Rick Denton: 0:05

You're listening to CX Passport, the show about creating great customer experiences with a dash of travel talk. Each episode well talk with our guests about great CX, travel...and just like the best journeys, explore new directions we never anticipated. I'm your host Rick Denton. I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport. Let's get going. The crack of the bat the roar of a crowd after a late goal scores to win the match a crushing pick six and with all credit to Luther Vandross and David Barrett, the ball is tipped, and we see one shining moment. But if you thought about what all goes into creating a great experience for fans, we think frequently of customer experience and travel or retail or hospitality. But have you thought about how to create a great experience for your guests for your fans at a sporting event? across an entire season across decades of seasons for generations of fans? Well, that's exactly what our next guest Erin Swales senior director guest experience at the San Diego Padres spends her days delivering. I'm quite thankful we found a travel day where I can steal time away from her during this very successful season so far. Erin, welcome to cx passport.

Erin Swales: 1:24

Thanks for having me. I'm excited.

Rick Denton: 1:26

Yeah, it's gonna be fun this I'm really excited about this topic today. So the idea of guest experience for a sports team as a discipline, maybe a new concept for our listeners, I know it was relatively new to me as well. Maybe just start us off by explaining what you think of when you say guest experience in that context.

Erin Swales: 1:45

For many people, when they think about sports, or attending a sporting event, just think of the players on the field, or in the arena, or the what I like to call the sensory experience the sights that they you know, lights, the sounds, the clapping, the entertainment aspect, the smells of the popcorn are the hot dogs. But there's really, as far as I'm concerned, the guest experience goes much, much deeper than that, with a lot that goes on behind the scenes. So much like other industries, the strategies behind recruiting, you know, frontline talent, to help with the different touch points about your arrival, what we put on our website, how you purchase your tickets, all that touches your guests experience when you're attending a game. And all of that, when done well is part of the behind the scenes experience to enhance your experience. So my goal ultimately, with my team is win or lose when you come and spend your money at a padres game that you walk away. And you may have come to st see touchies at a home run. But you walk away and you say oh my goodness, my ticket taker and that officer really made my experience that much better. And I'll come back because I really enjoyed that type of

Rick Denton: 3:10

experience. That's got to be that's so true, right? Because I've had sporting events. And yes, my team has not won at times. But I can still walk away from there and think that I've had this really, really delightful experience. And it is and I think we'll hopefully have the chance to dive into that a little bit later. Because it's got to be an incredible path to get all of that solved across all the different dimensions that exist in a ballpark or in other sort of fan and guest experiences so so I imagine after hearing this kind of that very high level that there are some that are going to want to get into this world like they're listening thing that man that's great. I've been doing customer experience for a car dealership, but my gosh, I would much rather do it in the sporting world. Talk to me about your journey that got you from the beginning to where you are now.

Erin Swales: 3:55

I've I kind of fell into this very early on and I do say you know my office is a ballpark and so it is not the worst place to go to every day when you come to work. But I started I grew up in downtown Detroit next to the old Tiger Stadium. So I've always been around sports. Ironically, my neighbors growing up were the car attendants parking attendants and ushers at the old Tiger Stadium. My dad was on the grounds crew. Oh, wow. Okay, but never in a million years did I have that intention. I went to Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I studied journalism and marketing. And it was there at Marquette that I started interning for the Milwaukee Bucks. And I stayed with the bucks for about three years and really learned the back round and what it takes to pull off an event or a game. fell in love with that world and the excitement of coming to a game and putting on that experience for others. So that I left the box in, in 2009. And I came down to the Atlanta Braves and was a part of the Braves for about 10 years built the new ballpark was a part of that whole transition. And spent a little bit of time in the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. And I had become very involved in the guest experience world for for MLB and for our league. And it was then that my counterpart at the time for the Padres called me and he was moving up to so hi Stadium in LA Camryn Durham. And they had an opportunity here in San Diego. So I came over to San Diego A few years ago, and that's how I landed here. Boy, it's

Rick Denton: 5:47

gonna be hard to imagine a world where you're not in San Diego, I imagine it's just absolutely lovely out there. And you're right, the the opportunity to have your ballpark as an office has got to be fantastic. So as you think through that journey, right, so you've gone to those different things. you've followed this evolutionary path, but there's got to be something that is sort of driving kind of your approach to guest experience or fan experience that has kept you in this world. What is it that sort of saying, Hey, I love this is this is where I want to be serving our fans serving our guests, and helping them have that delightful experience.

