Can we talk about Throughput?

[Empressnightshade]

For one I love it when some small haunts comes to my haunt in the middle of a Saturday nights and brags about how their customers say their haunt is scarier than ours. My first response is always the same...if you're so much better why are you here on a Saturday night at midnight? Don't you see all the people still lined up around the building? LOL

Larry

Hate to break it to you, but a long line does not a good haunt make. There's a large haunt here who has long lines for the simple fact it has been here the longest without anyone to seriously challenge them. Every year, I hear customers come here complaining of their plain black walls and lack of scenes. I'm a "small haunt" who has been told our show is better than the larger ones....just because we are "small" doesn't mean we cannot give a better show. As I hope you know, it takes time to build up a clientele.

[Empressnightshade]

This is a great topic to discuss. Someone should do an article on it!!!

Someone did!
Norm Glenn, owner of Mansion of Terror in Texas wrote an article in Haunted Attraction Magazine entitled, "Effective Throughput in a Haunted Attraction." VERY informative!

Here's the link:

http://www.hauntedattraction.com/ind...position=69:14

[MMManiac]

In my opinion the point of a haunt is to entertain our customers. Pushing people through faster just so you can meet your "___ per hour" quote to fatten your pocket book shouldn't be what haunts are all about. Yes I would LOVE to bring in $100,000 + for our charity but overall we just want to put on a good show for people to enjoy and what we make for the charity we make. Although on the other hand I believe you dont want the customers to have to wait to long either so at times u have to find that happy balance of wait time vs show time.

Empressnightshade you said it the best. Long lines means nothing. We may not have the longest lines but I think we put on a pretty goos show too for being a small haunt.

Sean

[TheNightMare]

Someone did!
Norm Glenn, owner of Mansion of Terror in Texas wrote an article in Haunted Attraction Magazine entitled, "Effective Throughput in a Haunted Attraction." VERY informative!

Here's the link:

http://www.hauntedattraction.com/ind...position=69:14

Yes, I agree that acticle is so worth reading.

Putting on a good show and keeping people happy is the success to the busines. I have waited in lines before, half hour tops and then I would have been able to go in. I dont see a 30 minute wait that long, but 4 hrs. Thats insane, I would probably leave and not come back, if ever.

----

Some of you talk about letting large groups through(12+). Thats sounds like a lotta people going in at once. Sounds like tooo many people to scare. What if your haunt had a rule that ONLY let 6-8 people in at a time? They would have to be split up and wait for there friends outside after they've done the walkthrough. That too me doesn't seem unreasonable.

[gadget-evilusions]

At our haunt we try to put through a group of 6 every 30 seconds. If there is a large group (6+) we ask them if they mind splitting up, if they don't want to then we don't make them. If your actors are good they can still get 2-3 scares out of 12 people, scare and reset fast, scare and reset fast. Even with 4-8 seperate attractions (all with seperate lines) we can still wind up with a 2 hour wait putting people though every 30 seconds (mostly when there are 2000+ people on the fairgrounds trying to get scared). 30 seconds per group is as fast as we can go and still hope to be putting on a good show. If we only have 10 people in line, we do slow down to maybe a group every minute or so. Our individual house managers are responsible for keeping the line moving at the appropriate pace depending on the number of people in line and clearing bottle necks. Now if there line gets too long the veterans come over and run their line for them for a bit and pound the people through, but only in extreme cases.

[Empressnightshade]

I am so very concerned about throughput as we have the potential to have very long lines this season.

BUT, this keeps running through my mind.....
I was a bank teller years ago and there were many times I'd look up from a transaction with a customer to see the line almost heading out the door. I was told to take the attitude that the line didn't exist and give the person in front of me my full attention and the good service they deserved. In other words, forget the line.

If we have long lines, I know I will feel the stress of trying to get them through, but if we're putting 8 people through every 30 secs to 1 minute, the line will continue to move, thus giving people the feeling they are making progress. As long as they feel this, it should keep them much happier than a line that goes nowhere.

[Frighteners Entertainment]

Here's something we have been doing for the last 4 yrs or so.
I put in alternate entries. These entries would bypass other areas in the haunt. So, they don't get to see everything. They don't know it until they're out and compare notes with their friends (did you see that?) Sell another ticket.
Now mind you, everyone is on headsets, so we know where all of the Hauntes are, so we would know where to send the ones waiting to enter.

[MindWerxKMG]

On busy nights we bring a group of 15 into our grand hall where they get the intro spiel from our Skulltronix skull. We then send through groups of 5 every 30 seconds. On slow nights we bring in groups of 5 or 6 and send them through.

[Jim Warfield]

If I had ever imagined that I was creating a "Monster", I could have done it like The Blue Man Group", hid my face, stayed anonymous, then hired others to pretend to be me and kept every customer more "happy".
I have fans who will only accept "Me" as their entertainer here even though I have some very able and talented people that have worked for me and many that still do.
How do I overcome a line standing there when I am what many of them want?
(No sharp knife suggestions please, I am confidant that I won't do that "Earthworm" thing and become multiples if disected.)
About all that I have come up with over the years is to give everyone a high-energy, very "Jim-Based" 10 minute front room routine to begin their tour.
Of course I do mess with their sense of "time" by speaking slowly for at least a part of this so they feel it was longer than ten minutes.
It is all scalpul-less Brain Surgery isn't it?
"No outside scars...but yes, someone has definately been working on your brain!"