By Mark Mapstone, vice president and business consultant, First Pioneer Farm Credit

The first step to successfully adding agritourism activities to your business model is to be willing to dramatically change your management style. A common pitfall that many growers make when adding an agritourism enterprise is to focus solely on the production end of the business.

Too often, farmers don’t spend the time required to identify and plan strategies that will successfully attract their target audience and increase customer count and sales per customer. A basic example is the application of a comprehensive marketing plan, including proven merchandising and display techniques to maximize the customer experience.

To ensure success in your new venture, get ready to develop a new skill set. You want to start thinking like a retailer rather than a producer of agricultural commodities. With this in mind, your first objective is to make customer service your number one priority.

Start by organizing management of your personnel to ensure a seamless transition between your production business and the agritourism enterprise. Then take the time to train your employees to be knowledgeable, customer-friendly and dedicated to serving the public.

Next, plan your attraction. When customers choose an agritourism destination, they have three expectations, and it is your job to fulfill all three. Your customers want:

• Something to see, such as farm tours, milking demonstrations or cider making

• Something to do, such as pick-your-own, lessons in pumpkin carving or traveling through a corn maze

• Something to buy, such as farm-fresh produce, homemade crafts, jams or baked goods

Agritourism is a business so you also need to price each “expectation” to ensure profitability. You can’t assume customers will buy after they see and do. Therefore, it’s essential to charge for all three while always providing nature’s best fresh, quality food. Customers are willing to pay a premium to support the producer when they feel a connection to the farm where an item was produced.

If you are interested in exploring agritourism possibilities for your business, call your local Farm Credit office for advice on business planning and financing.  

Of course, your customers also expect that what they see, do and buy is attractively merchandised. They expect a neat, clean operation and an entertaining, safe, quality farm experience. How attractively you package your agritourism activities will influence customer perceptions of their farm experience and drive the revenue stream for your business.

Another common hurdle that growers new to agritourism must overcome is their reluctance to test the market concerning retail pricing and product offerings. Proper pricing requires “price-point testing” to see if you are capturing all the market will bear. Receiving only an occasional comment about your pricing structure signals that you may have additional margin enhancement opportunity.

In addition, you also want to experiment by adding two or three new product offerings each year, such as a corn maze in a unique shape or sleigh rides followed by mulled cider served next to a warm fire. On the flip side, take care to also eliminate one or two “losers” to make room for your new offerings. By surprising your customers with new innovative attractions, you will improve your potential to enhance margins on your products and activities.  

Contact us at info@farmcreditmaine.com for more information.

• Agritourism:  Putting a Face on Northeast Agriculture
  
  

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