Erin Swales: 6:22

Yeah, I remember when I was with the box, just starting my career, and not knowing, you know, really what a career in sports on the non sales side really meant. And I interned and I'm forever grateful for that experience in Milwaukee because I really got a chance to dabble in all the different departments from sales to service to you know, PR communications to community affairs. And I kind of landed and guest experience or fan experience up there. And it was because they needed the most help at the time. And it really was the niche for me because it's an over the years it's evolved into the one on one individual making memories for families and individuals who are coming to games, no matter the sport. That does not change. It didn't change between basketball, baseball, or any of the other experiences about the families who write in and say, hey, I want to bring my grandfather to his first game. Hey, my child is a huge fan of whatever player Do you think that it could be a special experience when we come in being a part of that and teaching and training your frontline team to be empowered to create those memories, whether or not they're able to get a bow ball or a game used fall or a autograph that day that their their intention was you can really be a part of making family memories. I just met a family at our games this week that I hadn't seen in 15 years. And they came to San Diego traveling from South Carolina and now their kids are grown up and I saw them and Atlanta many years ago when they were young and we had a special just service recovery experience and they lift me up so as a part of that, that I think is really empowering about the world of guest experience it's not just complaints it's not just cold hot dogs and fixing problems it's so much more than that.

Rick Denton: 8:37

I there's there's something unique about sports, that it gets at the heart if you're if you're if you're a fan or to take the European soccer that if a supporter you're it's like it becomes your life. I mean, my goodness we've seen if you take the European Soccer World, how intense the fan connection was to the point of protesting major corporate decisions that were made on behalf of the team. And so your world being able to connect with the heart of the customer. I like what you said that hey, it's yes, we do the service recovery on the hotdogs but we're really more about building those memories. And I can absolutely speak to the fact that the the memories that I have created with both my son and daughter have been deeply cemented in moments of sports and the delight that comes out of that.

Erin Swales: 9:23

It's a passion, right? It's a passion for the sport. It's a passion that bridges generations, as you said in the memories that, you know, baseball specifically, people traveled to see the stadiums or the ballparks and they don't even care who's playing and it's the whole culture that I always say it brings together much like an air. An airplane, you never know who you're going to be sitting next to at a game and so it kind of brings together this very cool group of passionate people that you can learn from no matter where you are in the world.

Rick Denton: 9:59

That's awesome. Well, let's Hey, let's pivot to traveling because I like that you brought that up. So specifically sports travel, but I'm going to be asking about you, not your guests. Now you can't answer San Diego, because I would imagine you would say that but so other than San Diego, what and where is your favorite sports experience

Erin Swales: 10:18

that I have been honored to stay in touch with former boss of mine, Matt Lynch, and he has started his own company moonshot. And he brings me along for consulting on some of his projects. So one of the coolest travel sports experiences I had was with him and his team is at the NFL London Games. Yeah, so it was just eye opening for me. I had been to London before but not representing the NFL and teaching people in England about American football and I'm excited experience was very fun. It was really a neat way to expand the sport globally.

Rick Denton: 11:07

Well imagine when you took that trip to London, that some lounges might have been a nice experience right? It's a long flight but so let's let's do a little change of pace here and join me in that first class lounge. We'll move quickly here and hopefully have some fun. What is a dream travel location from your past? Malta, that is a new one for me. I have not had a guest mentioned multiple four. Tell me about that.

Erin Swales: 11:31

I am Maltese. My grandfather was from Malta. Going to Malta I took my mom on an epic trip to Greece, Italy and Malta recently and it was it was great.

