Lloyd Notley is the Chief Marketing Officer for Escapology, an escape room operator with more than 80 locations worldwide. In this interview, Lloyd walks us through the Escapology experience, and shares how visiting an escape room is a unique activity compared to many other entertainment offerings, because guests are tasked with solving clues and playing games in order to complete the puzzle. Lloyd shares how Escapology has even worked with guests to customize their experience, and in one instance changed the clues so that they would lead to a marriage proposal. Additionally, since an escape room isn’t as repeatable as other types of attractions, Lloyd shares how Escapology influences repeat visitation as well as increases length of stay, and also stresses the importance of resolving service failures while the guest is still onsite, so that no matter what, they leave an advocate.

Greg Spittle is the Founder of Active8 Software, which is now part of the ROLLER family. Prior to Active8, Greg spent several years as an operator in the trampoline and adventure park space, and during that time, identified several ways to enhance the guest experience that led to higher satisfaction, increased online conversions, and revenue growth of the park. In this interview, Greg shares several suggestions that can reduce queues, making the arrival process more efficient, and even turn friction points into opportunities that make guests feel like VIPs. From a software standpoint, Active8 and ROLLER have shared an identical vision that technology should be used to remove friction from the guest experience, which can significantly reduce time that the guest spends completing compulsory tasks, as well as reduce labor for staff to complete tasks that historically took much longer. By joining forces, there is a lot to look forward to in the near future!

Mary Stella is the Director of Media & Marketing at Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys, a non-profit attraction that offers immersive and educational dolphin encounters, programs, and a wide variety of experiences. In this interview, Mary shares the difference between marketing and public relations, which ties directly into the importance of the guest experience. At the beginning of the pandemic, Dolphin Research Center launched a series on Facebook live, which allowed Mary and her team to showcase the animals and bring educational entertainment to viewers sitting at home. By going live every day, their viewership skyrocketed, along with their followers, and ultimately led to being a highly successful fundraising campaign for donations. Many guests visiting DRC today were influenced to visit from the Facebook live series, which is still in place today on a reduced scheduled. Mary shares that her goal is for all guests to connect so strongly with their experience at Dolphin Research Center that they become members and lifelong advocates.

Shawn Nason is an Experience Evangelist, as well as the Founder and CEO of MOFI, a human-obsessed boutique design firm passionate about reimagining Experience Ecosystems. In this interview, Shawn talks about humanizing the business across key touchpoints such as the customer experience, employee experience, and the digital experience. With a background in finance, Shawn connects the dots and justifies how investments in the experience can significantly reduce costs in turnover and marketing, resulting in boosts to both the top and bottom line of the business. Shawn also walks us through the Experience Journey Promise, which is different from a mission and vision statement, as it is directed internally toward employees, yet sensed by customers and it leads to building consistency, confidence, and trust in the business. When asked for his guest experience philosophy, Shawn says that you should strive to make every guest feel like a VIP.

Louis Alfieri is the Principal and Chief Creative Officer for Raven Sun Creative, an experiential design firm working across several realms of the global attractions industry. In this interview, Louis shares the role of the guest when developing attractions, differences and similarities when working with for-profit and cultural attractions, and how the industry has an opportunity to play a role in solving some of the world’s largest issues. Louis stresses that attraction development incorporates the desired emotional outcome from the guest, knowing that guests have varying goals and desired emotional outcomes for themselves. We also discuss how the emergence of the metaverse and digital experiences presents both threats and opportunities for the attractions industry to consider as we move into the future.

Evan Dolgow is the Head of Predictive Hospitality for Jarvis ML, a technology company focused on using machine learning to personalize the digital experience. In this interview, Evan talks about how machine learning can impact each stage of the guest journey, from prior to visiting, during their visit, and after their visit - using data points that are not often connected. By leveraging the power of this data, you can create hyper-personalized experiences by anticipating the needs of your guests, allowing you to answer questions that guests haven’t even thought to ask.

Bill Zanetti is a consultant for the theme park industry, and teaches several theme park management courses at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. With a specialty in queuing theory, Bill seeks to improve the way that people move through theme parks and wait in line for attractions. In this interview, Bill discusses the difference between mandatory and voluntary queueing, and highlights instances where venues should focus on efficiency versus distractions. Bill believes that there is an optimal time for every attraction for how long the queue should be, meaning that having no wait is not always the most enjoyable experience. And when asked about the future of queueing, Bill believes that no matter what type of queue structure is in place - including standby lines, virtual queues, or expedited entry - every guest should have the opportunity to enjoy an attraction, regardless of when they arrived at the park or if they were able to obtain a virtual queuing position.

Kevin McNulty is the President, CEO, and Co-Founder of Netweave Social Networking, an agency based in Sarasota, FL focusing on social media marketing for the attractions industry. In this interview, we talk about the role of social media in guest experience, from setting expectations, guest communications, and turning guests into fans, advocates, and evangelists. Kevin shares several interesting facts and statistics, like 80% of your online following has already done business with you at some point, and 77% of people trust a review from a friend or family member more than they trust the message from the business itself. Additionally, we cover a topic that many attractions struggle with, and that is determining where in the organization social media falls: is this a marketing function or a guest experience function? Kevin’s suggestions on this topic are sure to be useful within your organization, regardless of how big your business is.

Brad Collins is the President and COO of Uptown Jungle Fun Parks. With nine locations in the US, Uptown Jungle serves toddlers through 12 year olds with play structures, trampolines, and other exciting ways to play and get energy out. In this interview, Brad talks about the importance of his team when it comes to delivering a great guest experience. To ensure guest satisfaction, frontline team members are encouraged to bend the rules - not break them - but use their empowerment to assist a guest when needed. Additionally, Brad refers to birthday party hosts as “guest experience all stars,” who are encouraged to add their personalities and talents into the parties they are hosting. Brad also talks about the importance of collecting guest feedback, and when negative feedback comes in, it creates an opportunity to turn a critic into a fan, and then a fan into a loyal advocate.

Carlton Gajadhar is a Visitor Experience professional based in the United Kingdom, with a focus on helping visitor attractions learn about their guests and employees and bringing these insights together to create a magical experience for guests. With 25 years in the industry, Carlton has worked for cultural non-profit attractions, as well as for-profit businesses, and most recently was heavily involved in the production of Expo 2020 in Dubai. In this interview, Carlton shares the importance of finding the right people and putting them into the right positions and gives tips on how to locate the best guest-facing individuals for your team. He also discusses the Visitor Experience Forum, which brings together leaders from several institutions, both for-profit and non-profit, so that they can collaborate and learn from each other to be most successful. When it comes to understanding how employees can best serve visitors, Carlton shares how starting on the front line is immensely helpful for leaders, and for those who come into the industry from the outside, don’t be afraid to put on an employee uniform and work a frontline shift, even if it’s once a year.