Sometimes even the best marketing gets ruined by an ego
I have just recently had two different guests from abroad. I often take guests up the river Thames from Westminster to Hampton Court on one of the several vessels that sail under the WPSA flag. The WPSA seems to be a loose booking co-operative for five different vessels.
The marketing is good enough. After all, the market is pretty captive. Tourists looking for a day out. The major shortfall is the fact that you need real money, not plastic. And yet that hardly matters unless you're at the ticket window with no money.
The vessels are all old, except the Cockney Sparrow. They have style. Though I've never liked the lines of the Clifton Castle, I still see it as having style. I'm still ignoring the Cockney Sparrow - far too new for my taste.
The skippers are Watermen, deserving the capital letter. They've served a full apprenticeship and are skilled at their job, which is to skipper the boats, with up to 200 or more passengers, safely and broadly to time on the tideway and then upstream into the non tidal reaches above Teddington. And Watermen tend to be 'characters'.
Each trip was different. The Connaught's skipper gave us a non intrusive commentary for the first 30 minutes or so. He gave us facts and amusing snippets. He left gaps so we could relax and enjoy the tideway. The commentary was wholly in keeping with the ethos of the vessel, and the laziness of the trip upstream
Yesterday I was on the Kingwood. The wheelhouse held two souls for the trip and we received, or rather were subjected to, a highly intrusive commentary which held the political opinions of the man on the microphone. We had the lot. There were facts about the river and the views, of course there were. And those facts were different from those presented by the Connaught's skipper in many ways. There were good opinions, exemplified by the suggestion that all riverside building should have its materials shipped in by barge, not by road. But, and this is the ruination of the marketing, there was a political tirade interwoven with the facts all the way from Westminster to Kew.
We got under way at 11am, and arrived at Kew at 1pm. That's a lot of harangue. And that ruined a good part of the trip for me. I was embarrassed to be aboard, and embarrassed to be the host of my small party. If a shopkeeper did that to me while I was buying meat I could leave his shop. But the vessel is a self contained world and leaving is impossible.
All the careful promotion prior to the trip was undone by the harangue artist. Marketing was unmade by an ego. That trip's passengers are unlikely to recommend it to their friends. And that is a major point for this kind of marketing - word of mouth spreads. It means I may think twice about suggesting such a trip myself next time I have guests from abroad, which is a huge shame.
However, I have suggested to the WPSA that they review this particular commentary, so I suspect that it may be toned down some. I will risk it. But I may try to discover which vessel is on duty on the day I choose!
I hate it when good marketing is ruined by people who fail to understand what they are doing to their business. And, with this loose co-operative, he is ruining other people's business as well.
3 comments:
I heartily agree with everything you say about the trip down river since I was one of your party. I had come from abroad and hoped to have a pleasant time sailing down one of the most famous rivers in the world as it flowed through and out of one of the most famous cities in the world. Indeed, I got that, but I also got a political harangue that could easily have spoiled the trip for me. The commentary would have been most interesting and most welcome had it not been interspersed with personal views about politicians and politics - most of which was quite meaningless for me, a foreigner. Most tasteless, most irritating.
I'd also totally forgotten the poor landlord of The Greyhound at Kew.
Commentary boy (ok, he is 65) told us all very clearly not to visit his pub because the food was bad. I have no idea whether the food is excellent or poor, and we were eating elsewhere or I might have dropped in and mentioned the potential slander, but that was a liberty too far.
The interesting thing is that the man with the mike is actually representing his company, or his employer (he may, after all, own the Kingwood). This means that it is assumed to be official policy of King Cruises to run down other businesses, since the speaker was speaking on company premises in company time during paid employment.
That is not a thing I would tolerate in my own staff, since it exposes the company to risk of a law suit.
There is one area I forgot to blog. A large number of years ago now, in 1989, we had the Marchioness disaster which led to a review of safety procedures and standards on all passenger vessels on the Thames. These included a safety message on departure from each pier.
Kingwood that day had no safety message.
Additionally, in the enclosed saloon, windows which serve as escape routes were barred with locking devices that clearly stated that they were to be removed when the vessel was underway.
I have made sure the relevant enforcement agency is aware, via the Port of London Authority, who have passed it as a matter of urgency to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
While the risk is small it is also present, and it is the skipper's absolute responsibility to ensure that his vessel complies at all times with safety regulations.
It was not a great trip, that one.
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