Crowds are a type of information that has emerged in our daily lives over the last few years, particularly in the form of green/orange/red indications or frozen bar charts... This theoretical information certainly gives an idea of what users can expect, but is no longer sufficient in the event of changes or unforeseen events. Today, establishments open to the public, such as shops, museums, nature reserves or even transport networks, have every interest in communicating this information accurately and in real time to the public!
Are you wondering why, and how, you can communicate this information easily? We'll explain it all in this article.
Improve the visitor experience
By informing your visitors of the number of visitors in real time before they come, you're giving them back the power to choose the best time to visit your venue: generally speaking, they'll prefer off-peak periods to avoid busy periods.
Knowing this crucial information will relax and reassure them, so they can make the most of their time as they see fit! They are informed at all times and don't need to go to your venue to find out how busy it is and potentially wait in a long queue or visit in poor conditions.
Communicating how busy it is is therefore a good practice that helps to reduce customer effort and improve the customer experience and satisfaction thanks to better reception conditions!
Optimise flow management and venue organisation
By informing your public of the number of visitors to your venue, you can automatically smooth out the flow of visitors over the course of the day, so that you can provide a better welcome for your customers! In fact, even if only 10% of visitors decide to change their opening times, out of a total of 1,000 people, that's 100 visitors who will be able to come at a more convenient time and have a better visiting experience.
What's more, you'll be able to anticipate your visitor peaks and adjust your organisation according to the expected number of visitors:
Staff planning: distribution of reception staff by area and time slot, organisation of maintenance and hygiene services;
Your opening hours, which are sometimes unsuited to the needs of your visitors;
The provision of areas or equipment, supplies and stock management according to the number of visitors.
In the end, you'll be able to optimise the overall running of your business, and manage it more effectively, simply by letting your customers know how busy they are! With the energy crisis, it's also a way of saving energy by optimising your spending according to the number of people in your venue.
Adapting your offer according to the number of visitors
In addition, attendance data can provide key information for your marketing or audience development team, who can adjust your offer according to the number of visitors. For example, they can propose promotional offers to attract more customers in off-peak periods, or put on special events in less busy areas to attract visitors, etc.
Best practice for communicating footfall in real time
The most important thing is to communicate your attendance figures via the right communication channels, so that you can reach your entire audience effectively and widely. Here are a few best practices!
Use the usual communication channels
Attendance is information like any other, just like your opening times or your address! You can reach your audience all the more effectively via your usual communication channels: website, social networks, newsletter, etc. Most counting solutions allow you to broadcast your attendance figures on your own media by setting up web APIs, so don't forget to find out about this before choosing your supplier!
Rely on local networks
This data is invaluable and could be of interest to your partners: for example, if you're a museum, ask your local tourist office to publish your attendance figures on its own website!
Communicate on site
Your users may not have seen the information before coming to your site - but they'll be reassured to arrive on site and see whether it's busy or not via one or more screens placed directly on your site! Providing advance warning, reassurance and an appropriate welcome will only improve their overall experience.
Solutions such as Affluences focus on this 'communication' aspect and help you to effectively and widely broadcast your attendance figures via its mobile application, which has more than 1 million users and a rating of 4.7/5 on the stores, and its website, which is visited more than 11 million times a month.
This makes the information all the more valuable and sought-after!