In the Guest Experience Flywheel, the first phase of building momentum for your business is to Attract guests to you. This involves piquing interest by creating awareness, making your family entertainment center a strong contender compared with all other alternative options. If a guest is not aware of your venue or interested in visiting, you will never have the chance to engage with them, deliver the experience, or build up advocacy within them. That is why the Attract phase is critical to your success and must not be considered an afterthought.
Here are four considerations for building brand awareness to your FEC that help you stand out in a crowded space.
Web presence
It’s not enough to have a website that provides information about your center. With attention spans lasting only a few seconds, you need to have a website that matches the environment and excitement of visiting you. Consider your web presence as part of the digital extension of your guest experience. Does your home page load quickly? Are the colors vibrant yet not overwhelming? Is the content engaging and dynamic, such as a video demonstrating guests having a phenomenal experience? When was the last time your website was updated? Take a look at your website, and then take a look at your competitors’. Is it time for a refresh? A lackluster website can be the difference between business gained and business lost.
Social media presence
The other extension of your digital experience is your social media presence. Just like it’s no longer enough to have a website with information, it’s not enough to have social media accounts that only promote ticket sales or have one-sided conversations. Don’t forget the “social” in media, in that you should be leveraging the power of these platforms to engage directly with your audience across multiple channels. It’s easy to post specials and prices and consider that your core messaging; however, if you create a flyer and post the image on Facebook, don’t expect your sales to go bonkers. Instead, implement a 1:5 ratio approach – this means that for every post where your goal is to sell, ensure that the next five posts leave out any promotional material or verbiage. Tell your story through pictures and videos of guests having a great time at your center.
User-generated content
The best social media content is often the content that you don’t create but is created by your guests. This requires looking inward toward your center and asking, “is thisan shareable experience?” Customer experience expert Dan Gingiss talks about the importance of an experience being shareable so that awareness can naturally take off. CircusTrix takes this to the next level in their trampoline parks by painting the ceilings black. Why black? Because it makes the lighting look better when guests are taking selfies or videos of their friends on the ninja warrior course, and the photo and video content comes out looking perfect.
Support the next phases of the flywheel
Successfully completing the Attract phase leads to the next phase of the flywheel, where you Engage with your guests. This includes all the elements leading up to the transaction, which then transition into the actual visit itself. Are you creating a smooth transition into purchasin using all of the above guidelinesg? When you see your stats on your website and social media pages going up, are your visitors and followers leading to conversions or are many stopping with awareness? Ensuree that there is a clear path to book online, whether it’s on desktop, mobile, or tablet, to ensure that all of the work you are doing to amplify your brand is rewarded.
Lastly, building awareness includes setting an expectation for what the guest can anticipate when they visit you. Does the expectation that you’re setting match the reality of the actual experience, or is it in the interest of continually building awareness to gain bookings? If it is the latter, this will lead to guaranteed service failures in the third phase, Deliver, when guests perceive that what was promised isn’t what they received. But on the flip side, when all phases of the flywheel are working in harmony with each other, the momentum naturally builds, making it easier and easier to attract more guests to your FEC.
