When you’re selling a service, or an experience guests expect a WOW factor. That WOW factor starts from the first point of entry, the ticket booth. Having properly trained staff creates that feeling of excitement right from the start. This can really make a difference in the way a customer feels about their time at your facility. Here are some helpful tips to improving the cashier sales process at your ticket booth.
- Understand your product listings
When staff understand that selling starts with the highest priced package from there the guest decides if they want to down grade. This leads to a happier guest because they are making the choice to purchase the lower package. If the guest chooses to purchase a downgraded ticket, be sure that cashiers are fully trained on educating the guest on the ticket they purchased and the differences in ticket packages. If the guest enters the park without the proper understanding of what they have purchased and then they realize that they must upgrade to ride a certain attraction, this will lead to an unhappy guest who feels they must return and wait in another line to upgrade their ticket.
Upselling is the bare minimum of what your staff at your ticket booth should be doing. It’s not a convenience, it’s an inconvenience if a guest must wait in multiple lines to purchase the ticket they wanted from the beginning because they were not properly educated.
- Promote your products on Social Media
Your best ticket packages, single attraction, and special event tickets wont sale if people don’t know about them. Get involved in the community, create avenues to collect customer data, and get to know your demographics. Post fun pictures, guest reviews, and information about your offerings on your social media to help educate and entertain your would be guest. If you have an awesome event you want people to know about show it off. If your guest knows what you sell, they will know what they want before they get there. They might even purchase their tickets ahead of time.
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- Train your staff for consistency
It’s essential to create an atmosphere in which every staff member knows how to sale each ticket, single attraction experience and how to quickly check a guest out until final payment. Each staff member should be creating the same experience for every guest. For example: if a customer needs to cancel a credit card transaction the cashier should understand how to direct the guest in doing so. If a guest has a question on a single attraction experience, they should know the answer instantly or how to find the answer quickly.
- Create an organized onboarding process
While your long-term staff might be selling well, you will need to bring seasonal hires up to speed as to not disrupt the guest experience. It’s your job to teach them how to pretend they aren’t new or understand the process to getting the help they need to resolving problems quickly.
If a client calls and a seasonal employee is unsure about the service or process, they are looking for, you must teach them the tools to use to find the information quickly. The goal is for your employees to learn on the job, but without alerting the client that they are new.
Systems like Parktrainer can help save you time on employee training. It’s a common theme we hear from our clients that the transient, seasonal, and often young workforce of the admission and attraction-based businesses have a high turnover rate. Hosting training sessions and reviewing standards of procedure from a handbook is hardly the best way to both train your staff and evaluate their retention or understanding of the information. With Parktrainer we gamify the training experience, reducing turnover rates and makes training fun.
- Practice role-playing.
To help new employees learn best about the pressures of customer service, staff training should include lots of role playing. New employees learn not only how to fake it until the make it but gain the skills necessary for building rapport with guests, better communication, upselling, and defuse tough situations. Encourage the use of employee tools during role playing.
Role Playing Guide
- Understand wants and needs of the guest.
- Have good knowledge about ticket pricing, attractions, experiences, and other facility offerings.
- Write down greetings and questions a cashier would ask a guest at the ticket counter.
- The person who is playing the guest should help create a realistic experience so the person learning to perform their role gains experience.
It’s worth noting that role playing activities aren’t just for new hires. These activities also serve as a great way to introduce selling new products and uptrain your tenure employees.
