MaternCo Operator Insights

 One of the first things that happens when I walk a park with an operator is that I notice things they don't. That's not because I'm some brilliant consultant with superhuman observational skills. I just haven't walked past the same problem 100 times that week. Operators develop blinders. It's inevitable. The pallet next to the dumpster has been there so long it's become part of the scenery. The temporary sign taped to the front door has been there for six weeks. There's clutter behind the front desk. A piece of padding is torn. Eventually, those things become background noise. Your guests don't have that problem. They're seeing your building with fresh eyes. That's why when I'm evaluating an operation, I don't start in the owner's office. I start in the parking lot. How does the exterior look? Is the signage clean? Is the entrance obvious? Is there trash in the parking lot? Is the dumpster overflowing? The guest experience do...

A few years ago, we had a kid celebrating his birthday at one of our parks. He was a huge Utah Jazz fan, and his whole party was Jazz-themed. Unfortunately, not many kids showed up. I happened to have an Airborne shirt in my personal collection that had been signed by Joe Ingles and Jordan Clarkson. I liked that shirt. It wasn't sitting around the park as a promotional giveaway, and I certainly hadn't come to work planning to give it away. But I looked at this kid and thought it could make his day. So I gave it to him. The look on his face was incredible. So was the look on his parents' faces. That kid has celebrated every birthday with us since. His siblings have their birthday parties with us too. That's a great business outcome, but here's the important part: If that family had never come back, I wouldn't have regretted giving him the shirt. I didn't give it to him because I calculated his customer lifetime value. I gave it to him because he was a kid cel...

We work in an industry built around fun. So let me ask a simple question: Do you want your employees to be fun? Of course you do. We want the person at the front desk to be welcoming. We want party hosts who are energetic and engaged. We want attraction attendants who interact with guests instead of staring at the clock. We want managers who can turn a frustrated parent into a happy one. Then we sometimes build workplaces where our employees aren't having much fun themselves and expect them to clock in, flip a switch, smile, and create an incredible experience for everyone else. I don't think it works that way. My philosophy is pretty simple: Take care of your employees. Your employees take care of the guest. The guest takes care of your company. The company comes last in that sequence. I think that's important. Our Average Employee Has Been With Us About 20 Months Employee turnover is part of our industry. We employ a lot of teenagers and young adults, and for many of them...