Pronto Pups, Postcards and Operations Manuals…

Published on Wednesday, 03 August 2011

In my former position, part of my responsibility was coordinating State Fair presence for the organization.   12 days at the end of summer, not a big deal, right? Wrong. My first year doing this was a shock to my system. I don’t come from a State Fair going family, I blame my mom’s years growing up on a farm in Iowa for that. It was all hustle and bustle, all the time for those 12 days. My mantra became, “Labor Day will come.” Well, Labor Day did indeed come and while I packed up our booth at the end of the day, I thought about how nice it would be to not have the pile of other work on my desk grow exponentially while I was in midst of State Fair planning and implementation. I got exactly four days of State Fair reprieve.   That’s right, within four days, I received a postcard from the fair with all the dates and deadlines for the next 12 best days of summer.

            If you’ve been to the great Minnesota get together, think about how you don’t really have to think about anything. You can take a bus from various locations around the metro area, exhibits and vendors are organized in their areas of specialty, and for the most part, once you’ve reached your maximum capacity of Pronto Pups and Sweet Martha’s cookies, you can find a trash can that actually still has room for trash to dispose of the rest. It might be hot, you might feel a little sticky, but you don’t have to put a whole lot of effort into your fair experience. The secret to the reason for this effortless fun lies in that postcard I received four days after the fair concluded. It’s not just a 12 day operation, planning goes on all year so when late August hits, visitors from throughout the state can have a truly enjoyable fair experience. And during those 12 days of summer, the fair is a 24 hour a day operation. When fair goers go home for the evening, cleaning crews primp the grounds and vendors restock so each day, visitors have a great experience. The fair isn’t just a fair, it’s a system.

            How can your business create processes and systems so your clients have an effortless experience?   Take a look at your operations manual, has it been updated lately or is it out of date and not being used? Every vendor at the state fair receives a new and updated operations manual every year, no matter how many years they been a part of it. Current operations manuals are crucial to creating an effortless, enjoyable experience for your clients. Current operations manuals also create confidence in your staff because they contain the information they need to execute their responsibilities.   So before you head out to the state fair this year, take note of what might need to be updated in your manual, and then take a look around at the fair and notice those effortless things that make your fair experience enjoyable. And also, grab a Pronto Pup for me.