“When I call Joe and Rose at App My Community, they answer. They find answers for me. They push for solutions. They’re open to suggestions and they’re very responsive.”
-Grant Pope, owner of Kamp Dels in Waterville, Minnesota
The Customer:
A Bustling Midwestern Campground Overflowing with Amenities
Located an hour south of Minneapolis, Kamp Dels in Waterville, Minnesota, offers RV, tent, and cabin camping in an idyllic waterfront setting. Boasting an on-site waterpark, mini golf, a petting zoo, boat rentals, playgrounds, and more, this family-friendly campground is packed with amenities that attract excited travelers to an off-the-beaten-path getaway as soon as the winter snow melts each season.
The Challenge:
Staying Up to Date with Communicating Ever-Changing Offerings
With so many activities on tap at the campground, Kamp Dels’ staff was frequently facing questions about everything from firewood pricing to the operating schedule for the trams running through the resort. Keeping up with communicating with guests via paper printouts was becoming cumbersome as the ever-changing information on available offerings required frequent re-prints of paper materials that were time-consuming and costly to create.
A family-owned business, Kamp Dels had grown over its more than 60 years in operation, and by 2018 the current owner, Grant Pope, was ready to make a change. He wanted a tech-forward solution that would make it easier for guests to get accurate, up-to-date information, while also streamlining the back-end process of communicating offerings promptly.
“It was important for us to unify the branding aspect of it, and not have five different places for people to be able to go to do things,” Grant explained. “We wanted a hub that unified the brand and we felt that a mobile app could do that for us. It could be that center-point hub that people could use on their phone and get access to all the things they needed.”
The Solution:
A Customized App that was Easy to Use and Easy to Update
One busy Labor Day weekend, Grant was approached by Rose and Joe Duemig, the founders of App My Community, who offered Kamp Dels a solution to their problems. Together, they talked about the features the campground needed and worked to create a customized app that allowed Grant and his staff to better communicate with guests.
Rose and Joe also helped create a new “time booking” feature for the Kamp Dels app that allowed guests to reserve items such as watercraft in advance, helping to streamline the equipment rental process on-site.
“That was the deciding factor for us, their willingness to tailor toward our needs,” Grant said. “We talked about these items that we really wanted to see, and we didn’t even know what the solution was necessarily … but it was the push for them to say, ‘This is something we got to figure out.’ So, they dove in, and they did all the heavy lifting and figured it out, came back with some possible solutions, and we talked through it, and made some tweaks and changes. And now we still use the same thing today.”
The App My Community mobile app for Kamp Dels is now in its fifth year of operation. It now includes everything from restaurant menus to real-time updates on guest charges and their current balance.
“The biggest benefit is the transparency of information,” said Grant. “It’s key for us. Getting that information in front of our customers that they’re looking for in a timely manner in a way that’s easy for them to find—that’s what this has provided.”
The Results:
90% of Kamp Dels Guests Download and Use the App
When it comes to the effectiveness of the solution provided by App My Community, Grant said, “I think the downloads of the app speak for themselves.”
Today, about 90 percent of the visitors to Kamp Dels download the app, which Grant promotes in pre-arrival emails to guests, as well as via on-site signage.
“It’s giving people the information that they need at their convenience,” he explained. “So, you don’t have to come to the office to get a printout. It’s perfect for when you’re sitting around your fire at night, and you want to read up on tomorrow’s activities. It brings convenience to the customer, and it allows us to get that transparent information across to them so that they are fully aware of what to expect.”
Having access to this information not only helps the customer but also helps Grant’s staff, who can now spend less time fielding questions from guests and instead direct them to an easy-to-access source for this detailed information.
Importantly, Grant also feels that his partnership with App My Community has allowed Kamp Dels to stay competitive in the rapidly growing campground market by offering technology and resources that reflect the modern era.
“We like to lead the industry,” Grant said. “We want to stay at the top and push for things that maybe not everybody has or are as new and relevant. It’s a never-ending quest.”
The Future:
A Continued Partnership That’s Centered Around Problem Solving
When asked why Grant chose App My Community, his answer was simple: “I think the reason that we use At My Community is honestly the people, Rose and Joe. Those guys are the reason that I’m still there.”
He continued, “They’re great to work with. They listen. They answer your support calls. You feel that they care and that they’re committed to doing the things needed to make their customers’ experience good.”
Looking to the future, Grant is eager to keep collaborating with App My Community to continue evolving Kamp Dels’ app and rolling out new features as needed. While he believes the app itself has helped solve many of their communication problems, what he’s truly most grateful for is the hard work that Rose and Joe have put into working with him to craft innovative solutions to his campground’s ever-growing needs. As he said, “The product is great, but it really comes down to the people.”
