Many park operators are struggling with significantly decreasing visitors during the off-season.
However, this is a normal phenomenon for parks that operate year-round, as peak seasons typically occur during winter and summer vacations and holidays.
The off-season accounts for half of the 365 days in a year. During the off-season, parks commonly face several challenges, such as reduced visitor flow from Monday to Friday, high operating costs despite low attendance leading to wasted labor expenses, poor online marketing and promotion efforts resulting in inadequate publicity, idle employees who resort to playing on their mobile phones due to lack of work opportunities, and difficulty converting free drainage into revenue even through promotional activities.
To address these issues effectively during the off-season period requires careful planning and strategic management by park operators.
How can businesses overcome the off-season dilemma?
1. Begin with Publicity and Promotion
Publicity and promotion are crucial for the success of any park, regardless of whether it is peak season or off-season. In particular, publicity and promotion should be a top priority during the off-season. Consumers will be unaware of your park’s services and products without practical publicity.
It is a common mistake to assume that an established park with high popularity does not require further promotion. However, this assumption is incorrect as there may not necessarily be a direct correlation between the length of time a park has been open and its local visitor numbers. Some parks have relied solely on natural foot traffic within shopping malls despite being available for extended periods.
On the other hand, if you invest in efficient promotional methods even when your park has only recently opened, many potential customers can quickly become aware of your offerings. Therefore, it is essential to prioritize publicity and promotion efforts for optimal results in attracting visitors to your park. What are some effective promotional strategies suitable for operators?
Select the appropriate promotional tool to increase traffic on your private domain.
To build private domain traffic, choosing the proper promotion tools is essential. The first step is establishing official accounts on Facebook, TikTok, and corporate WhatsApp and improving store promotion tools. While some may argue that focusing on one platform is better than building multiple platforms, having a variety of platforms is essential for establishing free traffic pools in stores. Consumers are like water in the pool, while containers represent various promotional tools we have built. Registering for different platforms ensures that if one container fails, we can pour the water into another.
The second step involves importing consumers into the flow pool using three standard methods: finding card registration forms when customers open cards, calling customers by phone, or through platform fission, where customers collect coins or votes and add WeChat public accounts or enterprise Tiktoks.
After establishing a traffic pool, maintaining community engagement with consumers becomes crucial. This includes delivering daily benefits such as sending red envelopes with tickets or sharing cleaning pictures of the park to supervise parents and fans.
Step 4 involves summarizing these operations into relevant documents and forming system specifications while setting goals and standardizing standards for individual stores. It’s essential to track progress daily, discuss problems encountered, find corresponding solutions, and record them.
If personnel skills cannot meet operating standards, outsourcing services from an operation consulting company or purchasing support training packages can be considered (step 5).
Finally (step 6), old customers should be maintained through currency consumption activities such as member birthday parties or welfare days, encouraging more visits and increasing sales during peak seasons.
These are some ways parks can establish their private domain traffic, but execution remains critical, with the responsibility placed on people to implement these strategies effectively.
2. Introduce a discounted package deal for the amusement park during the off-season.
The free-time play card can be launched when passenger flow is at its lowest, typically on weekdays that are not holidays. The card is exclusive to the owner and remains valid for X months.
Pricing can be reduced since the software project for the park has already been invested in as a one-time cost. Additionally, construction costs have already been accounted for in initial investments. Store costs remain fixed whether it’s one customer or a group of customers playing.
3. Exiting the Paradise
Step out and negotiate business cooperation with institutions from various industries with the same customer base.
The primary focus of these negotiations is to offer membership benefits. Customers can enjoy exclusive discounts at different industry merchants by holding a park membership card. If the cooperative relationship is strong enough, group purchase discount tickets can be launched, and special discounts can be offered to suitable merchants across various industries.
Both parties can place promotional materials in each other’s stores and jointly organize weekend parent-child activities.
Suitable businesses for collaboration with the park include children’s education institutions, dance schools, photography studios, catering services, children’s shoe stores, clothing stores, etc.
4. Simultaneous team building, training, and assessment.
During the off-peak season, there is a labor surplus due to the short duration and lack of adjusted staffing arrangements. To use this buffer period, stores should conduct training on machine data analysis, maintenance, cleaning, amusement equipment upkeep, cash register systems, grooming instruments, etiquette reception, and sanitation. Assessments should also be set up for employees after completion of training.
Each employee will receive a personal file with corresponding scores based on their execution and completion of training content. Points will be deducted if an assessment fails or execution is poor; however, flexible persuasion will be carried out to reduce legal risks and labor disputes. Those who pass assessments will receive encouragement through honorary certificates and appropriate bonuses.
If staff numbers decrease during peak business hours (Saturdays and Sundays), salaries can be improved for those who have passed assessments while part-time jobs are utilized to save store costs. The remaining personnel must possess comprehensive skills to manage part-time employment and train others in common skills such as ticket checking and sanitation.
To mobilize subjective initiative among employees while enriching work content, it’s important to achieve clear rewards, which must be implemented accordingly by matching staff strength with reasonable shift arrangements.
In summary: The operation plan for off-season parks involves internal team building through skillful use of resources during the buffer period while standardizing park operations processes externally. This two-way parallel approach aims to polish operational teams towards maximum utilization and allocation of resources, resulting in exquisite park management from fine-tuning efforts made during the off-season period.
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