Guests today expect a seamless experience that starts before they visit your cultural attraction and connects all of the steps of the guest journey. Thanks to the convenience and personalization offered by digital platforms like Doordash, Instacart, and Amazon, the cultural attraction industry must adapt to similar guest expectations both in-person and online.
With this in mind, guest experience platforms have continued to evolve into more than a ‘nice to have’ but a necessary addition to automating and improving in-person experiences giving families more time with each other to enjoy the live experience that a cultural attraction provides.
Below we discuss what exactly a guest experience platform is, the value it brings to operations, and what to consider when looking to implement one within your own organization.
What is a guest experience platform?
A digital guest experience platform helps you easily communicate, upsell and offer services to your guests. By connecting every touchpoint in your guest journey within an intuitive and easily accessible mobile app, your guest experience platform surfaces the data and insight you need to tailor your experience to each individual guest.
In other words, a guest experience platform is designed to create a holistic experience from every access point (both online and in-person), whether that be buying tickets and retail, utilizing interactive ways to find your way from A to B, or collecting visit photos to enjoy after your trip.
What are the benefits of a guest experience platform?
Beyond the above-mentioned benefits of connecting your guest’s experience at every touchpoint, a guest experience platform also gives you access to first-party data that would be either very arduous or nearly impossible to track manually. This can be anything from the time of year most people buy tickets, what kinds of meals sell the most, sending discounts to guests who haven’t visited in a while, and rewarding your most loyal guests with promotions and special events.
From there, you can use this information to develop segmented audiences and create personalized content or offers customized to an individual guest’s journey. For example, families could receive a ‘kids eat free’ meals voucher for a specific restaurant during its low-peak hours, while couples or singles could receive a discount for a cocktail happy hour or an opportunity for a fine dining experience. The platform identifies the data you need to deliver the experience that is most relevant to each individual guest.
Further, this kind of platform can also offer your guests some autonomy in their experience with your attraction. The platform can allow them to build their own personal itinerary, purchase premium experiences, order food that’s ready when they’re done in an exhibit, or easily contact customer service at a time that works best for them.
What to consider when choosing a guest experience platform
If you’re considering a guest experience platform for your attraction, consider the two following important aspects:
- Does it have seamless system integration? The platform should easily work with existing systems you already use to support existing operations. Collaborate with your admissions, food and beverage, and retail teams to ensure the platform you choose is an appropriate choice. Like a puzzle piece, getting it up and running should be a smooth transition that helps deliver the bigger picture of your attraction’s business needs.
- Does it offer real-time data delivery? The right guest experience platform will automatically surface data that operations teams can use in real time without you having to manually figure out what trends are happening across your organization. As an example, perhaps there is an increase in foot traffic to a specific area of your park where there are currently no food outlets. Seeing this data in real-time could help your food service operating team make an informed business decision to add a food cart to this part of your park.
A connected guest experience platform = operational efficiency
A connected guest experience recognizes that today's guests expect world-class digital support before, during, and after their visit to your attraction.
While guest experience platforms support the ability to advance the guest experience, without the integration into your operational teams and platforms, you aren't experiencing the full potential of these powerful tools. Finding a system that supports both, will ultimately lead to better business and a better experience for everyone.
Travis Kight is the chief operating officer at SSA Group.
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