Customer sensitivity: the key to successful marketing.

During the last decade, ingenious systems have been developed to gain revenue from sources other than those provided by a traditional property tax base. Park and recreation agencies have paid attention to the need to develop ways to maintain and improve their areas and services. Through proactive planning and reactive crisis, leisure industry operations have come up with ways to privatize, commercialize, cooperate, renovate, recreate and generate revenue.

At the basis of all revenue sources marketing strategies, however, there remains a question of what the impact, both short-range and long-term, is of a newly implemented revenue source on the target of that source - the customer. This question is one that receives the least amount of attention in literature designed to develop revenue policy and revenue readiness.

Strategies that revolve around customers' importance have included "becoming obsessed with listening," where CEOs of major corporations actually talk to customers rather than relying on extensive market research data. In effect, the entire organizational chart becomes an inverted pyramid, with customer ownership as the most powerful focus and all activities focused on the satisfaction of this portion of the chart.

The link to revenue enhancement is best described in Thriving on Chaos (1987) as "Long-term profit equals revenue from continuously happy customer relationship minus cost." Regardless of the revenue sources sought or desired in an agency or business, the organization's primary goal should be to learn, through first-hand interaction with the customer, what fees will be palatable. This requires customer sensitivity when you establish standards and quality assurance. The sensitivity does not stop at basic demographics but extends to the ability to live, eat, breathe and understand the clients you serve in such a way that that client continually invests in the experience.

This focus on the customer is evident in many corporations throughout the United States. The 1990 recipients of the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Awards, made annually by the Federal Quality Institute, exhibited the following commitment to their customers:

* Computerized customer profiles that analyzed individual and group uses of products and services.

* A Total Customer Response Network that guaranteed a 60-minute response to customer inquiries or complaints.

* The concept of internal customer (employees and suppliers) so that people at every level of the company got close to the customer.

* The concept of the customer as the "final arbiter" that demonstrates the power of customer decisionmaking.

* People, service and profit goals that emphasize customer satisfaction through survey feedback, fair treatment and open communication.

In all of the above cases, the company focused on commitment to quality through precise knowledge of what the customer wanted.

It is possible that managers and employees of service agencies and businesses would tend to resist the customer orientation and its link to revenue enhancement., however, all the quality concepts found in private, product-oriented businesses may be applied to service marketing concepts with some modifications.

Those in the leisure industry as well as other service organizations are actually closer to the customers who are simultaneously purchasing and consuming leisure products and services. For example, when a city holds a special event, customers who attend are buying and enjoying services at the same time. It is possible to conduct immediate evaluation of the response to fees and costs for these consumers and determine how satisfied the customer is with this event. It is possible to "play" along with the customer in order to fully understand the nature of enjoyment of the services and the circumstances around which an individual is willing to pay for play and where one plays but does not pay.

For example, a Queens, New York, library staff analyzed its clientele and realized that in addition to basic library services, people viewed the library as a safe haven for their latchkey children. Consequently, they shifted emphasis from traditional library services to popular books and programs for these children, easier accessibility of books and services, and total responsiveness to cultural and ethnic diversity. These responses caused circulation to increase dramatically.

Service marketing requires that a leisure service organization respond to customers and empower employees with more immediate responsiveness to customer concerns about revenue. That difficulties exist when marketing any services is apparent in a statement made by the American Management Association in their service marketing short course: "Services are largely intangible; they cannot be stored but have to be performed on command; they tend to resist standardization; they are produced and consumed simultaneously; they may involve the buyer as an active participant; and they are dependent upon the person of the service producer."

The challenge of developing a system that measures the effectiveness of a revenue source is apparent when services are purchased and consumed simultaneously. It is very difficult to shop around for palatable ways of spending one's leisure income without experiencing a portion of that program first. Ask the following questions when developing a customer sensitized approach:

* Are front-line managers empowered to make flexible decisions as customers are consuming services?

* Do you know the monetary cost of customer dissatisfaction?

* Are changes in organization revenue strategies responsive to both user and non-users, and potential new user groups?

* Is the overall market strategy productive? In other words, have you studied the strategy and compared it with other like strategies.

* Have customers been segmented in such a way that you know about patterns, response to services, willingness to pay, uniqueness and lifestyle?

There are several strategies you can use to discover the customer needs and acceptance of a variety of revenue enhancers. Some are obvious and others would require extensive reorganization.

* Ask the customer. Through one-on-one interaction, focus groups, survey or other means, learn the kinds of revenue sources that the market will support, purchase or donate. Set up a flexible revenue strategy that can incorporate new sources and maximize existing sources. For example, Club Med asks customers through extensive survey and observation. These questionnaires are converted to lifestyle descriptions of guests, such as "furs and station wagons," and "urban gold coast" when presented in travel agency training seminars.

* Study the customer. This goes beyond the traditional market research concepts. Immerse the agency in the customer's habits, lifestyle, idiosyncracies and acceptance level of fees. Through customer study, Calico Ghost Town in San Bernardino County, California, prints a park map in six languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Russian and Japanese.

* Experiment. Float revenue possibilities as trial packages to determine the potential for incorporation into your revenue policies. The "Southern California Days" discounts to Disneyland was a very successful experiment to improve dwindling gate receipts in the off-season. it has been repeated annually.

* Develop front-line responsiveness. Give front-line personnel opportunities to be innovative with ensuring customer satisfaction and handling complaints. This should include refunds, added services and new services. The Renaissance Pleasure Faires are extremely positive experiences due to the actor's/staff play interaction with customers. Customers experience history through all their senses and tend to maximize use of all concessions in the park during their visit.

* Thoroughly review the points of customer contact with the organization to assure responsiveness in all areas. This assures that all staff are responsive to the customer regardless of where the contact begins within the organization. This may be accomplished by developing a flow chart that traces the customer from initial inquiry through completion of a program to note interactions throughout the entire process. For example, a typical recreation service may have initial customer contact through a phone inquiry, registration, at program site, within program and through evaluation.

* Thoroughly analyze the operation to assure marketability and responsiveness to the customer. This includes: design features of facilities, atmosphere, economic impact of each facility and program, user satisfaction and evaluation strategies, benefits, maintenance, program implementation review and promotional tactics. For example, beyond offering a reservation for a picnic, a California agency offers "The Picnic People" who design and deliver picnic services to groups. This maximizes proper use of the park, provides all facets of the picnic experience and has resulted in increased usage and revenues.

The above points are the very basic requirements for developing keen customer sensitivity. No strategy will be effective if the customer has been accidentally or systematically deleted from the process. Living the life of the customer may result in increased return rates, greater customer satisfaction, greater word-of-mouth promotion of services and the bottom line - increased revenue and stable financial bases.