Magnolia Plantation & Gardens began as a working rice plantation over 300 years ago and transformed during the antebellum period into a public garden showcasing unique azalea and camellia collections. Today, guests can wander the original paths of the romantic-style garden and explore seasonal colour displays and unique horticultural installations, from the Audubon Swamp Garden to the historic River Walk. With more than 400 acres of protected wetlands and some 267 species of birds, Magnolia Plantation & Gardens attracts thousands of nature lovers each year.
The staff at Magnolia Plantation & Gardens relishes sharing their horticultural knowledge with guests. Yet, with hundreds of plant species spread across the site’s 400 acres, they were spending an inordinate amount of time answering basic questions about things like bathroom locations and tour times. This not only impacted the staff’s ability to focus on their work but also the length of queues at the entrance and welcome centre.
“Our staff tried to move guests through quickly, but there’s a lot of information to share,” explains Ivey Gibbs, Magnolia’s Sales Operations Manager. “Wait times ranged from two to five minutes per family, and if someone was purchasing a membership, it could take up to 12 minutes.”
Paper maps handed out at the entrance helped guests orient themselves, but the waste created didn’t fit with Magnolia’s focus on sustainability.
Magnolia Plantations & Garden knew the right mobile app could enable online ticket sales, wayfinding, and information sharing with guests while cutting down on paper waste and freeing up staff. After researching possible solutions, they chose Attractions.io’s mobile app platform.
Magnolia Plantation & Gardens launched their mobile app in March 2023 and immediately worked to get staff on board with instructional videos and training.
“Our leadership team has been great at promoting the app, and the buy-in from the top levels of management has trickled down quickly,” Gibbs says. “Staff now use it at every opportunity to enhance guest interactions. Whether it's self-guided tours, integrated ticketing with Gateway’s Galaxy® solution or push notifications, the app has become essential.”
Push notifications alert guests to daily activities, membership promotions, and weather alerts, while mobile ticketing has helped to ease congestion at the site’s entrance. Additionally, a “What’s in Bloom category” on the garden’s hand illustrated map, allows Magnolia to easily publish and unpublish parts of their horticultural archives, guiding visitors to what’s in season and helping them learn more about particular plants.
"With a garden of our size, we're never going to get to a point where you can identify each and every plant. So, we focus on what's in bloom. In the winter, when our camellias and azaleas are blooming, we do a specified camellia walking tour that we advertise in the app," Ivey Explains.
“It's not the same as a full archival cataloguing system, but for the public, it’s incredible because we can easily rotate what we share with guests. Our horticulture team is very excited about this feature.”
Meanwhile, the app’s interactive wayfinding has been particularly useful for guests navigating a garden of Magnolia’s size.
“As a romantic garden in the English style, we let nature run its course and work our pathways around that,” Gibbs says. “It's easy to end up somewhere unexpected, and the app helps guests orient themselves, especially when it's hard to see landmarks like the river from the centre of the gardens.”
Magnolia’s app now has approximately 60,000 downloads, and more than half of guests who arrive at the ticket window download the app. Those who don’t, typically attend with a tour group and rely on their leader to guide them – oftentimes with the app. These downloads have not only led to a reduced burden on staff but also shorter queues at the entrance and welcome centre.
“On busy days, staff can direct guests to the app for information, reducing the time spent at the window,” Gibbs says. “And for our staff who aren’t public-facing, it reduces the interruptions to their workday because guests now have the information they need in their pocket.”
While Magnolia Plantation & Gardens previously handed out maps with every ticket, they no longer do so thanks to the app’s wayfinding capabilities. This has resulted in a significant reduction in printing to help Magnolia reach their goal of improving sustainability and reducing costs.
Magnolia has not yet heavily publicised the app’s native purchasing feature, but they are already seeing anywhere from 22 to 40% of guests purchase their tickets.
“Being an outdoor attraction in a city with unpredictable weather, it’s harder to drive online sales as guests often wait to see the day’s weather before purchasing tickets,” Gibbs explains. “However, we’re hopeful that the app will help us increase these numbers, especially during our busy season.”
The guest response to the app has been overwhelmingly positive, with 93% positive feedback post-visit. Moreover, 60% of app users opt in to ongoing communications, a rate that exceeds industry standards.
“Less than 20% of users delete the app after their visit, which is a good sign,” Gibbs says. “We don’t spam them with notifications; we categorise them based on their activity, like if they’ve been on-site within the last eight hours or if we have an upcoming event we think they’d be interested in.”
Now able to capture precise customer data, Magnolia has been looking at the app’s heat maps to see where guests spend the most time and what points of interest they’re focused on. They are also exploring the possibility of tracking dwell time to better understand guest behaviour.
"The more guests that download the app, the more data we’re capturing, and those guests are going to have a better experience from the moment they step out of their car,” Gibbs says. “We know there’s more data we can dig into, and we’re looking forward to exploring that further.”
The Attractions.io platform enables real-world businesses to lead in the digital age. Our guest experience apps and powerful platform for operators provide world-renowned attractions like LEGOLAND, San Diego Zoo and Butlin’s with the tools and data they need to deliver better outcomes and experiences. From virtual queuing and interactive maps to enhanced communication with guests, we’ve got the know-how to future proof your attraction for the digital age.
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