In the interest of transparency, I'm committing to sharing the results of the VA Peninsula customer sat surveys after every season and addressing some of the concerns posted. The goal is not to be defensive or deflect any of the criticism. It's to explain what we're doing to address the feedback or share perspective.
To start with, let's look at the overall results. They're great! We had 50 respondents to the Spring survey with 88% indicating that their 'satisfaction' was an 8 or higher. No player rated their sat lower than a 5. These are tremendous results that are not typical across the country. Very proud, and happy that we've created a league that so many people enjoy.
But we aren't perfect, and there is still room to grow. Lots of great feedback in the comments. Let's take a look at some of them along with my replies.
"Don't combine the end of season and any other tournament parties. Turn it into two parties instead!!!!"
"No more bar tab. The bar just push liquor, which makes the bar tab goes quick. Beer kegs and some limit tap on wine would be preferable."
"With the size of the league, the tabs at the end of season party and mid season party are starting to not be adequate enough for all the players to participate. I think we need to offer another solution such as monitored kegs, drink tickets etc. so it doesn't turn into a mad dash of "let us all get as many drinks as possible in the first 20 minutes before the tab closes". "This was just three comments, but feedback about the parties was definitely the most common theme. We were forced out of necessity to combine the Mid-Atlantic and VA Peninsula parties out of budgetary concerns. We ended up with a party budget of $1800 for the end of season. With two separate, we would have had budgets of $1,300 and $500. Which would've been difficult to make impactful, so I don't think that the decision to merge the two was a bad one. Now, with that said, the feedback is valid about the tab running out quickly. We crushed it in about an hour for both the Mid-Season and End of Season. That's not a result of the extra players from the regional, so much as it is just because we have probably out grown bar tabs.
Going forward, we're going to put more focus on purchasing kegs and/or other solutions to help the "free" alcohol last longer. And more importantly, the feedback has probably exposed a real need for us to improve the overall quality of the social events. Not that they are bad now (I think I do a decent job), but I could use some help. So, we did announce last week that we've brought on Fagel Baer as the WAKA Hampton Roads Social Coordinator. As an official WAKA employee, her focus will be strictly on planning parties, themes, and events while Keith and I focus on the kickball side of the house and everything involved with that.
I'm confident that these steps will help us take the parties to a whole other level. Thank you to everyone who shared your thoughts. Keep letting us know what you would like to see from our parties!
"The scorecards were very helpful during the first half of the season, but where were they for the second half? Please bring them back."Glad you liked them and they helped. At some point, they got placed in another equipment bag that we weren't using as our primary bag. You know how the saying goes, "Out of sight, out of mind". I can honestly say, I forgot we had them and no one said, "Hey, where are the scoreboards. We miss them." so it slipped. If they were helpful, than I'll be sure we get them out there every week.
"Please try to gave more advance warning on theme night."
"Would like to see more theme participation next year! I'll definitely be back next Spring!"Another reason we hired the lovely Fagel Baer to help! We'll be sure we have some cool themes with plenty of notice... Side Note: WAKA Shame, I know I still owe you. Sorry! Cory, come find me on Wednesday!
"I honestly wish that if a game gets rained out or cancelled for any other reason we could have make up games."Me too! I do my best to schedule as many games as possible into the weeks that we have available. The typical WAKA season has 8 games plus the playoffs. We always schedule more here in Virginia though. This year, we had some bad luck with rain storms. It happens. We worked with captains to make up one of the rain-outs on a bye week at an alternate location. In the end, we were still able to get 9 games in, which is pretty good considering all the rain we got on Wednesdays this spring.
"I also think that this league does an outstanding job of just making kickball night/day the place you want to be. The rest of the week I know many folks who can't wait for game day. Things like the blog, the FB league page, the podcasts and the bar belt challenge put this league on a different level."
"You guys rock and have done an incredible job giving this social, youthful game, an ESPN/Sportscenter/NFL feel."There were lots of positive compliments. I'm so glad people enjoy all the extra curricular stuff we do. Any company can show up, set up the bases and throw the balls out there. I enjoy all the other stuff outside it that enriches the experience... But comments like this do run the risk of giving me and the 3 Up 3 Down crew even bigger egos. So be careful going forward.
"Wish there was less a popularity thing and more just people having fun. Some people don't get good game recognition unless they are in the "In" crowd."I feel like between the podcast, blog content, bar buzzin' and facebook stuff, we created the opportunity for a lot of people to be recognized. Each week this season, I made it a point to start a thread asking for people to give their shout outs. We then used this info to help us recap the games on the blog and the podcast. Understanding that this is a huge league, it's going to be impossible to recognize everyone. The best thing I can suggest is to get engaged and let us know who should be getting some shine. Or better yet, volunteer to write for the blog! We're always looking for people to contribute content.
"It would be nice if the music played during games was "clean" and appropriate for all ears, as there are children present at the games."We've typically tried to keep the playlist clean since we've been playing at War Memorial Stadium, and Jeremy Smithey did a good job of that. However, if anyone ever has an objection to the content, please let me know specifically so we can ensure that's addressed.
"I loved the social. I met the man of my dreams this season. 😍 wakalove. I also made some awesome friends."That's what it's all about. That's why we do this.
Thank you again, to everyone who played WAKA Kickball on Wednesday nights this spring! Thank you for all of the awesome feedback. In closing, please keep the feedback coming! You don't need to wait until a survey is sent. Shoot me a note at brent@kickball.com or on Facebook. My goal is to continue serving this kickball community the best I can. Your help is appreciated!
Can't wait for the Fall season to kick off!
Thank you,
Brent
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