Rick Denton: 11:42

Oh man, that does sound delightful. I would I would love to be basking there in the Mediterranean and enjoying what that island has to offer for sure. What is a dream travel location you've not been to yet.

Erin Swales: 11:55

My husband and I have a running list. Navy and so he's been all over the world but um, you know, it's very close to San Diego. But next on our running list is by Guadalupe wine tasting just down in Baja.

Rick Denton: 12:11

Okay. You're throwing all sorts of new stuff at me. I don't did not even know the wine tasting down there. Tell me a little bit about that.

Erin Swales: 12:21

The new Napa it's just south of San Diego and the Baja peninsula. And they have it's a foodie and wine lovers delight I here and we we actually had to cancel our honeymoon during COVID down there. So it is next on our list to go to.

Rick Denton: 12:38

Well, I do hope that you absolutely get a chance to go there now that I know that even the additional context of the honeymoon being involved. But yeah, well hopefully you will get a chance to be down there soon. So with that foodie element of that, what is a favorite thing to eat? It's hard to go wrong with hard to go wrong with pizza. Yeah, I can actually say I just had some pizza last night. So yes, I'm with you there. On the opposite side. What is the thing your parents forced you to eat but you hated as a kid?

Erin Swales: 13:10

Yeah, I really don't have a food I dislike and I was my dad was a stay at home dad when we were my sister and I were growing up in Detroit. So I remember eating a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. I still like those things. But I just remember

Rick Denton: 13:27

a lot of that. Well, I'm still a fan of the grilled cheese and tomato soup. But perhaps if I'd had it as frequently as you're describing, maybe not so going back to travel. What is one travel item you will not leave home without

Erin Swales: 13:44

good shoes, good walking and running shoes. I've tripped across enough cobblestone streets that I've learned my lesson that traveling shoes are important.

Rick Denton: 14:04

So I know his major league baseball looks to do wonderful things with their guests and fan experience. I know I've seen companies inside a specific industry, they look at each other. So in the case of MLB it might be teams looking at teams to assess how they're doing. But how have you been able to elevate guest experience by looking outside of MLB

Erin Swales: 14:25

a big believer in you learn from others and others that are not like you. And so I all the time I'm looking at other industries and the natural ones are the hotel's the restaurants. Some some interesting crossovers with us that I love learning from are the tech spaces the healthcare, hospital systems, airlines, but some of the interesting ones within those buckets, you know, restaurants, it's not just fine dining. I've learned a lot and kind of taken some best practices from Jimmy John's fast food at chick fil a fast food Jimmy John's I remember walking in to a store and they they were highlighting their staff as rock stars on table tents on their table. They had little staff, you know, their sandwich artists BIOS, and it was just a really neat touch. So we, we kind of adapted that to say, Well, how can our fans here really learn more about their Usher's and really put a name and a face to that and so you know, creating baseball cards with the Usher on them instead of the player? Delta from airlines, you know, when I was in Atlanta, we had Greg Kennedy who ran operations for the Atlanta airport, come speak at our MLB conference for guest experience, because he was a part of when the whole airport shut down, their system went down. And so learning from others and how they adapted on the fly with different situations, for example of all of our ticket scanners went down one day, you know, what would we do? And how would we quickly pivot? So learning from those experiences are really beneficial. As always, as everyone in this industry, is, you're always analyzing and looking I mean, during COVID you're looking at signage, how can we display the same signage but in a unique and meaningful way? You know, we used the tagline play it safe, you know, building upon baseball, you don't always just have to use the same language. How do you stand out? If I am a guest at a hotel, I remember going to New York money years ago now and staying at the Ritz. And they just casually mentioned when we were booking our trip that we were going to see Chicago to Broadway play. When I got into my hotel room, there was the CD playing the soundtrack of Chicago and I thought I was into the wrong room. They said no, you know, we hope you enjoyed your your time in New York City. So I always say, Well, if if we know, little personalized touches like that, that memory stays with you. And it can create loyal customers and really repeat business, if you just take the extra time to go above and beyond what your service touches. So I think all the time about places and other industries that you can cross over and use best practices on.

