I know my blogs have been pretty absent over the past week. Once again, I’m up in Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival. I’ll do a longer summary blog when the whole experience is over. Today, I’m took a lazy morning, not watching any films, and instead sleeping in, and doing some laundry.
Even though I’m really exhausted and already fighting a bit of a head cold, I love this event and I love being here.
I’m volunteering this year as a Festival Insider Pro which is a nice way to say that I’m a walking information booth. Sundance created this position two years ago after reading comments from attendees, realizing that although all details of the festival are published, it does help to have some friendly customer service information representatives roaming the festival. I have a lot of gear that says ASK ME on it.
In most cases, I ask the first question:
“How is your festival going?”
“What films have you really enjoyed?”
“What do you still have tickets for?”
Within a few moments, we’ve begun a nice conversation. That little bit of initial communication often launches a series of questions from them:
“How does the Wait List work?”
“Where can I get a bite to eat?”
“What should we do after the film?”
“What would you recommend?”
“How do I get to…?”
So many of these answers are easily available on the Sundance website, but the various people I run into seem to love to hear it from a person. They say hello if they see me elsewhere after the festival, even if I’m not in my volunteer jacket.
So here’s where we make it universal…
Do you have this in your school or organization?
Are there people there to ask questions for first time attendees at your event(s) or new students at your school?
Are they proactively initiating conversations that open up an opportunity for the other person to ask questions?
Is your information available on a website? How do you share it with those without immediate web access?
Have a strategy. The customer service results for Sundance went up after they created this position (& a few other programs). Help make that happen in your own group as well.