The Challenge: To create “Major League Memories” through extraordinary service to guests in an extraordinary new ballpark.

The Solution: To define a guest services vision and values, and to design an innovative and engaging training program to implement the strategy throughout the organization.

The Results: An unprecedented training process that generated more than 7,000 positive Guest Services Stories and comments in the Padres first season in the new ballpark.

Since their inaugural season in 1969, the San Diego Padres have been a landmark of the sports landscape in San Diego. In 2004, the Padres moved into their new downtown home, PETCO Park, with the goal of creating the world’s best ballpark in America’s finest city.

Specifically, the organization wanted to achieve something that had never been done before—to create “buy in” at every level of the Padres organization and its contracted service partners, which included security, parking, and sports services. This meant developing agreement on the guest services vision and values, tying feedback reward and recognition strategies to the vision, and designing a world class training system that would inspire the passion and develop the structure needed for modeling the new vision and values.

The organization knew that it needed to motivate the entire team to create “Major League Memories” so they partnered with The Ken Blanchard Companies^® to help them define their guest services vision and values. The first step was to create a vision for the training. The second step was to design an innovative and engaging training program. The third step was to ensure that the training process created passion, built relationships, and reinforced the values of safety, service, smiles, and success.

The solution was an innovative and engaging training process delivered to 1,800 people, in 11 locations, over a period of 6 weeks during which the new park was still under construction. At the core of this epic rollout was the customized program that focused on creating an ideal service experience, aligned with the vision and values, and supported by responsive employees and effective leadership. Equally critical was that each employee developed a personal guest services vision statement outlining his or her role in creating a memorable customer experience in a way that was aligned with the established organization vision.

By creating an overarching plan that integrated team member benefits, guest feedback strategies, and a rewards and recognition program the organization had definitely developed a winning approach. According to Richard Andersen, EVP and Managing Director of the San Diego Padres PETCO Park, “Blanchard assisted us in creating the most powerful, interactive adult training session that anyone could imagine. They were instrumental in helping to connect our management team and our contracted services partners in order to cement everyone’s commitment to creating a memorable customer experience.”

The result—a grand slam for the San Diego Padres and PETCO Park! Over 7,000 positive Guest Service Stories and comments were generated in just 83 home games. Through its sustained focus, clear vision, and teamwork, the organization has created an experience where employee passion and defining customer moments converge to create “Major League Memories.”