Class and Summer Camp Summits

About the Program

Category: Parks and Recreation (Best in Category)

Year: 2013

The Fairfax County Park Authority has developed Class and Summer Camp Summits which make use of technology and customer feedback to improve service and revenue. The 3-hour summits held semi-annually bring together more than 60 program staff, managers, headquarters specialists and private businesspersons who provide contracted class and camp programs. It is a simple strategy: identify and target areas of relatively weak performance in the things that matter most to customers, make changes, and the program will see the greatest increase in customer satisfaction and revenue. What is unique is that instead of the traditional point in time snapshot survey, the online class evaluation system is ongoing, conducted every quarter, allowing staff to quickly target areas needing improvement and to analyze larger trends for decision-making. With a large multi-faceted program of more than 12,000 recreational classes and 1,300 weeks of camp at over 150 locations, the Summits have helped Fairfax County Park Authority increase participation and revenue while exceeding industry standards in customer satisfaction. The Summit concept was recently honored by the Learning Resources Network (LERN), an international association of lifelong learning programming, with a 2013 LERN International Award in the category of Best Management Practice.