How To Manage The Customer Experience Before They Even Get To Your Venue

In this post, you will learn how to manage the customer experience before the customer even gets to your venue.

This is important because it creates expectations for your customer and can influence their behavior.

By the end of the lesson, you will have learned the 5 stages of the customer journey, what touchpoints your business has at each stage, and how you can use these to create the right expectations and behavior in your customers – helping you reduce the number of difficult situations you encounter.

THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Let’s take a closer look at the customer journey.

The customer journey is made up of EVERY SINGLE INTERACTION a customer has with your business – your products, your service, and your staff…

We call these interactions ‘touchpoints’. They are points in time where your business ‘touches’ the lives of your customer.

The customer journey can be divided into 5 stages.

1. Awareness
2. Evaluation
3. Decision
4. Purchase
5. Post-purchase

Let’s take a closer look at each stage…

1. AWARENESS

A customer becomes aware of their need – to book a dinner venue for a birthday dinner. Then they also need to be aware of you as a potential venue.

Online touchpoints include social media (both your accounts and others mentions of you), your website, and possibly paid online advertising.

Offline touchpoints include printed media, people walking past, word-of-mouth referrals, and traditional advertising.

2. EVALUATION

Think about how you decide which business to purchase from.

If you’ve ever needed a tradesperson, you probably found 2-3 that you liked the sound or look of. Then you’d contact them and get a quote – so you could compare pricing and the ‘feel’ you get from them.

It’s the same with your customers – they will likely narrow down to a few ‘finalists’, then compare things like pricing, menu, reputation… which they generally source from your website and social media, as well as word of mouth.

3. DECISION

Once a customer has evaluated their options they will make a decision. For hospitality businesses a decision generally refers to making a booking.

Booking touchpoints at your venue may include phone, online, FB messenger, and a confirmation response.

4. PURCHASE

Purchase at a hospitality venue involves arriving at the venue, being seated, ordering, consuming food and/or drinks, then paying the bill – which concludes the ‘purchase’.

Touchpoints at this stage include your venue, your product, and your service.

5. POST-PURCHASE

After the purchase is complete customers leave the venue. This is another opportunity to enhance the customer experience and encourage repeat customers and positive reviews.

In the following sections, I will go through how you can these online and offline touchpoints at each stage of the customer journey to create the right expectations and behavior in your customers – helping you reduce the number of difficult situations you encounter.

ONLINE TOUCHPOINTS

Managing online touchpoints allows you to influence the customer’s expectations and behavior before they even get to your venue.

Negative behaviors generally stem from emotions such as fear, anxiety, frustration, anger.

So it’s simple – you can reduce these emotions through consistent and clear messaging and communication with your customers, that will;

• Enforce feelings of safety and security
• Build confidence
• Reduce uncertainty
• Create clear expectations

Online touchpoints you can use to your advantage include;

• Social media
• Online listings – including search engines and aggregators such as TripAdvisor and Zomato
• Your website
• Emails

What Information Do You Need To Communicate?

1. To promote goodwill and manage expectations – thank customer for their support, acknowledge reduced capacity, etc.
2. Manage expected behaviour – acknowledge negative impacts and ask/outline appropriate customer behaviour.
3. To increase confidence in safety and security you need to communicate your COVID safe practices – both what you do and how you do it.
4. To decrease uncertainty and frustration – communicate up to date COVID regulations customers need to comply with.
5. Your language also matters – be positive but have a clear position.
6. Detailing what customers should expect at each step of their journey also reduces uncertainty and creates clear expectations, which reduces frustration upon arrival.

• Where can they find information about your business?
• How can they book with you?
• How will this be confirmed?
• What should they do if changes occur?
• What will happen when they arrive at your venue?
• What should they expect to provide/bring?
• (This may change, just keep them up to date)

How Do You Do It?

Social Media

Include posts on your social media channels – pictures, text-based, videos. Use hashtags that industry and government are using eg: ‘#travelkind’

Your Website

Include relevant information on your website – make sure it is easy to find (Home Page, Contact Page, etc)

• opening hours
• booking methods
• COVID rules and regulations
• COVID safe practices
• Available menu
• Current prices (any surcharges)

Online Listings

• Ensure your online listings are up to date. Especially opening hours, booking methods, and COVID rules and regulations customers have to meet.
• You may also like to respond to negative reviews to acknowledge any differences to your usual food or service quality, range/choice or timing.

Emails

When to use emails;

• Booking confirmation – thanks, booking details, current COVID rules, COVID safe practices, what to expect on arrival, any FAQs, acknowledge any delays or negatives
• Pre-arrival – transport, parking, what to expect on arrival, any changes to COVID rules, reminder of COVID safe practices, ask for update on booking, acknowledge any delays or negatives

[DOWNLOAD OUR CUSTOMER TOUCHPOINT CHECKLIST HERE]

OFFLINE TOUCHPOINTS

This section will focus on how to manage ‘offline touchpoints’ to influence the customer’s expectations and behavior – both before and when they get to your venue.

You learned previously that negative behaviors generally stem from emotions such as fear, anxiety, frustration, anger.

We reduce these emotions in ‘offline touchpoints’ the same way as online – through consistent and clear messaging and communication with your customers, that;

• Enforces feelings of safety and security
• Builds confidence
• Reduces uncertainty
• Creates clear expectations

Offline touchpoints you can use to your advantage include;

• Traditional Advertising – print, radio, TV, direct mail
• Phone calls
• In person
• In venue

What Information Do You Need To Communicate?

You will be communicating the same information as you do online but in a different way.

For example;

1. Promoting goodwill and managing expectations. When taking inquiries and bookings thank customers for their support and thinking of you, acknowledge any reduced capacity, outline what the customer should expect in terms of COVID or other safety procedures.
2. Increase confidence in safety and security by communicating your COVID safe practices – both what you do and how you do it. This is done particularly well with signage in venue. Ensure signage is repeated where customers will see it and be looking for it – eg: check in code on the front door.
3. Decrease uncertainty and frustration– communicate up to date COVID regulations customers need to comply with. Again, signage is important here, but so is phone calls and face to face interactions. Ensure staff are up to date and provide them with scripts where possible to be communicating with customers. Staff can also refer to signage.
4. Your language also matters – be positive but have a clear position. Again, provide and practice scripts with your staff on taking inquiries and bookings, greeting customers, taking orders, answering FAQs.
5. Detail what customers should expect at each step of their journey to reduce uncertainty and create clear expectations, which reduces frustration upon arrival.
6. Where can they find information about your business?
7. How can they book with you?
8. How will this be confirmed?
9. What should they do if changes occur?
10. What will happen when they arrive at your venue?
11. What should they expect to provide/bring?
12. (This may change, just keep them up to date)

How Do You Do It?

Traditional Advertising

Provide up to date details – and where to find most up to date info (acknowledge changes may occur).

Most important – opening hours, booking methods, current COVID rules and regulations.

Phone Calls and In Person

Have a script for common interactions and ensure staff are trained in it. I suggest you start with the following;

• Booking inquiry
• Arrival with booking
• Arrival with no booking
• FAQs
  • opening hours
  • booking methods
  • COVID rules and regulations
  • COVID safe practices
  • Available menu
  • Current prices (any surcharges)
  • Wait times
  • Any changes to usual (reduced products or services)

In Venue

• Signage is important – check your industry association, local council etc. as they will likely provide templates for you.
• Visual Cues – cleanliness, flow – how people move throughout your venue, greeter/ COVID marshall

[DOWNLOAD THE CUSTOMER TOUCHPOINT CHECKLIST HERE]