Coppergreen case study

Coping during the pandemic

Typically, all four of Coppergreen Leisure Resorts holiday parks and resorts across the country would be home to a hive of activity, fun, and some well-earned relaxation as families and couples treat themselves to a stay on one of their 5-star parks all-year-round. But thanks to the coronovirus pandemic, the picture this year is somewhat different. So, what does the life of a holiday park owner look like in these new and challenging times?

We talked to one of our Elite Dynamics customers’ and Director of Coppergreen Developments Limited, Sam Wall to find out.

Coppergreen Leisure Resorts currently operate four holiday parks in various locations around the UK – Piperdam Leisure Resort in Dundee, Kenwick Park Estate in Lincolnshire, Woodland Lakes Lodges in North Yorkshire, and Cumber Park Lodges in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire. Offering a range of luxury self-catering lodge accommodation with private hot tubs plus hotel accommodation at Kenwick Park, all four leisure parks closed their doors to holidaymakers on Monday 23^rd March 2020 ahead of what promised to be a busy Easter weekend. “Just two days after lockdown, we were supposed to be launching our brand-new Olive Tree Café and Olive Leaf Spa at Woodlands” said Sam. “We’ve invested a lot of money, so it has been heartbreaking not to open them as planned but crucially it didn’t stop our ongoing investment in our parks. As a business, we’re constantly evolving.”

It is this positivity and forward thinking that makes Coppergreen lead the way in the industry. Continuous innovation, an inspirational and ambitious approach to business and responding to customer demand has seen them develop an all year-round destination for holiday park experiences.

Anticipation and Proactivity is key

Even before the parks officially closed in March, Sam and the rest of the Coppergreen team held a director’s meeting to decide what was going to happen, what their immediate priorities needed to be, and what they wanted to achieve in the short term. “The safety and security of our staff was obviously the first priority, so we made a tactical decision to furlough the majority with the exception of some key personnel and the senior team,” said Sam. “We then tried to plan as much as possible so one of the first things we did was contact Jamaine at Elite Dynamics to see what technology improvements and developments would be possible to implement during the downtime. It was great to hear there was so much more functionality we could be utilising with the EliteParks solution and that they were still able to remotely guide us through the implementation process. Sometimes when running holiday parks, it can be all too easy to get immersed in the day-to-day… or too busy being ‘in’ the business than working ‘on’ the business. So, although a lockdown was far from ideal, we tried to respond as best we could and be more proactive as a business.”

Bringing all of our parks in line… online

“We also used this time to roll out the EliteParks software to our other three parks so from then on, all four parks would have online booking facilities on our website to drive direct bookings as well as being fully integrated with Hoseasons,” said Sam. “Although all four parks have quite different business requirements, the software can be configured to the requirements of each park regardless of size, facilities, and location. It centralises information so we can move away from separate systems for different parks. At Piperdam for example, where we have weddings, conferences, and golf memberships, we have started to implement all other modules of the EliteParks system. The new ‘Events’ module allows us to do everything from allocating rooms to coordinating packages and pricing for wedding or corporate guests, and the ‘Membership’ module means we can easily process, schedule, and renew our golf, leisure and spa subscriptions. This will enhance our customers experience by giving them the interconnectivity to book activities wherever they are within the resort – utilising cross-selling and maximising commercial opportunities – all thanks to the latest innovation in Microsoft technology available to us.

Our commitment to our staff

“We also used tech to keep in touch with our key staff during lockdown, some of whom help drive some of the developments we’ve been working on with the Elite Dynamics team,” adds Sam. “We’re regularly asking staff what we can do to improve their work on park or to make their jobs easier and one example is introducing software for maintenance job management. The ‘Maintenance’ module within EliteParks means we can cut down a huge amount of our maintenance teams’ manual processing and time-consuming administration by scheduling and allocating jobs electronically to iPads or other smart devices. We literally flipped our season on its head by pulling forward those typical off-peak winter plans like gas testing and PAT testing as we had easy access to units whilst the parks were closed. By using this time to focus on fulfilling tasks that can be brought forward, we could free up more valuable time for our maintenance teams and work more efficiently when the parks reopened.”

Using technology to drive the business

“From the very early days of Coppergreen Developments, we always wanted to be a company that used technology as much as possible to take us where we wanted to go,” adds Sam. “That’s why Elite Dynamics were such a good fit for us. Unlike some of their competitors, it was clear from our initial meetings that they not only fully knew the industry and its challenges, they also had empathy and a complete understanding of what we were trying to achieve. We have a great relationship with the whole team and its never a challenge to communicate or translate any of our requirements – we have a straight conversation and they get it. They get us. And we can’t stress how important that is.”

Pre-coronavirus, Piperdam Leisure Resort was the only one of Coppergreen’s four parks to be using Elite Dynamics’ flagship EliteParks software solution. However, they are now able to benefit from using increased functionality of the software package at Piperdam as well as introducing EliteParks to their other three parks.

Sam continues: “At Piperdam, we were already utilising the bookings, park management, and financial modules of the software, but we’re expanding into using many more features provided by EliteParks. Not only will it enable us to centralise the management of things like safety testing, but our maintenance teams will also be able to manage jobs remotely on park via an iPad or mobile device.

“For us, a key aim across all parks is to drive more direct bookings. We’re growing as a business and this involves automating to keep up with customer demands and expectations, and our systems need to grow with us. It’s always been important for us to use and appreciate technology to maximise growth and not get left behind. EliteParks gives us the freedom and flexibility to do this.”

Looking to the future

“Ultimately, we used our lockdown to be in the best possible shape when we came through the other side,” explains Sam. “And we will come through this. Initially people might think twice about going to airports, thus presenting our industry with some big opportunities for the remainder of 2020 and into 2021. Yes, there will be inevitable casualties and we are being cautious not to think too far ahead as there is bound to be a knock-on effect to individuals and their disposable incomes, but we’re regularly assessing the situation as a business. Our industry has encountered lots of hurdles, but we know we can jump higher, act faster, and plan better if we’ve got the right systems and processes in place.”

“We’re not pretending it’s going to be easy. Despite our parks being open 12 months of the year, ours is still very much a seasonal industry. We lost Easter and the busy May bank holidays and we don’t yet know what will happen next or what new measures may need to be put in place. We are hoping for plenty of notice from the Government and it’s important that it’s properly managed to give us all a chance to prepare. The BH&HPA have been doing an outstanding job representing the industry, campaigning on our behalf, and offering valuable advice on a whole range of issues, but the future is still greatly unknown.”

“What we do know is, if we get to the end of lockdown and manage to have EliteParks in place across all four parks, it will signal a complete business transformation. It’s a game changer. Sometimes you need to take a step back to review your processes before you realise just what your software system is capable of and how it supports your ambitions. We can use what we need when we need it, and safe in the knowledge that it will grow with us, generate additional revenue at a time when we most need it, and futureproof our business. We’re gearing up and getting ready to go again!”

It really is park operators like Coppergreen that drive the industry forward. Holiday parks have evolved as destinations and our relationships with our customers allow us to tap into their needs and ambitions and provide them with the technology to succeed. We continue to be inspired by them and the way they can conceptualise the modern customer dream.