Spookers Case Part 2 - Service Management Issues at Spookers

  

Introduction

This article is in three parts as follows:

Part 1: Description of Spookers  and its origins

Part 2: Service Management Issues at Spookers

Part 3: Service Theory: Managing People (coming soon)

  

Facilities

When the two main maize/maze experiences, Corn Evil and Amazing Maze n’ Maize first opened in Te Kauwhata in 2004, 16 000 people from Auckland travelled to try out the experience, many of them making return visits with friends and family. Beth saw an opportunity, and along with her daughter Julia Watson (now the Manager of the main facility), began searching for a suitable location closer to Auckland, the largest metropolitan city in New Zealand and home to over one million people. At least twenty acres of land was needed for the maize mazes, and a suitable building was also required. Julia was a sales representative in Auckland at the time, and travelled extensively through the southern parts of Auckland for her job. Almost by chance, she noticed that a large site had come up for lease in South Auckland. The site once housed the Kingseat Psychiatric Hospital, was currently owned by the Kingseat Foundation, consisted of 120 acres of land, and a conglomerate of multiple buildings, many of which were derelict.

The buildings had been derelict for fifteen years when the Watsons took over the lease, and they have completely updated the facility where it counts, in its interior. The buildings had to be completely rewired and re-plumbed. The facility look was designed and constructed by Ian Ruxton and his team of freelance technicians with the support of Weta Workshops. Special effects (sound and lighting) have been enhanced by Oceania (http://www.oceania-audio.co.nz/), and the 3D Manic Maze and vortex tunnel was painted by the team from Disruptiv (http://www.disruptiv.com/). There has also been a brand ‘makeover’ by avant-garde Auckland designers Illicit, also responsible for the highly successful 'Misery' brand.

What is the experience like?

The main R16 experience in the Spookers Haunted House is very scary. The scare involves a narrative, or story, involving an environmental catastrophe, a lot of contamination, and a whole heap of genetically mutated zombies.  Frightening actors, terrifying noise, smells and other techniques for heightening the visitor’s senses, are all part of the experience.  Once entering the Haunted House, the visitor is scared witless for 25-minutes as blood curdling demons, zombies and a maniacal dentist with a penchant for pain run amuck. As a visitor you make your way through a blood-spattered two-level building. During this time you are harassed, and even poked at, by an army of monsters wielding lethal props and deadly stares.  These evil inhabitants show no mercy. However, despite their crazed demeanour, a simple hand signal is all it takes to fend off the beasts.

Other experiences are also so scary children are not allowed, particularly CornEvil, which is a Maize Maze also haunted by frightening ghouls and freaks. Scary days like Friday 13^th are celebrated with especially themed days, and new horror movie releases (such as 28 Weeks Later) are sometimes synchronised with outdoor showings in the summer months.

There is stuff for the children and the easily frightened to do as well. Less frightening experiences (with no actors) are available during the day (with lights on). There is also a children’s attraction with actors themed on slightly scary renditions of fairy tale characters. Children and families can use the Maize Maze in the evenings and during the days also for freak-free events, and also just to experience the maze itself. Visitors, schools, and other children’s groups such as scouts, are encouraged to use the maze for educational purposes, and educational material is provided on the Amazing Maze n’ Maize website http://www.maze.co.nz/. Corporate team building days (Terror Tactics) aimed at the business sector are also held at Spookers. Other facilities outside of Auckland have special attractions such as Grimmer Scary Tales (Bay of Plenty), and Shearer’s Revenge (a R10 attraction in Marton).

As well as the frightening activities and the outdoor activities using the maze, visitors can use other services such as the restaurant and cafes. Food is themed, with banquets for example offering Witches Basket and Potions (breads and dips).  Themed children’s parties are also held.

 Staffing

Currently (in 2007) Spookers employs over 200 staff, and many of these are part-time workers. Six staff work full-time on the business. Most of the part-time, casual staff are hired as actors, restaurant staff, security staff, and building maintenance staff.

Actors are not specifically recruited from acting schools as Spookers prefer to use monsters from their local neighbourhood. Using mainly letterbox flyers, local newspapers, and advertisements on their website, an assortment of local characters are recruited and work in the evenings. Many of these actors have full-time jobs in the area: people recruited in the past have included police officers, firemen, and teachers at local schools. In addition mothers, fathers, students, farmers and others in the local community work at Spookers. The oldest actor is a 67year old male, and there are many younger actors predominantly in the early twenties age bracket. Julia Watson reports that actors ‘love’ their job, and that one of the often cited reasons for working at Spookers is ‘stress-relief’. In this job people are able to scream and yell, and express their inner-most demons (safely). Actors are encouraged to develop their own characters, and characters become locally famous, and feature in Spookers branding, like Nanny, who makes patrons dip their finger into a baby’s brain. Characters also draw on iconic horror characters from popular culture like Freddie Kruger, Leatherface and Jason. Movies like The Grudge, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Blair Witch Project, and The Ring are referred to, as is the gamut of zombie movies like The Dawn of the Dead, with many Zombie-like characters such as Horror Hillbillies.  Some characters are truly iconic, and some are picked up and then dropped as they come in and out of fashion. Horror often features comedy but horror/comedy characters like the ghoul from the ‘Scream’ franchise are not allowed at Spookers. 

Go to the Spookers website to see pictures of actors in costume, and actors scaring victims.

