“You can’t manage what you don’t know.”
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again.
It’s one of the most important aspects of understanding and improving your operation.
Yet, why does it get often overlooked?
We’ve had our theories for quite some time.
Well, you want the facts.
We believe the facts will help you develop greater efficiency and effectiveness.
Agree?
But here’s what you need to know, first.
Your challenge ahead involves more than simply subscribing to an analytics solution.
In fact, it’s a multipart challenge that can be resolved by investing in a solution, building an infrastructure to support it, collecting insightful data, and – most importantly – using it to improve your operation.
Investing in a solution and using it!
It’s time for you to get the facts, so invest in the right solution like an incident management system for better analysis of your operation.
Because we’re going to help you build an infrastructure conducive to developing better outcomes for your operation.
Are you ready?
Let’s dive in.
Are you currently using an incident management system?
Or are you just about to put on in place?
What’s your current setup?
Do you have an infrastructure in place that’ll increase your awareness, enhance communication, lead to accurate documentation, and will provide you with analytics you can use to get the facts?
Frankly, are you able to collect all the data that you need?
Are you set up the right way so that everything gets tracked?
If you’re not sure or you know the answer is a resounding “No!” – keep reading because today we’re going to help you achieve peace of mind.
At this point, we know you’re not getting the essential, measurable, and useful data you need to succeed as a professional.
As you probably know, logging incidents into a solution is only the beginning.
You’re investing in a solution, so let’s put you in a position to use it and use it better.
Do this so you can get all the analytics you need to give you, your staff, and your boss peace of mind.
To get useful data, you must give your staff the ability to communicate, collect, and manage information efficiently and effectively.
This will give you the best foundation for achieving results.
Here’s an infrastructure you can use, cohesively with the solution you’ve invested in, to get facts that you need for improving your operation.
It starts with who’s involved and includes staff from every department an incident or issue can be associated with.
This is where you’ll be spending your time on the event day.
Ideally, you and your front-of-house staff will centralize in a location that allows a visual of your entire property – the operations center.
These front-of-house staff might include Police, Fire Rescue, Event Security, Parking Operations, Customer Service, and a central Dispatcher, depending on your property’s needs.
Each of your departmental staff needs to have the ability to view and manage their own department’s dispatch queue, from their own computer within the operations center.
All incident details should be able to be viewed and managed simultaneously by all personnel and departments.
Each department should have its own segmented dispatch screen so that they can focus on their incidents while your Dispatcher can keep an eye out on the big picture.
From high-priority incidents to lost items, this is what we call instant communication!
Your central dispatcher will monitor a single radio channel for incoming communications.
This method reduces radio traffic and allows all representatives in the operations center to receive calls-for-service and incident details from one source.
Your back of house operations center is set up as a separate entity to mitigate noise and confusion.
This segmentation enhances effective communication, which leads to useful facts for your later analysis.
Arming your back of house staff with their own central dispatcher, who also monitors a single radio channel for all back of house incoming communications, drastically unclogs communication lines.
Your back-of-the-house staff might include your IT department, Facility Maintenance, Housekeeping, Concessions, and a central Dispatcher for a clear communication line.
Having and using two operations centers gives you the ability to effortlessly create an incident or issue records for the back of house departments and front of the house.
By separating those dispatch channels, you can use your solution to remove all communication roadblocks, which left in place, will prevent you from knowing what you need to manage.
The questions of “Why to invest in a solution?” and “Why to put an infrastructure in place?” can simply be answered with this…
Analytics!
Building infrastructure will give you the important analytics you need to use to completely understand your operational effectiveness, and how to improve it for better future outcomes.
Create a structure that leads to important facts and use them to attain Proactive Operations.
The days of dispatching your team and not receiving status updates are gone.
With your infrastructure in place, you have the right communication lines open.
Now your team can quickly and effectively manage, track, and collect the details of an incident or issue, from start to finish.
Simply put, your real-time data is the effect of real-time communication.
No more missed information. Like Goodell said, “the facts will help us develop better solutions.”
Can you guess what this real-time data leads to?
That’s right, better solutions and faster response.
You can measure and improve your response times with the infrastructure in place and in full operation. Because as we’ve said before, it’s vital to invest in a solution but even more important to use it.
How?
Start receiving, collecting, and documenting data that has a purpose for improving your operation.
Answer the following questions and use your answers to create a standard for efficiency and effectiveness at your property.
These questions help you understand appropriate response times.
They’ll also give you the foresight you need to dramatically enhance your whole operation.
Continue questioning the state of your current operation based on your results – and the hard facts you’ve gathered from investing in a solution and using it.
Consider the scenario below.
Before your infrastructure was put into place your response time to a fight was five minutes.
Now, your response time to a fight decreases to two and a half minutes.
We’d argue that’s tremendous progress.
All from having and using facts.
All because you've built an infrastructure for your operation that gives you reliable information, the confidence to analyze it, and the valuable data to enhance your operation.
Of all the benefits from your solution and infrastructure that can help you achieve Proactive Operations is ‘liability protection.’
With your solution and infrastructure in place, you now know what to manage – and how to improve it.
Let’s put it into perspective.
The fight incident we mentioned above turns into a legal case.
You’re deposed for the case as it did occur at your property under your watch.
You show up with every piece of data related to this incident.
It takes your team two and a half minutes to efficiently respond to a fight.
You have the information to show your team consistently responds in that timeframe to most incidents or issues.
This demonstrates to the court that you’re properly staffed for all events at your property.
It also shows your ability to provide ‘the facts’ with a digital paper trail.
You can confidently show consistent response times with a highly effective system.
How much better of a result will you have in court?
Case closed.
How’s that for Proactive Operations?
Invest in an analytics solution today. Ensure you build the right infrastructure to support it. Then, use this to get the facts you can analyze to continuously improve your operation.
That’s how you keep your customers safe, your property secure, and ensure Proactive Operations from now on into the future.