Nationwide Arena staff goes above and beyond

The Blue Jackets game day experience at Nationwide Arena was rated among the best in the National Hockey League, according to a survey conducted during the 2015-16 season. It was also rated the eighth-best in pro sports by ESPN The Magazine.
The Blue Jackets were among the top tier of NHL clubs in eight categories reviewed, including game day staff, food and beverage, venue technology, safety and security, auxiliary experience and arrival and departure experience.
To recognize the achievements of the countless staff behind that accomplishment, BlueJackets.com is going to explore what happens behind-the-scenes at the arena and in the team's front office to help provide fans a memorable experience. Here is the first segment - which focuses on guest services - in a three-part series:

Be Our (Game Day) Guest!
At Nationwide Arena, fans are accustomed to hearing the cannon go off after the Blue Jackets score, seeing Stinger strut around the concourse and watching captain Nick Foligno and No. 1 netminder Sergei Bobrovsky hug it out after a big win.
While each of those help define a Blue Jackets game for fans, there is another element that is just as important - the people who are dedicated to serving the thousands of guests in attendance each night.
"Dorothy Baker at the club suite stairs…if she's not here one night and she takes a night off, people wonder where she's at," said Michael Hunter, guest services manager for the Blue Jackets and Nationwide Arena. "The staff is as much a part of the team and building as some of the bigger elements, which is really cool."
In his role in the guest services department, Hunter works alongside Cait Schumann - the director of ticketing and guest and event relations - to oversee approximately 200 staff members who work Blue Jackets games, concerts and other events at the arena.
Both agreed that the guest services staff, which is comprised of ushers, ticket takers, concierge, various supervisors, box office staff and more, is a driving force behind the team's high rating among fans who took the survey.
"The calls and the emails and the people stopping by when (game day staff are) not in their areas, speaks volumes to what they mean to the people who come to this building," Schumann said.
One staffer, Mike Gerlach, has only missed three Blue Jackets games in his 16-year tenure with the team. Every game day, Gerlach can be found in section 120-121 greeting and assisting fans, which he said doesn't feel like work.
"I'm proud (to be a Blue Jacket)," Gerlach said. "I tell everybody about the team and the arena, and not just with hockey. It's enjoyable and it's a great place to work and the people are fun to work with. I know everybody from Mike Priest to the janitors, and I try to be friends with all of them."
Among Gerlach's friends is a season ticket holder couple named John and Diana Parish. The pair has been coming to Blue Jackets games since the inaugural season and have known Gerlach for the nine years they've sat in his section.
"Mike's just a real great guy," Diana said. "He always has a smile on his face; he's always interacting. If the Blue Jackets score, he's high-fiving everyone coming and going. He takes his job very seriously."
Diana added that getting to know Gerlach over the last few years has been a lot of fun. In fact, on his birthday every year in April, the couple brings him a hat and cupcakes to celebrate with him.
"He is here at every game," Diana said. "If here's not there, it's like, 'Alright, where is he?' There's several of us season ticket holders that know if he's not around, there's something wrong."
In the survey, the game day staff stood out for its helpfulness and availability to serve fans; Hunter and Schumann noted there are others like Baker and Gerlach who have a strong presence at the arena.
For many fans, the game day staff - from the ushers, like Gabe Gabriel who has worked 600 games, to the elevator attendants like Bill Reed and Tim Magnuson, to the greeters like Gerald Spinks (who can be found at the Front Street entrance) to the guest services desk, where you can ask Joyce Jackson for help, and countless others- are a key part of their experience at the arena.
"The way that I think about it is (the guest services staff) are like our clients in a way," Hunter said. "We want to keep them happy. If they're not happy, then they're not happy when they're working here and this is supposed to be a fun job for them."
There are approximately 135 guest service staff members that work during a game. At the end of the season, staff members will be invited back for another season. Most of the hiring happens during the summer.
Many people who work at the arena hear about the job from guest services staff members as well as full-time staff members. The job openings are also posted online. Once a staff member is hired, they are required to attend new hire training, which Hunter said is a process that has been expanded over the past year.
Every staff member is required to attend new hiring training as well a cross-training session across departments, which covers emergency policy and procedures, updates to the arena and other need-to-know aspects of the job. Additionally, a tour of the arena is also required.

"We encourage people to get to know other staff in the building, even if they're not in our department," Hunter said. "You know, if you're at the same location, typically if you're a ticket taker at Front Street you should get to know the guards that you see there all the time. Get outside your comfort zone and get to know one another so we can all work together."
According to Hunter, new hiring training is designed to prepare staff members for their first day of work. All the formal training sessions add up to around six hours, but Hunter said the learning never stops.
"From there, it's a lot of on-the-job training and showing them how to be a ticket taker, how to be an usher and so on and so forth," Hunter said. "I am completely open to have any conversation, big or small, easy or difficult, with not only our staff but our guests as well to improve the process and overall experience."
At the start of the 2015-16 season, Hunter and Schumann's first campaign together in the guest services department, the pair walked around the arena and talked to all of the game day staff and took notes on their feedback.
"What are they seeing, what are they hearing, what are guests asking for, what sort of issues are they running into?" Hunter said, recalling the questions asked. "That's where we started, and it's evolved into all kinds of employee rewards programs and better ways of tracking attendance and holding our staff more accountable during their time here."
In addition to finding new and improved ways to boost morale and reward their staff, Hunter and Schumann said they are always thinking about ways to improve the fan experience from the minute someone starts their journey to the arena.
"We do walks all the time, putting ourselves in the guests' shoes from the minute they leave their house to parking to getting into the building," Hunter said. "What their first impressions are when they walk in the doors, who it is that's helping them get to their seat and find what they need, whether they've been here for 600 games or it's their first time coming. Everything we do here from the team side and the building side is with the guests in mind. So I think that obviously has resonated."
Additionally, Schumann mentioned that it's important to the guest services staff that all fans have an unforgettable fan experience at Nationwide Arena, and not just the home teams' fans.
"We need to be good hosts," Schumann said. "And they are guests of our building and for the amount of time that we're here, this is our home and we want to make sure that everybody here has a good time."
Upon learning about the survey results, both Hunter and Schumann were reluctant to take any credit for the achievement. Hunter said it's a recognition that has been deserved for a long time.
"My first reaction was I don't think that we changed everything overnight," Hunter said. "I don't want to take full credit for that whatsoever, after only a year, but I think that was probably a long time coming."
Schumann noted that in her role, there are many long hours and days spent at work. But, for her, it's all worth it to see the happy faces of fans and guests while inside Nationwide Arena.
"What really keeps me in this business is going out and seeing 18,000 people having a great time," Schumann said. "For all different kinds of events, it makes the nights and the weekends and the time spent away from my family and my friends all worth it to go out and see all those people having a fantastic time, win or lose, whether it's the best or worst concert ever. If I can look out and see all those people having a great time, I've done something right and we've been very successful."