Reviewing the tech, building a strategy and delivering results.
It’s not easy. It’s potentially expensive and it takes time.
However, getting left behind with your technology platform is also not an option as your average visitor is probably younger and spends more time in front of a screen than you.
Equally importantly, you are potentially also missing out on customer engagement opportunities and maximising CSAT scores and incremental revenues.
This is not a slight, there are already 1001 things for you to attend to in order to get your attraction ship shape. A fantastic day out, loved by the entire family.
From the literal hundreds of CEO’s, General Managers, FD’s, Operations Directors and Marketing teams I have spoken to in the visitor attraction & sports sectors over the past 20 years, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day for them to commit the required time to formulate a Customer Engagement strategy, particularly one inextricably linked with technology, as is the need today.
Even the IT Manager, who is equally focused on delivering a secure website, sufficient bandwidth for Public WIFI, email, accounting systems and ensuring SSA certificates are within date, is hard pressed to take on the building of a personalised website and booking experience.
Add to this the shifting trends which go to make up the average digital landscape and it’s easy to see why many CEO’s are inclined to bury their heads, or accept life in the digital slow lane.
It doesn’t need to be this way, and sometimes, bringing in some outside expertise to help see the wood for the trees, avoid the icebergs and mirages, and to help pick the low hanging fruit is the only answer.
There is no doubt that technology has never been so important for your organisation, be this the digital experience of your guest, or the choice of tools to help you process, analyse and action your data internally.
Understanding the issues and the opportunities is the first step.
Often this begins with a review of the “as is” situation, the challenges this raises for customers and staff, plus a bit of blue sky thinking when exploring the alternatives and missing components. What does the “to be” landscape look like? What opportunities does it generate? What wasted effort does it save? Can it reduce our costs, increase revenue, and make everyone happier?
A tall order you might think, but in the vast majority of cases, the opportunity to stand back for a moment, take stock, and consider priorities is all that is required to get started.
In today’s world of SaaS technology, (software as a service) where software is rented rather than purchased, and to a large degree commoditised, (and thus available at a lower unit price) there is less of an argument that “we can’t afford to do that”. More the case, because you are paying monthly, that each component as well as the overall strategy can have its own “return on investment”, which although not completely risk free (your time has a significant cost) allows you to plot costs on a monthly basis alongside a predicted return.
So long as you don’t commit to long term contracts, (and in my experience this can readily be negotiated), you can measure and tweak as you progress, knowing that your technology vendors become partners with the same desire for success. Get them to stay in their lane, (sphere of expertise) and be generous with case studies and references and you create a win win environment where they will readily listen to your requests for changes and improvements.
I have been fortunate enough to be involved in a number of these situations, both from an attraction advisor and tech vendor perspective, and have seen the synergy work extremely well.
A case in point are website developers Semantic, and their decision to build a Visitor Attraction website platform, which they named LOOP. Working with early adopter clients, they built a templated platform with very little design restriction, but already containing all the features required by visitor attractions. Starting at less than £800 per month this greatly contrasted with the typical £40,000-£60,000 bespoke website build, was up and running within a couple of weeks and allowed the organisation to focus on driving website traffic, SEO, dwell times and booking conversions, rather than invest all their available funds into building the technology infrastructure and hosting.
The same approach can be taken across ticketing, F&B, CRM, Marketing, Accounting and customer apps, allowing you to measure and plot the ROI quickly, rather than fund a never ending (or delivering) large IT project.
Where is the catch? I hear you say, and certainly SaaS and “best of breed” is not for everyone, all inclusive platforms do still have their place ( its still important to get the contract terms and licensing right).
The SaaS approach does generally require you to consider integration between applications, and in some cases, accepting that there will be some overlap between applications, but most critically you want to avoid double entry, and ensure a slick (can’t see the joins) experience for guests, even if this sometimes creates a little more work behind the scenes.
Modern REST API’s make it much simpler for vendors to work together. Even if you don’t understand their language, what you can follow is your data, and ensuring that this is centralised and accessible by your chosen tools, perhaps just a CDP (customer data platform or CRM) accessed by PowerBI and Mail Chimp for starters.
Getting to the start line is often the biggest challenge, and this is where Digital Tealeaves can help. Be this documenting the current challenges, quantifying the opportunities, reviewing your data, helping prepare a business technology strategy, undertaking a vendor selection process, keeping everyone on track during implementation or measuring the return, Tealeaves has the resources and expertise to be your extra pair of hands.