Hiatus Begin Form & Hiatus Site Survey

A Site Wants to Take A Break

Occasionally, a site needs to take a planned, extended break from hosting events, but have plans to return. It could be a seasonal break with not much of a need for a weekly event in the summer when they have an awesome patio. It could be a planned break while they renovate their space and look to bring us back once their project is finished.

Whenever a site needs to cancel trivia for longer than just a "one-time change" and gets into consecutive weeks and months - this is called "Going On Hiatus" in Trivia Mafia lingo and we have a form for that!

"On Hiatus" is an Account Status that allows sites to pause their events with us while keeping their contract active. Sites will not be charged during this time and can even sign up for theme nights while "On Hiatus." When they are ready to return, we set a return date, confirm the host, and get them fresh marketing assets to bring back the players!

Some Considerations to Keep In Mind When Going On Hiatus

Is There Something We Can Do?

If a site needs to take a break due to internal operations or the time of year, there's nothing we can really do about that. But if a site is thinking about taking a break due to lack of attendance or feeling supported or just general hosting vibes - we can do something about that!

Find out what it is exactly that is having them lose excitement about their event and see where we can leverage our resources to provide a marketing bump on socials, get new posters/marketing asset refresh, explore moving to a different night/time, or offer some host coaching to get the event back on track!

Is The Site Just Trying to Let Us Down Easy?

Sometimes when they say "we want to take a break," they really mean "we don't want to do this anymore." And that's okay! You can let them have their "break" and follow up with them in 90 days or so. However, if you are seeing the signs from attendance and their vibes and you want to cut right to it then you can phrase something like "You know, if you are unsure when you will be returning then we can always just end your contract in its current form now and then when you are ready to return, if you want to explore a different night, time, or frequency, we can put a new contract together for you - how does that sound?"

An Exact Return Date is Nice, But Not Necessary

Some people know exactly how long they will be on hiatus due to it being a schedule-based break for a seasonal programming shift or a scheduled maintenance fix and they want to plan to be back on X date! Some people will have no idea how long something might take and how long it will be until they host again! Both are okay and you have the option to include a return date or not in the form below.

Trivia Mafia does not require a return date in order for a site to go "On Hiatus."

How long is too long?

At the time of discussing a site going on hiatus if the site thinks it may be longer than 6 months until they return, it may be in the best interest of both parties to simply end the contract in its current form and set up a new one if/when they do return.

Filling Out the Hiatus Begin Form

Found in the Sam Interface on the sidebar as "Hiatus Begin Form," this form will be needed from time-to-time as sites need to take extended breaks from hosting events. Trivia Mafia is happy to accommodate their needs as we can in order to be good partners and work together again when they are ready to do so!

Step 1: Select the Event Going On Hiatus

Make sure you select the correct event as many sites run multiple events with us.

Step 2: Select the Site Customer

Step 3: Add the Site Contact Who Confirmed the Hiatus (Option to add additional contacts as needed)

Additional contact is available as an option in case a site has more than one main contact who should be included in "Hiatus" communications. However, more often than not you will just enter one contact.

Step 4: Enter the Hiatus Start Date

VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure your dates are correct on when their last show is and you select the day AFTER for when their Hiatus begins! If you do not enter this in correctly, you will make A LOT of extra work for other people to fix this for you.

Optional Step 5: Do you know when they will return? If so, check the box and a new field will appear to allow you to enter their Restart Date:

This is not required, but available as an option in the event that the site knows exactly when they will be back.  If they know they want to come back the week after Labor Day, or they know their "private event season" over the holidays will be over and they'll ready to host again the first week of March - then great, check the box and then enter the appropriate date.

Entering this date will ensure automations are scheduled to trigger and communicate the impending return to the rest of the team including staffing, marketing, and billing.

However, it is not mandatory to enter a date if it is not yet known. If they need to take a break to do some renovations and they don't know when they will be done then there is no pressure to enter one.

Optional Step 5: Do you know when they will return? If not, leave the box unchecked and move to the next step to enter "Notes."

Step 6: Provide "Notes"

You can paraphrase if it was a phone call or conversation. Otherwise, you can copy and paste the email for additional context as to the reason for the Hiatus. Helpful for notes for the rest of the team, as well as overall record-keeping for you!

Step 7: Review the "Days until Nudge" and You're Pretty Much Done!

The only field you can edit in this section is "Days Until Nudge." As it states, it defaults to 90 days when you should reach out to touch base with the site to confirm their intentions to return and to set a return date.

However, if you know the return date is shorter than that or significantly longer than that, you can adjust it accordingly for when you will receive a reminder to follow up with the site.

That's it! Once you hit the "Create" button, you will see a new message on the screen and a new Slack message in the
#existingevents-alerts channel sharing the change for visibility to billing and staffing.

That's it! Nothing much more needed for the time being until you get your "90 Day Nudge" or hear back from the site earlier. Their Account Status will automatically flip and another batch of automations will trigger to Billing to pause their payments and the site is not charged again until they return; the Social Media Manager is notified to post a status update in the weekly "What's Happening?" post on Facebook and Instagram; the website is automatically updated to reflect their status and paused events for players on the "Locations" page/Locator App; and the host is informed with the opportunity to work with the Host Manager find a new site to host at.

Hiatus Site Survey

Depending on if the site was able to communicate their reason for taking a break and whether it was related to our operations and events, or due to their own internal operations you have the option to send them the "Hiatus Site Survey" to better understand their motivation for taking a break.

Why is this useful?

It has been discovered that in the past some sites would go on hiatus for reasons that were not fully communicated to us until they expressed interest in returning and shared their hesitation in doing so based on their previous experience. 

So, we developed a survey with the goal to cut through some of the "letting us down easy" language that doesn't allow us to address any potential real issues that drove the decision.

For example, a particular site opted to go "On Hiatus" in the Spring due to the upcoming patio season:

"I am reaching out to let you know I’m going to postpone Trivia Mafia at [SITE NAME]. May 21st will be our last session for the spring/summer. We’ll pick it back up (late) fall. With patio season coming, we’d like to really push our outside space and trivia might “muddy the waters” with our promotions and plans for patio activation."

Seemed understandable enough and although I responded to encourage them to keep trivia going as sites with patios become destinations for players during the warmer months after being stuck inside playing trivia all winter, they stood by their hiatus request.

It wasn't until I reached out in the fall to discuss a return that it was revealed that their decision was driven by the recent hosting change:

"Hello Sam!