Funworld February 2010

Survey Says

FECs turn to guests for guidance
by Mike Bederka

When Andy Alligator’s Fun Park opened more than two years ago, managers followed a simple procedure for obtaining feedback from birthday guests: On checkout, they just asked, “How was the party?”

The answers routinely consisted of “OK,” “good,” or “great,” and not much else.

“We weren’t getting the full experience from them,” says Kyle Allison, director of sales and marketing for the Norman, Oklahoma, family entertainment center (FEC). Even the few unhappy guests would keep their thoughts to themselves. Staff wanted to encourage customers to be more forthcoming with their opinions: good or bad, he says. The details would help improve business and build attendance.

Andy Alligator’s put a new survey program in place last summer. A week after a birthday party or group event, the function coordinator received an e-mail containing a link to a survey. Most of the 16 questions can be answered with a yes or no, such as: “Were our bathrooms clean?” “Were you satisfied with the pizza?” and “Were the employees in the park appropriate and professional?”

The last two open-ended questions on the birthday survey allow the customer to give more pointed remarks: “Please provide any comments on your birthday party host” and “Do you have any comments or suggestions on how to improve the guest experience at Andy Alligator’s Fun Park?” Observations here have already inspired change. Based on feedback, the FEC added more time in the party room and offers additional food options for adults.

Bob Hansen, owner of Funway Entertainment Center in Batavia, Illinois, also made some changes based on guest surveys, including building a bowling center and increasing the number of birthday party options and packages. Both Allison and Hansen follow a key aspect of probing customers, according to Scott Brown, director of sales at Swings-N-Things Family Fun Park in Olmstead Township, Ohio. They act on the feedback.

“Sometimes you get into the habit of asking questions just because you’re supposed to ask,” says Brown. “If you really don’t have the inclination to change or do anything with what you’re asking about, don’t even waste the time asking the question.”

Conducting the Survey
Another big mistake FECs may make is assuming a definitive answer can be pulled from a small, scattered pool of guests, Brown says. In other words, on a Saturday night chatting up one birthday customer, two teens playing arcade games, and a family just finishing a spin on the go-karts really won’t tell you much about your FEC. A better approach would be to extensively target certain customer segments, like corporate events or birthday parties, he says: “You’re able to get to the heart of it talking to a specific group.”

How facilities actually survey an audience can vary, though. As mentioned above, Allison prefers using the relative anonymity that comes with e-mail. “They’re not afraid to talk,” he explains. “When you can hide behind a computer, you can let it fly.” Increased honesty means stronger (and more helpful) positive and negative feedback, not just the usual “OK” or “fine.”

On the other hand, Hansen opts for face-to-face inter-views with customers. For a time, he relied on comment cards, but he ended up throwing half of them away. Here, too, worthless one-word responses filled up most of the lines. Funway moved to the verbal questionnaires, keeping them short and sweet. “Nobody likes a long survey,” Hansen jokes. “It reminds them of answering the government.”

Staff members seek out regular customers and start with basic icebreaker questions, like how far the guest lives from the FEC. Employees then move into more probing questions like, “What would you like see changed?”

“The interview process takes two minutes of their time, and they feel part of something,” Hansen says. “What’s really fun is when a guest comes back six months or a year later and says, ‘You took my idea.’”

As an incentive to answer the questions, Funway offers the guest a free drink. Brown gives a free round of golf or scoop of ice cream for their next visit. Customers who answer Allison’s queries earn a $5 game card and two attraction passes for a total value of $15. The free perks really motivate people, Allison says. They have about a 50 percent response rate.

At the weekly operations meetings, the management team at Andy Alligator’s reviews the replies. The birthday party host coordinator also distributes the answers to staff, praising them for the good comments as well as pointing out issues that need to be addressed.

To eye big trends, Hansen and his crew regularly break down the data as well. With the question on what attraction guests would like to see, for example, they would rank answers and pay particular attention to those that generated a healthy response. However, they don’t ignore any suggestions because even the most far-flung ones could build over time. “We just keep those in the back of our minds,” he says.

Three More Tips
Hansen never asks about what types of specials people would like to see. “You get a hundred different answers, and they’re all over the board,” he says. “You can’t do anything with that.” He prefers questions that can be easily narrowed down. As a courtesy, always respond to people who complete a survey, Allison advises. Let them know the FEC will look into a negative comment, or thank them if they leave something positive.

Use social networking tools like Facebook as a quick and  easy survey method, Brown says. He posts different specials on the web site to see which ones his 3,300-plus fans gravitate toward.

Contact Contributing Editor Mike Bederka at mbederka@IAAPA.org.