Ok I have a weird one for you guys...

[AustinChief]

So, a buddy of mine in Austin has a promotions/marketing firm and just recently aquired a new account. This new account wants a pretty much complete makeover of what they are doing and he is asking me to help him out. Now, this is not exactly in my wheelhouse but I figure it may be worth giving it a shot. After looking at their business I have determined there are some HUGE opportunities to totally rework how they engage with customers. I also have looked at 20+ sites of businesses in the same arena and they ALL have absolutely awful marketing and don't utilize technology in any useful way whatsoever...

Now here is the kicker... the business... SUGAR'S UPTOWN CABARET!

Here is their current website http://www.sugarsperfect.com/sa/ which is just awful. (I won't really be doing anything with it, just wanted to show you what the place is)

OK, so I was hoping to use this thread to bounce some crazy ideas of you guys and see what you think is crazy and what is good. I'll post more in a sec.

[pr_capone]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

ok, so let me explain the business model used at most places as it was explained to me.

The club makes it's money mostly off overpriced drinks and cheap food. The dancers show up (hopefully) for whatever shift they have said they will take and pay the club for the "right" to dance there. Then they do their thing and keep what they earn.

This lends itself to the "good" dancers wanting to build up a clientele. they want to know that their "regulars" will be their when they show up so they can milk them for cash.

Here is a the problem. most clubs don't advertise WHEN a dancer is going to be there. As a matter of fact it's almost unheard of due to the difficulty in keeping track of notoriously unreliable "independent contractors" which the dancers basically are.

ALSO the dancers themselves have no safe and effective way to keep in touch with their customers. Apparently, it's common for them to give out their phone numbers or other contact info which is just insane in my book.

A small number of them create a fake Facebook page to advertise themselves but it is a VERY small percentage.. like under 5%. And they aren't usually tech savvy enough to effectively use it anyway. (and it's also unsafe because they don;t wall it off from their real life enough)

OK, you may see where I am going with all this.. back in a sec to explain more..

Each girl has a profile page on the site. On their page, there can be a notification as to whether they are in or not. When they get to work, they have to "clock in". When they do, their profile page reflects that they are in. Also, customers can chose to be notified either via text or email when their favorite(s) come in so when they clock in, the system automatically sends out the notification.

That should satisfy the need for customer knowing when their girl is there. Also, the profile page could be used as a method of keeping in contact with their clientele.

[Rain Man]

How many dancers are typically working at any given time? If the customers don't want to get pinged on twitter or facebook, it seems like you could set up an "online time clock" where the dancers check in upon arrival and it then lights up their name on the web site. New visitors can click on the lit-up names to see teaser pictures, and return visitors can check the site and quickly see if their favorite dancer is on site.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by pr_capone

Each girl has a profile page on the site. On their page, there can be a notification as to whether they are in or not. When they get to work, they have to "clock in". When they do, their profile page reflects that they are in. Also, customers can chose to be notified either via text or email when their favorite(s) come in so when they clock in, the system automatically sends out the notification.

That should satisfy the need for customer knowing when their girl is there. Also, the profile page could be used as a method of keeping in contact with their clientele.

Geni(o)us. But I think there has to be one landing page that lists everyone, so a potential visitor can scan quickly. Then he clicks on the lit-up names to go to their profile pages.

[pr_capone]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

How many dancers are typically working at any given time? If the men don't want to get pinged on twitter or facebook, it seems like you could set up an "online time clock" where the dancers check in upon arrival and it then lights up their name on the web site. New visitors can click on the lit-up names to see teaser pictures, and return visitors can check the site and quickly see if their favorite dancer is on site.

That is wot I posted. Ya know... I would not be opposed to moving to Denver for a good job.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by pr_capone

That is wot I posted. Ya know... I would not be opposed to moving to Denver for a good job.

Okay. But let me recruit some dancers first.

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I actually did a consulting gig with a strip club once, back when I worked for another consulting company. It was a bit of a different type of project, but nonetheless, I have experience in the field and am willing to travel for my work.

Good man! Ok now here are some basic ideas that I have to change the way it all works...

ok, so we've established that strippers work for themselves and WANT a way to communicate directly with customers and drive their own bottom line.

Now, let's look at the ways this can be done besides in person or over the phone... you have the club's website, the club's mobile website, the club's facebook page and text messaging. All of these things in the current form are fine for the club but offer nOTHING of true value to the dancers.

Here is where my idea comes in.

Create a section of the website/mobile site/facebook page that has a MICRO-SITE for each dancer. Let's look at Facebook. So, as a consumer you go to the FB page and see all the junk info, but also have a TAB that let's you go to the Dancer Lounge or whatever you want to call it. From there you could see all the "main forum" general announcements, dancer comments, etc and also pick a particular dancer to go to their micro-site. Now, the micro-site would have The dancer's (fake) name, bio, pics, turn ons, etc and also a scrolling section of "news" that they would be responsible for posting. Also, they would be able to update their schedule instantly. The customer could also privately message the dancer and and get responses back. "BUT WAIT" you say... wouldn't the customer have to Facebook connect or at least LIKE the site? Yes and no, I could make an app called "brown paper bag" or whatever and they connect using THAT and would be able to set up an anonymous "handle" and communicate that way. Now here comes the even cooler part. I could port this whole thing over to work via a mobile web interface. And the really cool part... a custom phone app! So the dancer would have a special dancer portal or app that let's them receive notifications, send updates to the club , track their hours, etc etc AND it would handle communications between them and their clients. "WAIT WAIT WAIT who would want a strip club app on their phone for their wife to find!" you scream! Obviously, the app could be custom named and would have a pin for access.

the part I am still working out is how to leverage text messaging in all of this without setting up a full SMS gateway. the reason I care about texts is for the customers and dancers who have crap phones that can't get on the internet... of course I'm not sure that is an issue these days.

