CUSTOMER SUCCESS SPOTLIGHT
Sierra Nevada Finds Their 93% Conversion Rate with AnyRoad
Sierra Nevada is one of the largest American craft breweries with two locations in Chico, California, and Mills River, North Carolina. As a brand, Sierra Nevada has always prioritized the guest experience.
Crafting a world-class visitor experience with unique insights.
93% post-event conversion rate
Sierra Nevada’s tour experience encouraged 93% of infrequent buyers to become brand champions.
92% visitor satisfaction rate
Sierra Nevada established a best-in-class guest satisfaction across both brewery locations.
86% improved brand perception
A combined 86% of guests increased their brand perception post-experience across both breweries.
CASE STUDY
“We didn’t know what we didn’t know.”
Objective
Sierra Nevada is one of the largest American craft breweries with two locations in Chico, California, and Mills River, North Carolina. As a brand, Sierra Nevada has always prioritized the guest experience.
When the company broke ground at the Mills River site in 2012, they designed the location, operations, and experiences with a guest-centric approach that sees over one million guests annually.
“We are not a cookie-cutter brand; both locations offer something different for guests, and that is intentional,” says Gentry Power, Head of Guest Experience.
While the team felt they were making an emotional connection with customers, individualized surveys created data silos and did not provide the full picture of the guest experience. They needed a cohesive insights and operations platform that allowed them to develop their program further.
“AnyRoad helped us to solve problems we didn’t know existed,” adds Power. “We didn’t know what we didn’t know, we didn’t know what key we needed, and the data and insights we surfaced through AnyRoad were the missing pieces.”
The team also had several considerations, including how to:
- Leverage and increase the impact of investment in guest experience.
- Engage a broad, multi-faceted audience to expand the Sierra Nevada brand.
- Provide various educational experiences, including free, paid, private, offline, and online events.
- Better understand the ~1M annual consumers who attendees experience at these popular breweries and the differences between the locations.
Measure. Learn. Create
Working with AnyRoad surfaced key goals for Sierra Nevada:
- Measure the success of their guest experience programs
- Learn what resonated with their guests.
- Create connection and loyalty among guests who would choose Sierra Nevada products after their experience.
The Solution
AnyRoad empowered Sierra Nevada to set specific goals, evaluate the effectiveness of their customer-driven initiatives, and customize their experiences at scale in their unique brewery properties.
“Guest experience isn’t always very tangible, so putting data behind it allows us to prove the impact,” says Amy Ebling, Supervisor at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.
Using both qualitative and quantitative data, Sierra Nevada has been on a strong trajectory of improving net promoter score (NPS), brand engagement, and optimizing their programs for best-in-class experiences.
The team then rolled out a comprehensive solution:
- Implemented AnyRoad Atlas, AnyRoad Experience Manager, and AnyRoad AtHome.
- Installed AnyRoad Front Desk at both brewery locations.
- Consulted with Customer Success to hone industry benchmarks, KPIs, and innovations.
- Collected first-party data to measure customers’ intent to purchase and guest demographics.
- Integrated findings from AnyRoad’s Quarterly Insights Reports (based on industry trends and benchmarks).
Focus Area
Working with the AnyRoad team, Sierra Nevada outlined a list of focus areas:
- Grow Brand Awareness and Equity — Provide best-in-class experiences for guests to help guests feel an emotional connection with Sierra Nevada.
- Know Your Customer — Build brand loyalty through a deep understanding of guests.
- Create Loyalty — Build marketing lists and drive repeat visits. Create new brand champions and consumers.
- Strategic Programs for New Markets— Increase Sierra Nevada Beer consumption.
Results
- Key insights at both locations — With AnyRoad, Sierra Nevada is now able to capture key information on guest demographics, habits, and levels of brand awareness on both coasts. These insights mean the team can continually benchmark their locations and adjust programs at one or both breweries to grow the brand and keep visitors engaged.
- Winning brand champions and increasing intent to purchase — Measured through AnyRoad’s Atlas platform, Sierra Nevada’s tour experience encouraged 93% of infrequent buyers to become brand champions because of their tour experiences.
- More strategic tour planning — The Sierra Nevada team found that paid tours result in higher guest satisfaction than free experiences. Using this information, they were able to schedule high-satisfaction experiences during peak visitor times, increasing visitors’ satisfaction with their experiences.
- Promoting repeat visitors — Before AnyRoad, Sierra Nevada had difficulty assessing data across their locations. Using the AnyRoad platform, the team learned that 41% of Chico and 22% of Mills River visitors had taken a Sierra Nevada tour before. They also learned that visitors valued tour diversity and consistency the most, which helps inform tour programming and planning.
- 92%+ visitor satisfaction at both brewery locations— Sierra Nevada established best-in-class Brand Conversion and guest satisfaction. A combined 86% of guests at Chico and Mills River increase their brand perception post-experience, contributing significantly to the brand’s goal of excellence in customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
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