A much-needed position at all theme parks

[pushbutton]

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.

Edited September 7, 2019 by pushbutton

[Prequel]

You seem to have taken quite the time to write this all out, however i think you have forgotten that Movie-World and Dreamworld already collect data on guest experience, also the people who work their aren't just given the job after an afternoon working at Hungry Jacks, they already have a lot of experience in the field of Tourism. The vast majority of the things you listed, they already do. 

Obviously you seem to be a bit disappointed over the changes made to the Scooby-Doo ride and the presentation at the beginning of Sky-Voyager, but no need to question their ability to run the park.

Edited September 8, 2019 by Prequel

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

@Prequel, meet @pushbutton.

[StingRay]

You have got to be joking. This is exactly why most enthusiasts could never work in this industry. It is indeed run like a normal business. You reckon the GC parks have no idea what they are doing?. Would not understand how to improve the guest experience or even manage onsite venues?. No data collection even, third parties to help identify issues (mystery shoppers).

Different companies do things in different ways.

These roles exist with any company that you have mentioned @pushbutton.

I am completely god smacked that you even made this post.

[New display name]

22 minutes ago, StingRay said:

This is exactly why most enthusiasts could never work in this industry.

Wrong.  A lot of enthusiasts work in the industry.

@Jdude95, meet @StingRay.

[StingRay]

4 minutes ago, Skeeta said:

Wrong.  A lot of enthusiasts work in the industry.

@Jdude95, meet @StingRay.

I know some work, I also know most don't. Even tho they go daily.

@Skeeta, Meet @pushbutton.

[ParkerJ]

I think the idea is right, with CX being a long forgotten component. Two key challenges - economic restraints and senior management.

The ideal scenario is having someone at the top that has guest experience as their primary objective. Unfortunately it's a rare thing, with most being run by the accountants or tight-arse private owners with other objectives.

 

[pushbutton]

2 hours ago, ParkerJ said:

I think the idea is right, with CX being a long forgotten component. Two key challenges - economic restraints and senior management.

The ideal scenario is having someone at the top that has guest experience as their primary objective. Unfortunately it's a rare thing, with most being run by the accountants or tight-arse private owners with other objectives.

 

They need a reminder that that's not how Walt Disney succeeded! 

[auspicious]

1 hour ago, ParkerJ said:

Two key challenges - economic restraints and senior management.

Senior management is okay at our parks now. Probably as customer focused as they've ever been. Still far from perfect, but as good as it'll ever be. Its middle and lower management where the problems are at our parks. All egos and politics and they manage to ruin just about every well meaning directive from the top.

[pushbutton]

Might be time for the troublemakers to be moved along! 

[Prequel]

21 hours ago, pushbutton said:

They need a reminder that that's not how Walt Disney succeeded! 

You need a reminder that Disney is one of if not the largest company in the world.

As said previously, almost all of what you want them to do, they are already doing.

The people behind these parks are experts in their field, they know more than you in tourism and theme park management, what ever you think of, they have already thought of. 

Edited September 11, 2019 by Prequel

[Naazon]

9 minutes ago, Prequel said:

You need a reminder that Disney is one of if not the largest company in the world.

Forbes says its #70. Some surprising companies above it. Some not so surprising...

https://www.forbes.com/global2000/list/#tab:overall

[Prequel]

2 minutes ago, Naazon said:

Forbes says its #70. Some surprising companies above it. Some not so surprising...

https://www.forbes.com/global2000/list/#tab:overall

Still doesn't change the fact that they have a lot of money to spend.

[ParkerJ]

On 11/09/2019 at 4:18 PM, Prequel said:

You need a reminder that Disney is one of if not the largest company in the world.

As said previously, almost all of what you want them to do, they are already doing.

The people behind these parks are experts in their field, they know more than you in tourism and theme park management, what ever you think of, they have already thought of. 

There is certainly a gap between a couple of the larger parks and the remainder of much smaller, privately run operations around Australia. You'd be surprised how few genuine 'experts' there are running the smaller parks... 

[StingRay]

Some very passionate people indeed exist within the industry who hold really good positions. I don't think however we can duplicate exactly how things are done overseas for example. While a great model to go off we are a little more laid back here.

The smaller parks always seem to be a lot better purply because they are either family run or don't answer to as many investors. The industry is currently in a growth period here in Australia. But it will take a while to get a decent talent pool of passionate people onboard.