Research 8 CAMPING magazine • November/December 2013 continued on page 10 Matthew Barstead , MS Parents’ Perspectives on Resident Camp Experiences: Dimensions that Predict Retention, Word-of-Mouth Marketing, and Satisfaction A primary challenge for any business is recruiting and maintaining customers. In 2012, 27.2 percent of camps surveyed reported camper enrollment that was lower or at its lowest point compared to the previous five years (American Camp Association, 2013). While 59.7 percent of surveyed camps developed budgets expecting to operate below capacity in 2012 (American Camp Association, 2013), 31.7 percent reported that their enrollment was still less than 90 percent of their target. In short, many camps continue to fall below their enrollment goals, and understanding what predicts camper enrollment remains an important challenge. Camper enrollment in any given year is the combination of previous campers retained plus new campers added. The American Camp Association measures camper enrollment annually through camp director surveys, and researchers have dissected these data to highlight industry-wide enrollment trends (Bialeschki, 2006; Bialeschki & Malinowski, 2009). While useful, these summaries are largely descriptive and do not identify specific predictors of enrollment. For the present study, three camp outcomes were identified that are related to camper enrollment: retention, word-of-mouth marketing, and satisfaction. Retention is important because returning customers represent increased profit (Keaveney, 1995), and 79.4 percent of camps indicated that over half of their campers were returning customers (American Camp Association, 2013). New customers are also vital, and wordof mouth marketing is important in increasing new business (Reichheld & Markey, 2011). Furthermore, camps are thought to rely heavily on customer recommendations (Cony, 1998; Hedrick, Dick, & Homan, 2007; Rich & Harrolle, 2012). As McDougall and Levesque (2000) point out, satisfaction is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for retention. This logic applies to word-of-mouth marketing in that parents must at least be satisfied with the camp to recommend it to others. Such reasoning makes sense to measure satisfaction separately from retention and word-of-mouth marketing. Predictors of these three outcomes (i.e., retention, word-of-mouth marketing, and satisfaction) must be identified in order to guide camp enrollment practices. One study found that 95 percent of parents surveyed would recommend camp to a friend and would send their child back, though it was not clear which dimensions of the camp experience drove these motivations (Kelly & Harrolle, 2012). Other researchers have looked at parental assessments of specific aspects of camp (e.g., team building, sleeping facilities, canoeing, etc.) to identify key dimensions of camp programming (Hedrick et al., 2007). Extending this work, the present study examined parental perceptions of several dimensions of the camp experience (counselors, directors, facilities, safety, community, food, activities, and friends) as predictors of retention, word-of-mouth marketing, and satisfaction. Method Procedures Five organizations participated, representing seven traditional residential summer camps (two all-boys, two all-girls, and three coeducational). “Traditional” was defined as a program in which campers, living together in small units, participate in a wide range of activities. Camps were recruited through online message boards. At the beginning of the summer, camper families received an e-mail explaining that their camp was participating in a study. Parents received a recruitment e-mail three to nine weeks after their child’s session ended and had one week to complete the online questionnaire. Participants Participants included 416 parents (53 percent female camper parents and 84 percent moms). Parents described themselves as White (93.7 percent), Black/ African-American (3.1 percent), Hispanic or Latino (2.0 percent), Asian (< 1 percent), and Multiracial (< 1 percent). The sample was largely from middle- and upper-class households with 78.5 percent reporting an annual income of $75,000 or more. Measures Camp Dimensions. The researcher created the Camp Experience Dimensions Scale, which included eight subscales measuring parental levels of agreement with statements regarding counselors, directors, facilities, safety, community, food, activities, and friends. Each subscale contained seven items that were rated on 5-point scales with anchors 1 = Completely Disagree and 5 = Completely Agree. Participants were given the option to select Don’t Know, which was coded as missing data. Internal consistencies for each scale ranged from .92 to .98 (see Table 1 on page 10). Camp Outcomes. Three outcomes were measured: retention, satisfaction, and word-of-mouth marketing. Each outcome was measured with two items, rated on 9-point scales with anchors 1 = Completely Disagree and 9 = Completely Agree (see Table 2 on page 10). Analysis and Results To examine which camp dimensions predicted the three camp outcomes, three multiple regressions were conducted. Additional variables were entered into the models to control for the potential effects of camper age, family income, weeks at camp, and summers attended. These analyses yielded a significant
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