I literally grew up in a theme park. From an early age, I was immersed in what it took to make Drayton Manor Park, hugely popular with many repeat customers, and over one million customers visiting every year.

Shall we say, I officially started at 16 years of age. Unofficially I was ‘working’ from the age of 13, during the school holidays and busy weekends. I had an absolute blast as I either did or shadowed people doing their roles in operating rides, collecting tickets (yes it was tickets per ride back in those days), selling tickets, emptying bins, fetching stock for kiosks, making food, serving customers, parking cars, cleaning animal enclosures, taking in deliveries, helping construct rides and hundreds of other tasks needed to create a great customer experience. The one thing I remember is the fun that can be had in creating a great customer experience.

At the tender age of 19, I was sent across the pond to Walt Disney World, to spend one-year living and working at Disney, Florida, undertaking The Walt Disney World Fellowship Programme. This programme taught me and 50 other talented people from across the world what it took to give great customer service and experiences consistently and at scale. We learned from the best, we undertook their training sessions, we had some amazing experiences like driving the monorail and the paddle steamer, talks by Disney executives, and we were part of the team that created the Disney magic for millions of people. Most importantly, I still remember what I was taught.

This ultimately led to over 30 years of working in the family business, Drayton Manor Park in various roles before finally becoming the Managing Director. During that time, I never forgot three things:

1. Customer experience is all that matters
2. Don’t get in the customer’s way
3. Make it easy for your team

For seven great years, I was the Managing Director of Drayton Manor Park, and proud of the great work we did to put smiles on millions of customers’ faces. Over the years we:

• created an army of loyal customers who stuck with us in our darkest times and celebrated our successes.
• had the grandparents or great grandparents bring the latest additions to their family to continue their associations with visiting the park and build those precious memories.
• were almost unique in having two or three generations of families working at the park.
• had multiple team members with over 5, 10, 15, and 20 years service.
• won awards, sometimes for multiple years in a row.
• placed highly year after year in national/international awards.
• were respected in our industry for having a great theme park with high standards and excellent customer service.
• knew how to put a smile on people’s faces
• created millions of family memories

I now use my knowledge and experience gained over the years to help your business give your customers something to smile about.

Let’s have a chat to see how I can help you put a smile on your customers faces.