As I write this I’m returning from a week long vacation with my family at a world famous theme park in California. We all had a terrific time as it was the first visit for half of the group, and there were many new attractions for the other half who had been there before, some years ago.  There was so much to do and see that even a week of full days still left us with more than a few things to do on our next visit as we just couldn’t do and see everything even with the long days (my feet still hurt) that we did put in.

But even as we enjoyed our fun in the sun – the weather was wonderful – I couldn’t help but admire just how well-run the resort was, and how hard that organization clearly continues to work at being the best at what they do. Even with their established history, they’re not resting on their laurels. We interacted with various levels of staff, from the facility maintenance staff to the ride operators and the hospitality management and everyone in between, and it was clear that the guest’s experience is of utmost importance to all of the resort staff. While the resort must have training programs on customer service, the consistent genuine sincerity of the staff was really amazing.

But that wasn’t the only way you could see the organization’s commitment to customer service (if you even really noticed that somewhat passive method at all). They actively surveyed guests with handheld electronic devices randomly, without being intrusive, always kindly asking your permission first.

Using Technology for Strategic Business Planning

Now I have no first hand knowledge about their information systems, but I’m pretty sure that those devices would have been wirelessly uploading information for central processing in real time. This would make for some interesting aggregate information. The short survey – maybe two minutes long – was based on general demographic data: where are you from, how many in your party, what are the age ranges, that sort of thing.

I was a bit surprised that the surveyor had to read the questions from the tablet. It was clear that he didn’t have the questions memorized as he probably would have had if he’d been asking the same questions all day. That’s when it occurred to me that the questions, and thus the data that they were seeking to collect, must have been changing regularly, being sent to his device interactively. Perhaps all of the questions in our survey were predefined, maybe the questions within survey changed dynamically based on the answers supplied for previous questions.

Fascinating.

Think about how you could take advantage of just a few minutes of your customer’s time once you’ve obtained their permission to interrupt  them.

Combinations and Permutations

With daily visitors to the resort that must be numbering in the hundreds of thousands, the opportunities to use the direct input of all of those consumers of your goods and services to continually improve and refine those goods and services, as well as building new ones, must be amazing.

Summarizing and interpreting all that information would be quite the challenge.

Then there’s the transactional activity of everything from the menu choices guests make at the restaurants to the items they buy at the shops, and number of riders on the various attractions. Add to that the time of day, the day of the week or month, in conjunction with the statistical sample of the demographics and other surveys being taken… my head’s spinning with all of the possibilities!

There’s Only One Number One

Staying number one means that you’re actively working to keep that position. You’re building long-term, maybe even life-long, relationships with your customers. You’re proactively seeking their input, and bettering your organization at multiple levels with that input.

While you might not be making hundreds of thousands of transactions each and every day, there are bound to be ways to improve your organization based on actively seeking the input of your existing customers. Then the fun part: collating and interpreting that data.

It might not be simple, and it probably won’t be easy, but it’ll be worth it.

Who would have thought that a few days of fun in the sun would turn into a case study of a successful business model and further reinforcement of the opportunities available to you when you excel with Monarch?