The Importance of Photo Marketing and the Guest Experience

Are you looking to improve the guest experience of your tour or activity business? If so, it's important to know that the guest experience begins with a photo marketing service, and it ends with one too!

Photo marketing is all about providing your guests with great photos, so that they talk about and share their amazing memories with friends and family. 

When people look at their friends’ photos on social media, they know they were having an awesome time and will want to book an experience with your business to build memories of their own. 

By sharing photos, guests refer their friends to your location which generates more bookings!

So, how does the guest experience come into play? There are two reasons why a photo marketing service improves the guest experience:

1. It directly enhance the guest experience.
2. It strengthens the relationship between guides and customers, which indirectly improves the customer experience.

What is the guest experience?

The guest experience is defined as all of the interactions you have with your customer, from the moment they find your brand to the follow-up conversations you have after they've complete an experience with your business.

The term is primarily used in the hospitality industry, and is used to measure the quality of the experience that you provide your guest.

How a photo marketing service improves the guest experience

1 - Direct benefits for the customer

Guests appreciate you taking their photo, and posing for photos helps them relax and have more fun. Taking photos is a positive addition to your tour or activity experience, when done correctly.

Your staff play an important role in building a positive experience for your guests, and photos can be part of that. By getting your guests to pose for photos with smiling faces, you will be delivering intentional photos that drive customer satisfaction and result in more repeat bookings, increased referral bookings and an enhanced customer experience. 

When guests don't have to worry about bringing their camera or smartphone and taking their own photos, they have a better experience and create better memories. 

They can leave their phones and cameras behind and truly immerse themselves into the experience that your brand offer.

Even more importantly, guests will get receive better photos because staff know the best places to take excellent photos. Guests are only at your location for a limited amount of time. Staff are there every day and know exactly when and where to take the best photos. 

As a result, guests can be confident they'll have great memories of their experience because your staff are the experts in taking the best photos.

Here's a recent quote from a guest that says it all:

This tour was one of the highlights of our honeymoon trip to Kauai. It was an absolute extra bonus that our guide took these pictures and sent them to us free of charge, one of the only experiences spent on Kauai that we weren't asked to pay to take our memories with us. That bonus alone makes me 100% more apt to advise friends and family to go on a similar adventure with Kauai ATV.

2 - Indirect guest experience benefits from your guides

Creating genuine connections between your guests and staff is the number one way to generate referrals and online reviews. You only need to read the reviews on TripAdvisor to see that most reviews are focused on the guide or staff member. Guests remember their experience based on the guide that they interact with.

Taking photos is a great way to interact with your guests by getting them to smile and pose for photos. You can build genuine connections with guests by getting them to engage in fun and exciting photos. Make them feel like a celebrity!

Guides can use their photos to enhance your connection with guests. Include some surprise staff selfies to remind them of the great time you had with them! Include a personal thank you video from your staff. Use your photo marketing service to extend the guest-staff relationship beyond the activity and encourage guests to share their photos and review your business.

Providing a fun and engaging photo experience as part of your activity is also a great way to increase tips if your guides rely on them.

The most important aspect of a good guest experience, is making it fun!

A successful photo marketing service requires your guides to be on board. Guides must buy-in and believe in the value of photo marketing to both your tour and activity business and the guest.

It also needs to be seen as a fun and enjoyable part of the experience you provide to your guests.

The number one priority for tour and activity operators is the guest experience. Photos will enhance the guest experience for customers, and, in turn, grow your business and create happier customers and staff members.

Want to know more about how giving away photos can grow your business? Contact Fotaflo today.