21.3 Getting the Groove Back at FunCo Amusement Park FunCo owns and operates three fairly large amusement parks, in the Baltics, Hungary and the Ukraine. They have been around for a long time and have steadily increased their revenues over the past ten years. They have grown steadily over the past 5 years and have reached their capacity. Joanne, CEO of FunCo has invited her friend Chrissy, a Business Analyst, to meet the management team and discuss the issue. Carl, responsible for visitors at FunCo says: We ask our visitors to share their experiences with us before they leave the park. I dont know if I should be happy or sad. On one hand, they say it is a very nice place and they really like the atmosphere, the kindness of the staff, and the rides. But on the other hand, they have made certain comments and complaints. These are very representative of all the thousands of comments we received last year. It is a lovely place. I like the place a lot. I dont like that I spent hours waiting in line for the rides. Just feels like a pure waste of time. It is so crowded, my three friends and I got separated and it took us one hour to find each other. I had to wait 40 min to order my food. That is just too long. My children were hungry, tired and it was a living hell to have lunch. Finally, when we got the food, it took us 15 min before we found a place to sit. Not good at all. I come from another country, so I had to exchange money. It was a bad rate. Most of the things I wanted to buy, for example a picture of my daughter when she was on one of the rides, cost 1 but as I come from a different country, I did not have any cash and so I paid with credit card. The exchange rate was very bad especially for a small purchase. It was too expensive, so I did not get many of the things I wanted. Paying at the restaurants, stores and other things were just too much of a hassle. Well maybe not but it took longer than I had expected it would. The layout and the map of the park was not easy to understand, several times I wanted to go to a specific area or ride or store but could not find it easily. I could not find any staff to ask either. I had to wait one hour to buy my entrance ticket and get in. Finally, when I got to the cashier, it was not easy to understand the different packages and it took me time. Seeing the queue behind me, I felt stressed and bought a package that I dont think was the best one for me. Emma, the head of marketing, continued: We have a good brand name. We spend a lot of money on TV, newspaper ads, billboards, and our webpage is quite informative. People travel from long distances to experience our amusement park. We have been successful because they like us, but if this trend continues, I fear we will lose visitors. Word of mouth will spread, and no amount of good marketing will compensate for that. Also, we want visitors to come back again and again. Edith, head of operations, continues: Our park doesnt have hotels on site, so we need to give the visitors maximum value on the day they are with us. It is sad to hear that the visitors say its crowded because I see the cameras, some places are just very crowded at certain times, but other areas are empty. If they only knew, they could take the rides or go to restaurants in the less crowded areas. Jack, responsible for human resources, made the following remarks: We cant hire more staff, not only because of costs, but also the situation. Visitors cannot get around as it is crowded, adding more staff will just make it worse. We already have two persons at each ride checking tickets and they are stressed. They are simply exhausted after just a few hours. They are also receiving lots of complaints about the waiting time and that gets them down. They become less friendly which in turn just invites more negative feedback. Five years ago, we used to hire the same people every summer. Now, this year, only 30% were the same as last year. The rest were new which means costs and time for training, supervision and so on. One of the senior business support staff, Steven, explains a bit more about the current state: Most of our visitors who come to us, buy the day package. Its a plastic bracelet that gives them access to all the rides. When the customer comes to the entrance, they stand in line and buy their tickets. There is an entrance fee and then they buy either the bracelet or single tickets. Naturally we have priced the single tickets in such way to make the day bracelet much more attractive. After they have paid, they enter the park area. At the cashier, we use a simple computer system that registers the type of ticket (child, adult etc.) and we also record if an infant is with them or if anyone has any disabilities or medical conditions. This system which we call VIS, has all the data about how many have come, what ages they are, how much they have paid and so on. Its a fairly simple system with interface to the payment system. Those who have bought only entrance tickets can buy single tickets or a day package at the many booths we have inside the park area. Currently we have about 10 booths. These booths also have the exact same system support as the entrance ticket sales. It is one system that has many terminals, one for each booth. This system is not our own, we have bought it and its fairly advanced, but we only