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5Es: Exit

You are reading the Exit chapter of our 5 Es of Visitor Experience article series. Click here to start from chapter 1.

exit

What is our customers’ last impression?
Do they leave with a bad taste in their mouth, or are they excited and empowered?
This might be their checkout experience, or the follow-up service they receive.
Are they treated well after they make a purchase, or forgotten about?
This section is criminally overlooked, but can be lucrative if done well.

Make it a memorable visit – tantalise more than one of their senses, allow them to take something home, create a lasting connection. Consider the final experiences – payment and sales, toilets, movement of purchased product, outside the door, departure.

After you make a purchase at Haigh’s Chocolates, you get offered a choice of two free chocolate samples, as a parting gift. It’s a clever way to add a little treat, literally leaving a good taste in your mouth.

Some clothes stores will throw your stuff in the bag and push it towards you, others will delicately fold it, and carefully hand the bag to you by the straps. This costs almost nothing, and it gives the impression that what you’ve bought is special.

Emirates offer Business Class passengers a chauffeured car home from the airport, a great finishing touch to a long journey.

I enjoy paying at cafes after I’ve finished my coffee/meeting; you leave having said thank you to the staff. Maybe it’s just me, but it feels nicer than a model like Starbucks where you leave in anonymous silence.

Apple stores bring the checkout to you; staff members have a handheld payment machine that can be used anywhere in the shop. They also offer free personal setup for your new device, where a team member assists help you with your new purchase.

Fast food restaurants are well known for their devious chair design – engineered to become uncomfortable after 10-15 minutes. Once you finish your food, their aim is to get you to leave, freeing up the table for the next person.

Car dealerships suggest bunch of additional products and services right as you go to pay – extended warranties, insurances, upgraded wheels, etc. The difference between this and airlines like Jetstar additional costs is that these are optional, whereas some of Jetstar’s “extras” are mandatory.

One of the most overlooked areas is your toilets. Consider how many of your visitors use the washrooms as the enter or exit, and how that experiences completes the memory of your place.

Continue to the next chapter of our 5 Es of Visitor Experience article series.

Click here to start from the beginning, or jump to Entice, Enter, Engage, Exit, and Extend, and Mapping the Journey.

 

LET'S JUST START WITH A COFFEE

For most tourism businesses, working on your buildings and grounds is a big deal. There is a lot of money and time at stake and can be difficult to know where to start. So let’s just start with a coffee.