The Escape Hunt Experience

Wherewolf Captures The Customer Data That Escape Hunt Needs To Make Informed Decisions

The Escape Hunt Experience is an international escape room operator with franchises around the globe. They have built a reputation as an industry leader with their Game Design Academy and Technology Design Centre offering franchises innovative product ideas and incredible support. Delivering a best in class experience in the fast-growing escape room sector is a top requirement for every franchisee. That’s why Australia & New Zealand master franchisor, Christal Ho, and her partners, have added Wherewolf to their operations.

The team own and operate their flagship Sydney location, and support the growth of franchised locations up and down the coast and across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand. Christal has found Wherewolf’s check-in app invaluable in ensuring that both customers and franchisees have the best experience possible.

Saving on paper waste, gaining on customer information

When The Escape Hunt Experience Sydney first started, they used a paper-based registration process that was cumbersome and inefficient. “We couldn’t capture enough of the participant’s information, we didn’t make any use of it once we did, and there was paper everywhere,” said Christal.

When guests are handed a clipboard to sign in, they often want to skip questions or even fill in fake data. Of course, there’s also the handwriting that is illegible. The result is that the business missed out on capturing the all-important email addresses of customers to build a marketing list that can be used to drive repeat and referral business.

The leadership team knew that both their own escape room and their franchisees would benefit from a digital system. They wanted to accomplish two goals:

  1. Eliminate data entry issues and email addresses and
  2. Get actionable customer info to make decisions using data, not opinions

After researching their options, The Escape Hunt Experience settled on Wherewolf. They liked the design aesthetic of the app, as well as how simple it is to use.

“It makes the check-in process very seamless”, Christal says. Customers are directed to large, comfy seats where an iPad awaits them on the coffee table to check-in while they prepare for their experience.

Our Email Database is Growing

“Filling out the Wherewolf app is so easy, the guests don’t even think about how much information we gather,” said Christal. “With Wherewolf, we’ve been able to capture a lot more customer information which we couldn’t do when we were using paper forms.”

As a result, The Escape Hunt Experience Sydney, and other franchises who are now using Wherewolf, are seeing their customer databases, and email marketing lists, grow rapidly.

“We capture an email from every guest that participates,” Christal said. Fake emails, manual data entry errors, and skipping that question are no longer an issue.

Those emails get used immediately now too. Wherewolf sends an automated follow-up email that prompts TripAdvisor and Facebook reviews as soon as the experience is complete. The staff no longer have to handle data entry and sending emails, freeing them up to focus on customer happiness, upselling additional bookings, and keeping customers excited about coming back.

Using Data To Target Advertising and Marketing

Access to reliable, up-to-date customer data is also making The Escape Hunt Experience’s marketing spend more effective. Franchises using Wherewolf software now have accurate data including:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Location
  • How did customer’s hear about us

Capturing demographic information through Wherewolf has assisted the business with targeting their marketing budget where it will generate the most sales.

For example, the Sydney franchise discovered that Google was a key source of customers, who knew they wanted an escape room experience but didn’t know what options existed. The team shifted focus to improve their Google rankings, with strong results.  Other factors like age group, and seeing how local customers differ from International visitors, have enabled the marketing team to get smarter about how they segment their advertising.

As a result, The Escape Hunt Experience’s locations using Wherewolf are spending smarter, not more, to increase a ROI from their advertising.

Improving the franchisee experience

Christal is also positive about the way in which Wherewolf has impacted business operations across the franchises she and her partners are supporting. Her regional franchises are paper-free, providing a nice sustainability element while using technology to grow each location.

“We can compare data between operations, share how we’re using customer data to make decisions and develop best practices,” said Christal.  The sharing of knowledge around the marketing spend has been of particular value, she noted.

Christal’s overall assessment? “I highly recommend it.”

You can learn more about The Escape Hunt Experience – Sydney and book an activity by visiting their website.


Crockford Victoria

This article was written by Victoria Crockford, a content editor and writer at Wherewolf. You can reach her at [email protected].

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