Six Flags guest satisfaction at 5 year high.

If Junior has been coming home with straight D's on his report card for 5 years, and he brings home the next one with a C on it, I guess you can brag about that being a record. Best in 5 years!

So I guess this means all of you will now start saying, you can't close MM, Mr. Shapiro, it's a record breaker!

That's a good analogy for exactly what this report says, RGB. :)

As far as the GP thing, I guess I stand corrected. I don't think I've ever heard anyone I'd consider 'GP' (people I know, people I don't know, random idiots in line, etc) ever talk about ride operations.

Maybe I don't eavesdrop enough? ;)

As was pointed out before, Gonch, the GP doesn't use coaster lingo, but you will hear them say things like "I haven't seen a car go up the hill for a good 5 minutes," and "why is that train just sitting there when the line is so long?" You don't have to be an enthusiast to recognize a slow moving line.

Again, SF is acting schizo. First they announce they're going to change their focus to families and make all these improvements to attract families. Then they say a park like MM has a rep too bad to bother saving, so they're looking to sell it. Now it turns out an agency has been doing surveys on customer experience at the same park they just annonunced they want to unload.

So they either wasted their time and money getting opinions on a park they already made up their minds to close, or they're wasting the effort on trying to sell off a park the agency they hired says is improving.

RGB: Business sometimes works in mysterious ways.

- J

I deal with VAST amounts of data....you might even say "Xtreme". ;)

Honestly, by manipulating the variables appropriately (or inappropriately more likely), you can get figures to do nearly anything. You don't have to TARGET a particular audience to get the data you want, you CAN "sample" your data in such a way as to get whatever RESULTS are desired.

Selection criteria... ;)

Do you guys really think that "Character presence in the park" was on the survey in previous years?

I used to work for a large corporation that had a third party conduct an employee satisfaction survey every other year. Many questions would be reworded from the previous survey in a way to make a positive answer more likely. Also, questions that had very negative responses would get eliminated. Seemed like a waste of money, but they kept having the survey to show how they were trying to improve!

Add questions, manipulate the data, issue press release...

^ I agree with you guys. At my job the survey results were so negative towards management they just quit conducting them altogether. :)

Chitown - (This may be a bit long and off topic, but please bare with me)

I used to work at one of the top billing radio stations in the country. One of the things the station would do (as well as many other major market stations in the country) is to offer a music test. About 3- 5 hundred people would be sitting in a room with a multiple choice grid numbered from 1 to 300.

They would then play 7 - 9 seconds of songs that were either in heavy rotation, light rotation, or songs that the station was considering adding.

For example the tape would say "Song number 7. - Hey Jude, don't take it bad..." after a few seconds it would stop and there would be a 2 second pause. "Song number 8 - Welcome to the hotel california..."

Each number had 5 choices A, B, C, D, and E. A meant that you absolutely loved the song and e meant you hated it.

This would be how the programming people determined what songs they would add, drop, hold off for a while (played too often) etc...

The only people taking this test would be the exact people in the target demos. (In this case white adults aged 30 - 40).

When the songs were added to the rotaion if the ratings went up, the management would say "this is good, our research is paying off." If the ratings dipped a bit they would get a new consultant, a new research company, etc.

A few compnaies make these music hooks to play in research focus groups in any format requried. Since only a few companies own most of the important stations in the biggest markets, the results are shared throughout the chain.

It's called "Job Justification." It is a barrier to protect upper management. It's also one of the reasons terrestrial radio is losing listeners to satelite and internet radio.

What is the relationship to amusement parks?

Whoever is doing your research is also interested in keeping thier contracts.

Yes, I will admit, I am a bit biased. We all are. We like certain food, certain cars, certain clothes...etc.

When I go to Great ADventure, I have certain expectations and desires for a good day. Do I assume some rides will break down from time to time. (Of course) Do I expect crowds on sunny summer Sundays? Absolutely. But I also expect the park should be doing everything possible to make sure I have a "good time." (If I am with my family or riding alone).

WHen a popular kiddie cove (Koala Canyon) isn't open, I can't blame it on LIM magnets, a faulty lift system, hydroic launch meltowns, etc. I blame it on mis-managemnt. When people are cutting the line on Spongebob, that's also mismanagement.

I want this park to do well. Very well. I have been going there since it opened and it's a part of my life. In the last ten years, I've had other opportunities in other parks (that I wouldn't have known about without Coasterbuzz) that shows it can be better.

