In mid-2024 we supported the Department of Environment and Water with Visitor Experience and Staff Resource planning for the new Flinders Chase National Park Visitor Centre.

The Centre is the new central hub for visitors, commercial tourism operators, National Park operations and the wider Kangaroo Island tourism industry on the western end of Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

Approach

To gain a deep understanding of the people who would use the Centre, we undertook a desktop analysis of key data  (national/state/regional/local) to identify the visitors to South Australia and Kangaroo Island likely to be visiting the Centre. This data informed the development of high-level customer profiles ready for experience and resource planning.

From there, we designed and facilitated a Visitor Experience workshop with National Park staff to review the customer profiles and plan their optimal experience at the Visitor Centre.

Customer journey maps were a key workshop output. Parks staff identified opportunities for improved visitor experience and interaction (including access, egress, wayfinding, amenities, café, retail, interpretation, storytelling, and interaction with staff/ rangers), while also identifying potential pain points or challenges and any associated resources/ infrastructure that may be required to meet their needs.

Co-creating a shared vision for the Centre's visitor experience, a code of practice for visitor servicing and ongoing measures of success were also key workshop outputs to guide future visitor centre strategy, operation, experience delivery, staff recruitment and training.

Training of all centre staff is happening next month and will be a key way to help embed the work with all staff of the Centre.

Strategic Insights

1. All staff involved – including front-of-house, operational and executive staff in the workshops- ensured diverse perspectives and input, leading to a more holistic and robust input in the Customer Experience planning.
2. Visitor Centric Approach – All staff putting themselves in the shoes of the different people using the centre, helped identify gaps in visitor servicing delivery, opportunities to proactively manage potential issues and maximise opportunities for connecting, learning and enrichment by visitors to the Centre.
3. All Staff Training – Training all Centre staff on the vision, visitor servicing code of practice and measures of success will help embed an ongoing feedback loop that enables staff to deliver responsive and exceptional visitor servicing for all users of the Centre.

Key Outcomes

• Empowered Staff - The Vision, Visitor Servicing Code of Practice and Customer Journey Maps set the foundations to help ensure a consistent, high level of customer service across various visitor needs.
• Wider Destination Catalyst – Opportunities and actions for the Centre and its team to connect other Kangaroo Island experiences/ from a central place were also a key outcome of the project.