Customer Service – Reactive or Proactive?

By Pamela | Published: February 22, 2012

Customer service is when a company works everyday to keep our business so that they never face the threat of losing it.  It is the difference between a company that acts proactively and a company that simply reacts.

Recently saw this quote on a Simon Sinek newsletter and it got me to thinking about how we approach customer service.  How many of us only react to our guests and don’t proactively work to make sure that their visit is their best ever before they arrive?

Here are some ideas on how you can start making sure that you are working everyday to keep your customers.

Before your guest arrives:

1.)    Make sure that the person answering the phone has a smile in their voice.  I can’t tell you how many times I have called to make a reservation only to hear a monotone that sounds like a computer recording.  Train your reservation people to smile before they pick up the phone.  Sounds silly since no one can see the smile but it actually works to send that smile across the airwaves.  Have friends call the office on occasion just to find out how the reservation person sounds.  Do they sound happy that the person has called?  Do they offer information about the park and the surrounding area?

2.)    Be sure to send out confirmations on any reservations.  This helps make sure that nothing has been entered incorrectly and serves as a reminder that the guest can hold on to in case they need to call you.  Your confirmations should have a positive, upbeat message at the bottom that leaves the guest with the feeling that you are truly looking forward to seeing them.

3.)    Make sure that the site is ready for your guests’ arrival.  Have the outside workers police the sites that will have guest arriving, looking for anything that could possibly be a problem.  Pick up any litter, cigarette butts, etc.  A clean site can go a long way towards impressing your guest.

4.)    Review your check in procedures and streamline them as much as possible.  Consider printing off the registration card so that the guest only has to sign the card and is ready to go to his/her site.  You don’t want the guest to feel rushed but you also don’t want to have them spending 15 minutes just trying to get checked in.  This is an area that is ideal to offer the guest an express check in.  The agree to pay all charges at the time of the reservation in exchange for being able to walk in to the reservation desk, receive a packet and head to the site.

5.)    As a part of your handout materials, I would strongly suggest letting your guest know where they can sign up on your website for any future email information.  This is a critical point as the reason they gave you their email address initially was to keep them informed about their reservation not necessarily as a go ahead to put them on your mailing list.

After the guest has arrived:

1.)    After the guest has gotten set up on the site, have someone stop by to welcome them to the park and see if there is anything that you can do to make their stay more comfortable.  The first thing you may have to overcome is the general idea that if you ask them what you can do to help, they are going to come up with a number of ridiculous requests.  There will be a few that fall into this category, but the vast majority are going to be so impressed that they are going to tell all of their friends what a great RV park you have.   I know this sounds like a lot of extra work, but I can guarantee that it will result in added sales.

2.)    Train your outside staff to always look up and smile whenever a vehicle passes.  This will go a long way towards making your park a fun place to be.  I’m sure that I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but it never hurts to reinforce the habits with everyone on your staff.  While we are at it, make sure that you are practicing what you are preaching and make sure to smile and wave at everyone.

3.)    Make your comment cards simple and concise.  When I receive an 8 ½ X 11 sheet of paper that is full of questions, I tend to lay it aside and forget to fill it out.  However, in those instances where the comment card was online or was postcard size, I have filled it out.  If you do use paper comment cards (as opposed to online), make sure that you provide the guest with an easy way to get the card to you.  If it is postcard size, it can be self-stamped, if it is larger, consider providing an easy drop where the guest doesn’t have to get out of the rig, run into the office just to drop off their comments.

4.)    If the guest comes into the office before leaving make sure that your office staff reinforces the idea that they wish the guest could stay longer and look forward to them coming back.

 

After the guest has left:

1.)    Send a quick thank you for visiting.  Emphasize that you want to know of any problems the guest may have had so that you can correct the issue.  This is also your opportunity to ask the guest to return to the park at a future date.  If you have a frequent stayer program, this is the perfect time to introduce it.

2.)    If you have received the guests email address for future information, be sure to provide a method for the guest to “unsubscribe” that is easy to find so that you will not be irritating them with unwanted email.

 

This is just a short list of things that you can do to proactively act on providing customer service that your guests won’t forget.  What kinds of things do you do?

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Writing a Press Release Can Be Easy

By Pamela | Published: February 20, 2012

One of the easiest and least expensive ways of getting more attention for your park is to write a press release.  It is also one of the least used methods of marketing an RV park.  The whole idea of writing about your park can be intimidating but by using a few simple steps you can get the monster under control.

 

What to Write About

Finding something newsworthy to write about can seem like an impossible task.  The first step is to back away from your day to day activities and ask yourself what is going on at your campground that people would be interested in finding out about.  Are you adding sites?  Do you have any special activities going on?  Are you expanding any of your amenities?

Look at your park objectively and you are sure to find several great subjects that will make great press release material.

 

Press Release Basics

Follow the rule of the 5W’s of journalism when you write your release.  You want to answer the questions of who is this release about, what is it about, why is it important, when did it happen, where did it happen and finally (even though this isn’t a W) how did it happen.

As you begin writing, you need to put the most important information in the first paragraph or two as an editor will likely begin shortening the article at some point towards the end of your article.  Think of your writing as a pyramid with the critical items at the top, then the explanation of your article next and the detail as the last thing.