Rick Denton: 17:30

Yeah, that what you're describing is getting back to that heart, right? The the heart, the the, the meaning the moment to be able to make something meaningful for someone. But even the things that you're describing there, there was such a process, there's such an operations element to that these things didn't happen. Somebody had to hear what you said to the writs. They had to record that get it to the right person somehow. And probably there's been other Chicago fans there that they're able to play the CD in the room, but there's a process there. And so I'm sitting here thinking about a sporting event, and I'm visualizing walking in to globaleye field here in Arlington, Texas. And there's so much involved, you've already mentioned several things. But it's it's one thing to make it a functional experience for a fan. But I know you're working to make it truly meaningful, not just functional. So how does your team How does guest experience work together with all of those operational functions to create those meaningful experiences?

Erin Swales: 18:32

It really, it really does take a team. You know, it sounds cliche, especially in sports to say to use teamwork and team words, but it really does. And quite often very common even in other industries. You're working with contracted partners all the time, our contracted partners, our security team, for example, our food and beverage team, our housekeeping team, yeah, all different organizations working together to pull off an event. And so you really do have to purposely and it's often at least in my world, driven by our guest experience team, working together with all those partners to have a joint strategy as, as basic as what kind of talent Are we going to decide to recruit to work here on our campus? And we all have to be aligned on that vision? What kind of training component will we align ourselves on? What are the basics that we expect in every interaction with every single staff member no matter their role? Can we have a joint and we do at the Padres recognition strategy and program because it really does take all of us and to make that true experience a line and things like if someone calls into the front desk or in our world, the ticket line and mentioned something how does that get to the end Use your frontline staff and how do we efficiently communicate those things at Petco Park with my team we came up with a service vision and values system. So ours is the Petco Park promise jumia three service values care, connect and exceed. And that's what we train on. We put it on all of our job descriptions for an Asscher for ticket taker. No matter your role, you are committing to that Petco Park promise when you sign up when you apply to work for us. And then you're trained on what those three values mean in your role. And it varies according if you're an engineer, if you are a groundskeeper, those, those details will vary. But the overall promise is the same. And those values are the same. So that the end of the day, when you're struggling to make a decision, or really, as an empowered frontline staff member, if you are wondering if you should or how you can make a memory or enhanced an experience, you go back to that care, connect, exceed and you know, that's what you're trained on. That's what your recognition program is on. And that's what our measurement, for example, our analytics measure if we are being successful on, I'd like

Rick Denton: 21:11

that, and I was going to ask you a little bit more about the hiring aspect of it. But that's what I love. So you've got that, that care, connect and exceed as as the I'm sure it goes deeper than this, but it's almost the employee handbook. And it's one page care, connect and exceed right? And how that weaves through the hearts of your employees, and then how that manifests into the delivery of great customer experience. Because we hear right, you create a customer experience only as good as what you provided an employee experience. So can I ask you to unpack a little bit on the recognition piece of what you described there? I'd like to know a little bit more about that. Because I've I've talked with other companies both on the podcast and off the podcast, that that's an area that they aren't doing as well in that the frontline is the closest moment to the customer. The frontline touches the customer more than anybody else and headquarters or whatever term you want to call it. So how do you how does how does the Padres help collect that input from the customer when something's been delightful from the frontline? And how do you celebrate and get that back to them?

Erin Swales: 22:14

Yeah, it's it's a ongoing puzzle that I've been a part of very, very different recognition programs, every place that I've worked, but the basics, always come down to making it simple to encourage and empower your frontline staff to to really go above and beyond for the guest and make it when I say simple, I mean that they don't have to ask so many steps of permission before they do something. So with the Padres, we have a recognition program that includes all of our third party contracted partners. It's it's on the spot recognition where we actually have a digital platform now where we can assign points we saw you care connected, we assign a service value so you know exactly which one it was tied to and we can recognize you on the spot. You earn points and then I'm a big believer in recognition is that you can choose how you want to be recognized. So what is an awesome recognition item for me? Yeah, going out in the field and having a full stadium clap for me. And my name and lights on the jumbotron could be someone else's worst nightmare.

