Whether you’re a venue, stadium or event manager, venue management software can help remove your stress.
We’re not saying it’s the cure all, but with purpose you can quickly put the practices we talk about today in place for a stress-free, efficient and effective operation.
It’s been a while since we got down to the basics; that’s what we’re going to do – get down to the basics of safely and purposefully managing your upcoming events using venue management software.
Keep reading, because we all know it many times takes strengthening your foundation to get a grasp on what’s undeniably causing your event day stress.
Let’s get down to the basics that lead to peace of mind.
Venue Management Software Ensures Accurate Documentation is ALWAYS Available
Accurate documentation is the only thing that’ll provide you and your risk management team with liability defense complete enough for the courts. You never know when you’ll need it – you must document every incident every time with all of the details.
Eliminate illegible handwritten notes and replace them with secure historical digital records. If notes need to be accessed in the future, no need to find the employee that wrote them in order to translate them, because now your info is clear and reliable.
(Pro tip: Digital records are generally accepted in liability defense, unlike handwritten notes which may not be.)
With digital records, changes are tracked so you know who wrote what and when changes to the record were made. Give staff the ability to attach and quickly reference documents (pictures, videos, eye-witness statements, and signatures) with each incident.
Check out the slip and fall incident we talk about in this article here. It’s a prime example of how valuable extensive documentation is for keeping your incidents and your guests honest.
The key to gaining accurate documentation is to create a system that allows your staff to record information at the same time they’re retrieving information. This process integration ensures their job performance is never compromised by their need to document in the midst of chaos.
Accurate, legible and historical records provide substantial benefits to reducing your risk and enhancing your staff’s efficiency during events.
But first, you need to know what your team is up against…
This is where analytics comes in: “You can’t analyze what you don’t know.”
Own the documentation so you can measure your risk, and then communicate what you know to your team. You don’t want to stop there either. You’ll need to make a habit of this. Do it over and over again until it becomes second nature to you.
(Still running around aimlessly with pen and paper? Click here to download our free eBook on how incident management systems give you the ability to obtain full and complete digital documentation.)
Smart Analytics Leads to Optimized Reporting for Improved Decision Making
Having and using analytics are crucial – something we’ve discussed and hone in on repeatedly – for the efficiency of your operation. Use them to improve your processes and strengthen your protocols-to-handle.
Take note of this, it’s very important to understand: Analytics give you the insight into your operation so you can improve your performance every event. It’s a very simple concept, yes, but extremely powerful for venue, stadium and event managers alike.
Here’s a perfect example of why you need analytics:
- Response times
Response times influence every area of your operation. The effect can be GOOD or BAD. It depends on whether you’re willing to put your venue management software to use for faster ones.
Faster response minimizes short term and long term impact of incidents occurring during your events. When you see a pattern such as guests experiencing dehydration or an influx of transport requests, you’ll be better prepared…and proactive rather than reactive.
(Pro tip: Use analytics to identify potential hot spots for trends and strategically allocate resources to expeditiously mitigate incidents or issues.)
This is how you create loads of value.
- Save lives
- Exceed expectations
- Increase attendance
- Make memories
- Look professional while doing it!
Now, once you have the data you can scrutinize, analyze and make sense of it all. Then, you’ll want to communicate it to your team. That way, when it’s event time everyone is better aware of what’s happening, what to expect and what’s expected of them.
(Looking for a way to avoid guest services pitfalls? Check out this article on expertly handling guest requests to do just that, avoid guest services pitfalls.)
Enhancing Communication Means Unclogging Lines and Going Mobile
Closing the communication gap during your events reinforces your documentation and puts your data-backed processes into practice.
What are you current drawbacks? Do any of these sound familiar?
- Communication among your staff and supervisors
- Unnecessary radio traffic
- Uncertainty and tons of confusion
- Overlooked incident calls
Harness the power of Wi-Fi and supplement your communication with online and offline ability. Arm your front-line staff with mobile apps to easily and effectively report incidents.
(Pro tip: Mobile reporting applications are great for those incidents that occur in areas without Wi-Fi, like a parking lot. Capture the vital details of incidents on a mobile device in an offline environment knowing it will be available once you reenter Wi-Fi access.)
This will let you give them real-time info on new trends you’re finding from your analytics. Are you seeing how this all comes together?
Creating an easy to learn set of communication procedures that include mobile apps, automatic alerts and notifications gives you a painless and manageable way to train staff too. Automate information to empower your staff and witness how fast communication throughout your team elevates performance.
When you enhance your communication your team is “in the know.” This leads to increased awareness of incidents occurring during your events.
(Need to optimize your mobile incident reporting? Check out this article on how you can overhaul your operation simultaneously optimizing communication using mobile applications.)
Full Awareness for Heightened Safety and Security
We’ve said it numerous times, “Increased awareness affords your team the ability to respond to one more incident in a little less time.” And you need all the extra time you can get – trust us!
Implementing a channel for patrons to instantly report issues is pure ingenuity. Ponder this for a moment, your guests and staff without radios need to report important information.
Text communication software lets everyone accomplish this goal. In many cases, incidents at venues have gone unnoticed or escalated too quickly before giving guests the ability to report issues to operation teams.
Even for your team the awareness and capabilities are greatly enhanced. Valuable time is saved by eliminating the need to first find a supervisor with a radio to report an incident.
(Pro tip: Text communication is an inexpensive way to greatly enhance safety and security, but it’s also a time-of-need system. Be sure to have proper signage on how to use the system throughout your venue for when guests need it most.)
Take awareness one step further. Give your team the ability to log into your venue management software from anywhere. Team members can concurrently enter and update incidents for all your staff to see in real time.
Now, your team knows what’s happening and when, ensuring all issues are being handled in a timely manner keeping your patrons and staff safe.
(Are you determined to mitigate incidents as they occur? Click here to download our free eBook on using text communication to quickly react to guests and significantly enhance their experience.)
Over to You
Getting down to the basics is one way to keep your operation and team in check. Even more importantly, yourself.
As a proactive leader you can remove the stress from your operation. You’re tasked with training employees, sharpening their skills, keeping everyone safe, delivering exceptional customer service. But it doesn’t have to be a stressful process.
Use your venue management solution with purpose and eradicate all the unnecessary causes of your stress. You can achieve peace of mind.