Write your article and then go do something else for a couple of hours.  You will be surprised how simple things like spelling mistakes, missed information or bad grammar will jump out when you pick up the press release after letting it sit.  Definitely use spell check on your word processing program but also ask someone you trust to read what you have written and give you constructive criticism.  They will quickly find the areas that seem confusing or need to be re-written.

Be sure to include your contact information with your release.  The editor that you are submitting the release to may have questions about your release or may want to expand on what you have written.  You don’t want to lose the chance at greater exposure just because you failed to include your phone number.

 

Where to Send the Press Release

Finding the right person to address your release to will require a bit of research.  There are many web sites where you can find addresses and phone numbers for a number of journalists.  The tough part is that, just like direct mail, sending a press release out to a journalist that knows nothing about you or your industry and actually getting his attention is going to take some effort on your part.

Make sure that the person you are sending the release to actually writes about your subject.  Don’t send a release about your new activities director to someone that writes about the automotive world.

Be sure to check on the deadlines for submitting news articles and respect those deadlines.  Typically, it is better to send your press release in the morning for most publications.  And make sure that you allow enough time for your press release.  If your release is centered around a specific date, send the release out in plenty of time for it to be picked up.  Don’t send the release out the night before your event.

You may want to consider using one of the press release sites on the internet such as PRWeb or i-News.  These sites typically have both a paid and a free option.  Use a quick google search to find where you can post your press release.

 

How to Send Your Press Release

Sending press releases out today is so much simpler than it used to be.  By using one of the services of the press release distribution sites, you are able to get your press release listed on a number of sites.  Again, this is very close to direct mail so don’t be disappointed if your release is only picked up by one or two reporters.  Even if none of the media picks up your release, you will still have the information out there for anyone who is searching on your keywords.

If you want to guarantee that your release will NOT be read by the person you are submitting it to, send the release as an attachment.  What should you do?  Paste the release into the body of your email.  The journalist will be able to quickly determine whether the subject is one that would interest his/her audience.

 

Don’t Give UP

Finally, keep sending those press releases out even if it doesn’t feel like anything is happening.  I have had a release picked up months after I sent it out initially.  It may just be the wrong time or that the media calendar isn’t available for your subject matter.

The more releases you send out, the more likely it will be that one will be picked up and published.  Also, the more you write and send out, the more times your name will show up on a google search for your subject matter.

Writing press releases is just like riding a bike, the more you do it, the better you get at it.  With practice you are going to begin to find lots of subjects that are deserving of a press release and that will get your RV park the attention of the media.  Send me a link to your press release and I will happily post it to both my Facebook page and to my Twitter feed.

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Shoestring Marketing At Its Best

By Pamela | Published: February 18, 2012

There are only a handful of RV park owners who can commit major dollars to their marketing efforts.  The fact of the matter, however, is that you don’t need to commit major dollars to market your RV Park.  You do need to plan how you are going to market your park and stick to it.  I’ve laid out 12 points that you need to recognize and keep in front of you as you go about putting together your marketing plan.

  1.  Low Cost Marketing – Not only is it possible to market your park without breaking the bank it is absolutely doable.  You can grow your customer base without spending a lot of dollars but you do need to spend the time to do it.  Time is a precious commodity so schedule a day each week when you can spend a large chunk of the day working on your marketing plan, your marketing program and your marketing campaigns.  If you don’t know the difference in the three check out Campground e-News (http://issuu.com/industryenews/docs/163newcampground-1), or go to my blog page (www.FocusedWords.com/blog) and go to the October archives.
  2. Commitment—It is easy to get discouraged with your marketing efforts when you don’t see any affect.  Your efforts will pay off if you just see it through.  Don’t give up before it has a chance to stick.
  3. Branding—Your guests need to have a clear picture of who you are and what your park is all about.  Is it a family park, an overnight park, a destination park, or a weekend getaway park?  Saying all of the above is going to muddy your marketing efforts.  Select the one that best applies to you and use that as your focus for the next year.  Once you have that side of the market developed, you can begin to develop the other areas.  Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed trying to be everything to everybody.
  4. Consistency—Be consistent in your marketing message.  Let your ads, brochures, pamphlets, marketing packets all reflect a consistent image.  The actual wording can be different but make the look and feel of the graphics remain the same.
  5. Target markets – Mass marketing isn’t going to work in today’s world.  Focus on the market that you are branding your park for and find out everything you can about them.  If you try to market to the entire RVing world, you are going to spread your marketing dollars so thin that you’re not going to see great results.
  6. Elicit Trust—If your current guest trusts you to deliver what you say in your marketing efforts, they are going to be confident in recommending your RV Park to their friends.  If you deliver more than they expected, the likelihood that they will spread the word for you increases.  If you deliver an outstanding experience, they are going to be sure to tell everyone what a great time they had.  Their trust and confidence is key to building your community.
  7. Repetition—Here is where the bad news comes in.  Research suggests that people need to encounter your marketing efforts between seven and twelve times before they are ready to stop in.  Put repetition together with consistency to build recognition.  Once you have built recognition, people will begin to associate you with your message which is what marketing is all about.
  8. Quality—If your park isn’t top quality, you’re not going to get repeat business.  Your long term success is going to depend on your satisfied guests talking about you.  Take a look around your park and imagine yourself as an RVer coming into the park.  What could be improved on?
  9. Relationships—Establish relationships with your guests.  Make sure all of your employees/workampers are always smiling and asking the guests how their stay is going.  If they have a complaint do everything you can to resolve it immediately.  This also means giving those employees/workampers the authority to make a guests stay the best.  Don’t get me wrong.  You probably don’t want to give all of your employees the ability to hand out free stays or refund money, but you can give them the authority to move a picnic table, take a trash bag to the dumpster, etc.
  10. Tracking Results—It is imperative that you know how well your marketing efforts are doing.  Don’t put an ad in a local paper, a magazine or on the internet without some type of code so that you can know when a person is responding to the ad.  Always, always, always track your results and adjust your efforts accordingly.
  11. Flexibility—Be ready to change as your environment changes.  Be willing to jump out there and try out the next marketing platform.  However, you do need to do this judicially.  At the rate new platforms are coming out, you would need to hire an entire staff just to stay on top of what is new.
  12. Determine Costs—Here is where a lot of effort falls down.  Calculate what your cost is for each of your marketing efforts and divide that by the number of people who responded to you.  This is going to tell you how much money you are spending on one individual.  Some items are givens, (i.e.  brochures, business cards, websites) and won’t have individual costs; however, when you run an ad you can determine what the cost per person is.  Now you have a way of determining whether the ad gave you any return on your investment (ROI.)

