Best Practices for Incident Prevention in Amusement and Entertainment

How to Stay Calm and Communicate During a Crisis

Amusement parks, water parks, and family entertainment centers (FECs) are open to a wide range of known and unknown risks every day they welcome guests. The most experienced operators know that the next accident is not a matter of “if,” but “when.”

They take a proactive approach to risk mitigation, which means having a plan in place to identify and address potential hazards, as well as procedures for responding to accidents when they occur.

Read as our experts at McGowan Allied Specialty Insurance discuss some of the key elements of a proactive risk mitigation plan and share top tips for creating a culture of safety in your business.

Prepare Your Staff to Prevent and Stop Problems

Amusement parks, waterparks, and family entertainment centers (FECs) are all places where people come to have fun and make memories. But accidents can happen, and when they do, they can have devastating consequences.

That is why it is so important to practice incident prevention. By taking steps to identify and mitigate potential hazards, you can help to keep your guests safe and avoid costly lawsuits.

These are a few tips for practicing incident prevention:

Brainstorm with your team to anticipate incidents before they happen.
Gather your supervisors and managers for an extensive session focused on everything that could go wrong.
Identify potential hazards and develop plans to mitigate them.
After you have identified potential problems, change your corporate policies and processes accordingly.
Train your staff on how to identify and respond to potential incidents.
Create a culture of safety where everyone is responsible for preventing accidents.

By following these tips, you can help to create a safe and enjoyable environment for your guests.

Develop a Crisis Management Plan

A crisis can happen at any time, and it can last for hours, days, or even longer. Your team needs to make quick decisions to limit damage to your business, its reputation and the public. A crisis management plan can help your team by giving them a roadmap for how to respond during unexpected events.

Here are some details that an effective crisis management plan should include:

Documentation explaining what criteria that defines a crisis event.
Established monitoring systems and best practices to detect early warning signals of any potential crisis.
Identification of the spokesperson(s) in the event of a crisis.
A list of key emergency contacts.
Documentation of who will need to be notified during a crisis and how that notification will be made.
A defined process for assessing an incident, its potential severity and its impact on the facilities and employees.
Detailed procedures of how to respond to a crisis and emergency assembly points where employees can go.
Documentation detailing a strategy for social media and website posting and responses.
A process for testing the effectiveness of the crisis management plan and a schedule for updating it regularly.

Incident prevention is a win-win for amusement parks, water parks and FECs. It protects guests, boosts your bottom line and creates a more productive and engaged workforce.

Create a Crisis Communication Strategy

Communication is vital for getting through a crisis. By keeping your team informed, you can help them stay calm and reduce fear. As the situation develops and new information becomes available, it is essential to keep people updated.

Employees look to management for leadership during high-stress scenarios. When communication is lacking, it can increase fear and create more problems.

Following these tips can help to ensure that your organization is prepared to communicate effectively during a crisis:

Designate a crisis communications team. This team should be made up of people who are calm under pressure and who can deliver information in a clear, concise, and truthful manner.
Create templates for potential scenarios. This will help you to quickly and easily communicate with your stakeholders during a crisis.
Test your crisis communication plan regularly. This will help you to ensure that it is effective, and everyone knows their roles.

Run through your call tree. This will help you identify any gaps in your communication plan.
Periodically send out automated messaging tests. This will help you ensure that your messaging system works properly.

Parks and FECs should identify, evaluate, and prioritize risks before a crisis happens. This will help them identify risk exposure and create policies and procedures to mitigate those risks. By being proactive, you can be prepared to communicate effectively and protect your employees, visitors, and organization’s reputation.

Managing Social Media During a Crisis

If you use a third-party platform to schedule social media posts in advance, such as Hootsuite, be sure to turn off any scheduled posts immediately following a crisis. Posts that are not related to the crisis can appear insensitive and misleading. An effective social media strategy during a crisis is empathetic, acknowledges the crisis and provides updates.

Create a social media response plan that includes:

A list of key contacts, including social media managers, legal counsel and media relations.
How you will communicate internally.
A list of talking points for responding to questions and concerns.
A plan for responding to negative or critical comments.
The approval process for what you’ll post on social media.
Your social media policy.
Who will do what and when in each department.

By creating a social media response plan, you can help to ensure your organization is prepared to communicate effectively on social media during a crisis.

Navigating Devastating Unexpected Events

Unpredictable crises can be the most devastating. In the amusement and entertainment industry, the risk of severe injuries or loss of life is always present, even if it is rare.

While it is impossible to be fully prepared for these kinds of crises, solid incident prevention and preparation can provide an excellent foundation. In these cases, it is recommended to have a crisis specialist and legal counsel on call to help you navigate the impact on your business.

Incident Reporting Best Practices

Every incident should be reported, documented and investigated. Incident reports should be stored so your company can review and interpret the data to prevent similar incidents from happening. Designated staff should generate reports for the following incidents:

Events that result in injury, property damage, or loss of productivity.
Events that could have resulted in injury, property damage, or loss of productivity.
Any condition that could pose a hazard to employees or guests.
Violations of company policy or procedure by employees, including On the job motor vehicle accidents.
Complaints from customers about the service or product they received.

Reporting, documenting, and investigating incidents can help your company identify and address potential hazards, prevent future incidents, and protect the safety of its employees and guests.

Best Practices for Incident Prevention in Amusement and Entertainment

How to Stay Calm and Communicate During a Crisis

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