Brining customers back: how to create a "once in a lifetime" experience.

Military recreation is one of the few sections of the recreation industry that can provide its customers a once in a lifetime" experience through travel, tourism and outdoor recreation programs. Customers could hut hop in the Alps, bike through France's wine region, go whitewater rafting in Austria, or go dog sledding in Alaska.

These adventure recreation activities are highly desired peak experiences among active duty military, their family members and civilians. Each military installation has the potential to provide a unique "once in a lifetime" experience based upon its geographic location, natural resources and contractors in the region.

Recreation professionals have the power to make or break that peak experience by managing the expectations of the participants. They hold the keys to move the participant from just an ordinary leisure experience to an extraordinary lifetime memory with some forethought, a little bit of strategic planning and a few simple evaluation techniques of the program.

When they put themselves in the shoes of their customers and see their programming through the eyes of the client, service providers can not only create a memorable "once in a lifetime" experience, but repeat business, referrals, goodwill and additional revenue without any additional marketing expenses.

A "once in a lifetime" experience is something a person always wanted to do but may only do it once because of various reasons, such as the risks associated with the activity, cost of the experience, physical fitness needed for the activity, weather conditions needed for the event, difficulty or expense of traveling to the activity site, or the time required for the experience.

Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR) sells services and experiences to customers that help recruit and retain service members. Such services are a critical factor in the readiness and retention of today's volunteer military and the quality of their programs can provide not only physical, emotional and intellectual renewal, but a lifetime of shared positive experiences that can bond families and friends.

How does an agency provide a high-quality experience that meets the expectations of the participants and the expectations of the service providers? A recent family vacation dog sledding in the mountains of Wyoming resulted in exploring this question as well as revisiting the process of facilitating a quality recreational experience.

This experience serves as an example of the process of facilitating a positive experience through the viewpoints of both the customer and the service provider. Both parties embrace expectations of each other in the recreational experience and these expectations should be clearly communicated if there is to be a positive encounter on both ends of the service delivery process. The recreational experience consists of five distinctly different phases: pre-experience, anticipation and travel to, participation, travel from, and reflection.

The pre-experience phase is the time period where the customer is shopping for a service provider and the provider is selling their services and experiences. The marketing information generated from the agency is very important in selling the potential customer on the experience. The dog sledding company had information on the Web site with photos, descriptions and pricing of the trips.

Once a customer makes a decision to register for the adventure, the customer moves into the anticipation phase, which could be days, weeks, months or even years. The customer's excitement builds in looking forward to the experience. The anticipation phase for the dog sledding was nine months for one participant and 23 years for another in this case. During this phase the customer expects to receive information from the service provider, such as transportation to the site, pick-up locations, times, what to wear, how payment will be accepted, whether to confirm reservations, cancellation policies, inclement weather plans, what to bring, what food or drink will be available, how many people to a dogsled, where the trip will be taking them, what additional clothing will be made available, or what the bathroom accommodations are.

The service provider also goes through the anticipation phase by questioning the participants to gather necessary information that the customer may not know to provide such as how many people to a party, weight of each person, age, experience level, contact information on site, a phone number, medical conditions and physical or dietary limitations. This allowed the dog sledding company to inform their guides of the number of sleds needed, number of dogs to be used, and special health issues or physical limitations of the customers such as asthma or injuries.

In this case, the information-gathering phase never occurred, and as a result, one sled needed two additional dogs and did not have them available to add to the team on a moment's notice once customers arrived. This resulted in one customer with bad knees, needing to run next to the sled and pushing the sled uphill on a snow-covered trail at altitude while the other occupants rode in the sled.

This liability incident waiting to happen could have been avoided had the provider managed expectations and fully informed participants of the rigors of the experience and what information was needed (weight of participants, physical or medical conditions, possibility of needing to run alongside the sled, and ratio of participants to dogs per sled) in order to provide the best experience possible.

Travel to and from the site can be part of the overall experience or a separate experience in itself. The transportation provider should meet customers on time, welcome them, explain what other pick-ups will occur, how long it will it take to get to the service site, or other information on their upcoming adventure and what to expect. This was something that the van driver failed to do, thus leaving the dog sledders wondering what was going on, where the van was going, how long it would take to get there, landmarks along the way, and when customers would see the next bathroom for the next 45 minutes.

Once customers arrive on site, they need to be greeted and welcomed warmly, introduced to the staff, and given an explanation of the sequence of events. In this case, participants milled about and looked at each other waiting for something to happen or to be told what to expect before finally being ushered into an office five at a time to sign release forms.

Dog sledders were never told about what would happen on the mushing trip--for example how many miles or how long it would be until the turn-around point, what refreshments would be available, or that they would actually be driving the sled.

Once the experience is completed the customer begins to transition to the reflection phase where they think back on the memories of the entire experience. Customers don't categorize stages of their experience, they tend to lump everything together into one positive or negative experience.

Recreation providers should be critically aware of how many moments of truth come across the path of their customer when they are participating in a leisure event. The service delivery process and expectations of the customer need to be managed from the moment the very first contact is made via phone, mail, e-mail, Web site, fax or in person all the way through to thanking them for participating, having retail memorabilia/souvenirs to commemorate their experience, waving goodbye, handing out comment cards or even a follow-up email or postcard once again thanking them for the opportunity to serve them or asking for referrals or comments.

People use physical items in their reflection phase such as, photos, hats, t-shirts or art work. If your agency sells items that can be used as reflection items, the customer should be made aware of them and have an opportunity to purchase these items. Group photos at the beginning, during or the conclusion of the experience often help cement the positive experience and sending these photos with a thank-you card as a follow-up or posting these photos on a Web site or at the physical site of the experience is a way to evoke an emotional bond with the participant.

As a provider of "once in a lifetime" experiences, the agency must first be aware of the customers' expectations of the agency and clearly communicate the expectation of the customer. These two factors will result in a high level of customer satisfaction, customer referrals to the agency and continued support for the providers.

Upon reflecting on this experience with other customers during the 45-minute van ride back to our lodge, we found that every participant was fulfilling their "once in a lifetime" experience. It was too bad the provider failed to see the impact all their actions leading up to the actual time in the snow mushing had on the overall experience of their participants. They left money on the table for repeat business and referrals, as well as generating negative word of mouth advertising due to their mismanagement of participant expectations and follow-through in managing the details of the overall service delivery process.

The authors tell about a dog sledding experience that could have been extraordinary, but fell short of expectations.

Facilitating A Once in a Lifetime Experience in Dog Sledding

Phase                 Expectations of the customer

Pre-Decision          To make a reservation with the provider
(shopping)

Anticipation          To provide required information and payment

                      To collect appropriate or required clothing
                      or gear

Travel to             1. To be at pick-up point on time
                      2. To have all necessary items

Participation         1. Complete payment
                      2. Sign release form
                      3. Follow directions of staff and guides
                      4. Purchase reflection items, t-shirts or hats

Transportation Home   Same as above

Reflections           Photos and memorabilia purchase

Phase                 Expectations of service providers

Pre-Decision          Clear accurate information related to trips,
(shopping)            length of trips, area of trips and cost

Anticipation          To provide more detailed information related to
                      experience, ie: clothing, items to bring,
                      transportation to and from. Collect needed
                      information ie: weight, age, health/
                      physical limitations

Travel to             Greeted and informed of pick-up and length of
                      ride

Participation         1. Greeted upon arrival and be told sequence of
                         experience and what will occur
                      2. To have photo opportunities-group & individual
                      3. To be provided an opportunity to purchase
                         reflection items

Transportation Home

Reflections           1. Group photo
                      2. Comment card
                      3. Follow up thank you note