Those are my twelve points that I believe are vital to making your marketing efforts work for you.  What would you add?

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Do You Have Brand Ambassadors?

By Pamela | Published: November 4, 2011

What if I told you that you could have 5, 10 or 100 marketing reps talking up your park and the cost would be $0.00?  Would you believe me or would you say this has got to be a scam?

Well the truth is that you can do it and that it just takes a little thinking through to make it work for your park.

Who are these free marketers?

Brand Ambassadors are the people that we are going to work on developing to help promote the park.  A brand ambassador is any customer that you have officially commissioned to speak on behalf of your park without compensation.

This idea has been put to use by various companies such as Wal-Mart’s “mommy bloggers”, Ford’s “Fiesta agents”.  We are going to copy the big boys and make this work for the RV Resort industry.

Let’s take a look at what it takes to be a Brand Ambassador.

 

#1:  Creator of information

Unless your Brand Ambassador is active on the internet, social media or some other form of communication, their effectiveness is going to be limited.  We all encourage current guests to tell all of their friends about the great time they had when they stayed at the campground, but chances are very high that they are going to tell a couple of people and then forget about it until their next visit.

You need to take a look at your guests and identify those who have blogs, are active on social media sites and that are willing to write about their stay with you.  One key area to look for is those guests who frequently comment on the RV park review sites, RVing forums or similar sites.

 

#2:  Influence opinions and purchases of their friends

While there are a lot of people out there writing blogs and on social media, the real key is to find those Brand Ambassadors that truly have influence within their community.  A true Brand Ambassador will blend the strengths of a person who connects people to each other and the person who love to share information with others.

Look for those guests who have an active conversation going on in social media or on their blog.

 

#3:  Love to talk

A valuable Brand Ambassador is one who loves to talk to people and share information.  Find those people who are already talking about your park, find out what motivates them and then give them the first peek at any information about your plans for next season.  You want to make your Brand Ambassadors your “in the know” network.

 

#4:  Use Social Media to help people

A true Brand Ambassador is going to enjoy helping others, meeting new people and sharing information.  In fact, they are 2.5 times more likely to use social media to expand their network, which gives you the added value of their followers.

Be aware that Brand Ambassadors aren’t purely altruistic.  They want to get something out of their efforts so be willing to give them what they are looking for.  Typically, receiving free products or other incentives will rank at the top of their list.   At the same time, satisfaction from helping others with information is equally important.

The critical point here is not to “buy” your Brand Ambassador’s goodwill.  Don’t make them feel like you expect them to write good things about you just because you have given them a free night’s stay.

 

#5:  Known for their valuable insights

While Brand Ambassador’s like helping people and getting free stuff, they are also motivated by recognition.  So find creative ways to recognize your most valuable Ambassadors.

Consider creating a frequent visitor’s club with a sub group for your Brand Ambassadors.  Make sure you mention them by name in your newsletter, email blast and printed ads.  Ask them for quotes for your website and make sure that their name appears prominently.

Create a guest of the week and post that Brand Ambassador on all of your social media sites.  Again, use quotes to add to the interest.  Ask the Brand Ambassador for a quote on things like “What I like best about RVing” or “My favorite RV tip.”

 

#6:  Use Social Media for sharing their opinions

Your Brand Ambassadors should use social media as their first choice for sharing information.  Use these Brand Ambassadors for feedback on your social media efforts.  This can become an effective means for determining whether your social media efforts are successful or just mediocre.