It is getting better. But there is no way you convince me that 93% of the people are happy.

Come on, any survey that contains the phrase "Compared to your previous experience at a Six Flags Park..." how could you NOT get a more positive response?

Oh yeah, forgot this. :)

You know, my big picture answer to all this is...

So what?

If the results are skewed some, big friggin deal. It's still positive press for the chain. They certainly need it now. It's a smart move either way.

And you want proof that at least most of what is stated in that report is true? Read the recent trip reports, with almost everyone stating they've noticed major improvements.

I mean, WTF do you want from a guy who stepped in 6 months ago? *** Edited 7/12/2006 6:54:22 AM UTC by DWeaver***

Richie.

I made the response before I read your TR of your recent trip to SFGAdv with your family. I see where you would be hesitant with SF with your recent visit.

However, if these results from this research firm are from various parks, you have to at least acknowledge them as somewhat positive. I may be bias in some sense with SFGAm because this park seems to know how to please guests.

Heck, even in the conference report, Shapiro stated that the Chicago park has received alot of positive feedback with regards to how the park is running in general. It really is a shame that the other SF parks aren't meeting the same outlook.

Seriously though, how hard is it for the other SF parks to meet the same standards as SFGAm? I know we have alot of people from the Marriott days running it, but comeon!!!! These folks running the other SF parks just have to take pride in what they do and make their respective park that good and want people to return.

SFGAm has the coasters, but they also have the shows, flats, kids areas, and overall family entertainment to continue to be the model in the SF chain.

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DWeaver said:

And you want proof that at least most of what is stated in that report is true? Read the recent trip reports, with almost everyone stating they've noticed major improvements.

I mean, WTF do you want from a guy who stepped in 6 months ago? *** Edited 7/12/2006 6:54:22 AM UTC by DWeaver***

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I think this is the big thing. People here are going seeing better things at the parks and spreading the word here.

Also the last part really should have added that the new people in charged really had nothing to do with the capital expenditures and budgets for this season. Next year that control could be a huge change in the parks.

Personally, I think the survey is a bunch of bs designed to try to draw people into the parks. The company is struggling financially, and attendance is down about 13% from last year. They need all the money they can get right now, and I believe Shapiro will do just about anything to try to get it, including releasing watered-down survey results.

^ If I hadn't seen it FIRSTHAND, I might agree with that assessment. I *have* seen the changes, and other than ride maintenance/operations, everything Shapiro has done has been RIGHT on target. Maybe not so much for thrillseeekers, but for FAMILIES.

I think to a LARGE degree, the lackluster/underfunded maintenance budgets of the past can be blamed for the current downtime issues around the chain....but since we can fully expect "new cap-ex projects" to require less funding, hopefully the money saved by buying Gerstlauer spinners instead of hypercoasters will go into maintenance and operations....you don't necessarily need a brand new MONSTER coaster at the front gate to draw people in, but you DO need to show people a GREAT time, then let the positive word-of-mouth get around....that takes TIME.

Patience is KEY, nay CRITICAL, if Snyder and Shapiro really want to turn the company around. Having lots of rides down, operating at half-capacity, understaffed, or running POORLY (wooden coasters), those are real buzzkills...and NOT just for us enthusiasts.

Here's the thing....SFI had gotten a REALLY bad rep. Easy to do. Changing that into a GOOD rep, not NEARLY so easy. People talk, they have memories...lots of them have FABULOUS memories before their local parks were bought out by SFI....and many have had BAD experiences since then.

They're on the right road, and while shows, parades, paint, clean restrooms, and costumes are a LARGE part of the equation....rides *are* important to the GP as well.

I was looking at the calendar. With the heart of the season about halfway over, do you think there will be changes in many of the "Fright Fest" activities this year?

Families with little children aren't going to be draw to an event that focuses on screams. Yet, from what I understand, it's a big money-maker that is well-attended by the teens who are no longer the target audience.

My 8 year old was afraid of Skull Mountain - so we won't be attending. Our family doesn't do Halloween.

On a personal note, I am not a big fan of the Haloween thing either. I used to love the October - fest atmosphere, but during the past few years, Haloween has become a big deal for theme park business.

Any thoughts?

Some parks do offer daytime Halloween events that are not scary, so that is a possibility of how to hit both target audiences at the same time.

Imo, Knott's figured it out the best. Daytime for the kids, close the park for an hour, then re-open with extended hours into the night. It keeps the little ones from accidentally seeing something too intense.