Parc Astérix was elected champion of customer experience according to a KPMG France study published on 8 November. This success is based in particular on the fluidity and personalization of the customer experience as well as on a personalized loyalty strategy. Interview with Karine Moral, Marketing Director of Parc Astérix.
Parc Astérix was elected 1st in the overall ranking of the " Customer Experience Excellence " study by KPMG France. How do you explain these results?
Parc Asterix was awarded first place in the Hotels & Travel sector, and above all first place in the ranking for all sectors combined. Our success is partly linked to the multiplication of contact points that allow visitors to maintain a relationship with the brand. Everything has been thought out to make the customer's journey as smooth as possible, before, during, and after the visit. Before they come to the park, we multiply the interactions with future visitors through different channels, the telephone, emails, and chat. Three years ago, we launched the chatbot so that our customers can be in contact with the brand H24. A chat operator system on the website supports our contact center at times when we cannot be present, i.e. late at night and early in the morning. The concierge service also contacts customers before their arrival to provide them with information about the reservation.
This availability and attentiveness to the customer is also implemented during the visit. Via the mobile application, customers can geolocate themselves, find out about waiting times and show times, buy virtual queue cutters, and order and pre-purchase their meals to avoid queuing. This system is accompanied by a denser presence of characters in the park and the installation of 'quality flashes' located in various strategic places such as restaurants. If, for example, a customer expresses his or her disappointment or dissatisfaction by flashing a QR code, a manager undertakes to go and meet the customer quickly in order to resolve the problem immediately. Our overall satisfaction score for the fleet has increased by 0.5 points. This is clearly linked to the human reception we give to visitors.
Theme parks are trying to personalize the customer offer as much as possible. How do you try to respond to this trend and stand out?
To personalize the offer, this year we have created predefined routes that are aimed at a specific type of visitor, a family with children, or with very small children, young adults without children, or intrepid people looking for thrills and adventure. These itineraries allow the visit to be reinvented and enriched, to facilitate the journey by recommending attractions, shows, or restaurant types, but also to anticipate the experience on-site. Type of show, entertainment, restaurant, everything can be personalized to suit the customer.
When booking tickets, we also personalize our discourse and give different advice adapted to each type of customer, depending on what has been booked. After the stay, different mechanisms have been designed to maintain the link and personalize the relationship with the consumers. This involves sending emails and benefits for our visitors' birthdays, as well as satisfaction questionnaires to collect opinions. Depending on the answers given and their affinities, we will be able to propose a new accommodation offer, to communicate a new feature, and to refine future marketing campaigns in order to invite them, for example, to discover the park in a new atmosphere, at Halloween, or at Christmas.
What 'relational' innovations will you be focusing on?
In the medium term, we plan to deploy a CDP (customer data platform) based on more advanced segmentation, in order to activate even more personalization. This approach requires significant data collection objectives and better data processing.
We also aim to personalize the website according to user profiles and to set up a self-learning voice bot by 2023. Our ambition here is to relieve the congestion in our contact center, to respond to level 1 interactions (general information, opening hours, weather on site) as quickly as possible, and thus to professionalize the calls from our sales advisors.