10 Ways to Personalize Your Guest
April 20, 2023
A lot of talk has been thrown around about personalizing your communications with your customers lately. Some of these are a bit light on the personalizing and a bit heavy on selling you something.
10 ways that I think RV Parks/Resorts/Campgrounds can take advantage of personalizing their guests without having to buy anything new.
1.) Use Their Name When someone calls in for a reservation, does your reservationist make an effort to address the caller by their name? The caller should be addressed as Mr. (Last Name) or Ms. (Last Name) initially. Does the reservationist offer his/her name to the guest and tell them that he/she can request to speak to that specific reservationist but that anyone answering the phone can help them?
Keep the reservation personal!
2.) On Arrival Does your Front Desk recognize who is coming in to register? When you identify arrivals for the day, give the Front Desk a prompt on who the arriving guest maybe. This could be by identifying the Type and Make of the RV they are arriving in, what state the license plate is from, etc. Also note who took the original reservation. If they don’t happen to be at the desk or busy with another guest, the Front Desk can readily let the guest know that the person greeting them can help them get settled in or they can wait for the person that they originally spoke with.
Above all else, the guest should be warmly greeted when they come through the door by someone from the Front Desk. How about meeting them at the door and holding the door open? In other words,treat them the same as you would a guest arriving at your home.P
3.) Customize Create a check-in package for the guest.We all have the park maps that we hand out but what about suggesting to the guest a particular place to eat if they wanted to eat local food, or where to go hiking? Maybe a local theater group is presenting a new play.
4.) Escort Offer to escort the guest to the site and help them get set up.Not all guests will take you up on the offer. A lot of them will appreciate not having to drive around looking for their site number. When you call for the escort, make sure that they know the guests name so that they can continue with the personalization.
5.) Personalized PMS Personalize emails to your guest,instead of using “Dear Guest”. Use any features that allow you to upsell items prior to the guest’s arrival. Personalize the items and don’t be generic, i.e., don’t send an offer for a hiking activity to someone who hasn’t indicated any desire to go hiking.
6.) Guest Appreciation program, aka Loyalty Program Offer specials that only go to those guests who have signed up for your Guest Appreciation program.
7.) Pet Walking? Consider offering a pet walking service allowing the guest to enjoy a local restaurant without worrying about their pet being locked up in the RV. How about a babysitting program so that the young parents can take an hour off to enjoy their stay by themselves. This could be as simple as offering a special activity just for kids.
8.) Concierge Service Offer to get tickets to local events, schedules guide service, or makes reservations at a restaurant for the guests.
9.) Outside Services Have the phone numbers for the local ride-hailing services (Uber, Lyft, etc.), food delivery (Door Dash,GrubHub, etc.) readily available.
10.) Guests Special Occasion Offer something special for them at check in that recognizes the occasion. Could be as simple as a card congratulating them or even a surprise discount for their stay.
The opportunities are endless. Give us a call and I am sure that we can come up with more ways to WOW your guest.
