Internet Marketing Coaching

An Open Letter To Sonaisali Resort, Fiji

After a great week-long vacation at the Sonaisali Resort in Fiji I want to firstly to thank all the friendly staff who made our getaway such a memorable experience. The staff at the resort were constantly smiling and there was not an hour that passed where we didn’t hear the the customary “Bula” greeting. I am happy to say that we kept up the great Fiji vs Australia Beach Volleyball rivalry with some amazing games and of course wins!

The only part of my stay at your fantastic resort that I regret is that I didn’t spend enough money with you! Now that might sound a bit weird but I am a person that really appreciates great service but absolutely loves marketing and salesmanship. Unfortunately for your bottom line and my personal experience the service was great but your marketing and salesmanship not so. Your future success lies in these 3 key marketing areas that your resort came up short on:

• Internal Marketing and Communications
• Customer Loyalty
• External Follow Up Marketing and Communications

From a management level it is quite obvious that you have a strong emphasis on a happy smiling staff. Which is a key component to your unique advantage, as Martin Lindstrum proved in his book Buyology, a business with smiling staff is more likely to make more money and be more successful than a business without smiling staff.

But this cannot be where your Internal Marketing and Communications plan stops, I have had extensive experience in the tourism industry and know too well that while accommodation pays the bills, it’s the extras that are the cream. For example with my stay at your resort, no doubt you made some good money from my accommodation bill but nothing compared to the money you made from:

• meals
• drinks
• day tours
• resort activities

Now without being privy to your internal marketing and communications plan here are just a few suggestions:

1. Airport Transfer – The majority of your guests are international guests arriving at the Nadi Airport. It’s great to see that you offer FREE Airport Transfers, this is your customer’s first interaction live with your resort. But this was all lost with us and other customers as your transfer driver was difficult to find, didn’t say a word and was outwardly rude. Combine this with the fact that your bus was dirty, your customer’s first impression goes from one of high expectation to one of negative positioning. Here are just a few ideas to make this first impression a more positive experience:

• Personal sign held by resort staff once clearing customs
• Staff dressed in your traditional resort attire
• Clean bus both inside and out for transfer
• Briefing at airport or on bus of what to expect at the resort
• Recorded tape playing on bus ride about the resort facilities with call to actions (book upon arrival style wording)
• Welcome pack with resort facilities, activities and dining literature with call to actions

2. Daily Activity Sheet – Now this is a stroke of genius, upon checking in we were informed that a daily activity sheet would be delivered each night for the next day. In our experience and other customers’ experience this never occurred, in fact the only time that we did receive a Daily Activity Sheet was when we asked the staff for it. Here are just a few ideas to make your daily activity sheet a piece of sales material:

• Have a designated area where you can pick up the daily activity sheet each day (make the next day’s sheet available with the current day sheet)
• Deliver the Daily Activity Sheet as per your initial intentions (a management checklist is probably needed here)
• Print the Daily Activity Sheet in full colour (in the case of what you are selling a picture can tell a thousand words)
• Place multiple call to actions on the Daily Activity Sheet (legitimate restrictions apply to your activities use them to make people take action, testimonials would also be very helpful)

3. Sell, Sell and Upsell – Your activity staff, reception staff, bar staff, even your cleaners must be trained to sell. Let them undertake each of your activities available and ask them to talk about their experiences with guests. When booking activities with the activities staff ensure they make recommendations similar to the activities being booked. Remember sales does not need to be high pressure, this could be more like a service to your customers than a sale.

Those are just a few things that you could do to ensure your internal marketing and communications make you more money, and well more money per stay can only be good.

All in all we had a great time and were happy with the resort and its facilities. Above are just a few suggestions to help you add $$$ to your bottom line.

Part 2 on customer loyalty coming soon…