5 tips to create the best guest experience at your active entertainment venue

Guest experience should be your number 1 priority. In the competitive world that we live in, customers have increasingly high expectations and when paying for an experience they expect the best. The customer experience begins the moment that they find you online right through to a follow up after their visit. In order to increase revenue growth it is important to continue to offer an end to end customer experience that meets and often exceeds their expectations. It is no longer just about the number of guests through the door, it is much more than that.

Research shows that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. The tricky thing for trampoline park owners or managers is of course that everyone’s expectations of what constitutes the best experience is different. With some savvy marketing and customer research you can predict the types of things that will enhance a customer’s experience and ensure that your reviews and ratings are off the charts.

In a customer facing environment such as a trampoline park, FEC or soft play, providing the best guest experience is key. Here are our top 5 tips to focus on to keep your piece of the rapidly growing active entertainment market.

1. Meet or exceed their high expectations

The key to meeting high expectations that guests hold is understanding them. Customer feedback is essential to developing a true understanding of what your target market wants. Be sure to listen to their thoughts and comments and implement changes where you can. For every person who has taken the time to comment you can be sure that someone else feels the same way. A quick follow up email or message will allow them to make their ideas known and feel like they are listened to.

Personalisation is highly regarded in the customer’s experience, for example, offering a family ticket at a discounted price will encourage visitors. Or perhaps offer a discounted drink for non participating parents.

2. Leverage customer experiences in your marketing

One of the best tools for FEC owners and marketers is undoubtedly social media. However, social media also enables customers to share their experiences – good and bad. And as we all know in the digital world news travels fast!

There is no better way of spreading the word about the amazing experience that your guests will have with you than from happy guests themselves! Encouraging them to share their photos, comments and what they have loved on social media is a great way to develop trust in your brand. It is one thing when you are telling potential guests what to expect, but quite another when real guests are singing your praises.

Social media makes sharing user created content easy. Consider sharing your own hashtag for guests to use in their posts and be sure to publish great reviews to your social media channels.

Encourage guests to wear branded clothing for photo or video ops, after all your happy visitors and loyal customers are your best marketing opportunity.

3. What can you add to enhance the guest experience?

Enable a customer to enhance and personalise their overall experience. For example some trampoline parks have a climbing area that can be used alongside the trampoline area. A hybrid experience has huge benefits to both the guest and the trampoline park owner. An additional activity means that the guests will spend more time on the premises and they are more likely to purchase refreshments, food and other add ons.

Health and safety requires guests visiting a trampoline park to wear specially designed trampoline socks for their safety. Samurai are the leading Trampoline Sock Supplier globally. Our range of Trampoline socks and grip socks are designed specifically for the indoor active entertainment industry. The high quality materials ensure customer comfort and increased safety. Our bulk purchasing options for bespoke branding allows you to provide your customers with the best quality custom and generic grip socks with a large potential profit margin. Take a look at our full range of Trampoline Socks.

Fitness is a huge market and one that lends itself to the active entertainment facility. Fitness products are a must if you have branched out into the fitness class area. Fitness fanatics are your biggest advocates, they will love the practical items and it is a huge opportunity for increased merchandise sales. All this whilst promoting your brand.

4. Can you make the entry process more efficient?

Consumers are all about instant gratification. 67% of customers prefer to self-serve using a digital tool rather than speak to a person. It is easier than ever to fulfill this, with digital tools such as chat bots, instant messenger and direct business links to WhatsApp. Questions can be asked online and often answered by an AI FAQ chatbot instantly.

A guest should have the option to do as much online before they arrive as possible. Allowing them to not only book online but also complete their waivers, purchase socks, gloves or merchandise before they arrive. (Of course there should also be the option at your venue too). When they arrive everything is completed, this will minimise queuing and enable your guests to get straight to the experience that they have paid for.

5. Make excellent customer service your priority

Customer service has always been an important part of any business. With the customer becoming more empowered than ever and competition fierce, customer service goes beyond answering queries. Customer service is all encompassing. From the moment that a customer picks up their phone and enters a search the customer experience begins. With over 3.5 billion Google searches every day the possibilities are endless.

The look, feel and user experience of your website and social media pages is the first impression that a potential customer will have of your brand so make it eye catching and user friendly. Contact information should be easy to find and help at hand should they require it with an FAQ section or a Chat Bot. The booking system should be simple and kept up to date with availability. Stock levels and inventory of products such as socks and gloves should be regularly updated. A customer should never be unable to visit because they cannot order the correct socks. Our order portal makes keeping your stock at an optimum level a doddle.

Once a booking is made a customer should receive a follow up email with all the information required for their visit. Upon arrival the booking in system needs to be efficient to keep customers happy – no one wants to be waiting around.

Using signage to guide guests around your facilities and train staff to help with any queries. Safety is of the utmost importance, reassure parents that their children are in safe hands. Make it clear that guests are welcome to purchase merchandise and experience enhancing add-ons if they decide to do so on the day of their visit.

Follow up visits with an email or message requesting feedback which takes you back to number 1 and the cycle begins again promoting loyalty, repeat visits and excellent word of mouth marketing.

The guest experience is the difference between thriving and surviving. Focus on the guest experience and the rest will follow. Get in touch today for socks, accessories and other custom merchandise to help enhance your guests’ experience.