Happy 2022, Mission Makers! 🎉
We know that it can be daunting to set new resolutions after the holidays (especially when social gatherings are off-limits and gyms are closed), but this time around we’re going to help you direct some of that energy towards your Missions and help you approach the New Year as a new you.
This month’s blog is all about:
Kicking Old Habits
We receive a lot of feedback through our support channels from guests who have played your Missions, and while a lot of families are having fun, we’ve also heard about some experiences from guests who had a less obvious and exciting time with some confusing or unclear Mission layouts or directions, and it’s allowed us to identify some patterns in those Missions that are missing some important wayfinding elements.
We’ll take a closer look at some of these down below and see how a fun experience can be frustrating when a crucial piece of the puzzle is missing. If you think you might be guilty of some of these, don’t feel bad – we’re all constantly learning here! Here are some ways you might be able to improve your setup.
#1: The Mission is TOO BIG
When you think about a visiting family and how they’ll experience your Mission, remember that this is something fun to help augment their navigation around your space. It should be a fun way to spice up a regular visit, but not to the point where it becomes arduous and exhausting!
This is an example of a Mission in which the Manager had set the boundaries loosely for their location before settling on the final placement of their Challenge Markers. Imagine walking the entire distance of this riverside path – you would probably be pretty tuckered out after such a long walk!
Giant Missions are problematic because of the vast amounts of space that do not contain any Challenges. Parents are often not happy about long walks with no fun stories or activities to motivate their children.
A much better approach is to bring your boundaries tighter, like in the above example. Think of a path or distance that would cover a 30 – 45 minute walk,and then place your Challenges on a well-marked linear path or cyclical loop that encompasses that distance
It’s helpful to include the spot where the guest may park, so they can easily orient themselves toward the start of the Mission when they arrive.
#2: No Wayfinding at Mission Start
We see this problem frequently in guest reviews; they’ve heard about your Mission online, and they’re excited! Finally, a way to connect their family with your location that keeps them active, learning and connecting with nature.
But upon parking, there’s no signage that mentions the Mission. The Mission Map is completely blank in your GPS Mission to start, and there aren’t any further directions provided in the welcome message. In this example, the Welcome Message is completely unchanged from our generic copy! What’s this Mission even about? Where do we start?
If it takes the guest longer than 5 minutes to understand how to start the Mission, you’ve likely lost their interest.
HERE are some examples of how it’s done right; these partners have utilized plenty of signage at their park entrances and Visitor’s Centers to orient interested players AND to catch the attention of any visitors who might just be finding out about these exciting Missions.
There’s plenty of information in the Welcome Message below which tells the guest exactly where to start the Mission and the theme of the Mission (which is especially important if you have more than one active at a time).
#2: No Wayfinding at Mission Start
We wanted to end things on this note as it is probably the most important one.
Pretend you’re a parent with kids and you have found out about an amazing Mission at Greenmeadow Nature Center, a nice educational facility about a 30-minute drive from home. Your kids are getting excited on the drive there, but everything comes to a crashing halt when you realize that the Mission advertised on their site is nowhere to be found.Nothing comes up on search, and while the Nature Center still has some fun activities, your kids’ visibly disappointed expressions are nearly matching your own level of frustration.
Now let’s pretend that the Mission is active. You’ve successfully downloaded it to your device, but it’s saying you’re out of bounds! Did you install the app correctly? Is there something else that needs to be done? After asking the staff members at the front desk, it’s clear that nobody on site seems to even know about Agents of Discovery, let alone the Mission that’s being advertised. Once again, you decide that the AoD experience just isn’t in the cards for you this visit.
NOW we’ll pretend that you did successfully install and play the Mission, and though it took a little while and it’s starting to get dark out, you and the family managed to find and answer all the Challenges. Now it’s time to go collect your prize at the Visitor’s Center – but ultimately, the front desk person has no recollection of any prizes that are being given out, or worse yet, they ran out long ago and never restocked.
Any of these situations (among other things) could be the final bullet point in the list of reasons why a guest or family has decided not to play your Mission. We don’t exactly have visual examples of good practices on this one, but here are some key philosophies to remember:
YOUR Mission is YOUR Programming.
The Agents of Discovery service and platform is ultimately an extension of the experiences you’re already known for delivering – just in a digital, augmented reality format. Treat your Missions with the same respect and urgency as any other guided tour or program offered on site.
There WILL be gaps and setbacks in management.
Project managers will move on to different ventures in life, staff may change roles, and previously interested team members may lose interest. It is important to remember that the gap will not fill itself, and if a staff member leaves or switches their workflow, training should be provided and roles re-allocated to make sure nothing is lost in the process. Remember that our Customer Success Team is more than happy to connect with new staff members and provide assistance if you are having any difficulty in the transition.
Excitement is Contagious!
By showing visitors that you are excited about your Missions, it will let them know that they are in dedicated hands. Conversely, when you connect with your guests and see exactly how much fun they’re having, it will encourage you to keep coming up with more engaging adventures and memories and will also make you more aware of their initial expectations, as well as other things they’d like to see.
TURN OFF PREVIEW MODE!!!
If nobody (not even you) can find your Mission right now, we can almost guarantee you that it’s likely still in Preview Mode.
Questions?
As always, if you have any questions about Mission Making, please feel free to use our Website’s Live Chat, or reach out to our customer success team at:
Alternatively, give us a call at 1-855-564-7328 (ext. 212)!
If you haven’t done so already, please be sure to join the Mission Makers Facebook Group where you can connect with other Mission Makers around the world to share content, ideas, and methods for sharing your Missions!
Happy Mission Making!
Regards,
The Agents of Discovery Customer Success Team