 

#7:  Broad reach

Your Brand Ambassador should share their information with not only their friends and relatives but also with people that they haven’t met yet.  This means that you need to check out their number of followers on Facebook and on Twitter before deciding that they are a good candidate for your Brand Ambassador.

 

#8:  Like talking about their choices

The top three products that are discussed on the web are:  food or dining, personal care products and household products.  Travel is one of the top ten categories.  Can you relate any of these subjects to your park?  If not, you may need to work harder at giving the Brand Ambassadors a reason to talk about you.

This is where a park BBQ can fit in.  Identify one special event every month or so and work on how you can help your Brand Ambassadors promote the event.

 

#9:  Loyalty

Your relationship with your Brand Ambassadors is going to be very important to them.  They are going to want to know that you value your friendship with them.  Show them that you appreciate their efforts and see what can happen.

 

Now that you have some idea of what skills a good Brand Ambassador should posses, I’m going to recommend that you do two things:

1.)    Decide what you want your Brand Ambassador program to look like.  What are you going to be willing to provide the Brand Ambassador?  How are you going to identify who you want as your Brand Advocate?

2.)    Invite those guests you want as your Brand Ambassador to help you build a program that will be meaningful for you and your future advocates.

What do you think?  Would a Brand Ambassador work for you?

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When Social Media Works for RV Parks

By Pamela | Published: October 24, 2011

There is a lot of discussion out there that you must be using Social Media if you want your park to succeed.   I would argue that getting on the Social Media bandwagon can actually hurt your park if it is not done right.   Here are a few points that you may see a lot of people using to convince you that you need to farm out your Social Media efforts.

Social Media Definition

First of all, we need to establish that social media is not a good tool for selling.  Social Media is a public relations tool that should be used to get in touch with current and future guests and build a relationship with them.  Please don’t misunderstand me.  This is a critical tool in your marketing arsenal.  For the first time you have a means to establish a two way conversation with your guests when they are not in the park.  In the past we have relied on things like newsletters, email blasts and brochures to get our message out but those methods didn’t include having the guest able to respond openly not only to you but to the rest of the guest community.

 

You Can’t Measure ROI

Much has been made lately of establishing a way to measure the return on investment for social media.  There are a lot of pros and cons and convoluted methods of measuring how well your efforts are working.  For me, the simplest way to measure the ROI of your social media program is to ask your guests how they found you.  If your Social Media efforts center around Facebook, then it should be on the list of “How did you find us” in your reservation software.  You can also build a landing page that offers people a discount on their first visit when they “Like” your page.

However, please be aware that the ROI includes more than money changing hands.  It also includes the amount of word of mouth notice that you receive because of your efforts.  You should see the searches for your park name increase.  If you haven’t already set up a Google alert for your park name, you definitely should put this at the top of your list and start tracking how often you are mentioned on the web.

 

Outsourcing Social Media

I would strongly recommend that you try to keep your Social Media program in-house if at all possible; however, I would also urge you NOT to turn your Social Media program over to someone at the front desk that seems to talk a lot about being on Facebook.

Social Media is a part of your overall marketing plan.  It is a means for publicizing who you are and what you have to offer.  Remember that your Social Media efforts are going to put a face on your RV Park.  It is a part of your public relations effort including your customer satisfaction effort.  Rather than turning over management of your customers to anyone who works for you, you look for the person who has the best approach to keeping the customers happy and give them the next level of responsibility.  You should do the same for your Social Media program.  At the same time this person needs to be someone who will be with you for a while.  I have seen a lot of programs fail because they don’t have a consistent “voice” that becomes recognized as being a part of the park’s management.

If you don’t have the time or inclination to handle the Social Media  yourself or don’t have anyone who will be with you for a long enough period then, by all means, find someone outside that can set the program up for you and can keep the conversation going.

 

Using Social Media to Sell the Park

As I stated earlier, Social Media is not a good avenue for selling your park.  Instead, you need to concentrate on sharing the experience of your current guests with future guests.  Use your Social Media program to remind guests of the great time they had at your park which, in turn, will influence future guests about coming to your park.

Use stories, pictures, video, whatever you have that will make others understand what it is like to stay at your park.  The more you can involve your current guests in talking about their stay with you, the more likely potential guests are going to be to give you a try.  Whatever you do, however, you want to make sure that those potential guests have as great a time during their stay as the guest who is posting on your wall or tweeting about you.

 

Measuring Friends and Followers

Finally, I would like to take a moment to talk about the number of friends and followers you have in your Social Media program.  Don’t get fooled by all the talk about having a large number of people “friending” you or following you, let’s take a close look at what those numbers mean.  You will hear a lot of people brag about the numbers.

The truly important number is the number of people who are actively talking with you on your Facebook page or tweeting with you on Twitter.  These are the people who are passing on your message about your RV Park and all it has to offer.  You are going to find that the number of people who are actively engaged with you is a very small portion of your overall community.  Don’t be discouraged by this.  It’s just the way things work.

At the same time, use the information that you get from your Social Media analytics to find out who is interested in your RV Park, where they are from and what they are talking about.  The insight can be invaluable to focusing on your guest’s wants and needs.

