Sixthman
If I was not already blessed with a great full-time job and a spectacular boss, I imagine Sixthman founder Andy Levine would be my ideal kind of boss. In 2001, Levine established the Atlanta-based self-described “affinity travel company … that creates unique experiences by bringing together like-minded people in exclusive, interactive and intimate environments … Sixthman currently delivers experiences aboard cruise ships for more than 30,000 fans of artists such as John Mayer, Barenaked Ladies, Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jillian Michaels, and Sister Hazel”. I first became aware of Sixthman in 2009, when my wife and I signed on for Cayamo 2010, the journey of song, which I blogged about here, here and here. Coming out of the cruise, with some invaluable assistance from Sixthman’s Becki Carr, I was able to question Levine about Sixthman. My thanks also to Levine for his time and thoughts. And lest you need convincing how much I like Sixthman and Cayamo in particular, my wife and I have already committed to our cabin for Cayamo Cruise 2011.
Tim O’Shea: Cayamo 2010 was a different experience for you, in one way, as you were on vacation with your family, rather than running the event. How odd and/or refreshing did that feel to experience in that way?
Andy Levine: It was an extremely vulnerable yet liberating moment, because I was scared that I was not needed anymore. Then I was also really proud to see everyone step up and do such a great job–not that they don’t always step up. But for me, the best part was that I got to be a guest and I got to feel a little bit about what I think our guests feel–which is that: “When it’s working, it’s working. It’s right.” I got to experience that and it was awesome.
O’Shea: Back in June 2009 the company launched Sixthman TV, how effectively has that branding/marketing effort performed?
Levine: Sixthman TV was launched because we have a mission here to do that we call character development, which is to showcase the different personalities and strengths of the people in this company–so that they (viewers) see that it (the company) is a community in itself. We never thought in a million years once we started putting that on Facebook how many comments we would get from people who really look forward to them every Friday and enjoy watching the shenanigans–knowing how hard we work. So it’s really way outperformed our expectations.
O’Shea: Customer service is clearly a major focus of Sixthman, with staff monitoring the message boards for feedback, plus the post-cruise surveys. How else do you try to gather customer reaction data, to improve upon the experience or avoid mistakes in the future?
Levine: That’s a good question. We have informal advisory boards that we reach out to when we have something that comes up between cruises–that we’re not sure about and that we did not ask in the surveys (or we didn’t get clear information in the survey). We’ll either reach out to a small group of people via email or on the phone.
We do focus groups on some of our cruises; we call them retreats. These are where if we have a few extra cabins, we’ll invite 20 or 30 people from an upcoming cruise to come sail and participate in a two-hour focus group. We’re just constantly looking for ways to do that–to get feedback. Ideally we like to get the feedback before it’s too late and we’ve already made the mistake.
O’Shea: As a company, Sixthman seems as focused on making its employees as happy as they make the customers. How satisfying was it in 2008 when the Atlanta Business Chronicle named the company as one of Atlanta’s Best Places to Work?
Levine: It was very satisfying, because we’re just this little company and I’ve always seen companies like the Container Store and other companies up there being a great place to work. I’ve always felt we were a great place to work, but it’s just good to be included in a group of companies that have been doing it for awhile. Hopefully we’ll continue to pursue that.
O’Shea: Over the years, in terms of trends–what have you found to be the biggest logistical challenges to Sixthman’s mission?
Levine: The biggest challenge to our mission has been trying to explain how powerful the like-mindedness factor is onboard a cruise–trying to explain that to someone without them seeing it. So it’s really just been doing whatever we can to get people to see it for themselves because we just have not been able to document it or capture it or explain it [in a way that is] close to what it is–which we believe is lightning in a bottle.
O’Shea: What factors are considered when you go about setting the date for a cruise?
Levine: At that point, we’re going to look out there and see what audience are we attracting and that we are marketing to: Is the weekend important or can they sail during the week? Once we have that, we’ll get a sense of what kind of ship they may prefer: does it have lots of balconies or not; or [is the ship] big or small? Then we’ll work with all the cruise lines to see what sailings they have that fit that program and see what the rates are. So it’s usually a cross-section of key inputs to make that decision.
O’Shea: Can you single out a cruise that you thought was going to be a major success that instead underperformed? What kinds of lessons learned can you take away from such experiences?
Levine: This is interesting. I can’t say the name of the cruise because that won’t help anybody. But I can tell you we have learned from a cruise or two that we thought were going to perform better and usually the takeaway [lesson] is one of two things: either we missed the mark in the demographic of the audience that we were going after or we missed the mark in the level of passion between that audience and the artists performing in the festival. So we are working really hard to put as many objective measures in place so that we can ask ourselves the really tough questions before we turn it on, build websites and put deposits down, etc.
O’Shea: How did the cruise with VH1 come about?
Levine: VH1 was a sponsor on our 2008 Mayercraft Carrier with John Mayer and they really liked what they saw–they liked the experience. At the time they were talking about potential new outlets and new ventures for them to get into, bringing their viewers together for an offline experience–a vacation experience had become a priority for them. So they reached out and asked if we would consider working with them to bring something to life. So we’re in the process of doing that for VH1 and looking at some of the other networks to do things for. It’s really exciting.
O’Shea: Will you be announcing any other new cruises for 2010, or is Sixthman’s plate already fully loaded?
Levine: Internally we have already announced a cruise that has not been released to the public yet. So there is a cruise we are announcing, but it’s only because it’s pretty much done, it’s all set up–it’s been in the works for awhile. [Blog note: since this interview was done a few months ago, the cruise was released to the public–it is the Jillian Michaels Ultimate Wellness Cruise] Sixthman’s plate will be full with nine cruises in 2010.
O’Shea: Is there any aspect of Sixthman you’d like to discuss that I did not ask your about?
Levine: People always ask how do you sum up the experience? Our biggest challenge (I was saying earlier) is getting people to convey what the experience is. A few years ago we had a guest who, in our mind, said it best–it was not only just her experience–but it was something we’ve since pushed ourselves to strive toward with every guest. That she started keeping a journal the first couple of days of the cruise, but then she stopped because she realized no one was going to believe her when she got back and told everyone. So that’s something we keep fresh in our minds and it’s something we are always trying to make everyone have that experience.
