The Art of Maintenance Sensitivity

"Instill the art of knowing your surroundings and being keen to their functionality, utilizing all your senses to enhance the maintenance of your parks and facilities." - Warren Poplin

Warren Poplin is a retired United States Coast Guardsman and Florida Park Service Bureau Chief with 34 years of experience. He has an extensive background in maintenance, resource management, customer service, and living history.

During his distinguished career as a United States Coast Guardsman, Warren learned the importance of maintenance. He was able to use this knowledge to excel with the Florida Park Service, where he rose to become the Bureau Chief for District One Park.

Through his experience, Warren learned of the importance of maintenance sensitivity - using all of one's senses to enhance the visitor experience. He shared this knowledge with others, emphasizing how something as simple as a little oil on a squeaky screen door or water in a PTRAP can make a huge difference in a visitor's experience.

In this episode, you will learn:

• how maintenance of facilities and parks impact a visitor's experience
• what maintenance sensitivity is and how can it be taught to park professionals
• how park professionals can use all five senses to enhance the visitor experience

Warren's passion for maintenance sensitivity lives on as he teaches others this important lesson.

"Maintenance sensitivity is being keen to what the visitor is experiencing."

Episode Highlights:

[00:00:08]
What is most important for park service professionals? Cleanliness.

[00:07:19]
It's a cool place. And you get to see these cool old engines and how do they maintain them? Because if you're a state park that is about trains and the train isn't maintained, and you can't ride the train, that stinks.

[00:07:46]
Maintenance sensitivity is to instill the art of knowing your surroundings and being keen to their functionality. It's utilizing all your senses to enhance the maintenance of your parks and facilities.

[00:09:24]
Use senses of sound and odor to detect maintenance needs. One example involves a cabin where the screen door sounded like a coffin opening. Just a little bit of oil would have totally changed the experience

[00:13:17]
The lack of maintenance sensitivity can cause a bad experience. The most important sense that we have to stimulate our visitors is the sense of sight at our locations.

[00:18:13]
We can use our vision to help with maintenance. It's just a matter of putting yourself in the visitor's place. Are we providing the best that we possibly can for all of the senses?

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