Practical guide
10 tips to enable you to quickly improve your visitor experience and increase revenue
Digitalization of the sector, opening to the local community, changing public expectations, the health crisis…so many challenges that force public venues like museums, tourist sites, parks to question themselves.
What are the simplest and quickest actions to take which are the most effective ? How can you improve the customer experience while increasing profitability ?
Here are 10 very pragmatic pieces of advice that will allow you to quickly react and implement a first line of action to manage people flow, improve experiences and optimize ticket sales.
While public COVID-19 health policies require you to scrupulously respect the occupancy level of your spaces, it is not always easy to get around while solely relying on the numbers of tickets sold as an indicator. In addition to not knowing the number of exits in the space, there is a greater risk with the lack of crowd control in front of your visitors’ favorite attraction; for example, from people who pre-purchased tickets online but have yet to show up.
1. Measuring people flow and counting visitors
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Affluences' advice: Choose sensors that are adapted to each space and that can give you, in real time, the occupancy rate of your spaces. This is also ideal to stay in compliance with the security rules imposed by the structure of your buildings! Your customers will thank you, moreover, for the comfort of their visit..
Since you now have this data in real-time, why not take advantage of it to trace your customers’ visits ? Whether the visit is free or restricted, you can easily rework and adapt by studying the data from these sensors (average time spent in your premises, in front of each exhibit and in the related services - restaurants, toilets, park, store). These are also good indicators to analyze the rate of conversion of entries into purchases, whether in the store or in the restaurant.
Affluences' advice: Use a good data analysis and management platform and above all, avoid wifi sensors that detect signals emitted by your customers' mobiles since they won't be able to give you accurate information (children not equipped, randomization of addresses, disabled wifi, sensitivity of wifi in the vicinity of locations, confidentiality etc.). Bad decisions made due to erroneous data will cost you much more than the savings made on this type of sensor.
2. Analyzing
the visit paths
3. Listening to the voice of the customer while maintaining your reputation
Finally, among the data that will help you better position yourself, make decisions to manage attendance and innovate the experience, there is the voice of the customer! Similar to notions found in the e-commerce sector, don’t hesitate to take a deep dive into how your customers actually feel. This can be done through social media platforms, emails, your website, on Google and other open forums.
These channels gather the voice of your customers that will help you ultimately decipher and analyze your customer feedback, as well as understand the downstream visitor journey.
Affluences' advice: Be proactive and offer your visitors digital satisfaction surveys directly on your premises! For example, GuestViews offers intelligent guest books to understand and retain visitors.
By analyzing the crowd counting data over time (months to years), in relation to the events that occur or impact the season (vacations, opening hours, weather, activites, etc), you will be able to start making predictions! This is a critical opportunity for those who want to focus on improving their visitor experience and optimizing their ticket sales.
You can also choose to offer special services at off-peak times, which can help smooth out the flow and welcome more people in the same day. Thanks to predictive data, you will be able to communicate it on your sites and/or other digital media platforms, which will attract visitors who wish to visit during off-peak hours.
4. Predicting visitor flow
Affluences' advice: Use the algorithms of the Affluences platform; they are set up to analyze all this data without error. No need to be a data scientist, you just have to select your period and check the recommended indicators, then in one click, your reports are ready!
Beyond simple attendance data, you can collect much more granular data on a range of activities related to your visitors’ behavior, including : counting, ticketing, access control, social networks, website, wi-fi terminals, store, catering…). Cross-referencing and analyzing this data is important for further developing your business and adjusting your strategy.
5. Taking advantage
of the data
Affluences' advice: Tools such as Arenametrix, specialized in data analysis and marketing for the culture and tourism sectors, offer to centralize all data sources concerning your visitors into a single contact sheet. The data intelligence will permit you to understand your visitors and improve their experiences by communicating more cleverly. Thus, there will be a stronger impact on traffic and average basket!
A reservation tool is a very good option within the visitor's journey. It triggers satisfaction since it allows visitors to organize themselves, to prepare their visit and to avoid waiting in line.
For the institution, the implementation of a time-stamped reservation system allows to optimize sales. It is also a good way to spread out the flow and to get more entries. Pay attention to the number of tickets on sale, per slot, to make sure you don't lose revenue or spoil the visitor experience. Ideally, you should combine your online ticketing data with real-time capacity information.
Affluences' advice: On one hand, the reservation requirement is quite controversial in places with higher capacity rates because it restricts visitors’ number and makes the venue inflexible as it is unable to make any adjustments in terms of number of tickets sold. On the other hand it can be used as an opportunity to enhance and promote your site. Patrivia understands this and promotes heritage by offering increased visibility and allowing visitors to buy their tickets online.
6. Harnessing
a reservation
tool
A second idea that can be easily implemented is to communicate the crowd level in real-time to visitors. This can be communicated on digital media platforms, but also at the access points of your venue to reassure the crowd level at any given time and make their visit as smooth as possible. Furthermore, this will be extremely beneficial for the customer experience: the customer knows what to expect, will not be disappointed and above all favor off-peak hours rather than peak hours.
7. Communicating
real-time people flow
Affluences' advice: If you have installed sensors in each room, you can then offer a dynamic display, at the entrance or on your customers' smartphones, which will inform, room by room, the capacity rate. Ideal for evening flow, in real time, inside your spaces and offering a great visiting experience!
The quality of the time spent on your premises is not only measured by the quality of your service and the visit itinerary; it is increasingly measured by the quality of the relationship you maintain with the customer throughout their journey.
For example, before and after the visit : do you answer the phone, email or chat? How long does it take you to provide a quality response ?
As for the service on site: is it well felt when it is fluid ? Or when your staff is available and smiling ? Or when the display is simple and clear ? Overall, the distribution of practical information (visit plans, schedules, guided tours, etc) should be accessible without having to ask questions!
Affluences' advice: Don't hesitate to set up cross-channel customer interaction management tools and prepare automatic answers to the most frequent questions (opening hours, guided tours, etc.).
8. Ensuring a high quality of service
and customer relations
9. Bringing emotion
to the heart of the visit
Indeed, if the comfort of the visit due to the crowd level impacts emotions related to customers’ well-being and security, being able to profoundly and positively relate these emotions is an asset that will enable you to enchant the customer experience. By innovating, and in turn investing in the quality of services proposed, you will have all the chances to enchant us and make us return!
Between augmented reality, gamification, and immersive digital exhibitions, there is a lot to explore!
Affluences' advice: AskMona, for example, offers immersive games that allow the target audience to discover the collections in a playful way. This allows the visitor to become an actor of his visit experience, to appropriate the contents and to enjoy his visit.
Following the example of these innovative practices applied to your services, we are also seeing the development of services in tandem with personalizing the visitor experience. Indeed, the better you know your customer (through analytics), the more you will be able to offer services and/or visits tailored to their profile. For example, if your space is large and your customer has already been there, why not offer them a tour that allows them to discover the rooms / works that he hasn’t seen yet…or pass by his favorite works again ?
Affluences' advice: Setting up visits and services tailored to your customers’ profiles is not easy; it requires a great deal of maturity in terms of data collection and usage, but it can provide all the information necessary for the success of your customers’ visits from a touch point (for example, the customer’s cell phone)!
10. Personalizing
the visitor experience
Created in 2014, Affluences is a startup that aims to democratize people flow and make it as accessible as the weather. It offers a turnkey solution allowing places welcoming the public to manage their attendance in real time and in a predictive manner. Today, the company has become a key player in the field of real-time people counting, gauge control, measurement and management of queues, as well as in online slot reservation.