In this week’s Smart Talking we chat to Eilidh Smith, Partner, Morton of Pitmilly.
Hi Eilidh, welcome to Smart Talking. Please tell us about Morton of Pitmilly and about what the business does.
Eilidh: Morton of Pitmilly is a family run business consisting of 10 luxury self catering holiday houses with leisure facilities on a 150 acre diversified farm. We provide fantastic holiday experiences in the East Neuk of Fife offering our customers comfortable, clean, home from home accommodation with lots of leisure facilities including a swimming pool, sauna, steam room, games room, football area, children’s play area, putting green, nature trails, DVD library, indoor & outdoor tennis, gym and beauty therapy to ensure that every customer has a memorable holiday experience.
Morton of Pitmilly has won several awards, including awards for customer care, business excellence and sustainable development – what do these awards mean to you as a business?
Eilidh: These awards are critical to our business and have helped us to build and maintain a high reputation within the tourism industry in Scotland. We have always prided ourselves on the importance of the each and every one of our customers and treat each as though they are our only customer.
We believe that the first and the last 5 minutes of every customer’s stay with us are the most important – first impressions and happy holiday memories. The awards acknowledge our commitment to growing, developing and enhancing our business and of course the hard work of our committed, exceedingly capable staff.
You have a great deal of repeat stays at Pitmilly with customers who return to you year after year – how do you get feedback from your customers and can you give us some examples of how you’ve used it to enhance or improve your business?
Eilidh: Seventy five per cent of our business is repeat business. All customers receive a questionnaire during their stay asking for feedback and suggestions. This along with all of the information gathered during check-in, check-out and passing conversations with our staff is collated and we use it as a tool to inform the ongoing upgrade of our houses and facilities.
We also commit to implementing a handful of our customers’ ideas every year – this helps us to be innovative and keep ahead of our competitors and also gives our customers a sense of ownership of their holidays with us.
The information from the questionnaire is used to allow us to target our email offers to customers who have stipulated they would like to stay with us at a certain time of year or to those who have shown an interest in our beauty therapy treatments or to those who are interesting in using our business as a venue for corporate team building events. It is essential that you listen to your customers.
The current economic climate is particularly challenging for businesses, not least for the Scottish tourism industry – how is your business coping with that – any positives coming out of the experience and any advice for others?
Eilidh: The current economic climate is challenging, with more and more people in Scotland and across the UK opting to holiday at ‘home’ as a result of the economic climate. There is a huge opportunity therefore for everyone operating in the tourism industry to benefit from this. We continue to do good business and put an emphasis on customer service to ensure that our current customers talk of the fantastic time they had at Morton of Pitmilly. As a result we are finding these word of mouth recommendations turning into numerous bookings. Additionally, we are looking at the cost of all of our services, cleaning materials, suppliers etc and tightening our belts where we can.
Do social media and digital technology have a place in your business?
Eilidh: Yes, very much so. Over the past two years we have incorporated Trip Advisor, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn into our marketing strategy. Our Trip Advisor reviews reassure potential customers of the product they are paying for and are therefore integral in securing bookings from new customers.
Our Facebook business page allows us to share photographs, information on places to visit and breaking news about what is going on at the business. We find many customers post holiday photographs and interact with us regularly via this medium. Twitter has become a great platform for us to network, collaborate and engage with businesses and individuals on a global level.
What is Morton of Pitmilly up to at the moment? Any news you would like to share with us?
Eilidh: 2011 has been an exceedingly busy and exciting year for us at Morton of Pitmilly! In the first quarter we completed the conversion of one of our farm sheds into Fife’s only indoor tennis court, a large gym facility and two luxury beauty therapy rooms. Our customers and people from the local area enjoy what’s on offer and we envisage these additional indoor facilities will help us to increase our winter occupancy rates.
Currently we have another 6 luxury self catering holiday houses under construction which will be ready for bookings from the 30th March 2012. Our new houses in the Steading have all that the original Courtyard houses offer but are finished to a higher spec (ensuite bedrooms, wine fridges, under floor heating, gas cooking ranges) and boast fantastic sea views. Right now, we are in the midst of processing lots of bookings for 2012 .
If we can ask just one more question, we’d love to know what kind of places you like to stay in when you get the chance to travel!
Eilidh: I’m partial to the odd city break and enjoy staying in small boutique hotels. When I’m looking to unwind and get away from the stress of day to day life I’d opt for clean, comfortable, relaxed accommodation in the countryside or mountains (preferably self catering) ideally with some facilities, if not then with outdoor activities nearby – ski holidays are always quite high on the agenda. Two essential elements for me are customer service and good food/wine establishments within the vicinity!
Many thanks for Smart Talking with us, Eilidh – good luck with all of your future plans and developments!
For more information on Morton of Pitmilly visit www.pitmilly.co.uk, check the reviews on Trip Advisor, follow on Facebook or Twitter, or connect via LinkedIn
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