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Marketing Plan vs. Marketing Program vs. Marketing Campaign

By Pamela | Published: October 8, 2011

There seems to be a lot of confusion between a marketing plan, a marketing program and a marketing campaign.  Each one has its own set of requirements and means of accomplishing those requirements.  You can be somewhat successful without a marketing program or marketing campaign but I can almost guarantee that you will spend more money and get marginal results if you don’t have a marketing plan.   Let’s take a look at the three and see if we can figure out which is which.

Marketing Plan: Before you embark on any activity to sell your product, whether it is site nights, supplies or activities, you should have defined the overall objective for your business. It may seem have an obvious answer but once you put your answer down on paper you may find that it isn’t as well thought out as you believed it to be. Even worse, you may find that what you put down on paper is too vague even for you to be able to take the next step of breaking out your goals.
This is where your marketing plan starts to develop your overall strategy on attracting new business. Don’t worry about being terribly formal, but do put together a document that you can follow for the next year and then follow it. You will be amazed at how much simpler your advertising/marketing decisions become when you have a well defined objective in mind.

Be sure to answer the following questions in your Marketing Plan.

1.)    What are my goals and objectives?  Be specific about what you want to accomplish (i.e. increase site nights by 15%, increase store sales by 10%, etc.)

2.)    Who is my target audience?  Break this down at a high level.  For example 50% returning guests, 25% new guests, 25% RV groups.  Within each of these segments give as much definition to the group as you can (returning guests that stay for 1 week every year, new guests that have just purchased an RV, RV groups that  have 25 or less members and rig sizes that are 35’ and under)

3.)    Where am I going to spend my marketing budget?  I can’t emphasize enough the importance of putting a budget together and sticking to it faithfully.  Ad salesmen can be quite persuasive and before you know it you have spent your budget for the year without actually meeting your goals and objectives.

4.)    What is my budget?  Take a look at how much you spent last year for marketing your RV campground.  (Hopefully, you can pull these numbers together easily.)  If the dollar figure looks too small, it probably is.  You may not have included some of those last minute, middle of the season expenditures that you thought were cheap enough to do.  This tends to be particularly true about things like listings on web sites which only cost $25 per year.  If that $25 isn’t returning at least one new guest, it is a waste of money.

 

Marketing Program:  Within your marketing program, your objective from your marketing plan is going to be the guiding principle behind the marketing programs that you develop.  Before you get very far into your marketing program, ask yourself if this program is going to advance your objective.  If every marketing program you think of answers yes to this question, your objective isn’t focused enough.  As an example, if my objective is to increase the site nights in the RV Park, a marketing program that targets teenagers isn’t going to meet that objective.

Your objective on any marketing program must support your marketing plan objective by taking that objective and breaking it down to a more narrow set of goals.  You should also have several marketing programs for the year, not just an advertise my RV resort for the year program.

1.)    How many programs do I want to run?  Make this a manageable number but you should have a different program for each of your identified goals and objectives.

2.)    How am I going to meet the individual objectives?  As an example, to attract new visitors create a Guest Loyalty program that rewards a returning guest for bringing a friend that hasn’t been to the park before.

3.)    How is the budget going to break out to cover each of the programs?

4.)    Some of your marketing programs are going have high level components.  This is where advertising in Trailer Life or Woodall’s would be addressed.

5.)    How are you going to measure your overall success?

 

Marketing Campaign:  This is where the rubber meets the road.  A marketing campaign will take the goals from your marketing program and break it down further to define how you are going to meet those goals

For instance, the campaign would address what types of advertising you are going to use to promote the park (print, direct mail, social media, etc.), what the schedule is for the campaign, how you are going to measure your success rate, and who you are actually targeting (snowbirds, families, RV groups, etc.)

1.)    What is the subject of the campaign?  This could be increasing your reservations for opening day at the park.  If you are a park that has both summer and winter seasons, you would have two or more separate campaigns that address the specifics of those seasons.

2.)    What is the campaign going to address and how?  In the case of site nights, this will be specific, short term actions that are going to be taken such as print advertising in the FMCA magazine.

3.)    What is the budget for each of the campaigns?

4.)    What is the method for measuring the success or failure of the campaign?

If there is one thing that I would emphasize more than any other it would be to take the time to outline your marketing plan and describe what and how you are going to accomplish those goals.  I have seen a lot of money wasted by trying everything that comes along and not measuring the effectiveness of those efforts.

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It’s Trade Show Time

By Pamela | Published: September 26, 2011

It’s getting close to that time of year we all love, the RV Trade Show season.   While the shows can be exhausting and expensive to attend, if you do it right, it can also be quite profitable for your next season.  The problem is finding a way to stand out from the crowd and attract those new guests.

Trade Booth

Now is the time to begin assembling your trade show booth and deciding how you would like to have it look.  If you don’t have a booth, check E-bay.  They have some great booths that can be purchased new for $500 and that includes the lights.  While this is quite an investment, it is a long term investment and can help show your RV Resort off to its best advantage.  I would suggest that you take a look at the trade shows you want to attend and see what their booth sizes are.  Most that I have seen have 10’x10’ booth spaces but some are 8’x10’.  Whatever size you get, be sure to have lighting that attaches to the booth.  I wouldn’t suggest getting the booth with the graphics already on the background as you may want to change what the background looks like, add pictures or graphics or want to add shelves on the booth.

