Every day, I see marketing for the biggest, fastest, longest, blah blah blah zip line tour. And it’s all crap.
Why? Because that’s why people come the first time, but has zero relevance on whether they come back. If you want a zip line tour that is successful for the long term, you NEED people to come back and what gets them back is your quality of service coupled with how accurately your tour is presented in your marketing.
Case in point: I was developing a feasibility study for a client and had to go ride the competing tours in the area. I know, I suffer for my craft… Anyway, the first tour I visit said on their web site that they had the only tour in the area with zero hand braking. Intrigued, I booked my tour. Upon arriving at their office I signed my liability waiver. As I handed it to the check in person they loudly proclaimed “First to sign, first to die!” I was stunned. If I hadn’t been “undercover” I would have let loose on this unsuspecting individual. However, I kept quiet and waited for the rest of our tour group to finish signing their lives away.
On to the course! As with most tours, we start on a short training line to get everyone ready to tackle the longer lines. Now, guess what they show us how to do… Hand Brake! And not only do they show us how, they proceed to tell us that it is required for every single one of their 12 lines. Major disappointment.
From there I witness many other gaffes:
All told, one of the worst experiences I’ve had on a zip line/canopy tour. Now hopefully I’m not describing your course! However, take a look at your marketing and see how it compares to the actual experience. It may be worthwhile to hire a secret shopper or two and get some solid feedback to see how your business is or isn’t attracting repeat business.
Paul
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2 Responses to “The Greatest Zip Line in the World!”
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Putting my Jasper Hunt hat on for a moment, what’s your responsibility here in terms of notifying ownership/management of your concerns, or warning the public or local or regional officials?
Clearly, contacting ownership/management could result in this competitor cleaning up its act and offering a better service, which might directly impact your client and result in you cutting off your nose despite your face; but it could also result in the saving of a life.
By warning the public (via a written review on TripAdvisor or Yelp) you might similarly be saving a life, but again you’d be tipping off your client’s competitor, which would result in a better run operation if they’re listening.
Interesting situation.
Mikal, I’ll admit it had me vexed for a while. My client and I both agreed that I needed to address the safety concerns with the course owner. So I ended up calling the owner and told them about my visit, just not the purpose of my visit. The bad service wasn’t mentioned, only the safety concerns.
He was very adamant that the course was safe in spite of the glaring issues, but I think my point was made. The owner did admit that he had built most of the course himself so I think it was an ego issue as well. He ended up selling out a few months later to one of the other local competitors who promptly rebuilt the entire course.