Planning a Fall Festival? Here’s How FareHarbor Can Help
As a farm owner, your busiest time of year can easily be during your festival season. It may also be the time that your business makes the most revenue.
Whether you run a pumpkin patch and corn maze, host a sunflower festival, or operate an annual haunted attraction, there’s so much at stake for a successful event. Here are four ways FareHarbor can help you plan and manage your seasonal festival.
Make more revenue
Arguably, the most important aspect of running your fall festival is having a steady flow of revenue. For many farm businesses, this event will be the end of the busy season. So it’s important to make it count!
If you have to cancel your festival for the day, you don’t have to completely lose out on those bookings. Here are two FareHarbor features that will help you hold on to your customers.
Don’t lose profit from weather cancellations
Any outdoor event needs to plan for inclement weather and cancellations. Give your customers the option of a gift card rather than a refund for a canceled event. They can use this to book at a later date, purchase add-ons, or any other monetary option you have available.
Give customers the freedom to rebook
This feature is coming soon! Your customers will have the option to rebook their activity online without your help. If they make the decision to cancel because of weather or their plans change, they will be able to move their booking to a time that works best for them, like a different day of your multi-day festival
Speed up check-in process
Without using a booking software, you may have no idea how busy any given day will be. This can cause a never ending line of (potentially impatient) customers trying to get into your festival.
Luckily, FareHarbor has a few tricks up our sleeve to ensure every family, couple, and friend group can get into your event efficiently.
Express lane for those who have booked in advance
While you design your check-in station, consider creating an express lane for customers who have purchased their tickets online. Rather than making every person wait for walk-in customers to buy their tickets, this will get those who pre-booked into your festival quickly.
Quickly scan customers in
Keep your express lane moving quickly with QR code scanning. Customers who have purchased their tickets online through FareHarbor will receive an email with a QR code (if you have this enabled… and you should!). Then, with the FareHarbor app, you will be able to quickly scan customers’ QR codes for a smooth check-in experience.
Check in customers without WiFi
Clients using the iOS app are now able to scan QR codes without being connected to the internet. If your farm is in a remote location and you do not have great internet on site, you can now check customers in without a connection. Once you are back on WiFi, all data syncs up to your FareHarbor Dashboard.
Safely accept in-person payments
For walk-up customers, you can purchase a FareHarbor approved card reader to easily accept in-person payments. They are fast, secure, and accept all major credit cards — Apple Pay and Google Pay too!
Streamline your business operations
Aside from check-in, there are several other festival aspects that can increase efficiency and productivity.
Easily notify customers of important information
Setting up automatic confirmation emails for guests after they book can be a great tool to share all important information. Not every festival attendee will know what to wear, what to bring in case of inclement weather, where to check-in, and so on. You can include this all in your confirmation email to avoid unnecessary phone calls and confusion as guests arrive.
Organize your employee’s schedules
Your festival likely needs a lot of personnel to make it run smoothly. Parking attendants, check-in associates, nature walk guides, and more will all have an important role to play in your fall festival.
You can set up custom calendars using filters in the FareHarbor Dashboard for each individual employee. Then, they can see at a glance when they are working as well as which position they have that day. You can save this view and set it as the default for each one of your employees.
Leverage local partnerships
Your festival may already have partnerships with local businesses to host a booth or provide other assets. Of course, this makes it a more inclusive community event. FareHarbor has a program that helps you work with local businesses during your festival and beyond.
Use the FareHarbor Distribution Center (FHDN) to make connections
The FHDN is a program that partners your company with other local businesses. You are able to resell other tours and activities, have yours resold, or do both!
This can be a great way to get the word out about your festival and get extra bookings. It can also be a way for you to make more money during your slow season by selling non-seasonal tours and activities in your area.
FareHarbor is made to help any kind of business thrive, no matter the type of tour, activity, or attraction. As you plan your next fall festival, consider all the ways we can help you succeed!