You will want to get a Pop-Up display.  This only means that the frame work is in an accordion style configuration which allows the display to be assembled easily.  You will also want a display where the shipping container can be covered and create a counter top where you can display printed materials, put a TV/Computer on top with a loop of pictures from the park.

Banners and Photos

The next thing you need to consider is a banner for across the top of the booth.  You definitely want to have your logo displayed prominently on the banner.  Make sure you have a lot of color in the banner as this is going to be one of the first things that the show attendees are going to see.

Select a number of photos that truly represent your park, are very high resolution and will display well.  Have those photos blown up and laminated so that you can display them easily on the booth.  Please don’t line the photos ups, making sure that they are all the same size and shape.  Loosen up a little and offset the photos around the booth.  This will make a much more pleasing display.  I have even included a picture of the site map so that people can see what the park looks like graphically.

You will also want to create a loop of photos of the park to display on either a flat screen TV or on a computer.  I strongly recommend the TV as it has a much larger screen and can be connected to a laptop for the photo loop.  Be sure there are people in the pictures enjoying the park.  If you are concerned about the model releases, ask the staff to dress in street clothes and be in the shots.

Giveaways and Prize Wheels

A free item is an almost guaranteed way of attracting attention.  Before you spend a lot of money on cheap items, remember that the most kept item is one that is useful, unique and is not disposable.  If the item is cheap or breaks easily, chances are they won’t make it home to remind everyone about your great park, which is the object of the giveaway to begin with.

Rather than hand out a single giveaway, I purchased a prize wheel with dry/erase marker sections on it.  The wheel has eight sections.  One section I made a free night stay at the park.  Three of the sections were for a 20% discount on a one night stay at the park.  The remaining four sections were for the giveaways that we had purchased.  The giveaway that seemed to have the most appeal was magnets.  The more unique the magnet, the better the attraction to the attendees.

Brochures/Literature

Most trade shows will supply you with a table for the booth.  This may or may not have a table cover with it.  I found banquet covers for tables for a fairly reasonable price and made sure that it was always with us when we went to a show.  Even if the show provided a cheap plastic cover, I was able to replace it with a cover that gave a more cohesive look to the booth.

Make sure that you have plenty of plexi display stands for your literature.  Take your brochures and your business cards and put them in prominent places.  If your state organization prints park directories, take some along and hand them out.  This will not only help your state but you can highlight your park in the directory as you are talking to the potential guest.  Check with your state tourism department and see if they have any directories that they use at the visitor’s center.  They will be more than happy to give you some to hand out.

Attendee Information

Anytime someone comes into the booth, try to get their contact information.  Use the prize wheel as the incentive to fill out an information card and drop it into a fish bowl for a special prize.  This could be a 1 week free stay, a free weekend, or any other prize that you decide on.  Just make sure that it is attractive enough to get people to give up their contact information (i.e. Name, Address, Phone, email address.)

After The Show

Now that the show is over, draw the name for the Grand Prize.  You have the perfect opportunity to email everyone who registered with you announcing the winner and offering any other incentives you may have.  The names that you collected during the show are your ROI, so don’t miss the chance to make that return as large as you can.

There are a lot of tricks to an effective trade show.  What are some of yours?

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Disaster Planning

By Pamela | Published: September 11, 2011

It’s happened once again.  Last year we had the disaster of the BP oil spill and while it was a major disaster for Louisiana and Mississippi, it wasn’t a disaster for all of the Florida panhandle and south Texas.  That didn’t keep the media from scaring everyone away from RVing in south Texas or in the Florida panhandle as they had planned.

Now we have Irene to contend with and once again while some areas are in disaster recovery mode, other areas are just trying to recoup from the disaster of people believing they are in a disaster.  Here are some ideas that I have put together on handling the bad press that comes from this kind of media.

Be Proactive Instead of Reactive

When the news begins about a disaster that could be heading your way, this is your call to action.  Hit your Social Media sites with information about what you are hearing locally, what your plans are and how often you will keep everyone up to date on what is actually going on.

If you publish a newsletter now would be the perfect time to send interim newsletters regarding what the current conditions are.  Let people know that you will be sending a newsletter  out more frequently than normal until after the “Disaster” is over.

When people call in with questions about their reservations, be sure you front office has the most recent information and is able to calm the jittery nerves of your future guests.   You might want to consider offering a refund on reservation deposits if you have to shut the park down due to the “Disaster.”

Take the opportunity to put out as much information as you can to prevent the mistaken idea that you are already closed for business.

During The Disaster

Work with other RV parks/resorts/campgrounds that are close enough to you for a quick drive but that are out of the disaster area to set them up as recommendations of where the guests can go for their vacation without interruption

Stay with your Social Media program and send out as many updates as you can telling people what is going on where you are located.  If the disaster is headed away from you, let everyone know that you are no longer in the eye of the “Disaster.”

