Ben & Jerry’s Factory Experience made one tweak that moved 73% of their tour bookings online

Results

Ben & Jerry’s Factory Experience brought its ticketing system into the now for a smoother customer experience and more visibility.

73% of tours now booked online

With AnyRoad’s online booking platform, Ben & Jerry’s Factory Experiences created a more seamless experience to meet guest expectations.

1,100 visitors per day

Ben & Jerry’s welcomes an influx of factory tour visitors, and now can avoid long lines and waits with AnyRoad’s platform.

Visitors from 50 states

With AnyRoad’s analytics, Ben & Jerry’s can glean new insights and learn more about their visitors.

For more than 40 years, Ben & Jerry’s has been a beloved brand and a global phenomenon. In fact, the company’s ice cream is so popular that millions of fans have made the trek to Waterbury, Vermont for a guided tour of the company’s original factory, along with a gift shop and scoop shop, known as Ben & Jerry’s Factory Experiences.

Despite sold out factory tours, buying tickets hasn’t always been easy, mostly because they couldn’t be purchased online. “The only option was to show up day-of to purchase tickets onsite for the next available tour, which at peak times might be a two hour wait” recalls Samantha Lacasse, the general manager of the factory.

“Unfortunately, since we were getting as many as 2,000 visitors a day, our guests often had to wait in line for a half hour or more just to get a ticket,” says Lacasse. “Worse, they then might then have to wait up to another three hours for their tour to begin. That wasn’t ideal for them or for us.”

Another drawback was how manual tracking visitors was — a classic Excel spreadsheet and printed physical tickets. They had a double whammy on their hands. Despite the tedious process, they weren’t able to make up for the effort with useful insights.

"All we were able to track was how many adults, children, and senior tickets we were selling," says Lacasse. "We were eager to gain deeper, data-driven insights using AnyRoad's platform that would help us to demonstrate the impact and value our tours were having within the brand."

With AnyRoad, Ben & Jerry's Factory Experiences aimed to:

• Measure the demographic data of who was coming in and how the tour impacted their brand perception.
• Smooth out the booking process by bringing ticket reservations online.
• Create a better experience through analytics and consumer reporting.

Starting July 2022, Ben & Jerry’s factory tours were powered by AnyRoad’s experiential marketing platform . Now visitors can buy their tickets online through the Ben & Jerry’s website. After receiving a confirmation email, all they have to do is show up on the date and time of the tour they selected. That’s right — the visitors now can book tickets ahead of time.

Beyond online ticketing, the AnyRoad platform helps Ben & Jerry’s Factory Experiences collect valuable first-party data to better understand who attends the tours and what impact they have on the brand. Guests who bought tickets online are asked to fill out a pre- and post-experience survey. These questions capture demographic information and feedback about their experience.

With AnyRoad Atlas, the insights and intelligence side of the platform, Ben & Jerry’s Factory Experiences can use the survey and purchase data to learn who their guests are and how taking the tour impacted brand perception. They can also use the analytics and reporting to evaluate the tour experience impact on purchasing behavior, brand loyalty, and overall ROI.