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Funworld January 2008

CUSTOMER SERVICE REPORT

Guest Service…

Maximizing the Emotional Touch Point

by Ron Morrison

Ron Morrison It is swelteringly hot with high humidity, the fourth shutdown is occurring, daily attendance is 20 percent better than budget, and it is 11 a.m. With these conditions present on any given day, the scenario begs the question: What is your guest experiencing?

Anyone employed in the amusement and attraction industry for any length of time understands the importance of delivering a quality guest experience (QGE). A QGE accelerates spending of the discretionary dollar, brings guests back, and produces guest testimonials shared with friends, family members, and neighbors.

Thrills and frills aside, the primary ingredients of a QGE are physical and emotional touch points, and understanding what these are is of the utmost importance. Physical touch points are easily identiﬁable: Are the restrooms clean? Is the music appropriate to the experience? Are there pleasing aromas? Does the operational environment look good? Basically, are the details in the physical environment appealing to the human senses? Emotional touch points are less obvious and occur when guests and employees have either direct or indirect interaction. These interactions create an emotional connection imprinting the guest with either a positive or negative memory. Further, employee behavior dictates these experiences and ultimately deﬁnes the moment when guest service sinks or swims!

How do you ensure a positive memory through service? Supervisors must deﬁne, teach, model, and measure guest service expectations. Teach the guest service transaction as a three-part experience:

1. Create a desired standard behavior. Expected behavior must be taught, modeled, and rehearsed repeatedly! In fact, if it is not, the chance of occurrence is nil. An excellent, and often overlooked, modeling opportunity exists in “back stage” areas where “employees provide service to employees.” These areas should not be ignored but in fact should be a modeling and teaching ground for exceptional quality service! Consider this: How are employees treated at work? As employees pass through security check points are security ofﬁcers smiling, waving, and providing a greeting appropriate to guest service standards? In other words, are they treated like a guest? If not, a tremendous opportunity to showcase the expectation of guest service is being missed and employees could treat guests in a similar fashion to how they are treated!

2. Inspect what is expected. Managers cannot rely on mystery shoppers and guest satisfaction surveys as sole measurements. Managers should create formal and informal measurement processes that are tied directly to what has been taught and modeled. During inspection, managers should correct poor behavior immediately. Then, they should reinspect.

3. Capitalize on good performance. I always say “what gets rewarded gets repeated.” Managers should show public praise and recognition! A celebratory process creates a desire within employees to provide positive service moments in order to be recognized. When these elements become reality, then on that sweltering day with high humidity accompanied by an unexpected attendance surge with operational issues, your QGE will maintain because it is behavior based and not driven by environmental or conditional factors.

Ron Morrison is the CEO of Solutions and Specialized Innovations (SASI). Over the past decade, Ron and his team have been developing and delivering industry-speciﬁc training in the areas of leadership, organizational development, customer service, conﬂict resolution, and safety to a variety of organizations in the amusement and attractions industry. Ron may be reached via e-mail at Ron@sasitx.com.Visit the SASI web site at www.SASIConsulting.com.

Anatomy of Great Guest Service

An excellent customer/employee exchange can be broken down into three main areas:

1. A positive beginning is created with a warm, friendly appearance, strong eye contact, and welcoming vocabulary. Employees stand tall, acknowledge the guest through eye contact, and use inviting phrases such as “Hi, welcome to _______” or “Hello, how may I help you?”

2. A strong middle is created by maintaining eye contact, using active listening, and delivering appropriate responses. During this time a guest is not to be interrupted unless it is absolutely necessary. Questions should be answered as directly as possible with vocabulary built from words including “please,” “thank you,” “you’re welcome,” “yes,” or “no.” Often slang equivalents are used and the guest hears “yeah” or “nah” versus “yes” or “no” or “no problem, man” instead of “you’re welcome.” Further, if a mistake has occurred, empower personnel to sincerely apologize, own the problem, and right the wrong.

3. A positive ending is created by maintaining eye contact and delivering appropriate concluding remarks. When appropriate, personnel should wave and say “thank you” or “good-bye.” If the guest has completed a ﬁnancial transaction with a credit card, employees have an opportunity to use the guest’s last name. An example might be “ThankYou, Mrs. _______, have a great day!”

Keys to Success:
• Define the guest service expectation
• Teach and rehearse the desired behaviors
• Model the standards through your behavior
• Measure the expectations
• Remember “what gets rewarded, gets repeated!”