If you are in the eye of the “Disaster,”  this would be a great time to let all of your guests with reservations know that you have taken the liberty of cancelling their reservation.  .  Particularly in the summer, many guests have scheduled vacation around the trip to your park.  You made the effort to find other places for your guests to stay and now is the time to give them options of where they can go to enjoy their vacation.  You aren’t going to lose the guest, you are going to make your guest more loyal because you took the time to think of them.

If you were evacuated because of the impending disaster, continue to use your Social Media program to report how you are being affected.  Remember the base of Social Media is “Social.”  That means that the people who are reading your Facebook updates, your tweets, your newsletters or your blogs feel that they have a relationship with you and are concerned about what is going on.

After The Disaster

If you were hit with the disaster, you already have your hands full.  However, now is a good time to consider letting everyone know how bad the damage was.  You might even give people a chance to help you with the cleanup by giving them a free site for a weekend.  Above all else, you need to let everyone know what your schedule for cleanup and reopening is.

If you weren’t hit with the disaster, you still want to let everyone know that you are open for business and that things are looking great.  You may even want to go the extra mile and schedule a “Let’s help our neighbors day” where everyone goes to a park that had been affected and helps them clean up.  This would be a great opportunity for a press release to talk about surviving the disaster and what you are doing for your friends in the business.

Disaster Planning

Hopefully, everyone has a disaster plan already in place for how they would shut down the office, backup computer systems and notify employees and guests.  If you don’t, this off season would be a good time to get started.

Having lived through a direct hit by a hurricane, there were a number of lessons learned for me.  To give you a small chuckle, before the hurricane made landfall, we filled up our 250 gallon tank with gas so that we would have it available after the hurricane.  The problem?  We needed diesel to run the equipment we wanted to use for clean up.

Check to make sure the simple equipment is available.  Chain saws have replacement chains, there is oil on hand to mix with gas for mowers, chain saws, etc. and that your computers are backed up.  One major advantage to the software that runs on the web is that your data is safe from a local disaster.  That isn’t to say that it is safe from other problems.

Make sure that shut off valves are clearly marked and that there is documentation so that it isn’t dependent on one person who knows where everything is.

I hope that you never have to execute your Disaster Plan but that if you do need to, the plan will be in place and current.  Don’t let the media convince your guests to cancel their reservations without a real reason.  Get out in front of the problem and control it instead of it controlling you.

Are you ready for a “Disaster?”

Posted in Marketing, Social Media | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I Just Want the Information

By Pamela | Published: August 29, 2011

Everyone knows that you need to market your business. The question is what information do you use, where do you get it from and how do you use it?  For some reason, the reservation systems we use every day seem to have an extremely basic level of marketing material.  Sure you can pull out email addresses, but how deep can you drill down?  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to drill down as deeply as Facebook Ads does?  In case you haven’t tried Facebook ads, the program allows you to define who you want to target by their location, their age group, and their interests with a number of other qualifiers that allow you to target your dollars to your true potential guests.  Since we don’t currently have any programs that allow such a vertical search, here is what I would love to see:

1.) Provide the email address for guests with the ability to sort by date in/date out. While this may be possible to pull today, I’m willing to bet that email addresses for people that are storing units with you or for long term guests are included in the file. If I am offering an overnight stay, I don’t want to email that to my long term guests.

2.) Let me add information as I gather it such as number of children, anniversary dates, etc.  With this information, I can wow my regular guests with birthday cards, anniversary cards or something special to celebrate the long term relationship with my park.

3.) I need to track the frequency of a guest’s stay.  In order to institute a frequent guest program, I need to be able to send specials out to this select group.  Recognizing a frequent customer is paramount in  the marketing world.  If you haven’t heard about it already, Morton’s Steakhouse took Twitter by storm when they reacted to a tweet by a frequent customer and showed up at the airport with a Porterhouse steak dinner when the customer arrived.  (Read about it here: http://bit.ly/q6oMzx) This was picked up by FoxNews among others and spread across the country. I want to be able to WOW my guests and while I may not get on FoxNews, hopefully my guests will want to spread the word.

4.) Give me an age range to select from for guests.  Now I can promote a special event for young families or a different event for snowbirds. I can make some educated guesses about an individual if I have an idea of their age range.

5.) Give me some ad hoc fields that I can enter information into. I would like to know if this is a new RVer, an RVer with a new unit, or maybe even an RVer who only stays overnight on a regular basis on their way to a winter location.

6.) Let me sort on the location of the guests.  After all, wouldn’t it be great to be able to send an invitation out to people in the winter letting them know when the park is going to open for the season?  I have noticed a number of parks that have specials for the guests who come in the week before opening day to help with the getting the park ready to open.

7.) I need to know what accommodations the guest used while they stayed at the park. Did they come in a large coach, a fifth wheel or a travel trailer?  Something that is even more prevalent today is the question of whether or not they stayed in a cabin/cottage/park model.  I want to know what kind of offers to make to my guests based on how they use the park.

8.) Give me a way of linking guests. Many people come with friends or relatives and want to be close to each other. Just think of the pleasant surprise a guest would experience if they were to call for a reservation for a second visit and the front desk could ask, “Will your friends be traveling with you?”

