Gordon Atkins is the General Manager of Action Water Sports in Southeast United Kingdom, offering activities such as water skiing, wakeboarding, an aqua park, and more. In this interview, Gordon shares how Action Water Sports drives the guest experience through the team, the personalization, and by managing guest feedback. The team members at Action Water Sports love what they do, largely because many of them began as guests and applied for the job to be part of it on a regular basis. This leads to incredible guest experiences, particularly when the staff can take guests from being happy to ecstatic, which turns into positive survey results and online reviews that reference the team members’ names individually. Gordon also stresses the importance of learning from guest feedback, especially when the feedback is negative, so that improvements can be driven by what will make the guest experience better.

Meg Parker is the Chief Marketing Officer at AREA15, an immersive art and entertainment complex in Las Vegas, NV, just off the Las Vegas Strip. In this interview, Meg provides an overview of the venue, which is quite unique compared to other attractions. Meg talks about how they build mystery and intrigue through marketing, while at the same time fostering interest for guests to come and experience it for themselves. Additionally, Meg shares the importance of continually offering something new that in turns leads to repeat visitation, and AREA15’s percentage of guests who return is substantially higher when benchmarking against other Las Vegas attractions. Lastly, Meg stresses that everyone is an influencer, and that even loose connections on social media can be more impactful than a celebrity with millions of followers.

Danielle Snyder and Dan Maret are with Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA, home of the Lakers, Clippers, Kings, Sparks, and many other live events. In her role of SVP of Arena Services, Danielle oversees the guest experience, and Dan is the Director of Premium Services, overseeing the arena’s premium operations. In this interview, Danielle and Dan share insight into the guest experience at Crypto.com Arena, along with how they deliver a superior experience, whether the guest has an annual contract in a premium suite, or a family of four visiting for their first event. Danielle shares that they strive to “create experiences that the give the world a reason to cheer,” and she also shares their five pillars that make it happen. Additionally, when immersing new staff members into the culture, it is important to stress the “why” as much as the “what” so that service excellence comes across more naturally. Lastly, technology should make the experience easier for guests, not overwhelm them or inadvertently add more friction.

Kelly Molson is the Managing Director at Rubber Cheese, a digital agency and web design firm for the visitor attractions industry. In this interview, Kelly shares many best practices for engaging guests online and creating a seamless experience that leads to a purchase. Additionally, Kelly talks about the role of user-generated content, and how it can amplify your marketing efforts while simultaneously strengthening the relationship that you have with your guests. Lastly, we cover digital memberships and guest feedback collection, which are both excellent ways to collect high volumes of data and make continuous adjustments to your guest experience.

Pedro Olivarez III is the Director of Guest Experience at the San Antonio Zoo in San Antonio, TX. In this interview, Pedro talks about how educating guests on topics like conservation and securing the future for wildlife are more engaging when they feel like entertainment and the guest is able to have a hands-on experience with the animals. Additionally, the role of technology should be to make the experience easier for guests, but not keep guests occupied on their phones throughout the entire visit. Lastly, Pedro talks about the zoo’s innovative decision to offer a drive-through experience while the zoo was closed during the pandemic, and how successfully it engaged the community.

Fergus Campbell is the Head of Commercial Development for ITV Studios Global Commercial. In this interview, Fergus joins us live on the set from Ninja Warrior UK, and talks all about ITV’s Ninja Warrior parks across the UK. When bringing brands that fans know and love into location-based entertainment, Fergus shares that this builds connective tissue across the intellectual property that allows fans to experience their favorite shows in real life. This amplifies brand advocacy and appreciation for the brands in ways that extend beyond the television screen. When guests visit a Ninja Warrior park, they get to test their physical strength and feel like they are on the show themselves. Fergus also talks about the importance of technology, and the importance of slicing and dicing data across multiple locations that help them better understand guest behaviors. He also stresses that when guests are booking times to visit, the process should be such a seamless experience that they don’t even think about the platform that they used to book.

Scott Brown is the Director of Marketing for Family Entertainment Group, which operates FECs of all scopes and sizes throughout the United States. In this interview, Scott talks about how the way in which guests are attracted to the center varies based on the location that they are visiting, as the messaging needs to be completely different in locations that serve local residents versus locations that capitalize on existing tourists and foot traffic. Scott also talks about striving toward excellence, which includes the way that employees are onboarded and recognized for their efforts, and that the employees are often the stars of the show, rather than the attractions that the guests are visiting for. Additionally, Scott says that technology plays a role in the guest experience strategy, particularly as you gain additional intelligence on your guests and how you use it to serve them better. Scott shares that one FEG’s guest experience philosophies is to bring family and friends together through the universal language of fun.

Neil Wilson is the author of Absolute Efficiency: A guide to operational efficiency in the theme park industry. Neil’s experience working at various parks in the United Kingdom, Europe, and in the United States led him to research the best ways to reduce and eliminate queues. In this interview, Neil talks about spreading crowds across a park and throughout the season, the role of technology in enhancing existing measures, and that improving efficiency should be a top-down approach that starts with leadership, rather than frontline staff.

David Stange is the Founder of Beachy, a software company for hotels and resorts to improve the guest and employee experience on the beach. Beachy’s technology allows guests to book lounge chairs, cabanas, and other rental services along with food and beverage, therefore amplifying the efficiency of these operations that have otherwise been very slow. In this interview, David shares how speed of service improves the guest experience, along with employee satisfaction, by removing friction from servers’ jobs that allows them to serve more guests and make substantially more money in tips. The idea for Beachy came out of David’s frustration while on vacation with his family and waiting to rent beach chairs, combined with his first job of working as a beach attendant when he was a teenager. David’s guest experience philosophy is to make fun easy.

Stephen Davis is the COO of Integrated Insight, a management consulting firm for the theme parks and attractions industry. In this interview, Stephen walks us through best practices related to pricing, and several factors to consider when setting the price for admission to your attraction. Stephen’s philosophy is that you should lead with the consumer, meaning that your pricing should reflect the value that you deliver, the demographic you seek to serve, and the expectation that you are setting. Regardless of the price that you charge, there will always be a certain segment of your audience that will find you too expensive, so your focus should be on creating value for the price that you charge. Stephen also shares his thoughts on dynamic pricing, and how it differs from variable pricing, which is often easier to understand and resonates better with the consumer.