Jesse Cole is the owner of the Savannah Bananas, a baseball team in Savannah, GA. Seeing a Bananas game is not a typical fan experience, nor is it intended to be. Many have described the experience as “a circus where a baseball game breaks out.” This is entirely due to the Fans First philosophy, which focuses significantly on the fans more than the game itself. While it might offend some traditionalists who are fans of the sport, the zanier model tends to work. When asked about the guest journey, Jesse begins with the process of what happens after a guest buys a ticket, from the phone call that they get to the video they are sent, all before they even walk into the ballpark. Jesse also empowers his team to listen carefully, then respond creatively, when resolving issues or creating incredible experiences for fans. After this interview, you will look at your guest experience with a new light, and be challenged to ask yourself if it is Fans First.

Russ Van Natta is the VP of Business Development for Creative Works. Founded in 1997, Creative Works began as a laser tag manufacturer, and has evolved into a wide variety of attractions for family entertainment venues, including virtual reality, mini golf, escape rooms, and many more. In this interview, we look at the guest experience from the lens of the manufacturer. How has Creative Works stayed up to date with trends and consumer preferences to stay relevant? Laser tag is not the same as it was in the 90’s, but the mission remains to provide immersive and social experiences, and Russ says that Creative Works is in the business of making memories.

Mark Rosenzweig works for 3dx, which provides scenic design and fabrication for theme parks, attractions, and events. Mark’s career in the industry spans more than two decades where he has worked both on the operator and supplier side of the business. In this interview, we dive deep into the investments that parks and attractions should make to their guest experience, even if they do not provide an immediate return on investment. From parade floats, themed sculptures and statues, and even smaller elements like free WiFi can substantially increase guest satisfaction, which in turn increases length of stay and spending, along with photo opportunities that allow your guests to become brand ambassadors of your product when they post on social media. Mark also talks about the importance of consistency in service delivery; when service standards or policies are not executed consistently, it leads to friction in the guest experience and declining satisfaction.

Max Irvine is the Systems Coordinator at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary in the Gold Coast of Queensland. Max oversees projects that help multiple teams get more done on a day-to-day basis, and many of these projects directly impact the guest experience. When the pandemic completely shifted the typical guest demographic from international tourists to local residents, an opportunity was realized to strengthen relationships with local visitors. Using email marketing as the vehicle to do so, Max and his team were able to both customize and automate the way that guests received communication prior to their arrival, or even prior to planning their visit, which led to increased visitation and memberships. Once onsite, guests experienced a more seamless arrival because the transactional elements were already taken care of, which also enabled the staff to focus more on the guest experience and less on selling. Timed ticketing and suggested arrival times has also led to better guest flow at Currumbin, and more accurate planning on the backend. In the post-visit component of the guest journey, this same email marketing initiative focused heavily on ascertaining guest feedback, which has led to changes and improvements at Currumbin that align specifically with what the audience desires.

Dan Gingiss is a customer experience expert, speaker, author, consultant, and podcaster. His latest book, The Experience Maker, shares how companies can create remarkable experiences that are worth sharing by their customers. In this interview, Dan makes a compelling case that customer experience should be woven directly into the core components of your business, not seen as an afterthought if you have time and the resources to do it. Dan walks us through the WISER method, which stands for witty, immersive, shareable, extraordinary, and responsive. We cover examples from a wide variety of industries, and there are so many takeaways from this conversation that you can implement into your business, with little to no cost.

Shaun McKeogh is the Founder and President of Attractions Academy. With a focus on organizational development and service excellence, Shaun works with attractions to help them realize their vision that they initially set out to achieve. Shaun shares that oftentimes and even with the best intentions, organizations do not actually have a plan in place for their employees to deliver excellent service to their guests, or for managers to sustain a culture of positive guest experience. By helping to create and deliver the roadmap for success, Shaun’s impact on the business goes far beyond an initial training workshop that gives employees a boost of energy. It must continue to be executed regularly and woven into the culture that guests experience every single day. We also cover service recovery, and the importance of employee empowerment when it comes to resolving issues. Shaun shares his “blank check” philosophy that when frontline employees are equipped with the tools to do their jobs and recover from service failures, the benefits of guest satisfaction outweigh the likelihood of employees abusing the system.

Scot Carson is the Founder and CEO of Amusement Advantage, which is the only mystery shop provider that is exclusive to the attractions industry. Founded in 1996, Amusement Advantage conducts an average of 6,000 mystery shops per year in theme parks, zoos, museums, aquariums, movie theaters, tourist districts, family entertainment centers, bowling centers, trampoline parks, and just about everything else that fits under the umbrella of attractions. In this interview, we talk about the best ways to collect, measure, and understand guest feedback in order to continually improve your business. Balancing quantitative and qualitative data, operators can use tools like mystery shops to recognize and coach employees, as well as make long-term changes that benefit the business. Scot stresses the importance of recognizing that your guests’ perceptions are their reality, and even if you might not agree with the feedback that a guest may give, you should pull back and look at why they felt a certain way, rather than defending what they complained about.

Vanessa Ward is the Director of Guest & Associate Experience for the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. In her role, she oversees all of the stadium’s guest-facing ambassadors at one of America’s most historic ballparks. Known as “The Friendly Confines,” guests have come to expect a high standard of service for more than 100 years. In 2013, the most recent standard was developed with inspiration from The Disney Institute, while also ensuring that it is distinctly unique to the Chicago Cubs. In recent years, Wrigley Field has enhanced its premium offerings, which offer more ways that guests can experience a ballgame. This not only brings in additional revenue opportunities, but further enhances the relationship that fans have with the team, and particularly the rapport that they build with the associates. This results in guests coming back year after year and on occasion even sending gifts to staff members because of the level of service they received. In 2021, mobile food & beverage ordering was implemented at the stadium, which had been a topic of discussion for some time, then accelerated by the pandemic. Vanessa talks about the implementation of the new technology from the standpoint of educating guests on the new process, along with growing pains experienced along the way. Additionally, Vanessa shares how the organization’s service principles that guide their recruitment and training process have led to notable “wow” moments that positively impact the guest experience.

Rich Steers is the Chief Product Officer for ROLLER Software, and in this conversation, we focus on the importance of a seamless online experience that leads to higher revenue, higher per capita spending, and reduced friction within your operation. Rich shares several guidelines for what venue operators should be thinking about when wanting to create the seamless online experience for their guests, which starts when you stop thinking like an operator, and start thinking like a guest. Go through your own purchase process and seek guidance from those around you to identify any possible pain points that might slow it down or turn away a guest from purchasing altogether. We also cover how the best online experience leads to an even better arrival experience, and how operators should be thinking about the best ways to captivate audiences on their mobile devices, as mobile continues to gain a higher percentage of your guests’ overall transactions.

Frank Price is a consultant and speaker in the family entertainment industry. With 25 years of experience, Frank has observed how the business has evolved, including the guest and employee experience along with it. In this interview, Frank shares specific examples on how a company’s culture can make or break the organization. You must make sure that the right people are hired for the right roles, and recognize that guest experience is not for everyone. We get into the intricate details of recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, and ongoing reinforcement of the organization’s values. When reinforcing positive behavior, Frank shares how the “old school” way of doing things is by recognizing and rewarding the results, when in actuality it should be the actions along the way that should be identified, even if the employee still has additional progress to make. Frank’s philosophy is that your guest experience must be something that everyone in your organization can live and breathe on a daily basis.