen't and works in differen't ways.

Do they call Disneyland "MickeyMouse Land" because he is an important character...I think not...so are you saying Mickey Mouse isn't a important character because his name isn't in the theme park title, because there quite successful!

[amelovesjasper]

lol, how do you know what everyone wants when they go to Chuck E. Cheese. People have complained or request for Chuck E. when he doesn't appear.

[kaittttt]

I think Chuck E. is something that appeals much more to the younger kids. Like... it's something that the parents like, especially if they're there with a big birthday party. Chuck E. keeps 'em occupied for a few minutes and they have a break from watchin' em.

But I think Jeff's right. Chuck E. walkaround is important to have 'coz that's one of the things that separate the stores from regular arcade-like places. But I really think most people are there for the food and games.

[Chuckette566]

All I am going to say is:
20-10
10-20
It is that easy.
I do understand the mgnt standpoint though.
The company basically wants you to screw yourself with labor. Like cut until you, the manger, are running around filling spots. It is the only way to really make labor work.
:sighs:
Really hurts the magic aspect

[bzier]

Yep...too true Chuckette. Today was a shining example of that for me at my store...I was Opening manager, maintenence, kitchen, game pull, gameroom attendant, merch, and Chuck! The only area I had covered by a cast member was Kid Check...and our tech and Kid Checker would fill in at cash/salad bar. When it's slow and you get screamed at about running excellent labor, you've gotta do what you've gotta do!

[Chuckette566]

ben ben ben
labor sucks in dec
and i hate closing because of it
my opening manager didn't cut
so i was screwed at night
ahhhh
i hate it

[bzier]

When my GM opens he screws up labor too sometimes...and then I have to get drastic...like Thursday night. I only used 17 hours from 4pm to close. They're getting better about it...it's just one of those things that people preach, but don't always follow.