Secret shopping assignments are completed by a team of highly trained customer service professionals who know the RV Park/Resort/Campground Industry. They will call your office staff and interact with your reservation desk. They will inquire about available sites, amenities, and several other targeted questions. Your employee will be unaware that the assessor is anything but a typical guest.
The assessor will then create a personalized report providing information about their interaction with the staff and if they were sold on staying at your property.
3 reasons to have a secret shopper call your park:
Secret Shopper assessments are used to gauge your guest services. By reporting on their interactions with the staff, our professional’s access and report to the owners/operators how the phone processes perform, the behaviors of the staff answering the phone (positive or negative) and if the communications were clear. You can then use this information to implement new policies and/or train staff in specific areas.
Hiring a secret shopper can help you identify areas of concern within your park. Quality of service, amenities that may be missing or in need of upgrade and/or any other aspect of staying in your park will likely seem different from a guest perspective than your own. The honest feedback of a secret shopper can inform you of problems so that you can take steps to correct them.
One of a secret shoppers most important function is to provide data about the guest experience. Their experience can provide insight on how you might be able to increase enthusiasm and make your guest WANT to stay at your park as well as return.
Is your website delivering dollars to your bottom line? When RVer’s go looking to book a site, are they finding you or are they finding your competition? What does the Outdoor Hospitality world think of you and your park?
These are all questions that you should have a ready answer for but finding the time to determine what the answer is can be challenging. Add to that the fact that you are going to be biased about what you are seeing (that’s natural and as it should be) you may not arrive at the correct answer to the questions.
Our assessors will review your marketing presence, the ease of use of your website, if they are able to easily book online and will deliver an honest critique of where your efforts currently stand.
3 reasons to have your online presence reviewed by an independent assessor:
The assessment will not only look at you with a critical eye, but it will also look at your closest competition and how their online image compares. The assessor will report on not only how you compare but also what you can do to improve your appearance.
Having a website doesn’t mean that RVer’s can find you easily. And if they can’t find you, they aren’t going to be making that reservation to stay with you. The assessor will take the time to dig deep into your online presence and will give you an honest appraisal of what you look like online.
How you look online can make or break you. How do you answer reviews that are critical of your park? Are the images of your park attractive? (Quick Tip: Make sure there are people in your park images that are enjoying their stay. Use staff (that aren’t in park logo uniforms) to be your models if you are concerned about using photos with people in them.
Everyone knows that you need a Feasibility/Marketing Analysis before you go to your loan officer and try to convince him/her to give you the money to purchase an RV park/resort/campground.
What isn’t required but is every bit as critical is an honest assessment of the property and its potential.
With a Reality Check, one of our assessors will visit your potential purchase and review the property to determine if the physical property has issues that you may not have recognized. In an existing park things like uneven sites, or hook-up connections that haven’t been maintained can make the difference between having to spend more money after purchase or being able to begin your expansion plans.
The first impression is the one that you can’t afford to mess up. Curb appeal goes beyond the entrance and includes an honest view of the appearance of the park. Is it easy to find the office? Where are the dumpsters? Do you look like a long-term park that is allowing a bad image to perpetuate?
There are several items that can swallow up your operating budget if you aren’t aware of what they are. Things like open sewer caps can give pause as to issues with flooding (I’ve seen parks that leave sewer caps off when a heavy rain is predicted to help keep sites from flooding), breakers and outlets that are showing wear and tear (It will surprise you how much a breaker or outlet can cost. Then multiply that by the number of sites.) or something as simple as the usability of the sites.
A parks images is fickle. If the park has a negative online image, you are going to have to work three times as hard to bring guests in as you would if the park had no image or very limited internet presence. You can post “Under New Management” or “New Owner” on the website but you are going to have to spend the dollars on marketing to bring that reality to your guests’ fingertips. You need to be able to budget accordingly.
There are a lot more types of problems out there but there aren’t a lot that we haven’t seen and fixed.
Schedule a quick 30-minute call, today!
Pamela Wright
pwright@FocusedOnMgmt.com
(337) 735-4070
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