89 Forward conference a big success

The conference aimed to show Page businesses how to build a brand that attracts throngs.

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PAGE – Kenny and Emily Young’s guided tour service is unique from other tour operators in the Page-Lake Powell area. But there were things over the years that affected the uniqueness without concerning the product at all.
“We are very fortunate to be in this environment that we’re in because our product is very unique,” explained Gordon Lane, public relations and marketing director for Ken’s Tours in LeChee, Arizona. “Our product is heavily sought after. Everyone wants to come – maybe a little too much – and see the spectacular locations we have here.”
Lane added, saying, “This is our product.”
How the Youngs’ sell their product, deal with customers, marketing, customer service, interoperability, among others are all sources of uniqueness that do not actually have anything to do with the product at all.
“This is how we used to organize our day: It was a blank sheet of paper with squares,” Lane said. “It gave no information because it was filled out as the day went along.”
The daily schedule did not show a number of things, such as advanced preparations, staffing accountability, and it was not in sync with reservations.
“It caused overstaffing because no one was tracking who was coming in and tour guides would show up if they wanted to work,” Lane explained. “There was no control over payroll because people would just come and go as they please.”
And one person had too much universal control, said Lane. That person controlled the schedule and everything else.
Lane, who has a background in high-end retail, says that this system elucidated the well-known social science experiment “Parable of the Monkeys,” which refers to five monkeys and their attempt to get at a bundle of bananas. The conclusion is that in the end, the monkeys were upholding a social norm that they longer connected to a logical consequence.

“How many of us have been in that situation where you do something because that’s just the way they do it?” Lane asked participants. “Have you ever stepped back and questioned, Why are we doing it this way? This is a good example we had at Ken’s Tours.”  
Now, the Youngs’ have a new system for Ken’s Tours. They have an organized schedule, which is created a day in advance, and it marries well with reservations and the number of tour guides needed for the day.
“You have to know your business,” Lane said.
Every year throngs of selfie-snapping visitors pour into U.S. national parks and preserves to climb towering cliffs, hike through forests and through the grandest of canyons like Antelope Canyon.
But this popular canyon’s overwhelming popularity also had downsides in the past, according to Lane. There were lines just to see and capture the sun beams in the canyon and traffic jams just to park in the parking lots at Ken’s Tours and at Dixie Ellis’s Lower Antelope Canyon Tours.
“Last year we came face to face with probably what was our lowest, hit rock bottom,” Lane explained. “If you had a 10 a.m. tour you’d be told that you would have to wait an additional two hours or more until you actually got into the canyon. We were putting people in a really bad situation … and not communicating it correctly.”
That is when the Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation stepped in and asked both tour operators – the Youngs and Dixie Ellis – to revamp their system.
Lane shared the motivational business fable “Who Moved My Cheese?” about change in one’s work and life, and four typical reactions to those changes by two mice and two “little people,” during their hunt for cheese.
“How many times have we been in that situation or know someone who is in that situation, or have employees that are kind of in that situation?” Lane asked participants. “The (Navajo Generating Station) is in the same situation.”
The upside, Lane says, Ken’s Tours is a mom-and-pop business and they are taking in around 2,000 people on a daily basis. And they have a thriving gift shop through branding, which has improved sales and made for a more enjoyable experience for their clients.
“We sell (water bottle holder lanyards), water bottle clips, personalized dreamcatchers, which we sell like nothing else,” Lane said. “And it’s crazy – the (number) of dreamcatchers we sell. Everyone wants one. It’s amazing.”
Lane says one of the bestsellers is “Lady in the Wind,” an abstract rock formation in Lower Antelope, that the Youngs branded on a number of merchandise, including bandanas, T-shirts, and others.
“At Ken’s Tours we have not really done a lot in terms of being on social media or really going after customer reviews and whatnot,” Lane said. “So, one of my focus is to really start going after that market and what we have created are postcards – not for sale in the giftshop – and on the back we put little thank-you notes and pass them out to all of our customers at the end of their tours.”
Lane says each guide writes their name on those postcards, which lead clients to the company’s social media sites.
“And it kind of connects them so that they can get directly in contact with us or give us a feedback,” Lane added. “So, that’s kind of a big win.”
Gordon Lane was one of the presenters for the interest session tracts at the two-day business conference at the Courtyard by Marriott. The business conference entitled “89 Forward: Mapping Our Business Future,” was a signature event in partnerships with the City of Page, Chamber of Commerce, and Coconino Community College.
This conference brought together like-minded leaders like Gordon Lane. The A-list of accomplished business speakers did not just present from the podium for two days, they mixed with the attendees and incubated ideas.
Participants looking to get up to speed on the latest developments in the Page-Lake Powell area heard inspiring keynotes from thought leaders and rubbed elbows with other professionals like Matt Brown, economic director for Kane County in Utah; Doug Gardner, president and CEO of Page Steel; and Mayor Bill Diak.