It can be quite difficult to paint a picture of marketing in people’s minds. What does it involve here at the castle?

Marketing goes hand in hand with communications, but we don’t always understand what it is exactly ;). The dictionary describes it as ‘the business activity that involves finding out what customers want, using that information to design products and services and selling them effectively’. That’s still not totally clear, so allow me to provide a few examples…

Here, the castle itself is the ‘product’ we are promoting. That means we use techniques to gain new customers and/or keep our existing customer base coming back for more. We let people know, via their preferred communications channel, that we are here, that we can provide tours of Chillon, but also that we offer a dazzling cultural experience and plenty of discounted deals with our local partners. And, as a result, that they should make sure they keep in touch with us all year round. For groups of customers, which represent around 30% of our visitors, this means collaborating with regional and national tourism institutions and ensuring we have a continual presence on the international tourism circuit in both peak season and during quieter periods of the year. Does that clear things up?

Hey Lucie, what’s a CRM, and why is it so important to have one in place at Chillon?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management; it’s a suite of tools that all communicate with one another, to help establish and manage relationships with our customers. It means all of our customer data can be kept in one place, making it easier to analyse and understand what’s happening at each point of contact with them (prospecting, visit, billing).

At Chillon, this system will help save time for the teams who come into contact with our visitors, since all of the data relating to a customer or a visit to the castle will be in the same place. For our Sales and Marketing teams, it will provide a better overview of visits and tours, which can come in handy when negotiating contracts with travel agencies or evaluating our various marketing activities. We can use it to group our individual customers by their interests so we can send them more targeted and relevant communications. This tool will also help us to get to know our individual and business customers better, build loyalty, and invite them to come and visit us several times a year.

What made you choose Chillon? Are you a fan of old stones or are you in it for the Instagram opportunities?

Before completing my marketing certification, I graduated from the Tourism Institute in Sierre. I have a real soft spot for the field of tourism and culture. I love the idea of being able to share a story or two with tourists from around the world. Plus, Chillon Castle is a tourism student’s dream. It is, after all, the most visited monument in Switzerland. That’s definitely worth an Insta post or two, right? Helping to promote this iconic Swiss location is a huge opportunity for me. Not to mention, I heard that the castle team is the best around! 😊

If you had a magic wand, what is the ONE thing you would change about Chillon?

I would ban the ‘photo pitstop’ and invite all the visitors who pull up in our car park to come inside the castle, even if just for half an hour. Our Asian visitors’ trips to Europe can be a bit of a race against the clock, so they don’t always have the time to visit all of the spots our beautiful little country has to offer. But, we could always look at it from a different angle… In which case, I would extend their trips to Switzerland!