You have a long line of kids waiting to get a balloon animal. You've been making them for 30-45 minutes and a kid who has already had you make him one, comes up to the front of the line bypassing everyone else, and say's, Mr., Mine popped...

How do you guys handle that statement? If you re-make one, will you have to remake all of them? What's the best policy for this type of situation when you have already made it understood - one balloon to a customer? ...And you want to go home soon, so you're not working OT for free?


Lyndel

I make it VERY Clear that the "Warranty Expires when they leave My Hands"!

=Frank=

I tell them that I don't do trade ins as this is not a used balloon lot, if I am working a line tey can get back in but if it is a birthday party, I will try and make the child the SAME COLOR AND TYPE of animal. This prevents upgrades..

Jeff

My pre balloon patter is.

Ok everyone, I am going to make EVERYONE a balloon. But I've only got enough balloons to make one each. So make sure you choose which one you want REALLY carefully otherwise you might get stuck with a dud! And hold onto them very carefully as well, because if they pop then all you're left with is a slug.

I like this one a lot!

=Frank=

I don't do much in the way of "balloon lines" anymore...when I did, if I was hired to make balloons for a certain number of hours, I didn't care how many balloons a kid walked away with...as long as they returned to the end of the line for each one.

Nowadays, when I do balloons, I make it part of a show. Rather than have families & kids line up, I form them into a large street-performance circle around me. As I move around the circle, I give each child an inflated balloon...no color choice...no sculpture choice. It's a SHOW! Each child who plays a part in the balloon show receives a single balloon creation as I perform various bits and routines. It is a much more enjoyable experience for everyone and the balloons take on the role of a gift rather than a right. If it breaks..."I'm sorry, but it's all part of THE SHOW. Come back for the next one at X:00 and we'll make a new one for ya!"

For parties, I limit their selection to a variety of balloon hats as they are seated at the table for cake & ice cream. Every kid gets a festive balloon, hats are less likely to be broken (or break anything) through horseplay or being set aside and I'm usually gone before they finish their cake.

Skip

Good suggestions guys...

It's just hard to look into their sad little faces and say "too bad kid, that's life... deal with it!"

I usually wind up just doing the OT for free. I'm such a push over!


Lyndel

I too can be a pushover however, "ONE MORE" can turn into hours of time ...the best advise I can give is to be ultimitly fair to all.

jeff

I admit it....unless someone saves me I'll stay as late as lil' kids are there and that isn't usually good. There does get to be a point when the same kid comes back four times saying they popped their balloon though.
Steve V

I do a Magic Workshop at Afterschool Centers (7-12 year olds), and the last thing I teach them as part of the class is how to make a basic balloon dog. It's the highlight of the class.

The last class I did, however, was a nightmare. Previously, I used to use cheap balloons from the Dollar Store. However, this time I used my regular Qualatex balloons. I had about 50 kids in this class, and I had blown up 75 balloons in advance. During the twisting, over half the balloons popped! I'm used to one or two, but half? Balloon pieces were flying everywhere, the noise was loud, and several kids were crying!

I replaced as many balloons as I could, but I quickly ran out, which means some kids left with no balloon animal (even the teacher's balloon popped)! Arghh!

The teacher was not happy with me. I don't know why the Qualatex balloons were doing that, but next time I'm going to use the Dollar Store balloons again.

Brian

I have a sign I hand to the kid at the end of the line once it is formed, it says"i am last in line, then if one comes up with a broken balloon, I tell them to talk to me when I am finished with the line, then I walk away from the crowd, pack up and lastly replace to broken balloon or balloons without letting another line start

Today I discovered why so many of my balloons have been popping lately. I went to the local balloon store, and all the 260 bins were empty. When I asked why, she said that Qualatex people had recalled a large batch of them because too many of them were popping. They'll all be replaced in a few days with a new shipment.

That explains everything. Can't wait until the new batch comes in.

Brian

Make sure to buy good balloons. I bought about $80 of balloons from tmyers.com and they've been excellent. Almost zero pops (unless I wanted them to pop). I've been very happy.

By the way, make sure that you're not overfilling your balloons (burp them, etc.). I know when I was a newer balloonist, I always felt like the balloons had to be filled up. I personally feel it is a better to have them softer. Also, when I'm twisting bubbles in the balloon, I also squeeze some air downward into the balloon so the individual bubbles are not overfilled. If your balloons and individual bubbles and twists are filled to the max, I wouldn't be surprised if you're getting a lot of pops. I can give my balloons a pretty serious wrenching without them popping. Just loosen some of the pressure in there.

I have actually had kids stomp on balloons so they could come back and get another.

If I catch them doing it, I say they can't have another one because they killed the last one.

My balloon sculptures are guaranteed not to break until they do. If they should suffer a rapid loss of air, accompanied by a loud noise, then I tell kids to take the broken balloon home and place it under their pillow. Then, during the night, the Balloon Fairy will come to leave ten dollars, especially if their mom and dad love them a lot.

If you go to the back of the line and wait I will make you another one.

When I work in line I allso use that: "back to the line and wait",
but when I do birthday parties I replace every popped balloon (after I have done hats and animals to everybody) and before I leave, I let several simple balloon mouses to parents, because just in case.
That way nobody don't have to go home without balloon. I think that does good for my busines too. Balloons are cheap =)

I usually ask them nicely to please go to the end of th line

Oops, I forgot...

I allways put animals to leash (tie it to another full infalated 260). Balloons are cheap as soap and cause I use Pump1 it takes me about extra 5 second to fill another 260 full and tie it around animal what I just have twisted.

This way balloon creations are instantly 5x larger (size matters for kids).
Because some odd reason leash pop's first allmost every time and kid still have his/ her animal.

I normally use dark colour 260's for leash's, because they usually be heaped to bottom of my balloon bag cause bright colors are more favorite for kids.

I allways tell that I put animal to leash, because city laws for wild animals. It gives me everytime lols and smiles. If they really like that joke I usually give them little plastic bag for excrements too...

All these information (or allmost) is from T.Myers books.

Skip I really like your idea. I'd like to know more about it.

Jason