BLOG: Extending the Customer Experience

In our latest blog Peter Oliver discusses the positive impact of engaging visitors throughout the customer journey and how CRM driven technology plays it's part...

Green 4 has always placed the customer at the heart of its solutions for Activity Leisure and Visitor Attractions. Uniquely placed in terms of their focus on customer data, Green 4’s eCommerce and Ticketed Admissions modules are built inside its CRM platform, ensuring that every visitor interaction is tracked and managed within its customer database. 

Over the past 5 years, the proportion of visitors making advanced bookings online, either to avoid disappointment at capacity restricted attractions, or to take advantage of lower priced advanced tickets has increased dramatically, with 60% to 80% online bookings becoming common.

Despite restrictions imposed by GDPR, this has significantly increased both the volume and quality of customer data that is available to many leisure venues. The advent of mobile friendly websites and eTicket delivery has improved the customer experience, allowing anyone to purchase and receive their ticket whilst on the go, and as a very valuable by-product, improved the quality of data. Nobody wants their fantastic day out ruined by their ticket being sent to a spurious mmouse@disneyland.com. 

With Green 4’s eCommunications delivered through the same platform, opt-outs are unusual, so long as the marketing strategy is targeted and personal. This could be an informative “what’s on”, a discounted voucher encouraging a repeat visit, or a loyalty statement with an opportunity to win an exclusive VIP tour….. only for Gold Members. 

In addition to the capture of valuable customer insights, Green 4’s clients are always keen to engage visitors at every possible touchpoint, enriching the experience from the initial booking, during their day out, all the way to the follow up satisfaction survey. 

Ironically, the most difficult touchpoints for most systems to manage are within the venue, with most attractions opting for a cash based, anonymous transactions for retail and F&B purchases, leaving the “Single Customer View” with a large gap once the ticket has been scanned and the guest enters the venue.

                   

By adding highly functional, tightly integrated POS systems for both Retail and F&B, neatly linked together through the visitor’s ID secured through the ticket sale, Green 4 can complete the picture. Now the entire relationship and experience enjoyed by the customer can be captured within the same platform.  Not only allowing you to gather even greater insights into the customers visit, but at the same time helping to improve the experience with discounts and rewards, fast track entry, upgrades to VIP hospitality and tours.

Once the visit is over, in the warm afterglow of a fantastic day out, a personal message of thanks, a short visitor survey and an opportunity to visit again, this time to the fantastic fireworks display in the autumn. 

Increased spend and repeat visits from customers are important objectives for all visitor attractions, but it is only by delivering a fantastic experience from start to finish that you earn the right to invite them back.