August 03, 2021

Episode 204 - Josh & Matt talk about the creative solutions to common issues, making efficiency visible and finding great guest service anywhere

1 hour

This week, AttractionPros’ own Matt Heller shared seven key takeaways from his recent theme park road trip. Matt has dubbed this trip as Coaster Nerd Con 2021, where he and some friends visited 8 parks in 8 days. The parks were Fun Spot in Orlando and Kissimmee, SeaWorld Orlando, Universal Orlando Resort, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Wild Adventures, Six Flags Over Georgia, Dollywood, and Carowinds. Matt said it was wonderful to finally visit parks again after he’d been away from them for about a year because of the pandemic. Matt made a lot of lasting memories on his trip, and many of the standout moments lead to some interesting learning opportunities.

Employees often come up with creative solutions to recurring issues

Throughout his trip, Matt was impressed by the effort employees were putting into their work. Many parks are experiencing labor shortages, but many of the employees Matt saw seemed excited in their roles, despite how busy they were. Furthermore, Matt was impressed by the way employees were tackling problems in order to provide exceptional guest service. For example, Matt witnessed an employee at Fun Spot Orlando use a large, sunshade umbrella to keep guests dry. The employee carried the large umbrella and helped guests move from one covered area to another that had more things to do. That gesture is likely not something you would put in an employee training manual, but that type of out-of-the-box thinking should be highlighted in order to encourage other employees to come up with creative solutions to recurring problems.

Employees deserve recognition for all that they do

Matt was impressed by many of the employees at the parks he visited, but perhaps the team that stood out the most was the ride operations crew at Fury 325 at Carowinds. The crew was incredibly efficient while also maintaining the highest level of safety. They also showed incredible guest service skills, recognizing Matt and his friends when they came around for one of the 14 rides they took on Fury that day. Matt also appreciated that the crewmember on the microphone made the experience personal and exciting by calling out the individual team members by name, mentioning their roles, and asking for the crowd of guests to give that person a round of applause. It was a fun way to bridge the divide that sometimes exists between guests and employees. Adding some fun in between the safety spiel is a great way to keep guests entertained but also engaged with the important safety messages that are being shared between the candid add-ons.

When efficiency is visible, even long lines can feel short

Another thing Matt noticed was the value of perceived urgency and hustle. Visiting a theme park in the middle of the summer typically has a high correlation with waiting in long lines to ride awesome rides. However, that long line doesn’t feel so bad as long as guests can see that employees are working as quickly and efficiently as possible to get riders safely through the experience. Even if a line is long, if it keeps moving the whole time, the wait seems less tedious. The Fury 325 crew did an excellent job of displaying that hustle in order to get guests onto the ride as quickly as possible. Matt experienced a similar situation at a busy food venue in another park. While he and many other guests ended up waiting 45 minutes for their food, most guests didn’t seem too frustrated by this. They could all see that the employees were hustling as fast as possible. Even two managers were working in frontline roles to try to keep up with the demand. Seeing that constant hustle to try to provide the best experience possible as efficiently as possible made the wait bearable. Matt summed this point up well by saying that guests typically don’t mind waiting as long as they don’t feel forgotten.

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In Sesame Street Land in SeaWorld Orlando, Matt had an interesting epiphany: Co

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