The Wherewolf Check-in Is A Guest’s First Step On Their Epic Hike
Fiordland Trips and Tramps offers visitors the experience of a lifetime with tramps through the iconic Fiordland National Park in New Zealand’s south island. “Fiordland National Park is 3.3 Million acres in size, with only one public road. It’s a huge wilderness area,” said Steve Norris, co-owner of the business with his wife Kate.
The company offers small group hike experiences throughout the region including the world famous Milford, Routeburn, and Kepler tracks. Working in such remote locations, luxuries like Internet and mobile device connectivity are unlikely, so having tools to run their business that can operate “offline” are a requirement.
And that’s why Wherewolf, the digital waiver and guest management software Trips and Tramps relies on to manage their guests from arrival to departure, is a natural fit.
Offline data collection
Steve and Kate have also been using Wherewolf as their on-the-go check-in process, with customers signing in as they head up the road to Milford Sound.
Unlike other digital waiver and guest check-in solutions, Wherewolf can work without an Internet connection. When a Fiordland Trip and Tramps guide shows up at the pick-up point to collect guests for their adventure, the guest can jump in the van and be handed a custom-branded iPad check-in app while they proceed on their way.
With so much to see and do in Fiordland, the company’s schedules are tight, so using Wherewolf’s iPads in the vans while on the road has saved valuable time. It has also overcome the lack of coverage in the area.
“One of the advantages of using [Wherewolf] is that it doesn’t require any Wifi to store the data”, said Kate. Customer information can be stored on the iPads and downloaded at the company’s depot at the end of the day in one go, which has cut down on the time-cost of administering paper-based check-ins.
Secure data storage
The secure storage of customer data is particularly important when it comes to keeping up with the company’s legal obligations.
Health and safety has become an increasing consideration in their business operations as the company has grown and new regulations have been introduced. By maintaining an easy-to-access record of their customers’ details on the Wherewolf Dashboard, even when Wifi is unavailable, Fiordland Trips and Tramps can ensure that they have the ability to follow up quickly should an incident occur.
Using data to improve the guest experience
Since signing up with Wherewolf in 2017, Steve and Kate have been using the data stored in the app to understand how their customers spend their time in Fiordland so as to facilitate the best experience of this wilderness area possible.
For example, a scan of their winter data made it clear to Steve and Kate that their visitors over this period are spending the majority of their time in the area with the company.
“We looked at our winter data [on Wherewolf] and it showed that our guests spend a majority of their time with us when they are in Fiordland, so we really need to make it a unique experience that they will remember for a long time,” said Kate.
The couple have used the customer data collected in the app to train the company’s guides about the importance of their role: the remote nature of Fiordland means that visitors are unlikely to ever return, so a successful end-to-end customer journey with Fiordland Trips and Tramps is integral to a positive experience.
Understand Who The Customer Is And Where They Come From
The Wherewolf check-in process has also been of benefit to the company when it comes to capturing and analysing data that has traditionally been inaccessible. Despite the Milford Sound day trip being their largest volume product, Steve and Kate previously had no way of easily obtaining the contact and demographic information of their customers on this trip, as bookings are largely handled through third party agents, who do not share the information.
Kate is particularly pleased with how easy this data is to manage and use. The Wherewolf dashboard provides filtering functions and easy-to-interpret pie graphics, line charts, etc. “It is centralized and we can easily download the and analyse it however we see fit,” she said.
Both Steve and Kate are looking forward to what their data from the upcoming peak season will tell them.
“At the end of the summer, we will use the data in our marketing. Our online campaigns can be quite targeted. It will be very useful data”, said Kate.
You can learn more about Trips and Tramp‘s excursions and book your next adventure on their website at tripsandtramps.com.