Rick Denton: 23:31

What sounds awesome to me, but I see what you're saying. That's Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, I think with

Erin Swales: 23:35

a lot of recognition programs, where they just publicly recognize staff members without asking how they'd like to be recognized, sometimes does more harm than good, right? So if you embarrass someone, they won't ever do that, again, they will never strive to be the employee of the month again. Whereas if you allow them to select perhaps an experience or, you know, tickets for the game, or an autographed bad or even a bobblehead, yeah, then that means so much more for them, then, then the other things so if you leave it up to how they'd like to be recognized, I think that's an important concept to include.

Rick Denton: 24:15

Boy, that is, I could probably ask you about three more hours of questions, because I love the world that you're in. But I'm very tempted to close on that because you have said something incredibly vital there. And that is, you're listening to your employees. And that you've you've empowered them through the the principles that we're talking about here of what are what are the fundamentals of the behaviors that we expect when we're interacting with our guests at the San Diego Padres. And then we're listening to the employees where you and I are just talking about recognition, but I've got to imagine that that weaves itself into other areas to listen the employees to hear, hear what the employees are saying about the customer experience when it may have fallen short, that a fan had a experience that wasn't delightful or there. Verse Hey a fan mentioned something and that is a memorable moment that you can then create for the future. I really like the approach that you're taking there and

Erin Swales: 25:10

it's it's so simple but it's so overlooked often is to use your frontline staff I you know, as far as the the guest comments, right, you have to tap into the silent majority of fans or guests that are not going to fill out a survey that are not going to openly complain or openly give you feedback. They are talking in my world to their ushers they are talking to they're not even giving knowing that they're giving feedback. But if you empower your server, who's an in seat beverage serv r to record and notice that Er n's favorite drink as a as a c ke, then you have a system in p ace to actually learn from our frontline staff more about our guests and you empower the to be a part of the process. I is you get more data, you get ore feedback, rather than the extremes that sometimes take the initiative to fill o t a postgame survey in my wo

Rick Denton: 26:18

I love that simplicity. Right We there's the theme, right? listening to your employees, your frontline the simplicity of that the underlying operational process that is required. But instead of putting it on the guest to have to fill out that survey listening to that, that frontline that observed it just organically is so much of a simpler way of making it happen, Erin, man I've really enjoyed this and I know that the listeners will enjoy hearing the stories from someone who has lived the fan that guest experience path. I imagine a few are now probably pivoting over to LinkedIn and think Alright, how can I start building this path out for it and, and you definitely shared some of that your journey has been interesting. I am was glad to hear about some of your other your sports travel experiences. And it was certainly fun to talk about how sports is so meaningful and kind of cements that that moment inside someone's and bridges that gap across generations and all of that. But I definitely like to close out with what you had said there about the listening to the employees and using that as one of the greatest ways to connect with the customer. And make that be your voice of the customer and be able to then use that cycle back to the frontline to deliver great customer experiences. Erin, I've loved it. Thank you so much for being on cx passport today. I do hope that you enjoy the rest of your non travel day and enjoy getting back into the season very shortly. So thanks a lot Erin loved having you on.

Erin Swales: 27:49

Thanks for having me. Go Padres!

Rick Denton: 27:55

Thanks for joining us this week on CX Passport. Make sure to visit our website cxpassport.com where you can hit subscribe so you'll never miss a show. While you're at it, you can check out the rest of the EX4CX website. If you're looking to get real about customer experience, EX4CX is available to help you increase revenue by starting to listen to your customers and create great experiences for every customer every time. Thanks for listening to CX Passport and be sure to tune in for our next episode. Until next time, I'm Rick Denton, and I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport.