Rethinking Your Facility Management Approach: Capacity Management

As you consider the facility management systems that you will need to adapt to meet new operational guidelines, one of the most important considerations is how you will manage capacity.

Many indoor and outdoor attractions are already leveraging capacity ticketing for unique attractions, admissions – even for locker rentals and parking. Here are five new ways to use capacity controls that you may want to consider.

No. 1: Create timed admission and attraction bundles.

When you first reopen, it’s likely that you’ll need to adopt a different capacity management approach to ensure social distancing. But you still want to give your guests a memorable experience while you maximize your earning potential. One way to do this is by offering a compelling admissions bundle for a certain amount of time. For example, you may wish to sell a family fun pack online that gives guests a reserved time to be at the facility, and which includes a combination of things like entrance, attractions, gameplay, and even food and beverage combos.

Guests will then be able to pre-book their experience, reducing their wait time while providing them with a unique experience to look forward to. It allows you to manage incoming traffic and prevent bottlenecks which lead to negative reviews, maintain adequate kitchen inventory since you’ll have a better idea of what you’ll be offering, manage cleaning schedules, and maximize staffing so you can operate as efficiently as possible.

No. 2: Map out your attraction and event schedule.

Consider the number of guests you will allow to enjoy your attractions during each session and each hour. How will you want to adjust session or game run time in order to give guests an enjoyable experience, maintain social distancing, and ensure the best possible hourly throughput?

Once you know the number of guests per session that you will accommodate, update your areas and capacity tickets in-store and online to make available for guests to purchase.  Make sure you consider how this impacts both individual tickets as well as your packages, passes, and memberships.

For events, determine whether your current events and attraction schedules still make sense and adjust accordingly. It could mean adjusting the number of guests included in a party, staggering start and end times differently, or adjusting the order of attractions guests enjoy in Cascading Scheduling.

Having your attractions part of your Cascading Scheduling will also be important in managing general admission tickets in conjunction with your events, so now may be a good time to go over your event types and party packages and look at scheduling some of the attractions and areas of your park where you may have allowed unlimited access in the past.

No. 3: Consider other areas where you must manage capacity.

For facilities that have historically taken an admissions-based approach, allowing guests to free-roam once through the gates, this may be a time to consider capacity-controlling areas of the facility, such as game rooms and soft play areas, as well as specific attractions.

Additionally, cafes, restaurants, and snack bars may need a revised layout or at least new traffic patterns to accommodate changing regulations. Create any updated graphical seating charts and then upload them to give staff clear setup and service guidelines that can be adjusted and replaced as needs evolve.

No. 4: Offer guests transparency to manage their own experience.

Your guests will no doubt have their own expectations of interactions they’re willing to share with others so consider offering your guests transparency into your schedule. The new Advantage Web platform offers you the ability to display remaining ticket availability as well as a heat map to show traffic patterns of your facility and attractions. At least in the short term, it might be a good idea to display both data points and encourage your guests to book online to reserve their experience at a time and traffic level that makes the most sense for them.

No. 5: Employ a creative selling approach.

Be open to new possibilities so that you can maximize your potential during this time. For example, you may want to steer guests towards different attractions during certain parts of the day or week. Day Pricing and displaying or hiding specific buttons on your POS at the day or even the hour level (like happy hours or Wacky Wednesdays) allow you to set up different offerings or pricing strategies one time to automatically display or disappear when they are available for sale.  This can help you encourage guests to enjoy different areas in your facility at certain times, managing flow, and gives them a reason to return to enjoy other attractions they might not have engaged with on this visit.

As your needs for capacity management evolve in the coming weeks and months, understand that your CenterEdge facility management system can help make your operation run smoothly and efficiently. We’re here to help, so contact us any time at 336.598.5934, Option 2 or support@centeredgesoftware.com.

Interested in how CenterEdge can help manage capacity in your FEC? We can help. Schedule a virtual demo today.