Not only do GP hate SF

I hate people who hate people who hate SF employees. ;) ;)

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I like peaches

I agree with markieb. Compare the average CP ride op with, say, the average Disney CM. Not even close.

The CP operations staff do a great job in the capacity department. However, more than once I've felt like I was just a piece of meat to be put through the ride as fast as possible, so that more pieces of meat could ride per hour.

Disney, IMO, does an even better job with capacity, as they group *aggressively* and have single rider lines on several attractions that need it (DL's splash logs that seat *five* for reasons I never understood, Epcot's Mission Space and Test Track, DCA's Screamin' all come to mind.) But, while they certainly do move the meat, they also make the meat feel like they are happy to have them.

There is a lot to complain about regarding the Disney culture, but customer service isn't one of them.

Some of the best customer service at CP can be found at the children's areas (though I think the parents of young children give ops staff the worst time of any guests in the park), the sit-down restaurants (both in and out of park, though some folks disagree with me on this one), and the resorts front-desk staff.

Interestingly, the Ride Prides during Halloweekends also generally are a lot of fun---probably because of the novelty of the whole thing. I still remember the fraternity-boy Ride Pride from Halloweekends '03 running the scrambler one weekend. He was having a real good time, and it showed. "Welcome to the Scrambler. My name is <mumble>, and I'm in the business of spinning you fast. And tonight, business is gooooood."

*** Edited 3/8/2005 8:27:46 PM UTC by Brian Noble***

Well the only SF park I have been to is SFGAm, which is one of SF best parks if not the best park and it my homepark so if anything i should be defending it over any other park, but the fact is I was much more impressed with the two CF parks I have been to, Cedar Point and Valleyfair. At both CF parks I found the customer service a lot better than at Six Flags. For example at CP there was a ride op for Iron Dragon who was all excited and bregged that he might not have the biggest or fastest ride but it was the best ride in the park, and he honestly seemed thrilled to be running that ride, you never find anything like this at SF. This added a lot to the overall fun that I had at the park and is one of the reason I always try to plan CF trips before I consider a SF trip. Oh yea I do have to say though the only park I've seen the customer service even come close to CP's is at Disney World.

Everything else aside, I'd be a bit nervous about the fact that the vapid twit (the linked blogger) or someone similar would be entrusted to operate a ride or oversee food service. Of course, if she wore her monkey PJs, it would at least be a little entertaining.

Hey now shes a nice person. Honestly shes probably the best supervisor food service has. Seriosuly shes really good with both guest and employees.

Honestly I think alot of people that work there "*****" just to releave the stress. I think most of us that have worked at a park have at one time or another. Besides if we all hated it so much we wouldnt keep coming back. Especially for a sixth or even seventh season.

P.s. That was a lie we do it for the money ;)

You know, if the employees don't like Six Flags, how in the world are the customers suppoused to like it? Just something to think about.

Wait, so you thought the terrible capacity and horrible customer service at SF parks was because employees enjoyed their jobs? Interesting...

I believe that any business can lose focus of making their employees feel a sense of pride in their job. "Poop" rolls downhill, my Mother always tells me.

Universal Studios "empowers" their employees to do anything it takes to help upset guests have a good time, like give them a T-shirt or backdoor them onto Spiderman. I found when I worked there that this "empowerment" gave me an "I can fix this problem by being creative" attitude, which in turn helped to raise employee morale.

Cedar Point gave me the feeling of job pride in another way. CP lets you know that you are working at one of the most well-liked amusement parks in the world. They emphisize employees role in the fun and excitement the guests have. They let you know that it's up to you to make the guests day as fun as possible.

I found both approaches work well.

On a side note, Sometimes this morale boosting backfires. I've seen and heard of situations of "cocky" employees at CP. They let their "importaint" jobs get to their heads. I do not find this a HUGE problem, but it's not very appealing to guests trying to enjoy their day.

I never worked at a SF or Paramont, or any others, so I can not comment on how they might raise moralle for employees. I do 100% think that happy park employees make happy guests.

Brian,

Not to add fuel to the fire here, but from the times I have spent at Disney parks, mainly Disneyland, guest service was very, very poor.

