Observation
The first thing I did to evaluate the experience was observe the participants. I decided to be a direct participant, participate in the experience while observing, and not notify the company that I was observing them. I took notes on my phone using the voice memo feature and organized them into the graphic on the left. Each of the letters in the graphic represent an aspect of the experience: A stands for activities, E stands for Environment, I stands for Interactions, O stands for Objects, and U stands for Users.
After I observing the Halloween Cruise, I am able to conclude that they are on a great start to having an immersive Halloween Cruise experience for kids and their families! I also feel that with a little more effort they can expand their target market to include kids if a slightly higher age to increase profitability.
Interviewing
For my interview I decided to
interview my brother and sister, Josh and
Kate. I talked to them after the experience as I was driving them back to their
hotel. My interview focused on their general impression of the cruise, high points, low points, expectations, and things that they would like to see in the future.
One thing that I found very interesting throughout the interview was that there
was a distinct difference between Josh and Kate’s experience. I found this interesting because their ages are typically in the same target market. Kate was not
engaged throughout the cruise and Josh was. I think that this shows that the Halloween cruise can do more to engage more people in the target audience.
Doing
I went to the Halloween Cruise on Friday October 29th. Before participating in the experience, I determined the expectations that customers had for the Halloween Cruise.Customers of the Halloween Cruise want a meaningful Halloween experience with their family. Customers also want to be immersed in the Halloween atmosphere. The Halloween Cruise helps customers accomplish this goal by providing an interactive cruise that is family friendly.
I had relatively high expectations of the Halloween Cruise because the owners told my group that they had worked with Experience Design and Management students in the past. My expectations were not met at all. I was confused about the location, theme, and execution of the event as a whole. The theme seemed to be split between a pirate and halloween cruise.
Additional Techniques
For my additional technique I decided to get a group of my friends together so they could examine my customer journey map, which is discussed below, and tell me their reactions to different touchpoints of the experience.
I found out that the theme was very confusing to most people. I also learned that the dock seemed very dangerous to everyone in my focus group. I discovered through interpreting my data that the atmosphere of the halloween cruise needs to be more cohesive. Clas Ropes Course needs to decide the theme for this event.
Customer Journey Map
This is a customer journey map. For this my team and I identified the different touchpoints, or parts of the experience, that customers experience throughout the way. The first line of sticky notes are the touchpoints that we identified. The second line of sticky notes are the reactions that we observed from our participants. The bottom two rows of sticky notes are the frontstage and backstage contributors.
Moments that Matter
After completing the experience map my team and I identified two moments that made a difference in the experience or moments that matter. We found that our two moments that mattered were Purchasing/Arrival and On the Boat Introduction.
Purchasing and Arrival
Purchasing and Arrival is important because it’s one of the first moments of engaging with the experience. You get a feel for the experience, branding and potential service. This can lead to problems with customer confusion when it comes to directions, using tickets and knowing where to go. All this can negatively impact the experience of guests.
We recommend that the Halloween Cruise enhance the anticipation phase allowing the pirate theme to make an appearance at the time of purchasing tickets through an email. We decided to send an email with pirate language and a pirate map with designated parking spaces, concessions, and where to go highlighted so there was less confusion.
Return on Investment
In order to see the benefit making our suggested changes would have on the Halloween Cruise we created a formula based off of the Net Promoter score. This formula shows how much the promoters, passives and detractors spend at the Halloween Cruise. By implementing our solution we expect a 300% increase in the promoter section coming from passives. We would also expect a 50% decrease in detractors from an increase in passives. This would lead to a 144% increase in revenue.
Pirate Guide Introduction
Our other moment of truth is when you first meet the pirate guide on the boat. At that point you’re deeply engaged in the experience and how the pirate interacts can differentiate your experience from simple fun to memorable. During this moment the pirate introduces the narrative experience that will unwind for the rest of the cruise.
We recommend that the Halloween Cruise create a different environment where guests are transported outside of their usual life experiences. This could also be impacted by the the theater of the cast, the appearance of the decorations and design and a slight educational impact through learning about halloween or pirate.
Return on Investment
In order to see the benefit making our suggested changes would have on the Halloween Cruise we created a formula based off of the Customer Lifetime Value equation. The Customer Lifetime Value Formula shows the numerical representation of a customer. By implementing our adjusted anticipation phase, we would expect the customer churn rate to decrease to 10% of customers lost rather than the original 40%. Thereby causing a 400% increase in the customer lifetime value.
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