Automatic Age

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the scores may be low. The customers
may feel that the play is too difficult.
That doesn’t get the machine off to a
good start. The location owner whom
you have instructed can change all
this. Just let him join the players,
make a few reasonably good scores,
show how it can be done, and the
“paying customers” get right on the
job.
This matter is far more important
than you might suppose. Players who
mistakenly feel that the play is too
difficult are apt to say so to the loca­
tion owner. And if you leave him un­
acquainted with the machine, it
doesn’t take many complaints of diffi­
culty before the location owner is
“off” the machine. Of course where
skill shot fans “hang out” they
quickly learn any table. But the gen­
eral average player is not a skill
player.
Changing the Score Card
When you have placed a machine,
do not wait more than a day or two,
if possible, before going back to check
on the scores that have been made.
Experienced operators know (and
new operators must speedily learn)
that locations show a curious differ­
ence as to scores that will be made.
Your coin machine comes to you
with a score card that has been care­
fully figured out for the average loca­
tion.
It is figured to permit the
players to make the scores at least
fifty percent of the time. If they
cannot, if the machine seems too diffi­
cult, the play will fall off. On the
other hand, if the scoring proves too
easy, that is unsatisfactory to the
operator and location owner alike.
Watch this by going back to the loca­
tion. If the class of players patroniz­
ing the location cannot make the
scores furnished with the machine,
change them! Write out lower scores
neatly on white paper and insert
them over the original score card. Do
not lower scores too much at first. A
drop from a 5000 score to one of
4800, for instance, would be a good
start. If the player shows that the
original score card is too low it is
difficult to raise it without causing
resentment on the part of some
players. So it is usually better to find
some other way, by adjusting board,
etc. Be sure to watch these matters
closely. You can easily lose the loca­
tion you’ve worked to get if the score
card does not fit the class of
patronage.
Cultivate Friendly Relations
It should hardly be necessary to
say that making friends with the
AUTOMATIC AGE
location owners and his clerks and
helpers is vitally important. As a
matter of fact, however, not a few
operators fail in this respect. Try to
discover subjects that are of special
interest to the location owner—base­
ball, hunting, the new arrival in the
family, his pride in his store, and any
one of numerous things. Never be­
grudge the time to chat with the loca­
tion owner.
Never tell him your
troubles; but listen to his if he wants
to unburden himself.
Remember that the location owner
is entitled to an occasional “grouch,”
and that he may take it out on you.
It’s good business to “take it.” But
retain the location owner’s respect as
one business man to another. Let
your personal appearance, your ac­
tions, your earnestness and all else
betoken you as a business man. Study
each of your “customers” individu­
ally. Make this a definite part of
your plan.
Avoid collections at times when the
store is busy. Give the location owner
opportunity to watch you count col­
lections. Set as your goal a relation­
ship that the location owner is glad
to see you come in— not merely polite
to you, but genuinely pleased to see
you. You’ll meet all kinds of owners
— cranks and unreasonable ones in­
cluded. You can build so solidly on a
basis of friendship that you always
save the inside track. It doesn’t cost
a cent, and it pays dividends in
dollars.
Be Careful of Promises
If you operate with quality equip­
ment you do not have to promise the
impossible. Nor will you. Working
with high grade machines you defi-
August, 1939
nitely possess that quiet confidence
that invariably carries conviction,
word psychology is much misused.
But for you, in this connection, it has
a meaning. You know that you are
offering the location owner a machine
that will make him money, give no
trouble, and of which any location
owner can be proud. You know that
the only real competition you have is
another quality machine.
You can promise the location owner
one of the most beautiful and attrac­
tive machines on the market, know­
ing that you can make good the
promise. You can tell him what your
machines have done in other loca­
tions, knowing yourself to be truth­
ful. And remember this, too: in “hot
spot” locations the owner is familiar
with what various machines take in.
In such locations there will likely be
one or several kinds of machines al­
ready in. Don’t “knock” them. They
may be doing quite well. Simply ap­
peal to the location owner’s reason.
You can bring out the fact that if the
present machines are making money,
“isn’t it reasonable that a finer ma­
chine will make more.” Appeal to the
location owner’s pride, in wanting the
best. And finally, offer to set your
machine alongside of any other on
the market on the basis that it will
take the play away and make more
money for the location owner. On
this basis your machine—of quality—
will make good.
Recording the Score
The best locations, the hundred dol­
lar a week or more locations, are
usually in the busiest drug stores, or
other spots where customer traffic is
heavy, where clerks are rushed,
where minutes count. We’ll say that
the location owner is thoroughly sold
on coin machines. In fact, he’s so well
sold that he is actively in the market
for better and better machines. In
such spots you are likely to have
some quality competition.
Such locations will favor the alto-
matic totalizer that accurately and
infallibly adds up the player’s score
as he goes along and shows the total
when the play is finished.
“ Good L o cations in Unexpected
Places”
© International Arcade Museum
What does this mean in a busy
spot? That no location owner, no
clerk or helper, has to spend valuable
time adding and checking a player’s
score! One glance and the score
stands revealed, under the glass of
the recording dial. There can be no
disputes, no time is lost. Not only is
the score instantly recorded, but the
number of balls played is shown. No
arguments about this.
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