At 7:30am on the final day of the conference, the 7^th annual Mark Fletcher Fun Run/Walk began with perfect weather directly outside of the Gaylord Palms. The Fun Run is open to all conference attendees and is dedicated to the memory of past Foundation Board Chair and NIRSA Honor Award Winner Mark Fletcher. About 170 participants registered for this well-organized 5K event. New this year were stretching machines provided by TechnoGym to help runners stay loose before and recover after the race.

Race participants were honored to have Mark’s wife Gina in attendance to see the love and support that the Fun Run emulates. The great thing about this event is that it is all about fun, support, health, and wellbeing. Whether participants ran, walked, jogged, or skipped, smiles could be seen around the course. All proceeds from the event go to funding opportunities for members’ scholarships, research, and personal and professional development.

It was still dark out as volunteers, staff, and participants made their way to the check-in point of the 7^th annual Mark Fletcher Fun Run/Walk outside the Gaylord Palms Hotel. Named in honor of Mark Fletcher, avid runner and strong advocate for the NIRSA Foundation, proceeds from the event support Foundation research and scholarship opportunities.

This year’s event was extra special as Gina Fletcher, Mark’s wife, was in attendance. “This is a special moment to experience this with the NIRSA crew,” Gina says. “Mark enjoyed the NIRSA Foundation and NIRSA organization so much, so it’s just a special moment for me to be here.” NIRSA Foundation Board of Directors member Suzie Smith, Director at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, says, “Mark was a dear friend of mine and the Fun Run/Walk is to remember him and what he’s done for the Foundation and for NIRSA.”

Fellow Board of Directors member Chris Muller, Associate Director at the University of Texas at Arlington, adds, “I’m happy to see all the people out here supporting [the race], there’s great energy!” Volunteer Katrina Dryja, Assistant Fitness Director at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was directing participants to packet pick-up and was excited to participate in the run herself: “This is another great example of how our [NIRSA] community comes together!” This “I Write for NIRSA” recapper couldn’t agree more!

As the sessions concluded and the deconstruction of the NIRSA registration booths commenced, the remaining NIRSA Annual Conference attendees filed into Osceola C/D at 1:00pm for one last time to hear the Closing Session anchored by former Disney employee Dennis Snow. Dennis spoke about his experiences at the Walt Disney World Company and how we as campus recreation professionals can learn from Disney. The session was meant to introduce—or to some reintroduce—the meaning of being more service driven in our practice by stressing the importance of looking at things through the lens of the members, paying attention to the details, and creating moments of “wow.”

There was no absence of enthusiasm and passion found in Snow’s presentation. From the way he articulated the importance of removing visual intrusions to his creative sense of humor towards some of the questions he has been asked, Dennis’ presentation spoke volumes. Perhaps the most notable moment I took away from the event was a philosophy he shared. Dennis explained that everything we do, we should do with an experience mentality instead of a task mentality. A task mindset will make customers feel processed and there is no value to that. While it is a stretch to transform our campus recreation centers into Disneyworld, rec centers are invested in being leaders and transforming the lives and inspiring the development of healthy communities worldwide.

Of all the sessions I attended throughout the 2016 NIRSA Annual Conference, the Closing General Session was the one I thought about all the way home. Dennis Snow, a past executive of Disney, discussed customer service and how we, as recreation professionals, can utilize the same customer service foundational principles as Disney. “After all,” he said, “we are all in the loyalty business.”

Dennis’ Principles of Customer Service are as follows:

1. Look at everything through the lens of the customer. This can be done through service mapping. This entails going through a process step by step, focusing on what the customer experiences in each step of the process. The idea of mapping a process is one that is often practiced in businesses, but the view point is usually from the management side instead of the customer side. Changing to the “lens of the customer” allows businesses to see where there may be gaps in customer service and make the necessary adjustments to fill those gaps.
2. Everything speaks. By this, Dennis means paying attention to the details. Even the smallest of things can subconsciously alter our feelings towards a business. A specific example Dennis discussed was leaving a back stockroom door open in a nice, boutique clothing store. This detail may be small, but it was allowing “backstage to come onstage.” This idea of backstage coming onstage can be physical like this example, but it can also be “attitudinal.” When employees bring their outside issues into work, they can expose these negative attitudes or comments to customers. This creates a negative atmosphere that could affect the experience of the customer. A proactive approach is to removing “backstage” from a business. It is important to talk about the distraction and then discuss the commitment that the staff agrees to make to ensures the distraction will not occur.
3. Create moments of “wow.” Dennis believes that “wow” moments can only occur once the customer’s expectations have been met. The customer’s expectations typically include accuracy and availability. If those are not met, the customer becomes dissatisfied. If those are met, the opportunity for a “wow” moment presents itself. According to Dennis, customers feel the “wow” moment when they experience partnership with the business or when they receive advice. The initial goal should be for businesses to create small moments of “wow.” These small moments will begin to add up, creating an overall outstanding experience.

Each of these principles can be reviewed on Dennis’ website. Additionally, his website contains “success tools” that businesses may use to assist them in implementing these principles within their organization.