Early project case study
How a leisure attraction used WhatsApp across campaigns, ticket-holder journeys and customer service.
An indoor leisure and entertainment centre wanted a more joined-up way to communicate with visitors before, during and after a visit.
Capture 1 introduced WhatsApp as an additional communication layer across marketing, practical visit information, customer service, feedback and repeat engagement — one channel supporting several parts of the visitor journey, without replacing the website, the ticketing system or the human team.
“What time should we arrive, and what do we need to bring?”
Client
Indoor leisure and entertainment centre
Sector
Leisure, visitor attractions and indoor entertainment
What we delivered
WhatsApp API campaigns, automations, ticket-holder journeys and live chat setup
The situation
The challenge was bigger than customer service.
The centre had strong footfall and a steady programme of events and seasonal offers. The communication around those visits was fragmented.
- A small team had limited capacity to answer repeat customer questions
- There was no phone line for visitor enquiries
- Important email communications could be easy to miss
- Seasonal campaigns often worked as one-off promotions rather than building a reusable audience
- Ticket holders still needed practical information between purchase and arrival
- There were missed opportunities to promote relevant extras such as food, merchandise or parties
- Feedback and visitor photos or video were difficult to gather consistently after the visit
The whole journey
From campaign response to post-visit follow-up.
One visitor lifecycle, with a reason to communicate at every stage of it.
StageWhat the visitor needsWhat WhatsApp did
Discover
An offer, event or reason to visit
Campaign, competition or waitlist entry
Engage
To stay close to future offers
Opt-in VIP audience
Buy
To purchase through the existing route
Conversation links back to the right ticket page
Prepare
To know what to bring, when to arrive and what to expect
Ticket-holder information and reminders
Visit
Quick answers, on the day
FAQs, and live chat where a person is needed
Spend or enquire
Food, merchandise, parties or other extras
Timely prompts, or a routed enquiry
Respond
To share feedback, photos or video
Post-visit feedback and content request
Return
To hear about another relevant event or offer
Permission-based future communication
Five separate workstreams, but not five separate projects — they sit around one journey.
What we built
Five workstreams, one conversation.
One · Campaign support
Waitlists and competitions turned one-off promotions into conversations.
Seasonal activity ran all year — Black Friday, summer passes, special events. Waitlists and competitions gave people a reason to opt in before a campaign went live, then reminders and countdowns kept the offer visible while it was relevant.
The shift was that campaign activity started building a permission-based audience rather than every promotion starting from zero.
“Join the summer pass waitlist and we’ll message you first.”
Two · VIP audience
A VIP Club gave regular visitors a reason to stay connected.
An opt-in audience for people who wanted early access to selected offers, exclusive content and priority information about upcoming activity.
A simple route for repeat visitors to stay connected to the attraction between visits.
“VIP early access opens tomorrow at 9am.”
Three · Ticket-holder journeys
The ticket sale was not the end of the communication.
Once somebody had bought a ticket, WhatsApp became a practical pre-visit companion: essential visit information, what to bring, when to arrive, answers to common questions and reminders as the day approached.
An early example of a principle still central to our event and visitor work: the period between booking and arrival deserves its own communication design.
“Your visit is tomorrow. Here is what to bring.”
Four · Customer service
WhatsApp filled the gap left by a lean team and no phone line.
The centre had no traditional telephone customer-service route, so WhatsApp became an important point of contact. We connected the website into the journey, used automated FAQs for routine questions and provided a live-chat route for conversations that needed a person.
Party enquiries could receive an immediate out-of-hours response rather than sitting untouched until the team returned.
“Do we need to arrive before our time slot?”
Five · Feedback and visitor content
The conversation could continue after the visitor went home.
After a visit, customers could receive a simple follow-up inviting them to rate the experience, leave a comment and, where they wanted to, share photos or video.
That made feedback easier to ask for, and created a route for authentic visitor content that could support future marketing.
“How was your visit today?”
The thread underneath
All five arrived in the same place.
A visitor did not experience five workstreams. They experienced one WhatsApp thread that happened to be useful at several different moments — which is the whole argument of this case study.
“Can I book a birthday party for 12 children?”
Out of hours
A 24/7 digital front door, not 24/7 staffing.
A party enquiry arriving at nine on a Sunday evening did not wait until Monday to be acknowledged. It was answered, the useful details were gathered, and it was routed so somebody could pick it up properly the next morning.
That distinction matters, and we still make it on every build. Automation covers the routine and buys the team time. It does not pretend to be a person.
Can I book a birthday party for 12 children?
We can help with that. Which date were you thinking of?
Saturday the 14th, if there’s space
Got it — the parties team will confirm availability first thing tomorrow.
Morning! Saturday the 14th works. Shall I hold 2pm for you?
Answered at night · resolved in the morning
The enquiry never went cold, and nobody worked through the night.
How it worked
Marketing, operations and customer care shared one communication layer.
For the visitor, the experience was one familiar WhatsApp thread. Behind it, structured ManyChat automations handled campaign entry points, visitor information, FAQs and follow-up, while the team could step into live conversations where needed.
Marketing
Waitlists, competitions, countdowns and the VIP audience — campaign activity that built a reusable, permission-based contact list.
Operations
Ticket-holder information, arrival details, reminders and prompts about food, merchandise and parties.
Customer care
Automated FAQs, out-of-hours enquiry responses, live chat when a person was needed, and post-visit feedback.
Results
What changed.
Faster access to answers
Visitors had a direct route for routine information and live support without relying on a phone line.
Less avoidable pressure on the team
Automated FAQs and out-of-hours responses could absorb repetitive first-stage questions.
Campaign audiences could be reused
Waitlists, competitions and the VIP audience created permission-based contacts who could hear about relevant future activity.
Ticket-holder communication became deliberate
Useful information and reminders could be delivered between purchase and arrival.
Feedback became part of the journey
Visitors had a simple route to rate the experience, comment and share media after a visit.
One channel worked across departments
The same communication layer supported marketing, visitor experience and customer care.
What this early project taught us
A visitor communication channel becomes more valuable when it connects the whole journey.
This was one of Capture 1’s earlier WhatsApp Business Platform projects. The technology has moved on significantly since then. The underlying lesson has not.
The strongest use of messaging is rarely one isolated chatbot or one promotional send. It is the ability to connect the moments around a customer relationship: discover, prepare, ask, visit, respond and return.
That principle now sits behind our broader work with leisure, membership, hospitality and events.
Related
Where this connects to our work now.
Who we help
Leisure, Attractions & Membership
Visitor and member journeys before, during and after a visit.
ExploreSolution
AI Receptionist
Instant answers to routine questions, with human handover when needed.
ExploreSolution
Customer Journey & Messaging Automation
Timed communication across a complete lifecycle.
ExploreMore proof
Our work
Other journeys across events, hospitality, healthcare and enquiry-led services.
ExploreNext step
Where do your visitors keep having to stop and ask?
Show us the journey from first interest to the visit and afterwards. We can help identify what should be answered automatically, what should be reminded, what should trigger another action and where a person needs to take over.