4 minute read
How Will We Reimagine Our Guest Experiences?
By Beth Kelly Hatt, President of Aquila’s Center for Cruise Excellence, FCCA’s Official Training Partner
Can any of us predict what will change in the coming months when it comes to guest experiences on tours and experiences in your destination? As there continue to be plenty questions around cruising, we see cruise lines reinventing the onboard experience, and those of us offering experiences on land need to do the same.
We are in a new environment – our guests’ needs are different; our operations will need to be different. Adapting to new protocols and procedures will require changes to our products and guest experiences, and although this is a challenge, it is also a remarkable opportunity. This is a time to reimagine our current experiences and develop new ones. It is a chance to breathe new life into our tour programs, and to create new and exciting options for the changing needs of cruise lines and their guests.
We expect the first guests will be avid cruisers, with more family and friend ‘bubbles’ traveling together and wanting private tour experiences. Cruise lines may even create a ‘bubble’ of their own, allowing for only guests on prescheduled tours—with preapproved operators following specific protocols—to disembark in a port, creating for more control over the experience.
Plus, even despite this control, guests may seek more outdoor experiences to prevent from congregating in confined spaces. What will all of this mean for shore experiences? How can an operator or destination take advantage of this change and offer experiences to meet these needs?
One positive thing about the voluntary cessation of cruising is that it gives us time to look at our offerings and think outside the box to reimagine products and experiences that meet the needs of the ‘new normal’ and beyond.
Do we want to offer more intimate and unique tours that speak to the groups that no longer want to share vehicles and indoor experiences with strangers? Can we charge more for those exclusive experiences? Will this make up for the lack of volume? How much will group size be affected by distancing? What will be required of our tour guides? Are there ways to divide groups up so visits can be less crowded in small venues like museums, markets or restaurants? How will your vehicle capacities be impacted?
This is when we all need to take the time to think through the whole experience and how all of these new protocols will impact our venues, vehicles, shops etc. There could be a need for additional handwashing stations and washrooms stops. We need to consider what new experiences may be opportunities. Is there a market you could visit in a small town instead of going to the bigger one in a more crowded city? Ask yourself what it is that today’s guests may be looking for and if there are there gaps in what you offer. Research tells us that guests will prefer outdoor experiences, family and friends together in smaller groups, fewer crowds, more intimate experiences…so how can you provide these to make guests feel safe and comfortable?
‘How to Reimagine Product Development and Guest Experiences’ was the subject of a one-hour Aquila Zoom workshop last month – and the interest was so great that we are offering it again this fall. Aquila is also going to offer an in-depth workshop series around product development, so watch for the FCCA notices. This workshop series is also made available to destinations who prefer an exclusive series aimed at the stakeholders in their destination via Zoom. We hope you can join us and share your challenges and best practices around new and refreshed tour experiences ashore.
One key thing you can do to reinvent your destination’s experiences is to walk through the whole experience, walking from gangway through to the terminal, the pier, the vendors and into town – or walking through your attraction or tour and really looking at it from a guest’s eyes. And then ask yourself: What do we need to change about this experience to meet today’s needs? What do we need to reimagine about this experience to make it better? How does it feel to be a guest moving through this experience? What can we do to make it more comfortable and safer? More fun? More memorable?
I challenge you to do this exercise and really think about it as though you were a guest in your own space… what does it feel like? Building a good customer experience does not happen by accident. It happens through careful planning and design!
Beth Kelly Hatt is the President of Aquila’s Center for Cruise Excellence, FCCA’s official training partner. Contact Beth for more information at Beth@CruiseExcellence.com.
