Episode 250: AttractionPros LIVE at the Florida Attractions Association Annual Conference 2022

AttractionPros LIVE comes BACK to the Florida Attractions Association! As you’ll hear in this episode, if it wasn’t for Matt and Josh having dinner prior to the FAA conference in 2017, the AttractionPros podcast may have never been born. But it was, and this marks the 250th episode! We couldn’t be more excited that it lined up with our 4th installment of AttractionPros LIVE at an FAA event.

In this episode, you will be a fly on the wall as Josh, Matt, and the attendees of the FAA Annual Conference explore the intersection of guest and employee experience in real time. Along the way you’ll hear great suggestions about attracting, engaging and WOWing your guests and employees.

We would like to thank Bill Lupfer and the staff and members of the Florida Attractions Association for being amazing partners.

The Intersection of Guest and Employee Experience

Over the last five years, many podcast guests have spoken about the finer points of creating great guest experiences and engaging employees. For the last few months, Josh and Matt have been using the AttractionPros platform to test the hypothesis that the techniques used to produce high levels of guest loyalty and employee retention are actually the same.

By listening to the responses from FAA Annual Conference attendees, it would appear that the hypothesis is on track.

The conversation covered a wide range of topics including social media engagement, acting on feedback and attracting new guests and employees. In each case, attendees were challenged to think of typical guest or employee processes from the other perspective.

For example, it was discussed that the guests’ experience should be frictionless… buying tickets, entering the facility, finding their way around, making a reservation, etc. The same can be said of an employee. Filling out an application or trying to find information or resources to do their job should be equally frictionless. Most agreed there was work to do on both sides of the equation.

Other elements of the guest and employee journey were also covered including when things go wrong. As humans, we all need to be acknowledged, heard, and treated with respect. This should not waver based on your guest or employee status. Again, similar techniques can be applied to all.

So while neither Matt nor Josh have an extensive background in science, the testing of the hypothesis seemed to work. By engaging professionals from across the industry, there appears to be a consensus that because we are all human, driving guest loyalty and employee retention are not that far away from each other. In fact, they are more similar than most of us realize.

The big takeaway from the conversation is that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel, and the resources we use on “both sides of the gate” are actually quite similar.

This podcast wouldn’t be possible without the incredible work of our amazing team: