Employee training

Our first trip to the park this season last Friday. Lovely weather, beautiful beach, clean park, awesome rides & ...rude employees. I would like to know how much training the staff goes through on customer service. I know there are rude guests that push the rules & limits of the patience of others. But at the risk of the dreaded comparison to the mouse house in Orlando, I have never seen the poor customer service atitudes that are prevalent at Cedar Point while at Disney. It went so far this year as that the ride op at the Power Tower actually insulted my son & one of his friends. And this was not provoked. No cutting in line or mouthing off. These are nice guys that the bored (& trying to impress the girl working with him) ride op decided to call gay & balding. WTH?? Sorry to be negative on a first post in awhile, but anyone else see this problem?

I've noticed employees, not all, but some, get very bored with their jobs as the season wears on and begin to get rude, (un)funny, and unprofessional when doing their jobs. CP probably does this. But, if not, they should have unmarked people watching the actions of the employees and reporting any inappropriate behavior and dealing with the problem. Unfortunately, staffing is probably an issue and dealing with employees the way they need to be dealt with is a double edged sword.

I haven't been to the park in the mid summer yet; but a couple years ago around this time when I went to the park and there was was some rude and borderline inappropriate things being said over the microphone on one ride. That is the one disadvantage to not having auto spiels; the ride hosts' behavior and tone are on display and can be heard by everyone.

I noticed an improvement in customer relations during our last trip, which was this past weekend.
The people in the shops greeted us when we went in and wished us a nice day when we left.
We did not ride any rides this trip. Too hot to stand in line, so I can
not comment on the people working the rides.

When I went last Monday I have to say that overall the staff was really nice, and my favorite ride ops were at Dragster. Even toward the end of the evening, one ride op in particular was really funny. He was making lots of jokes, saying the usual ride op quotes about geting ready to ride, the stats, etc in funny voices. I didn't really see any problems on any rides. However I knew someone that went to the park this past weekend and they said the Magnum ride op was very boring and unenthusiastic, and mumbled monotonously "welcomebackridershowwasyourride." I will admit though that overall I found every single employee, no matter what their job, at Six Flags Great Adventure to be happy, funny, and seemed like they really cared about each guests' experience. I don't know if SF does any type of training but CF definitely needs to look into how to improve guest-employee relationships.

From my experiences, the rude employees seem to be in the food stands. I can understand that having a bunch of park guests asking for the free cups of water would get annoying, but they just give me this pouty and unhappy look.

^ Agree six flags employees are, on an aggregate level, much better than CP in terms of friendliness, enthusiasm, and dare I say, knowledge. I can't tell you how many times I've asked a question at CF parks and been told they don't know. Which is fine if you don't know, but GO FIND OUT!

If I had to rank them, I'd put Disney employees at the top, followed by SF, then my local DMV, then Cedar Point last.

Naturally there are exceptions, and some great employees and ride ops at CP, but on the whole I think it's pretty rotten.

Up until this year, it seemed that Cedar Fair was all around the best with employees. This year however, I have witnessed multiple accounts of rudeness, ignorance, and even PDA with other employees. I have been to Cedar Point twice in the past month, and it seems that some of the crews don't even care about their jobs.

My one problem with employees is the selection of international people. One visit this summer, I had stopped in the restroom by CPLE RR & Wildcat location. I needed to throw something away and couldn't find a trashcan inside. I asked an employee. He did not understand what I was saying. He then pointed at the hand dryers. I kept repeating myself. He had no clue. "TRASHCAN". What's so hard to understand? He then motioned toward the sinks. I gave up and walked out. I don't recall ever going into a restroom at CP without trashcans inside. Even with hand dryers, there is usually at least one can.

How did this employee get hired when he can't understand english? I would love to sit in on that interview!

Usually 1 person will interview for a group of people. When I was a supervisor for quick service foods we would routinely get internationals that sometimes do not speak a lick of English. I have also had employees that had no concept of American money. With foods they do usually get a lot of interaction with English speaking people and will pick up the language i can see where a sweep will keep to themselves and not pick up the language as well.

I can speak from experience that I definitely had my bad days. I might get burned for this, but it also depends on the stress your supervisors and managers put on you too. Your attitude is also reflected from your Team Leader and Assistant Team Leader. My TL and ATL gave great motivation throughout the season, but like I said, there are times when one thing after the other changes your attitude and you don't realize it when interacting with guests or while spieling. But I will say that the good days weighed out the bad no doubt.

However, as for the Power Tower ride op, that is absolutely uncalled for. Was this ride operator wearing khaki pants and a clip on name tag, or the normal Cedar Point uniform? Because the ones in the khaki pants are not actual Cedar Point employees and DO NOT care about their job. They are called "Ride Prides" and they usually don't take 'pride' in their work and I have caught many of them doing things similar to this but not as bad.

@Twisted CP does get a bad wrap sometimes this part of the season because of Ride Prides and Food Boosters. They are a double edge sword because CP needs them to keep the park staffed, but usually could care less about guest service.

I think the problem that Cedar Point has with employee's is:

they hire all new employees each year. Hardly anyone is from the previous year. They are their for only a short time. I know they don't read the employee manual because we are in it with a discount. And I personally think this would be hard to do. Which is get everyone on board.

Jayme Criscione said:
I think the problem that Cedar Point has with employee's is:

they hire all new employees each year. Hardly anyone is from the previous year. They are their for only a short time. I know they don't read the employee manual because we are in it with a discount. And I personally think this would be hard to do. Which is get everyone on board.

That seems to be a sweeping generalization. While there are a lot of first years, there are also a handful of returners too, although we're definitely in the minority. Just because some of us have red tags, that doesn't mean that we're first years. When we process in, we sign a form saying that we are guaranteed employment as long as we finish the previous season in good standing. So it's not like they just don't hire returners. People move on with their lives, and for most it's just a summer job.

And what does not reading our discount guide have anything to do with the quality of the employees? I've read my SOP manual, my ride manuals, the employee guidelines, etc., but I've never been to Ghostly Manor in the three seasons I've worked at the Point. I just don't really see the logic there. Maybe I'm just misinterpreting it.

As for Ride Prides, they can either be good or bad, just like a regular seasonal employee. I've worked with some who are outstanding, and others who are not-so-much.

MilleniumSpork, I didn't mean to offend you. But we have had problems with employees not knowing what they are doing and have reported it. We go all the time and nothing is consistant. And I really hate to say anything bad about them because they do a great job in so many areas. Having said that we love Cedar Point and I understand their dilemma. I have talked to other compainies that advertise in the CP employee manual and they do not really get any business from it. And if an employee comes into our location they have no idea that I give a discount. This to me says not many people are reading it. Maybe the handful of you are. This is just my opinion. As everyone know hands have changed in management. I have heard alot of good things are going to come out of this. So I am not giving up on CP by any means. Maybe I just wanted to do a little venting.

There is so much confusion in all areas of the parks from what rules to be strict about, to which ones there are exceptions for and every ride acts upon them differently because not everybody is trained the same.

MillenniumSpork hit the nail right on the head. As for my comment about the Ride Prides, you are right. Some are really good and fun to work with while others are just plain bad, rude, inconsiderate, and don't pay attention or report anything to the TL or whoever is in charge. My comment about the Ride Prides was in regards to the OP's experience at Power Tower.

A lot of times it's hard to fully account for the poor performance of a few employees against the entire staff, especially given how large a theme park is. Obviously if there was a system in place where management's on point at every waking moment, but again, given the size and time it takes for complaints to be filed and acknowledged, it's gotta be difficult.