Q&A: XscapeNow! Telford
I discovered this new Telford based business venture ‘XscapeNow!’ on social media back in March and was excited to try it out so a few of us went along for a family members’ birthday at the end of April. There were 4 of us who took part in the ‘Baker Street Mystery’ where we were given 60 minutes to solve a series of puzzles and clues in order to escape — I don’t want to give too much away as you really need to try this yourselves! It was great for team building as by the end of it you really do understand the different skills that you can all bring to the activity. We did eventually escape after being given a few extra clues, but with only about 2 minutes to spare — it was seriously nail biting stuff and we all had a real buzz from it when we finally opened the door to break out!
I really wanted to share my experience with the rest of Telford and beyond as I feel ‘XscapeNow!’ and the activities they offer are a great addition to the town. So, let me introduce you to Telford couple Gordon and Michelle, the owners and brains behind ‘XscapeNow! Telford’…
How best would you describe what you do?
An escape room is a great way to have fun with your friends, family or colleagues. You are locked in a room and the only way out is to solve clues, puzzles and challenges. There’s a time limit of an hour and so you have to beat the clock and think fast.
We currently have two rooms, our first room has a Sherlock Holmes theme and you have to solve a murder investigation before you can escape the room.
Our second room sees you trapped on Mars with no power and your water and oxygen are running out. Can you restore the vital systems and rebuild your spacecraft and escape back to Earth?
What inspired you to start this business?
We did an escape room as a family in Feb 2016 after hearing about them from a friend. We loved every minute of it, how it made us spend time together, work together and laugh together. It is difficult to find new stuff to do with teenage children that everyone is going to enjoy but this was just perfect. Straight away we knew we wanted to start our own in Telford.
What has been the highlight of the business so far?
Seeing families and friends having fun together. It’s great when everyone comes out of the room with a real buzz and chatting amongst themselves about their experience. And there’s nothing better than hearing people saying as they leave “that was brilliant”. We’ve had such great feedback on Facebook and Trip Advisor with all 5-star reviews, and this makes it all worthwhile; one customer even said it was the best hour of her life!
What do you love most about running a business in Telford
We love Telford as it has a perfect balance of everything on our doorstep. It is great having a business that adds to the choice of recreational activities for people living in Telford and Shropshire. We’ve also used local businesses to help build the rooms and the puzzles in the rooms– it’s great that we have access to those skills nearby.
What are the biggest challenges about running a local business?
One of the biggest challenges is getting people to find out that you exist, especially when you are offering something that is brand new and that they possibly won’t have heard about before.
Another difficulty is finding the right premises for your business. Rents in areas where there will be a lot of passing customers are just too high to make a new business viable. We are pleased with our location in Ketley as we have plenty of free parking; we are easy to get to from anywhere in Telford and close to the motorway for people who are travelling from further afield. We regularly get customers from Wales and Chester who have seen our reviews and decided to come and play our escape rooms.
What is in the future for Xscape now?
At the moment we only open from Friday to Sunday (and school holidays) and we hope that as more people become aware of how much fun escape rooms are, we will be able to open through the week and then we can create a number of job opportunities.
We are starting to develop team building opportunities and a number of businesses from across Telford have booked, or are planning to book, events for their staff in our rooms. As an add-on service we are working with a local business coach and mentor who can carry out an assessment of the team dynamics and feedback to businesses that would find this useful.
Our third room will be coming later this year. It will have another exciting theme and we hope people enjoy it as much as they love our first 2 escape rooms.
I’m really looking forward to returning and being ‘trapped on Mars’ and can’t wait to see what theme 3 will be in the future. I wish Gordon and Michelle the very best and thank them for bringing their escape room business to Telford!