One of the reasons I don't care much for Disney parks is because I don't "get" their customer service. I don't buy into the whole plastic-like nature of how some of the employees were trained to deal with unhappy guests. There are exceptions to the rule, and DCA for instance did make effort in saying they were for sorry for something, but we had to really acknowledge we weren't buying the whole "you had a great day no matter what" mentality.

Don't get me wrong. I have had a couple of great days while at Disney parks but I do believe their guest service levels have gone down quite a bit.

Will I return. Probably so.

Will I stay long? Probably not.

-Sean

Okay, why have this pointless topic?

For what reason other then to show people around the world that you have nothing better to do with your life then to purposely look for a reason to put Six Flags down?

I think its time to seriously think about what we are typing about before we post on this web site because things are getting out of hand really quick.

I might not be perfect on my posts nor do i never claim to be, but this constant bombardment of why Six Flags is bad, and "Oh god i went to six flags today" crap is unbearable.

I see it this way, if you dont like Six Flags, there rides or how the parks in the chain are run you can do a few things:

A. Stop going to the park all thogether which saves me and the other members on this site who actually enjoy the time they spend at Six Flags Parks.

B. Get a college degree in Business Management you know, the ones you see on late night TV that, Sally Struthers sells and maybe get hired to work for Six Flags.

C. Get your heads out of your asses for 5 seconds and realized that the world, unlike the obscured view that you have, is not perfect and things dont go well 100% of the time, Unless of course its at a Cedar Fair park where everything there is perfect 100% of the time.......... yeah right. *** Edited 3/9/2005 6:26:17 AM UTC by Galvan316***

Wow.

I subscribe to the if-you-feel-so-passionately-about-something-then-maybe-a-retort-beyond-"get you heads out of your asses"-might-be-useful theory.

People might actually give a crap about what you say if you debate rather than dismiss and whine.

Just a suggestion. :)

Exactly how many times have you came home from a long hard days work and said "God, i hate my job"

Well, if you actually have a job in the first place, id be willing to bet 50 bucks that you've said it once in your life.

If not, your a liar.

This is no different if you worked at Boeing, Six Flags or Burger King.

then again maybe it does, because Jesus Christ its something negitive about Six Flags, so we have to post this one right now! This is breaking news.

Although I do find CF better overall than SF, we still have to have some respect for SF. Although they aren't in the best financial position right now they are still the biggest theme park chain in the world, so obviously they've done some things right to get to this position. And like I said, i do prefer CF parks over SF, but I still usually have a very good time SF. All I'm saying is the park can't be as bad as everyone makes it out to be if it is still leading all other park chains and still get you, me, and millions of other people to keep coming back every year. *** Edited 3/9/2005 1:04:48 PM UTC by MAGXL200***

Sean: when I talk about customer service in this context, I'm mostly talking about the everyday actions of the employees----in other words, when nothing out of the ordinary has happened. From your post, it sounds like you are talking about customer service from the point of view of taking care of something that went wrong.

In the first definition ("situation normal") Disney employees are some of the best out there. They engage their customers, and try to give the impression that they are glad the customer came. Granted, some are better actors than others, but all of them try. In comparison, just *try* to make eye contact with the average CP employee at the entrance to any major ride. They are great at spotting the thing you aren't allowed to take on the ride, and amazingly good at spotting the too-short in line, and these things are important, but they never look up at the *person*.

In the second definition ("all f***ed up") Disney is really awful, but usually effective. They will do anything to get you to go away except actually apologizing for something. So, you'll get comped something, but at no point will anyone say "we are sorry we made a mistake." The closest you will ever get is "we are sorry you felt inconvenienced." As if your problem isn't real, just a perceived problem.

Galvan,

I do agreee with what you say. Here is my take.

Said before, will probably say again.

SF's current top management finally get's it, maybe not 100%, but they are doing better.

Now with any business that does a really poor job in customer servicing for years, the stigma will stick for many many more years. It is very hard to regain confidence and customer loyalty after many years of negelete. I would say it will take about 5 years of committed good servicing to get back customer confidence. This is why in business you never want to tarnish your image. But that damage was done.

