RESOURCE CENTRE

Funlab increases guest lifetime value by 28%

See how the company behind brands such as Strike and Holey Moley drives engagement and growth.

Time to read: 8 minutes

About the Company

Funlab is a leader of competitive socialising experiences. It owns and operates brands Strike, Holey Moley, Archie Brothers, Hijinx Hotel, B. Lucky & Sons, and La Di Darts.

The Challenge

Siloed channels and data limit efficiency and opportunities to grow engagement.

Funlab’s first brand and venue, Strike, launched twenty-two years ago in Melbourne. The company has since expanded to operate 53 locations in three countries and has big ambitions for continued growth. These include plans for US expansion, an increase in event function sales, and a new precinct model that will provide its guests with worlds of fun.

To deliver on its goals, the company had to digitally transform. Siloed channels and data created inefficiencies and limited Funlab’s ability to personalise communication and experiences. For example, when sending out emails for Valentine’s Day or a special event, the team had to manually create separate emails for each of its brands and different segments, resulting in many more email versions to be personalised and countless more hours spent on the production of emails.

Additionally, guest-facing team members lacked visibility into guests’ previous interactions or bookings, making it difficult to personalise their experience.

Without a 360-degree view of guests, Funlab also lacked the depth of insight needed to deepen relationships.

How Salesforce Helps

Salesforce optimises total experience for guests and employees.

Funlab’s transformation has focused on optimising the total experience of its brand, making it seamless for guests and employees.

Sales, service, and marketing, as well as teams within Funlab’s venues, are now connected on Salesforce with a shared 360-degree view of guests. Empowered with new insights and automation, they can deliver more frictionless and personalised guest experiences.

The value of the transformation is most visible within marketing. The team now has a solid data foundation to better understand guests and personalise their experiences. This includes booking and targeting data that previously had to be uploaded manually.

Funlab has maximised the value of this data by using Marketing Cloud to build automated guest lifecycle journeys across all its brands and to accelerate engagement with cross-brand and retention strategies.

Emails and campaigns are also more effective, with real-time engagement data from Marketing Cloud Intelligence helping to optimise performance.

Marketing efficiency has improved, too, with features like dynamic content, allowing the team to quickly tailor emails for each segment, brand, and region.

Results include 140% year-on-year growth in email performance, contributing to 30% increase in active guests and a 28% average increase in guest lifetime value. Process efficiency has also improved by 50%.

The planned adoption of Marketing Cloud Personalisation and new attitudinal segmentation will further maximise engagement and multiply these results.

"Our Salesforce-led transformation has delivered multiple digital initiatives that have created more shared experiences for Funlab's guests and employees, and we are seeing positive results. Our engagement numbers are growing, and we are more efficient, which allows us time to be more strategic."

Tracy Tanti

Head of Customer Relationships and Retention
Funlab

Connected data and platforms drive automated, consistent guest experiences.

Funlab has connected Salesforce with its booking platform to support the growth of its functions category. The company has also streamlined the process to provide guests with a seamless, consistent experience, whether they book online or over the phone.

Booking data flows into Sales Cloud, providing sales, service, and venue teams with a centralised view of functions to which they can add any notes or guest requests. Sales Cloud also triggers automated communications such as booking confirmations and reminders.

The streamlined processes improve the guest experience and make managing functions much more scalable, helping Funlab drive continued growth in this area.

Service transforms from good to great with the help of AI.

Funlab continues to transform, bringing marketing, sales and service under one umbrella to deliver an even more connected guest experience. The company has already adopted Service Cloud and telephony integration with Amazon Connect, which has enabled reporting and insights that have driven significant operating and process changes. These have, in turn, helped optimise the volume and quality of guest interactions. Funlab’s “good to great” service roadmap will build on these benefits by introducing features like Einstein Next Best Action, which will help the team personalise support using AI-generated offers and actions.

“Bringing sales, service, and marketing onto Salesforce has enabled Funlab to see a 360-degree view of its guests for the first time. This has empowered our teams across these specialisations to begin delivering an enhanced connected guest experience.”

Oonagh Flanagan

Chief Marketing Officer
Funlab

The Salesforce Difference

Salesforce connects sales, service, marketing, and venue teams on one platform, enabling them to work more efficiently and grow guest relationships. With Marketing Cloud, Funlab can also personalise every moment to maximise conversion and guest lifetime value.