In this uncertain and challenging period, working from home can in some cases leave room to reassess management practices and to review and rethink operations.

Visitor attractions like theme parks, waterparks, zoos, FECs, etc. all face multiple challenges in day-to-day operations. Challenges that in most cases are widely accepted parts of this industry. Most attraction pros would recognize the often turbulent periods of a busy high-season day with all hands on deck where even small obstacles may cause unneccesary disturbance.

Of course, the busy buzzing of multitudes of happy guests is what being an attraction is about. So what’s the problem? Well, maybe there isn’t a problem.

Maybe there is just room for adjustment or even improvement in some of the main aspects that together form what we recognize as attraction management.

At Mobaro, we often hear about challenges from three main categories:

Communication

One of the biggest challenges for management and staff is getting team communication right.

Most visitor attractions rely on seasonal staff who require firm guidance and training. The guidelines and manuals like SOP’s and other park procedures that they have access to along with management instructions are crucial to their performance.

Creating tasks, doing informed inspections, or explaining an issue often comes with extra effort and difficulty especially during peak hours. A walkie talkie is a vital component in attractions and great for urgent light-weight instruction and issue resolution. However, it might not always be an option or enough. When communicating tasks to each other, text messages, Whatsapp, emails, post-its etc. are prevalent ways to getting your message across.

Yet, convenient as those may seem in the spur of the moment, they come with a price. The risk of messages getting delayed, misunderstood or even lost is considerable. And at the same time, often there is no collected backlog for you to be able to track past activity.

Time Management

When conducting e.g. safety, maintenance, operations or hygiene checks, there are a lot of steps and processes to do and tests to run. Many preopening checklists, operator logs, and operating issues have to be recorded in writing and signed off by a supervisor or manager before they can be approved for opening.

When there is a decision-making process, it can take longer than expected as managers often need approval from executives.

As supervisors and managers are responsible for overseeing their team and communicating with other department heads, time is a limited resource so the tighter the structure, the better.

Accessibility

While most attractions have regular planning meetings, monthly, weekly and daily, managers also need to monitor status and supervise multiple areas of the business during the day.
From rides management, to operations, to retail, F&B and so on, they must be able to keep track of how things are going and respond to any issues during the day.

Most attraction professional can relate to putting out fires in one department – while also being on the radio or phone to put out another one in a different department.

Accessibility is a two-way street. Staff members need information, guidance and management sign-off to be able to do their job satisfactory.

While, from the other end of the street, managers and supervisors need information to be able to report from. And they need a clear understanding of issues to be able find the right path for a solution, and to create and delegate work orders properly to the right teams.

Enhancing operations and maintenance information

No two visitor attractions are exactly alike. However, they all share the abovementioned challenges. At Mobaro, most of our clients had the ambition to improve practices across their maintenance and operations teams. Often this meant getting rid of paper checklists and manuals and:

• Thouroughly mapping out all teams and responsibilities
• Describing essential processes, e.g. safety inspections, in each department
• Mapping out standard tasks connected to those processes
• Deciding on KPI’s for each department
• Digitising and making local handbooks
• Cutting excess information for more efficient consumption
• Creating helpful visuals for seasonal staff

Ultimately, it comes down to harnessing what can feel chaotic and creating and nurturing a system that encompasses your attraction’s unique processes and people. Anyone in attractions management will agree that this is a mouthful. However, it is exactly what will make operations smooth and transparent.

Mobaro helps businesses improve the above aspects by digitizing checklists, tasks and manuals, scheduling inspections, prompting staff and facilitating real-time overview for management. These and many more helpful and useful tools will ensure that your attraction can operate more efficiently, and ultimately improve your safety efforts towards your guests and employees.

For more details how Mobaro platform can help businesses to run smooth and helpful operations, please request a demo or simple call at +4571999499.