How to Help Tour and Activity Guests Better Remember Their Experience

Over the past couple of years the world has fully transitioned into the experience economy, where customers are prioritizing experiences over product ownership. Customers no longer shop to own things in the traditional sense, instead, they purchase experiences, dreams and memories.

The experience economy is led by millennials. A Harris study found that more than three in four millennials (78 percent) would choose to spend money on a desirable experience or event over buying something desirable, and 55 percent of millennials say they’re spending more on events and live experiences than ever before.

As tour and business operators, our industry is at the forefront of being able to provide these experiences, but what’s often underrated is the power of memory marketing. 

It’s all well and good providing an incredible experience, but, to realize the best possible ROI, your business needs to be delivering experiences that are memorable.

When an experience is truly memorable, guests will talk about the people they met, the activities they did, the places they visited and the story that they were part of. When guests can relive and share these feelings, your business is more likely to generate both referral bookings and repeat bookings.

So, how can your business ensure guests better remember their experience, and, as a result, are more likely to share it with their friends and family or rebook with your brand. 

Here are five tips to help get you started: 

Photo marketing and memory marketing go hand in hand. When you are able to capture photos of guests enjoying their experience, you can re-engage with your customers (both after an experience and long into the future) to remind them of the experience they had and help them relive it. 

When you do that successfully, your customers are significantly more likely to share that experience with their friends and family (which leads to referral bookings for your business), leave high quality online reviews of your brand and even make repeat bookings with your company in the future.

The guest experience is a cumulation of every interaction a guest has with your brand. From researching your activities, booking the experience with your company, to the actual experience itself and every follow-up interaction that takes place afterwards.

One of the most crucial aspects of the guest experience, however, is how a guest is treated during the actual experience. This is the part of the guest experience that you truly want them to remember. Since your tour guides have a direct impact on how your customer feels during the tour or activity, it’s crucial that their customer service is first-class. 

All good experiences are underpinned by a story that makes them memorable. When guests get back home after an experience, they want to be able to share the story of that experience with their friends, family and on their social media channels. 

One of the most important aspects of providing guests with an experience that they’ll remember forever is to simply tell a great story. That’s why your guides need to be engaging enough to build a story, no matter what activity you are providing.

As we mentioned before, the guest experience is a cumulation of all the interactions a customer has with your business. It’s a common mistake to believe this experience begins and ends with their visit to your tour or activity business. 

The guest experience is in fact a journey made up of a range of elements, touch points and interactions. By understanding your customers’ entire journey with your business, you can create a seamless experience that delights your guest at every step of the way.

No customer investing in an experience wants it to feel cookie cutter. For a truly memorable experience, customers want to feel like it was personally designed for them. Of course, that’s not the case, but by focusing on personalization you can certainly make it feel that way. 

Simple tactics such as acknowledging your customers by their name, sending them photos of their experience for free after the event, or giving them deals for future bookings on special occasions (such as their birthday) can enhance how a guest remembers your business.

Do you want to learn more about how you can use photo marketing to make the guest experience more memorable? Fotaflo is an innovative memory marketing platform that simplifies and automates the distribution of photos and videos to your and activity customers. Book a demo with our team today to see first-hand how we can enhance your memory marketing strategy.