9.) Let me sort the information based on average how long a guest stays. If a guest usually spends a week at the park, I want to make any offers to that guest reflect the knowledge of their normal stay.  I don’t want to have to explain that an offer of 10% off of a stay is only good for stays of less than 4 nights since the weekly rate already reflects a discounted price. This only serves to make the guest feel unrecognized which is a major NO-NO in the marketing world.

10.) Give me a marketing module that doesn’t take a programmer to figure out, doesn’t require  repeated key strokes and that integrates with the rest of the reservation program.  In today’s world, it is more important than ever to treat guests as individuals. The more individualized the experience the more likely the guest is to spread the word about the great time they had. And no amount of advertising can beat WOM (word of mouth) for bringing in guests.

Added to these requirements are the advances in social media which need the underlying information about current guests to aid in the attraction of future guests.  Hotels have been using this type of marketing for a number of years successfully. Why can’t RV parks/resorts/campgrounds have the same edge on marketing?  What do you think? Would you be interested in a marketing module that would give you this kind of capability?  Are you listening Campground Manager, Digital Rez, Campground Master, et al?

Posted in Management, Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Dealing With Pesky Guests

By Pamela | Published: August 15, 2011

Everyone has them.  You know who I’m talking about.  Those Pesky Guests that insist on being catered to, even though they can see that you’re busy.  Well, I have devised a sure fire way to get rid of those guests permanently.  There may be a little fall-out from this plan but it will be worth the effort.

1.)    Make sure that the front desk finishes their conversation with each other before they check the guest in.  After all, the people working the front desk are as important as that Pesky Guest is, so why should they have to stop in the middle of their discussion about the great sale they found just to take care of someone standing at the front desk?  And while you are at it, forbid your workers from smiling at guests.  A smile will give the guest the impression that you are happy to see them check in.

2.)    When a potential guest calls to ask about availability, make sure that the person answering the call gives them a base price without the extras.  Don’t let them know until they check in that you have an extra charge if they want electric at their site, cable TV is in addition to the base rate and, of course, tax gets added in.  This is an especially effective way of deterring Pesky Guests if you can quote them an extremely low price for the site and then more than double it at the point of check in.

3.)    Do not tell anyone when your check out time is.  After all, they have been traveling for a while; they should know when the standard check out time is.  And just in case they want to be difficult, send someone to their site 15 minutes before check out time to remind them that they need to be packing up.  This works even better if you happen to catch them starting to pack up.  We all know how Pesky Guests can drag their feet in getting ready to move on down the road.

4.)    Save electricity by not replacing burned out light bulbs.  This will not only help you save money, but you will also keep Pesky Guests from complaining about how dirty the laundry or showers are.  If it’s that dirty, why don’t they just clean up after themselves?  After all, you didn’t make the mess, they did.

5.)    When you do get around to checking in those Pesky Guests, be sure to hand them paperwork that has been repeatedly copied so that there are toner smudges, crooked images and blurry type.  In this day and age, you need to save everywhere you can.  If you don’t already have this type of documentation, then all you have to do is make a copy of a copy of a copy until it reaches the appropriate level of unbusiness like appearance.

6.)    We all know that the day is wasting away so begin your mowing, yard work or tree trimming early in the morning.  The earlier, the better.  Pesky Guests should understand that the only reason you have to perform these functions is because of them.  If they weren’t around you wouldn’t have to worry about how tall the grass was or whether or not tree limbs were hanging over your sites.

7.)    If you have a Pesky Guest stop you to ask a question about their site, make sure that you let them know in your outside voice that they are the stupidest creatures to ever walk this earth.  And since Pesky Guest has been so inconsiderate, make sure that you go next door to let the neighbor know that it is not a problem for them to block Pesky Guests site with their guest’s vehicles.

8.)    Make sure that you strictly enforce the pet leash requirement, that pet barking will not be tolerated and that picking up after your pet is mandatory.  Assign a work camper to the task of monitoring and enforcing the pet rules.  This work camper must be someone with a dog who rides on the golf cart and chases after the pets on a leash.  After all, the work camper’s pet needs a little entertainment.  Besides, Pesky Guests pet should be inside the camper anyway.

9.)    Be sure that all employees cut through sites in order to get to their next assignment quickly and efficiently.  The site belongs to you not to the Pesky Guest.  This will have the added benefit of making sure that nothing is put on the site (like lawn chairs) that will get in your way when you have to mow the lawn.

10.) And finally, when Pesky Guest leaves send him multiple emails asking about his stay.  However, once he fills out the information, DO NOT respond to him.  Responding to him will just encourage him to tell you more.  If Pesky Guest goes so far as to post a nasty review on the web, be sure you respond by telling everyone what an idiot the guy was, how his expectations were so out of line and that it is your park and you will run it the way you want to, not the way Pesky Guest wants you to.

Unfortunately, in my travels, I have never seen anyone enforce all ten of the above rules, which resulted in the park having at least a few Pesky Guests to deal with.  As you work at it, however, you will get better until you reach the point of having an empty park that you can sit and admire.

I’m sure that there are a few more items that can be added to my rules.  What would you suggest?

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

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