use it to keep track of how many visitors we have and so on. The latest features of this system allow for small trackers and devices to be connected but, as yet, we havent used them. It definitely feels that we have a BMW, but we use it as if it was a Fiat. The restaurants and the stores have another system FOOD that can be integrated with VIS, but we have not done so yet. We have another system RIDE that captures data on how many persons use each ride. At the queue for each ride, they show their bracelet, and a sensor counts how many persons have gone on the ride. We dont track who took which ride, we just count the number of persons taking the rides and at what times. We also have an incident report system SAFE where we collect all data (reports) of incidents. It can be something the security guards have reported such as drunk and disorderly visitors and thefts (as many come with pockets full of cash, we also have thieves coming to the park). There is another system we have, OUCH in which we gather all information and data about the rides in regard to maintenance schedule, inspections, incidents with the rides, and technical issues and so on for all our equipment. Finally, we have our system called STAFF that keeps records of all the staff, the work schedules and so on. When the visitors enter the park, they enjoy the rides, the food, and the other activities and when they feel they have had all the fun they can manage, they leave. As they leave, we have a customer feedback system (several of them at each exit) where they can give us their feedback. This system is called CUST and is a web-based system. Its like an ATM machine. The customers can give their feedback if they want. If they do, they get a little souvenir from the park Lisa, head of IT, and Lisette, head of business support, made the following comments: Ok, yes, we do not have the best IT system support. True. Actually, we have very few systems. Each ride is connected to a central system where we can monitor its performance and so on. Then we have cash registers at each store and booths that sell tickets. So, we could definitely put in better systems. Its going to cost but we should do it. One of my employees, Arne, says that lets just automate everything, so we can get rid of all the staff. Lina, head of facilities and maintenance, remarked: I like the idea of getting rid of the booths (small kiosks placed within the park area where you can buy single tickets or day tickets), they take up space, they are very costly to maintain, and they dont seem to matter so much for the customers. They have to have air conditioning, they have to have electricity and they are so exposed to rain and so on so, no I dont like them. Victor, head of finance, agreed and said: Yes, I agree. They cost a lot and funny thing, very few visitors buy single tickets from these places anyway. Most of our sales, I mean MOST, come from day tickets that allows the visitors to enjoy all rides for a full day. They get a plastic bracelet, which they just show, you know, and then they get to go on all the rides. Kristina, chairman of the board, concluded the meeting by saying: Its quite obvious. We need to find a way to get rid of all the issues that are bothering the customers. We cannot automate everything. I do not want a park where the AI robots have taken over and start attacking the visitors like in a bad horror movie. But we must find a way to manage the situation. Surely, we cannot be the only ones that have had this problem. How have the others solved this? We need to address this. Chrissy, can you help us? Chrissy, senior business analyst responds: Sure, I think I can be of help. I have taken a course that highlights such problems and will apply what I have learned there. Let me just ask one question, when its completed, what do you expect to achieve or how do you want it to be? Martin, the main investor, says: If we can have a solution that will solve the problems of the visitors, that can truly enhance their experience, where they can focus on just enjoying their time here without thinking of delays and hassles, we will boost our sales, increase our visitor numbers and I will willingly put money into such an investment. I want a solid recommendation of a solution within three months. Then we can take a look and evaluate how we continue. As was said before, we just cant have solutions that require expanding the land area, but otherwise, I am open to ideas. Kai, can you give Chrissy some numbers on our financial situation? A week later, Kai (the accountant) sends the following numbers to Chrissy (see Table 21.3): Our revenues and costs come mainly from these sources. The costs of goods sold are only on food, games and retail. As you can see, our margins are not good enough. We need to reduce our costs, and the biggest ones are salaries and wages. We have seen that, with an increase in visitors, the other costs can remain fairly constant. The Fun Co management team wants a solution that offers visitors to the park a seamless experience with as little hassle and wasted time as possible. Exercise 1: Identify, analyze (using power/interest) and manage stakeholders. Note that there can be more stakeholders than mentioned above. Exercise 2: Represent the current state described above with models and motivate why you chose those models.