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February 3, 2019
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How can I make my park more successful?

Welcome to the first edition of Park Talk, a blog for all caravan parks that have a passion for their customers and their parks. The focus of this blog will be on subjects not commonly reviewed in many of the formal publications available. Park Talk is about discussing things that can help improve your business performance through improved customer satisfaction and by improving the way you present your park and deliver services to your guests.

To begin these Blogs I want to look at addressing the following question:

“How can I make my caravan park more successful?"

Internal versus External Factors

To make this simple, Internal factors are the ones you can influence and impact directly, such as initiatives, tasks, projects, processes  etc. which you can impact directly within your park. External Factors will be circumstances, events or decisions that occur outside your control. I aim to focus on the Internal Factors of Success. By addressing these factors first can make a significant impact on your business!

Where do these success factors come from?

Simply put - personal observations as well as research with customers and parks. I have travelled with my caravan for more than 45 years, in South Africa, Europe and Australia. My career path has also taken me internationally into sales and marketing effectiveness and training. In addition, in establishing Kui Parks I have spent more than 4 years on the road, done nearly 140,000km and visited hundreds of caravan parks. In my travels I have seen and experienced many things (both good and not so good), and have seen what makes a park successful and what does not. I have identified what I consider some of the most important factors. Not everything may be relevant to every park, however, I am convinced that these will help formulate a successful business. Not everything is covered here, however, so I would love your thoughts and feedback on my list.

The SUCCESS Factors..... and counting!

  1. Friendly engagement with customers
  2. Promote Town and Region to keep guests longer
  3. Present a well maintained and neat caravan park
  4. Keep facilities such as amenities, camp kitchen and laundry very clean
  5. Communication by phone, email and face to face
  6. Offer reasonable rates to guests - ensuring value for money
  7. Encourage and develop loyalty through customer retention
  8. Provide added value services to make the experience extra special
  9. Demonstrate reasonable levels of flexibility and empathy
  10. Measure performance by monitoring and measuring occupancy, revenue etc
  11. Undertake a yearly Business Planning Review to refine business performance
  12. Aim to make incremental improvements to your park each year
  13. Being selective and careful on how you spend your Marketing $
  14. Undertake regular Social Media activity
  15. Build Equity in your reviews
  16. Networking with other parks - building relationships with other parks
  17. Being part of a Caravan Park Network
  18. Ensuring a well managed park
  19. First Impressions in the office and on arrival at the park
  20. And more........

I will expand on these more in coming blogs.

If you have any thoughts on any success factors that could be added to this list, why not drop me an email. I can be reached at bert@kuiparks.com.au

Next time we will consider the subject of "Friendly Engagement with Customers" in Park Talk.

 

With kind regards

 

Bert van Spronsen, Founder, Managing Director Kui Parks & Fellow Traveller

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