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by pr_capone

Each girl has a profile page on the site. On their page, there can be a notification as to whether they are in or not. When they get to work, they have to "clock in". When they do, their profile page reflects that they are in. Also, customers can chose to be notified either via text or email when their favorite(s) come in so when they clock in, the system automatically sends out the notification.

That should satisfy the need for customer knowing when their girl is there. Also, the profile page could be used as a method of keeping in contact with their clientele.

Ha, yep, I just posted my ideas and you are right on track with my thinking.

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

How many dancers are typically working at any given time? If the customers don't want to get pinged on twitter or facebook, it seems like you could set up an "online time clock" where the dancers check in upon arrival and it then lights up their name on the web site. New visitors can click on the lit-up names to see teaser pictures, and return visitors can check the site and quickly see if their favorite dancer is on site.

Depends on the club. This place probably 10-15 I would guess.

[AustinChief]

I'm thinking that the key to the whole thing will be that all of this data will be accessible in multiple ways. Website, mobile site, Facebook, phone app. The most full featured being a phone app because you could set it to receive notifications and "follow" certain dancers schedules.

So, what do you guys think? I honestly think it could seriously change the industry! And as pr_capone pointed out.. you could easily create a phase 2 with more indirect interaction(private webcam shows, etc) to provide both the club and dancers with an additional revenue source.

All of this would start out hosted on our server, so I figure it is only fair and even our duty to review content for any impropriety.

You two are officially in charge of that when we get to that point.

[pr_capone]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

the part I am still working out is how to leverage text messaging in all of this without setting up a full SMS gateway. the reason I care about texts is for the customers and dancers who have crap phones that can't get on the internet... of course I'm not sure that is an issue these days.

most mobile carriers use an email address that will transfer over to sms

Sprint phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Verizon phonenumber@vtext.com
T-Mobile phonenumber@tmomail.net
AT&T phonenumber@txt.att.net

with this you would only need to set up an individual email address so that they could either message individually or hit everyone by using a mailing list.

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by pr_capone

most mobile carriers use an email address that will transfer over to sms

Sprint phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Verizon phonenumber@vtext.com
T-Mobile phonenumber@tmomail.net
AT&T phonenumber@txt.att.net

with this you would only need to set up an individual email address that they could either message individually or hit everyone by using a mailing list.

I have done this in the past. What I do is add their carrier info to the db of users and then it sends based on that. It works ok, but is a bit of a pain. I may have to go that route in the end. I could use the phone app to directly send the messages but that violates my security model and exposes REAL phone numbers to the parties involved, so that's a no go.

In the end, I will just have to see if the demand for text notifications is there. I am guessing you are right and I will have to go this route.

Oh and thanks for providing the links now I don't have to look them up again!

[pr_capone]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

I have done this in the past. What I do is add their carrier info to the db of users and then it sends based on that. It works ok, but is a bit of a pain. I may have to go that route in the end. I could use the phone app to directly send the messages but that violates my security model and exposes REAL phone numbers to the parties involved, so that's a no go.

In the end, I will just have to see if the demand for text notifications is there. I am guessing you are right and I will have to go this route.

Oh and thanks for providing the links now I don't have to look them up again!

I can see how it would be a pain. They switch mobile carriers and all of a sudden they are no longer receiving notifications. Most people would not remember to update their information if they did change.

You could set up a login page where users can register and receive the notifications directly at the site. If the mail server receives a mailer-daemon delivery failure, it looks up what account that email addy belongs to and kicks up a notification asking the user to update their info. Doing this could also allow the end user to edit the page to where they can set "favorites" so they aren't scanning the page for the girl they are looking for.

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by pr_capone

I can see how it would be a pain. They switch mobile carriers and all of a sudden they are no longer receiving notifications. Most people would not remember to update their information if they did change.

You could set up a login page where users can register and receive the notifications directly at the site. If the mail server receives a mailer-daemon delivery failure, it looks up what account that email addy belongs to and kicks up a notification asking the user to update their info.

Nice. yep, that's what I'd have to do. Pain to setup the listener to check for delivery failures but possible.

BTW, you are passing Rain Man on seniority on this project... Rain Man better weigh in soon or he'll be stuck surveying the B team dancers!

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

Depends on the club. This place probably 10-15 I would guess.

Cool. That would work. I was worried that if you only have two or three dancers it would look lame. 10 to 15 would be fine.

[Rain Man]

AC, my concern with your microsite concept is that I bet the dancers would get deluged with leering people 500 miles away who just want a free chat with a stripper. How could they separate out a real potential visitor from one of the 8 million pervs who have no intention of ever visiting the club?

Plus, I don't think any stripper is going to be updating news on her site. I think you have to make that part static.