Redefined customer experience for a large accommodation provider
Redefined customer experience for a large accommodation provider
Discovery Parks is the largest owner and operator of lifestyle holiday parks in Australia, with over 60 locations around the country.
We supported the implementation of a future-focused strategy
Discovery Parks is focused on enhancing the customer experience and implementing technology, systems, processes and roles to enable ‘the park of the future’. Nous undertook three projects to:
- improve the end-to-end customer experience
- develop an ambitious technology strategy
- refresh roles and organisational design to deliver stronger, more consistent customer service and enhance financial performance.
We focused on customer experience
Working closely with key executive team members from Discovery Parks, we applied a human-centred design methodology to understand the current customer experience.
Our work identified a sophisticated way to segment customers utilising behaviour rather than demographics. We developed a segmentation model that will better enable the client to target particular segments, improve the customer experience and increase the number of repeat visits.
We explored the current customer experience through on-site interviews and observations in parks with customers and staff; mystery shopping exercises; workshops; and analysis of visitation data and customer feedback. Using the lessons learned, Nous worked with customers and staff to co-design potential solutions to address pain points, and tested the appetite for these opportunities with a broad group of customers.
Nous created a series of deliverables, including:
- customer segments and personas
- system updates to capture data in alignment with the new segmentation model
- current and future state customer journey maps
- a financial model to understand costs and required uplift to make improvement opportunities feasible
- a prioritised list of opportunities to pursue based on the customer testing and financial modelling.
The insights from the customer experience piece formed the foundations for the redesigned operating model and target technology architecture. Leveraging CRM and customer analytics the client will soon be able to provide targeted suggestions and offers to customers based on their behaviours, including:
The new operating model will support improved customer service
Using a design-led approach, we identified seven opportunities to enhance the customer experience, enabled by the new operating model and IT target architecture. The improvements we identified are helping the client to boost customer satisfaction, increase conversion rates and increase repeat visitation and average length of stay. The redesigned operating model also improves efficiency, and enables staff to focus on customer engagement through a shift in roles from property managers to customer experience managers.
The technology strategy identified current and future state, and provided a prioritised implementation plan to enable the right investments to be made, in the right order to maximise benefits.
What other organisations can learn:
- Embed mechanisms to truly engage with and listen to your customers, and keep them front and centre when making business decisions.
- Ensure that the basics of customer service consistently meet or even exceed expectations – before pursuing other improvements that may deliver less benefit.
- A new initiative doesn’t have to be expensive. Take the opportunity to test and learn using lower-risk pilots and minimum viable products.
