What we could all learn about customer experience from the mountain men

Last Saturday we celebrated my daughter's tenth birthday by having a party for her at Wolf Mountain in Wolverhampton.  For the uninitiated, the folk at Wolf Mountain describe it as an 'indoor climbing and caving centre' although they seem to offer far more activities, both indoors and outdoors, than that.  This might seem like an unusual party venue for young girls - but my daughter is quite adventurous and likes to try new and different activities.

The party was a big success.  The girls climbed a variety of climbing walls - and loved the guide from the centre who was there to support them and look after their safety.  After completing their climbing they moved on to archery and once again enjoyed the relationship with their guide who kept them safe, helped them to hit the target (surprisingly regularly actually) and did it in a way that meant they had a constant smile on their faces.  The same guide then sat with them whilst they had party food in one of the 'party rooms' at the venue.

As I said, the event was a big success.  All the kids went home happy and smiling.  Not too much to ask I know, but it was nevertheless a surprise to me.

You see the guys at Wolf Mountain are obviously skilled at the activities they lead and they're clearly knowledgeable and experienced.  You need only look at them to see it, they look like they've been around, they've done everything you'll be doing - and far more.  They even looked as you would expect mountaineers and cavers to look.  A bit worn and well.....weathered.  And because of that it was a bit of surprise when the experience we had was .......excellent.

It was all about their focus on the experience their customers had whilst they were there.  They encouraged parents and other family members to also 'have a go', free of charge.  I did by the way!  They communicated in a way that made you realise that the activities difficult and made parents and children alike feel good about what they achieved.  And if there was anything customers couldn't do it was ok because of how tough it is. They were infectiously enthusiastic. And they cleverly involved other, more experienced customers (Wolf Mountain seems to get lots of customers who go there regularly) to interact with the new ones, offer their help and add further enthusiasm.  They didn't watch the clock, actually they took a bit longer than anticipated to ensure that everyone was able to participate fully and succeed.  And they invited people back.

It really was a fantastic experience and we're already planning our next visit as a family.

The experience reinforced my view on three things:

1. Make sure that people who are customer facing are enthusiastic about the product or service.  It's a given that they're knowledgeable about it, but does their experience of it go beyond that?  Do they use it?  And is their enthusiasm for it obvious?
2. Design the experience around the customer, not the organisation.  Better to take a little longer and achieve the desired experience than cut it short, and fail.
3. It's about the experience the customer has, not the service the business offers.  The product at Wolf Mountain is good and the service is ok too, but the value added bits that make the overall experience brilliant are about how the people there make you feel.

Replicate Wolf Mountain somewhere else and it would be good.  But it wouldn't necessarily be excellent, because as great businesses know, the brilliance comes from people.

To anyone within travelling distance of Wolverhampton - try it out, I recommend it!

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