They are doing 100% better than 3 years ago. I understand all of the SF slamming a few years back, but it is time to recognize they are doing much much better. Well at least Astroworld is. Just this past Saturday I was there for about 4 hours, and got told have a good day, hello, thanking you riding XXX, good morning , thank you for comming, at least 30 times. Ride employees are enthusiatic. They have a rappper that opens the park with employees dancing the Mr Six. The rapper sings welcome, sings about the rides, then raps.... let use know about any that needs cleaning and we will clean it. It was really awesome. Paint is fresh everywhere. Trash is all gone. Side walks were power washed.

It's a big change for us at AW. Non coaster people are noticing. My friends (NON Park regulars) said wow the park has a lot of nice paint. It look really good.

A lot of people here are very loyal CP fans. That's greats for them. Cedar Point is great is a lot of way, no doubt. Six flags is 100% better than they were 3 years ago. If your local park is not doing better with customer service then look out. I hear the bar has been raised and GM's are going to be held accountable for service levels. If there not met, word is they will find someone that can get them met.

I try and be honest. I had a few years myself, where I talked about how bad SF's was. That was then, and if they were still providing a lower level product I would have no reason to still proclaim that.

As long as I continue to see the type of improvements I am seeing, I have nothing but praise. You know you gotta be honest and drop the past.

Punishing a dog today, for pooping in the house yesterday, will provide no benifit to you or the dog. Recognizing the improvements and praising them will only lead to more in the future. *** Edited 3/9/2005 2:39:51 PM UTC by Markieb***

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Brian Noble said:
Sean: when I talk about customer service in this context, I'm mostly talking about the everyday actions of the employees----in other words, when nothing out of the ordinary has happened.

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Brian,

This is what I am talking about as well. This is the customer service that will impact every single customer. This is what makes the most important impression. If they do a good job up front greeting, and have the appearance of really trying to do the best job, customers are more likely to be forgiving on things not so perfect.

Here's and example from my Cedar Point trip last year. I am in line for TTD. It's a long line. I get up to the queue and they have a person at the queue entrance checking height, directing, and keeping order. This is awesome and yes something most parks do not do. However, the employee looked bored, never smiled, or even spoke to the guest.

I watch and thouight to myself, what a great idea to have the person there. What a waste to have a person that had no facial expression or guest interaction. Just saying welcome to TTD, are you ready? Have you ever rode it before? Anything.....

I did not expect him to talk to everyone, but I did expect a little mouth movement here and there. It just small things, that add up over the course of the day, to show were there for you.

CP is missing some aspects of friendly customer service, but one thing that I think they are best at is sort of selling their rides before you leave the station and after you get back. The ride ops can really get you pumped up and get trains cheering when they get back. Too bad they are now getting all these auto-spiels.

Brian,

I hear what you are saying, but I have had problems in the past with just the way employees were acting in a normal situation.

For instance, while standing in a very long line for Matterhorn a few years ago, a family decided to line jump us. We saw an employee standing nearby and asked her what the line jumping policy was. She said line jumping was not allowed, although that family was allowed as they were trying to catch up to each other. Confused, we asked another question and the employee got kind of nasty with us saying that there was nothing we could do about it and if we were that upset, we should just leave the line and deal with it. We were kind of shocked to see a Disney employee act that way. It doesn't happen all the time but it seems I may have just had some bad luck with Disney as it has happend quite a few times.

-Sean

That's because Disneyland is ghetto. ;)

Joe "DisneyWorld has all the best CM's anyway!" C.

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RavenTTD said:
but one thing that I think they are best at is sort of selling their rides before you leave the station and after you get back.

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Very true, it's a lot of fun to get involved as a guest.

AW is doing some of this too. . "Welcome to XXX, the best ride at AW". "One, two, three, launch"

It is a lot of fun for the people on the mic to have fun with the guest. Cedar Point has a loader doing this, with a wireless headset / microphone. SF's has the driver spieling. I think that is part of the efficiency at CP. A spiel for the driver is harder to pull off in a fun way. Drivers should be concentrating on saftey and not entertaining.

CP seperates these functions. A remote/loading spieler can pull the job off a lot better, and the driver can concentrate on getting the train out of the station faster. I really loved that part about CP.

I wished SF's woukld invest in some wireless headsets. *** Edited 3/9/2005 7:36:14 PM UTC by Markieb***