Murthwaite Green Trekking Centre
"The level of awareness raised for my business has been fantastic. The number of people that now access my website is amazing, on the day the deal went live we saw an unbelievable 80% increase in traffic!"
About Murthwaite Green Trekking Centre
Cath Wrigley started up Murthwaite Green Trekking Centre 11 years ago, following her move from a city lifestyle in Cheshire to pursue something a little more peaceful. She found Murthwaite to be a beautiful location, and soon invested in a piece of farmland to set up home. Coming from a riding background where Cath had previously owned horses and competed herself, she identified an opportunity to provide others with the means to share her passion – with the added bonus of nearby fantastic coastal surroundings.
Enjoying successful business expansion, Cath grew her stables from 6 horses to 20, and soon found she was no longer to take the rides out on her own. She now has 3 full-time staff plus 2 part-time girls to help out during busy periods. The fact there are no other riding schools around which offer beach rides for all abilities has proved to be a huge unique selling point and as such, Murthwaite Green was at a point where they could look to drive things forward even further. Understanding her business was very much a seasonal activity with less customers visiting during the winter, she began thinking about how to sustain a steady income throughout these months.
The Challenge
Cath was already a customer of Groupon’s, and had been signed up to receive the newsletters for a while. It was when a friend mentioned to her she’d recently used a Groupon for a riding deal in Manchester, that triggered Cath to realise this could be the perfect way to help give the Murthwaite Green Trekking Centre a boost during their winter months. In October 2012, she got in touch with Groupon for the first time. Within a week of their initial meeting, the first campaign was launched, and sold over 1,000 vouchers. “Everything was so straight forward, the process to set up the deal was very quick and a lot easier than I anticipated.”
The Result
Achieving a busier winter period, Murthwaite Green Trekking Centre said that the level of awareness they raised for their business has been fantastic. The number of people that now access their website is amazing. On the day the deal went live they saw an unbelievable 80% increase in traffic!
As a direct result of the influx of new visitors to their website, Cath has since spent a lot more time improving and updating the site as well as their Facebook page. On their Facebook page they have seen riders join up and put their pictures up, and they have also noticed a big increase in traffic owing to the Groupon promotion.
The income that Cath has been able to sustain over the winter months has produced another tangible result – where she usually drops her staff down to two part-time in the quiet season, she’s had to keep both on full-time simply to cope with demand. This has been great for staff motivation, which has also been lifted by the warm comments customers are leaving with the centre.
And if that wasn’t enough, the increase in footfall has helped the surrounding community too. “We have a local pub nearby and to see their business being given a boost off the back-end of our Groupon promotion, and know we’re doing our bit for the local economy is a great feeling for us.”
Groupon’s first –ever G-Awards were designed to recognise the top-performing partners across 14 cities in the UK, and credit them for achieving the highest customer satisfaction scores in their region. Murthwaite Green was crowned one such champion and received their award with pride; “Aside from all the lovely customer comments, the fact you’ve won an award makes it even more worthwhile.
We know what we offer is of top standards, but to have someone confirm this and to have customers go to the lengths to rate and recommend you so highly is just fantastic. It’s not just the reviews either – it’s the emails customers send us, thanking us for making experiences like beach rides accessible for them and their families to enjoy together is just brilliant.”
"We have seen a lot of customers return to us after running our first Groupon feature, and at least half a dozen have come back to buy the riding holidays which are our most profitable offering. We’ve had customers return to purchase our trail rides as well as beach treks and other daily rides, and people have bought a trek having missed the deal on Groupon so it’s been great in terms of upsell and leveraging the other options we offer. I have nothing but positive things to say about the ROI we’ve seen and the whole experience from working with Groupon."
- Cath Wrigley, Owner
