Starting my blog
Well, here goes. I've agreed to write a blog for the Blenheim Palace website. In fact, even worse, I volunteered to write a blog. In truth, no-one was going to ask me (I'm the Finance Director - can count a bit, can write a bit, hopeless with people) and doing a blog on our website is about as close to public profile as I'd dare get.
It took a bit of pondering to figure out what I should blog about. I'd read Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel - a classic of its genre. That scared me - don't overtly market, be incredibly honest, write very frequently. Er, I'm an accountant. Have you seen accountants marketing?
I kept reading - I'm good at that, by the way. Could I sustain a blog about the trials and tribulations of the Finance Director of a famous estate?
Then life here began to get exciting and a little bit terrifying. It was, of course, looking like a tough year to run a heritage visitor attraction. We had undergone a substantial cost reduction programme last year as the full extent of the likely recession began to emerge. For us, that pain was compounded by some mandatory works on the Blenheim Dam (big numbers! More about that another day - suffice to say that Capability Brown was a genius at landscaping but, by modern standards, he has something to learn about dam construction. And easy access to formal gardens too - that's another one for another day.) In this climate, no-one was expecting bumper visitor numbers.
Then we had a cunning idea. It's a tough year for everyone, we all need help. I had cunningly cut the marketing budget, so whatever we did, it had to involve extremely efficient use of marketing money. And then it came to us. Just give every visitor an annual pass - I mean a proper gold-plated (almost) photographic pass for a year. More paying visitors, lots of return visitors plus a huge jump in our customer relationships and goodwill.
We knew some heritage houses owned by charities had done it quite successfully - Leeds Castle do something similar with Gift Aid but I think there you just hold onto your paper ticket and use it until it falls apart. There's an obvious flaw there - they miss out on all the customer information which we treasure. Sadly, it turns out that there was quite a flaw in our plan too...
Our execution required that we take name, address, contact details and photos from every customer and print them beautiful membership cards on the spot (actually on several spots). We had about two weeks to find kit, to write the software, find marketing partners, train lots of staff. We opened - and all hell broke loose. It turns out that, even though we thought we had made the process as fast as possible (an extra £500 per card printer took 20 seconds out!) (I like parentheses, by the way) it still took far too long. Our marketing partners at the Oxford Times did a great job. Lots of people arrived. I mean, LOTS. Queues formed.
Somehow "queues" does not do it justice.
Try Queueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueuueueueueueues.
We tried desperately to speed it up. Emergency meetings behind kiosks. Much interesting language. Extremely good-humoured customers and staff. Very calm Operations team. At our size of business, you don't get nice integrated IT systems for this kind of thing. We had our hotchpotch of hardware, a custom designed "processing system" and and off-the-shelf system
for grabbing photos and printing cards. It wasn't talking very well. In fact, at times the "magic whoosh" button wasn't working at all. Whooshing is the process by which the card printing programme gets all the information about the visitor and puts it on the card with the photo - apparently it's an IT term.
Overnight, every night, we made changes. We built more conversion points. Staff got faster. Miracles frequently occurred. Until Saturday 28th February. The Day the Database Got Too Big. To everyone queuing on that day, we hope you are still in the good mood with which you blessed us as you queued. We know it wasn't good. Our staff suffered too. Loads of you gave us your data online instead - a very good idea! We talked to many more of you as you queued - shared your frustrations, marvelled at your good humour. Agreed many times that it was such a good offer that it was worth the wait!
Just to reassure you, the database has been redesigned by two miracle workers. We have learned loads of lessons. It will never be that busy again.
And the sun is shining this weekend.
And I have worked out what this blog will be about.
It'll be about the people at Blenheim Palace - staff and visitors. Standing in that crowded courtyard, I realised more clearly than ever that it isn't the buildings or the landscape that makes Blenheim Palace special. It is everyone that was there that day.
It'll be about the real experiences of people here. Those who visit. Those who work front of house. Those working behind the scenes. It will be about the days when the magic whoosh button works. And it'll be about the days it doesn't.
