It’s simple: The longer I stick around (be it a store, mall, website, etc.) the better chance I’ll spend money.

Find a way to keep me around, draw my attention in, and I’ll probably, eventually spend money.

Here’s a good example — I’m on vacation at the moment in Vancouver with my wife and son (he’s almost two.) Keeping him occupied is a full-time gig, and sometimes it’s impossible to do anything else but keep him busy. Hard to spend money when I’m chasing my kid around.

But in one of the mall’s here they have a very simple setup that allows me and other parents to stick around. It’s a carpeted, padded enclosure, perhaps 20×20 feet. It has walls that are a few feet high (carpeted and padded) — it’s basically a “padded room” for kids. And the kids love it. They run around like lunatics in the enclosure, which also has sides that rise up, providing a slope for them to run down, roll down and jump around on.

My kid played in there for a good 30 minutes, which gave my wife a chance to stroll around and spend money. (And her money is my money, ergo the title of this post.)

This mall invested whatever small amount it was on a very low-tech, simple thing and there were probably 30 kids in there at any given time. Sure, one parent had to stick around and supervise, but that left one parent to shop (i.e. the wife.) And, the supervising parents could do so from comfortable benches around the enclosure, giving them a much needed respite. Getting a break makes parents happy…happy people in a mall spend money…

Malls in Quebec (where I live) seem to be completely clueless. Most have absolutely nothing to draw kids’ attention, and therefore they’re a pain in the ass for parents. Why doesn’t every single mall on the face of the planet have activities for kids? It just makes good business sense!

Sometimes, something simple, easy to do and fairly low cost can be that extra little thing your business needs to keep people hanging around and spending money. Call it customer service, foresight, good business acumen or whatever you want…it just works.

[tags]business, marketing, making money, success, marketing, customer service[/tags]