Quality

Julia Watson describes the process of developing the business as ‘making it up as we go along’ which might seem ad hoc, but actually there has been a detailed attention to quality which can be seen in the development of the facility experience. The best expertise in NZ design has been sought out and used. Both Julia and Beth have taken yearly study tours to look at the well-developed Maze and Haunted House industries in the United States of America and have tried to take the best of what they have seen there and adopted and adapted international practice here in NZ. They have made and kept crucial relationships in the industry, including becoming members of the International Association of Haunted Attractions (IAHA), http://www.iahaweb.com/, which is the professional body that advises haunted attractions on issues specific to their industry (like flame-proofing walls; and keeping staff safe). Spookers also belongs to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions http://www.iaapa.org/aboutus/index.asp.

Spookers was also recently awarded a Qualmark in January 2007, as an endorsed tourism activity, meaning that they are recognised as professional and trustworthy (see http://www.qualmark.co.nz/).

To Spookers quality means visitors having a truly frightening experience, with which they are ultimately satisfied, but also offering quality customer service during other aspects of the customer visit (for example, at the café, and during wait periods).  Visitor safety is a high priority. This is particularly a priority when actors are used to accentuate the experience. Actors have an induction process where they learn the rules of the facility to ensure the best customer experience, and their own safety.  As well, at the beginning of each evening’s performance, actors are briefed, and then they are also regularly de-briefed at the end of each evening’s entertainment in a ‘Ghost-buster’ process. This ‘Ghost-buster’ process is a type of performance management system, where actors receive feedback on relevant aspects of their show.

Visitors are meant to be scared, but not upset. If visitors stop enjoying themselves, then the experience parameters have been breached. Staff are taught to read body language and visitors are briefed on a simple hand signal to give monsters if they feel uncomfortable. Actors are drilled to immediately ‘go out of character’, speak normally, and the visitor is then passed on to other non-scary staff.  Visitors are surveyed regularly to get feedback on quality issues. Endorsements and positive feedback are featured on the Spookers website.

Capacity and Demand

Several challenges arise regarding capacity and demand for Spookers, and the company has derived ways of dealing with the issues. The first main challenge is that the main attraction at Spookers – the Haunted House - is only open after 8pm in the evening, and so visitors tend to arrive all at the same time to the facility.  The second related challenge is that bottlenecks may occur as people flow through the attractions, both in them, and between them. Other than demand exceeding capacity in the evening, potentially creating queuing and bottleneck issues, the third associated issue is that capacity can exceed demand. The facility is most well used at night, and so uses of it must be found during the day. Fourth, the mazes can only operate when the maize itself has grown, and before it needs to be cut down and re-sown for the next season. Some of the techniques that Spookers use to deal with these challenges are outlined below.

The facility generally uses a FCFS (First come first served) queuing system, with a single queue. Sometimes a queue to enter the attractions can be as long as 150 people. On a good night there can be over 500 people at any one time in any of the 4 attractions, and so there is the potential for bottlenecks. Techniques for dealing with queues and bottlenecks include (solving the problem of demand exceeding capacity):

·         Encouraging large group pre-bookings

·         Starting the experience earlier by having actors in costume come out to patrons waiting in the queue.

·         Holding groups back and timing the entrance of each group into the facility so that they are spaced apart

·         A type of fast-pass system has been used at certain times for those not wishing to wait (if you don’t want to wait, you pay a little more).

·         Techniques for speeding up the entrance process to the 4 attractions have included introducing bracelets (to more easily discern how many attractions have been paid for), and clip cards.

·         Encouraging people to spread out around all four attractions.

Techniques for using the facility more efficiently include (solving the problem of capacity exceeding demand):

·         corporate experiences like team building,

·         banquets and booking in meals prior to going through the attractions

·         spook free tours for children,

·         children’s parties,

·         movie screenings,

·         educational tours. 

Other Issues - Marketing, Site Choice 

Return visits are necessary in a business such as Spookers, and word of mouth is an essential marketing tool. Spookers intends to shortly introduce a ‘Frequent Freaks’ reward system for regular visitors.

The fact that the potential site used to house psychiatric patients gave the potential leasers pause for thought. The Watsons were aware of possible negative/violent stereotypes of psychiatric patients by the general public, and the sensitivities of ex-patients and ex-staff themselves.  Consequently Spookers have always distanced themselves from using any aspect of psychiatric illness in their branding, and have not promoted the history of the facility in a way that deliberately refers to psychiatric illness. In fact, since the building has opened, some ex-patients and ex-staff have enjoyed the Spookers experience, and some have even held reunions there.

Creepers Haunted House, The Amazing Maze n’ Maize and Spookers each have their own websites that link with each-other, facilitating efficiently of visitor’s searching on the internet. The websites developed for the business have some interactivity and they are all visually attractive and arresting. A game is available on one site, which promotes brand awareness. No sound is currently available, or movie footage. More fully emerging the customer in the pre-experience may be a development soon for Spookers.

Thanks to Julia Watson, Manager of Spookers (Auckland), for generously giving her time to be interviewed for this case study. Case has been written up by Janet Sayers.

Please reference this entry as:

Sayers, J. (2007) Spookers Case Study Part 2: Service Management Issues at Spookers. Managing Services Blogspot. Downloaded from xxxx on day/month/year.   

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