When parents see photos of their kids they equate them with happy camp experiences, and FaceFinder with push notifications is a game changer. In a typical summer, Pali’s office staff would field frequent calls from parents who didn’t spot their children while scrolling through thousands of photos.

This would trigger a process that involved sending photographers to track down specific campers and take more photos of them. “Even ten of those calls a week adds a ton of work. Having tagged photos with notifications delivered directly to parents’ phones eliminates these calls almost entirely. It is night and day.”

Pali Adventures had never encouraged parents to tip their staff, but they saw an opportunity to test this strategy in 2022. Campanion provides increased visibility into how hard counselors work, and this proved to be a motivator for parents. Counselors shared their Paypal account information and every in-cabin counselor received tips.

In Pali’s post-summer survey, 90 of 110 respondents answered that they would be interested in returning the following summer. It’s clear that their ability to earn a higher salary is part of this response rate. “I think it does help with retention because any extra money is a huge motivator and we can only go so far.”

The eLetters feature helps homesick campers who know their families receive messages the day they’re sent, and that they’ll get a reply the following day. “They feel that they are being heard.” Pali’s counselors also use this feature to write weekly bunk letters to campers’ parents, which helps alleviate concerns about campers who don’t write home frequently.

The fact that eLetters can be tracked and reported on is helpful for office staff. “We have system records of the letters and we can see which ones are sent and received. It makes customer relations so much easier.”