Expansive by mindset, the Lindt Home of Chocolate Museum is run by a foundation that promotes the history of chocolate in Switzerland overall and isn’t limited purely to featuring the Lindt brand. Opened in September 2020 (a few months later than planned because of the pandemic), the museum now has about 70,000 visitors per year.
The museum is located in the Swiss capital, Zurich, and the museum’s sales manager, Stephan Neidhart, notes that, “It’s a great city, and is becoming more and more a leisure destination as well, but a lot of people don't always know what to do when they fly to Zurich. They may go directly to mountain areas. It's a beautiful city, but it's not known like Paris or Rome or the main metropolitan cities. It’s good to be on GetYourGuide, so when they look up Zurich, they can instantly find us.”
How has GetYourGuide contributed to your growth or operational success?
We worked with influencers with GetYourGuide. This was good for us. The success is also based on how big the GetYourGuide platform is itself, but also the ads. We can cover the whole world, and that's the advantage of having GetYourGuide do their own promotions, being visible on Google search and influential channels.
It's also good to be part of an OTA so you are available in different languages. That's the job that GetYourGuide does for us. Basically, so everybody can book in their own language.
How does GetYourGuide fit into your overall marketing strategy?
It's always part of the strategy. I think this is the question of how you want to diversify your sales channels, and we see it as an important channel. You can always think of maybe pushing a little bit more or pushing a little bit less. We still have the potential of pushing it more. We haven't had to do it so far because the demand is always really high. But, this gives us the option of a kind of ace which you still can play if you need to.
How have you adapted your experience to changing customer needs?
At the beginning, we had more German guided tours than English guided tours. We switched that because we saw a lot of bookings coming from tourists. They all speak English, so we added more English-speaking guided tours.
We also do surveys, we ask for reviews, and we change products. We also used to have 60-minute tours. Now, we only do the 90-minute tours because it’s the product people want.
What are the biggest challenges in your sector?
In general, for us, it’s conflicts happening globally. If something is happening, then people can’t fly from there anymore. We're in a good situation and have a high demand, so we usually can resell the tickets if there are cancellations, but obviously, this is a struggle in tourism in general… we have to refund the tickets. Well, we don't have to, but that's what we always strive to do to provide excellent service for our customers.
Does GetYourGuide make the process of cancelling easier?
I think with GetYourGuide it’s pretty easy. It's always best if you have a platform where you can do it immediately, online, directly at home or on your cell phone.
How does GetYourGuide compare to other OTAs you've worked with?
The platform set up for the products is easy. The supplier portal is also helpful. So, the analytics you have in the portal are easy to read. It's quite interesting for us to see where the customers are booking from, and this also helps us with sales activities and marketing activities. We have a second view on how they book and what the booking behavior is like. Then, we also have a monthly sheet that we get from GetYourGuide to see exactly what happened, how the sales compared to last year etc.
What advice or best practices would you share with other organizations looking to grow their OTA partnerships?
You have to look at it as a marketing fee or marketing budget you spend. It’s easy to try for a couple of months, and if it doesn't work for you as a product, you're going to know it immediately, but I think the impact is quite fast.
I would also say, don't overprice on the platform. That's what we see with our customers, that they’re not willing to pay more through a third-party channel. It’s just not good for reputation, and you still want to have a happy customer, so see it as a different second channel to your own. And, you can easily change products if you're not happy with it. You can adapt it on the supplier tool by just adding another product.
And, keep it very simple. Don’t try too much, especially in the beginning, like with a lot of add-ons. It’s best if you keep it as simple as possible for the customer and then use a lot of pictures. I think that's also key for people, they want to know what they're booking and not everybody is reading, some are only checking the pictures. Lastly, having a flexible cancellation policy is also a major factor.
Key Takeaways
- GetYourGuide helps the museum reach customers worldwide.
- Over the years, the museum has adapted its offering to cater to the increase in international customers who usually speak English.
- Global turmoil is a major challenge in the sector, and a flexible cancellation policy is key to maintaining an excellent customer experience.
- The GetYourGuide platform is easy for suppliers to use and provides helpful reports
- To be successful on OTAs just try them out, remember not to overprice and to keep it simple at the beginning.
