Longwood Gardens

The business of tourism is blooming at Longwood Gardens and Longwood’s Executive Director Paul Redman wants to spread the seeds of that success.

Redman was the guest speaker at the Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Mendenhall Inn on Oct. 23. He said attendance at the gardens has exceeded 1 million for two years running, but there’s no reason that can’t get to 1.5 million and that will bode well for other businesses in the Brandywine Valley, bringing people to coffee shops, restaurants and other local attractions.

He attributed Longwood’s current success to an excellent product and a drive to deliver the best possible customer experience.

“Longwood is about beauty and we’re not bashful about the beauty we’re creating at Longwood,” Redman told an audience of almost 200. “Just as art museums collect great works of art, we collect great works of horticulture.”

But it’s the great customer experience that builds loyalty and brings in more people through the front gate.

“Every guest should feel special, like they’re the only guest,” he said.

To that end, Longwood’s guest services director developed a new best practice idea, a guest service academy that can act as a role model for other businesses. For Longwood, it develops a philosophy of how they will deliver that quality experience.

“We actually drive this through the entire institution…Every staff person at Longwood, including myself, is required to participate in,” the executive director said. “We have ongoing continuing education programs that we have to participate in.”

There are also surveys from guests, tens of thousands, he said, and staff members read each and every one. They also reach the senior staff who analyze them, then that is shared with all the staff and volunteers.

Redman said it’s important for chamber members to understand because “As a region, when we have guests coming to this area, it’s not just Longwood being nice, we all have to deliver this extraordinary guest service.”

“We’re always asking for feedback, we’re measuring and sharing because we have this goal of achieving 100 percent extraordinary satisfaction by all of our guests,” he said. “I’m proud to say we actually come in around 92 percent. But we’re overachievers. We want to hit 100 percent.”

He said the way to reach that goal is to remember that first impressions are everything. Longwood wants to make that impression memorable. Then it’s a matter of engaging the guests.

The primary way Longwood does that is through the plants and the skills of the docents and staff. There are other means, other events such as Longwood’s Wine and Jazz Festival.

“It’s a way of immersing people in a beautiful setting with great music and great food. And then we want to exceed expectations” said Redman. “Whether it’s an event we’re hosting or an event you’re having at Longwood, or whatever it may be on a daily basis, we want to make sure we’ve gone beyond the call of duty of what we’ve promised to deliver.”

Looking to the future, Redman said Longwood again listened to its guests. People want to know how it continues to provide the beauty for 365 days every year. So what Longwood did was to take people behind the scenes. There is something called Longwood underground in which people get to see some of the tunnels and the underside of Longwood that shows the mechanical and engineering side.

But, naturally, Redman and the staff are looking at the gardens.

“They’re beautiful. We’re proud of them. But one thing we know…is the one constant is change,” he said. “No garden is ever static.”

Accepting that, Longwood is “scouring the globe looking for new inspiration, looking to amplify our horticultural talent. Over the course of the next several years, you’re going to see new applications and new creative horticultural ideas,” he said.

There will be a new 90-acre meadow garden with three miles of walking trails late next year. Redman is calling it Longwood’s largest garden and said that was made possible by the relocation of Route 52 that allowed Longwood to join two pieces of property that had been disconnected.

Longwood also plans to restore the famed fountains and Redman said that by the time that’s done, “We will have a new summer spectacular, not only for Longwood, but for our entire region. I promise you there will be nothing else like this in North America.”

He said the final work on the fountain and garden will bring to mind places such as Versailles.

Redman got a laugh when he said Longwood is the most attended public garden in North America, having 1.2 million and 1.1 million visitors in the last two years, adding, “I understand that Montreal may have hit 1.3 million but, since they’re in Canada, I won’t count that.”

There are 20 million people within a two-hour drive from Longwood, so Redman said there’s a strong opportunity to grow the attendance to 1.5 million within the next several years. He added that he thinks that 1.5 million is a conservative number.

He called the Philadelphia area the “garden capital of America” because it has 30 public gardens within 30 miles of the city.

“This is the horticulture epicenter of North America. Think of the Kent countryside in England, that is a known garden destination. This area should be the same,” he said.

Of course, Redman wants Longwood to continue being the leader.

“We want people to have an experience they can’t get anywhere else in the world.”

Photo: Longwood Gardens Executive Director addresses the Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce.