It's recently become more and more apparent to me that all theme park companies need an employee with appropriate experience and knowledge to do the following. Large chunks of this are not being done currently at any of the Queensland parks, or are being done by people without adequate knowledge, resources or authority, making the customer experience far less valuable than it should be.
I believe Disney has employees they call "Imagineers", and their responsibilities are probably somewhat similar to this.
Duties:
*Conduct frequent, randomly timed checks on the customer experience through carrying out a combination of audits including personal experience of all rides, other attractions, shows, guest facilities, shops, food outlets, and walk-throughs of the park environments to assess their quality, cleanliness, maintenance, and operation, as well as staff interaction with guests, and general performance of their roles in adding to the guest experience.
*Coordinate 3rd parties to carry out similar checks covertly, and collate the results.
*Gain insights from guests at the park and online on their experiences.
*Gain insights from staff including ride operators, retail and hospitality staff, and entertainers on anything they feel could be improved to add to the guest experience.
*In all of these checks, the primary focus should be on how much fun the ride is, how well it fits into the theme of the park, and the area, and how well the story is told on each ride.
*Use knowledge of ride operations, theatre, retail and food operations, as well as developments in international tourism to research solutions to issues found, and improvements.
*Liaise with managers and contractors whenever any significant alterations or additions to the park are carried out, to ensure such work is done in such a way as to maximise the guest experience.
*Provide regular feedback to park managers and executives on the findings of these checks, and recommendations for improvements to rides, environment, and training which could add to the guest experience at the park.
Anyway, there might be more to add, but that sums up the role I think.
Examples of why the parks need someone in such a position:
2 recent major changes at Queensland parks show examples of why this position is needed:
Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster "Next Generation", and the numerous issues that have been discussed at length about it in these forums.
Sky Voyager, which while in my opinion is fantastic, has very obvious flaws and gaps in its presentation which could have been avoided by having such a person involved in its development.