Feel free to tell me when I'm talking tripe - I won't edit you out (that button doesn't work either).
Have a good weekend
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It took a bit of pondering to figure out what I should blog about. I'd read Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel - a classic of its genre. That scared me - don't overtly market, be incredibly honest, write very frequently. Er, I'm an accountant. Have you seen accountants marketing?
I kept reading - I'm good at that, by the way. Could I sustain a blog about the trials and tribulations of the Finance Director of a famous estate?
Then life here began to get exciting and a little bit terrifying. It was, of course, looking like a tough year to run a heritage visitor attraction. We had undergone a substantial cost reduction programme last year as the full extent of the likely recession began to emerge. For us, that pain was compounded by some mandatory works on the Blenheim Dam (big numbers! More about that another day - suffice to say that Capability Brown was a genius at landscaping but, by modern standards, he has something to learn about dam construction. And easy access to formal gardens too - that's another one for another day.) In this climate, no-one was expecting bumper visitor numbers.
Then we had a cunning idea. It's a tough year for everyone, we all need help. I had cunningly cut the marketing budget, so whatever we did, it had to involve extremely efficient use of marketing money. And then it came to us. Just give every visitor an annual pass - I mean a proper gold-plated (almost) photographic pass for a year. More paying visitors, lots of return visitors plus a huge jump in our customer relationships and goodwill.
We knew some heritage houses owned by charities had done it quite successfully - Leeds Castle do something similar with Gift Aid but I think there you just hold onto your paper ticket and use it until it falls apart. There's an obvious flaw there - they miss out on all the customer information which we treasure. Sadly, it turns out that there was quite a flaw in our plan too...
Our execution required that we take name, address, contact details and photos from every customer and print them beautiful membership cards on the spot (actually on several spots). We had about two weeks to find kit, to write the software, find marketing partners, train lots of staff. We opened - and all hell broke loose. It turns out that, even though we thought we had made the process as fast as possible (an extra £500 per card printer took 20 seconds out!) (I like parentheses, by the way) it still took far too long. Our marketing partners at the Oxford Times did a great job. Lots of people arrived. I mean, LOTS. Queues formed.
Somehow "queues" does not do it justice.
Try Queueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueueuueueueueueues.
We tried desperately to speed it up. Emergency meetings behind kiosks. Much interesting language. Extremely good-humoured customers and staff. Very calm Operations team. At our size of business, you don't get nice integrated IT systems for this kind of thing. We had our hotchpotch of hardware, a custom designed "processing system" and and off-the-shelf system
for grabbing photos and printing cards. It wasn't talking very well. In fact, at times the "magic whoosh" button wasn't working at all. Whooshing is the process by which the card printing programme gets all the information about the visitor and puts it on the card with the photo - apparently it's an IT term.
Overnight, every night, we made changes. We built more conversion points. Staff got faster. Miracles frequently occurred. Until Saturday 28th February. The Day the Database Got Too Big. To everyone queuing on that day, we hope you are still in the good mood with which you blessed us as you queued. We know it wasn't good. Our staff suffered too. Loads of you gave us your data online instead - a very good idea! We talked to many more of you as you queued - shared your frustrations, marvelled at your good humour. Agreed many times that it was such a good offer that it was worth the wait!
Just to reassure you, the database has been redesigned by two miracle workers. We have learned loads of lessons. It will never be that busy again.
And the sun is shining this weekend.
And I have worked out what this blog will be about.
It'll be about the people at Blenheim Palace - staff and visitors. Standing in that crowded courtyard, I realised more clearly than ever that it isn't the buildings or the landscape that makes Blenheim Palace special. It is everyone that was there that day.
It'll be about the real experiences of people here. Those who visit. Those who work front of house. Those working behind the scenes. It will be about the days when the magic whoosh button works. And it'll be about the days it doesn't.
Feel free to tell me when I'm talking tripe - I won't edit you out (that button doesn't work either).
Have a good weekend
Labels: blogs, cost reduction, dam, staff, technology, visitors
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posted by Dominic Hare at
Friday, March 06, 2009
1 Comments
1 Comments:
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