Six Flags Customer Care. It keeps 'em coming back.
I must be insane. We took our kids to Six Flags Fiesta Texas on the last Saturday of Spring Break. What were we thinking? It was packed (duh). And I hate crowds. I really do. But we sucked it up for the kids, paid an outrageous amount of money for a Flash Pass to avoid the long lines (so worth it), and had a pretty good time. One thing that made it better was the friendly workers. As we rode the nostalgic Whistle Stop train through the park, every staffer, clad in a day-glow yellow shirt, stopped what they were doing to smile and wave at us. Later, being the typical stubborn male who is genetically programmed to never ask for directions, I was hunched over a park map to navigate our way to the next ride. Two smiling day-glow-shirted guys stopped and asked, "Can we help you find something?" "Why yes, yes you can!" I said. Cool. I didn't have to ask, and they didn't make me feel like a boob. I witnessed one ride manager skillfully handle a ticked-off dad who was mad about being asked to form a new line because some kid had created an "illegal" line by removing a chain.
I did a little research to find out why Six Flags workers seemed to be more attentive than I had ever experienced as a kid. I stumbled upon an online case study from SASI, a Houston-based leadership training firm. According to its web site, SASI trained front-line employees with an empowerment training course that taught them to:
- Engage employees in the learning process
- Clearly communicate the vision and mission of Six Flag Theme Parks to every employee
- Define appropriate guest service behaviors
- Create active participation while practicing guest appropriate behaviors
- Create baseline cultural agreements between employees and Six Flags for execution of policies and standards
They also trained employees in conflict resolution.
The need for training was the brainchild of Six Flags chief Mark S. Shapiro -- who pumped in millions of dollars a few years ago to improve the customer experience at Six Flags parks across the country. According to a recent New York Times article, it worked. Customers are more satisfied, spending more money, and even though Six Flags corporation is facing a potential bankruptcy, it's not an attendance problem that's causing its financial headaches.
Marketing with Moxie? Yes. It starts and finishes with the satisfied customer. A lesson for any size business to remember.
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Reader Comments (2)
I'd be interested in hearing about the contagious enthusiasm aspect of such customer experience programs. Teaching typically sullen teenagers about the merits of a positive customer experience, empowering and appropriately enabling them is one thing, but you still have to get the group of them at large to buy into a different sort of group attitude to make the whole thing work. I've seen a lot of adults (adventure guide leaders for example) who have great skill in subtly generating group enthusiasm among kids and young adults, letting them know that it's okay to be "jazzed" about what they're doing, because everyone else is. I'll bet they have some great, hands-on HR people at Fiesta Texas, specifically working to create that culture among the staff, and rooting out the ones who won't "drink the Kool Ade."
Yes. No doubt. And it is very likely a moving target to maintain, with a new crop of teens working every summer. I'll bet it is like a summer camp experience... they start over every spring, watch the young workers grow and improve, then, *poof* they're gone!