Rethinking Your Facility Management Approach: Guest Interaction Management

In addition to planning your capacity management approach as you prepare to reopen, it will also be important to rethink how you invite guests to interact with your staff and other guests once onsite.

Like when creating your product offerings, it’s a good idea to give guests options to help them choose the experience – and the interactions – that work best for them. Here are five interaction points to consider.

No: 1 Sell tickets, packages, parties, and memberships online.

As discussed in Part 2 on Capacity Management, you may wish to sell controlled packages that reserve a guest’s time in the park so that you can manage capacity and traffic flow. Offering these products online and inviting guests to pre-book rather than just show up will help you not only manage capacity and flow but also revenue potential and staffing requirements. You’ll also provide guests more control over the amount of interaction they wish to have at the time of purchase.

If you decide to waive online booking fees, or your facility always offers free online bookings, be sure to communicate that in your marketing messages. Targeted messages sent to segmented lists through email, text, or social media can help you distribute offers to varied audiences at different times as necessary.

No. 2: Reduce transaction times with self-service kiosks and waiver stations.

While many of your guests will probably prefer to prepurchase their experience, you may still wish to sell to walk-in traffic.  If your facility uses waivers, be sure that you’ve upgraded to the newest waiver system so that you can increase transaction speed and reduce staff/guest interaction times because waivers are available immediately without being stored in a waiver queue.

Self-service kiosks allow guests to purchase capacity tickets as well as complete or verify their liability waiver, reducing the time spent with an admissions team member and creating a more streamlined experience. Guests then have the control to interact with a team member as little or as much as they wish.

No. 3: Offer a contactless experience.

Once guests are on-site, manage interactions with team members at check-in with scannable tickets, passes, or membership cards to minimize hand to hand contact.  Consider where and how you can deliver a contactless experience, and also think about what types of media you’ll use.  Magstripe player cards, printed one-time use paper wristbands, or multiple-use RFID wristbands that can be sanitized after each use can be loaded with attraction entitlements, timed gameplay, dollar value, food and beverage packages, or a predetermined spending limit tied directly to a guest’s tokenized credit card. This allows your guests to handle their own media throughout the facility and you are able to provide social distancing measures while they’re on-site.

No. 4: Rethink your service touchpoints.

In addition to allowing guests to purchase online or at self-service kiosks, consider other places inside your facility where you want to adjust interactions. For example, if you normally offer food and beverage via counter service, consider whether you would rather map your seating areas and equip staff with mobile POS tablets so they can safely take guest orders and prevent unnecessary lines forming.

No. 5: Create processes that help you build new routines for shift leaders and staff.

During this time, your managers and staff will undoubtedly need to perform manual sanitization checks, place and adjust stanchions, and manage traffic flow. For example, you may wish to update managers daily about processes that need tweaking or send routine messages to all shift leaders to go remind frontline staff to sanitize their hands, stations, or credit card machines.

Reopening safely is your top priority so the more carefully you consider even the smallest details, the more prepared you will be to start off on the right foot.

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