Room Escape Artist

We call or email nearly every company we book with. Some are helpful; others make booking challenging.

We don’t generally mention customer service in our reviews unless it is extremely impressive or disastrous because we aren’t normal customers and we know it.

Surprisingly, we regularly encounter employees, and occasionally owners, who cannot answer some of the most basic questions about their games.

Everyone who works in a customer-facing capacity in an escape room facility should be able to answer the following questions:

1: What are the names of your games?

I know that some of you are thinking that this is a stupid thing to include on the list and it should go without saying… but it doesn’t. It needs saying.

It’s fairly common for employees to refer to the game by a slight variation of the game’s official title as posted on the website, which can be confusing to potential players.

2: Which of your games would you recommend?

“They’re all great!” & “That’s like asking me to pick a favorite child” aren’t sufficient answers from a customer service standpoint.

Ideally you should be able to say something like, “X is best if you’ve never played a room escape before; Y is a lot of fun, but it’s a little intense; Z is a more challenging game that’s great for players who have more experience.”

Vary your answer according to your games. Probe a little to determine who is asking and what they need in a game.

3: What is the minimum number of players that I need to play the game?

Many games have puzzles that cannot be completed without a certain number of bodies. That is the true minimum. Unless you allow sub-minimum teams to call in the gamemaster as a puppet.

4: What is the maximum number of players that I can bring?

Every company posts a ticket maximum, but some customers will want to bring more players anyway.

Maybe the ticket sales cap at 10 but the room can fit 2 more people comfortably, even if that means that some people won’t get to do much. Or maybe your posted capacity is your actual capacity.

Regardless, you should have the answer at your fingertips.

5: What is the ideal number of players to enjoy the experience?

We ask this question of nearly every company that we book with.

“Uhh… the room fits 10 people,” is a bad answer.

Again, this is a question where a little nuance can go a long way. “If you’ve never played a room before, I think that 7 or 8 people is probably a good team size. If you’re a group of enthusiasts, 4 to 6 should be more than enough for you to enjoy the game.”

6: What should I know about getting to your facility?

It’s a cliche that the first puzzle is finding the place. You should be able to tell your players how to get in, especially if your facility is located in an unusual place that isn’t visible from the street.

You should also be ready to offer up parking information if that isn’t obvious.

Bonus reader suggestion: Are you wheelchair accessible?

Can someone enter your facility in a wheelchair? For each game you should be able to communicate whether it is (a) not wheelchair accessible, (b) entirely wheelchair accessible, or (c) accessible as long as at least one or two players are fully mobile.

Be responsive

Remember that you should readily respond to phone, email, and social media inquiries.

A large part of customer service is simply responding.