"OpenContact have contributed to Go Ape’s success for several years and we have always enjoyed working with them.” “We couldn’t do it better ourselves and have no desire to move anywhere else."
Rebecca Mayhew, Co-Founder and Trustee
Go Ape!
Industry Sector
Leisure & Visitor Attractions
Client Objectives
To deliver a seamless, Go Ape! branded booking and customer-service experience. One that captures the same sense of adventure, safety and expert guidance you feel on the course itself, even as enquiry levels fluctuate considerably with seasonality.
Go Ape!
Since opening its first ropes course in Thetford Forest in 2002, Go Ape! has grown into the UK’s premier treetop-adventure operator, with 37 sites offering everything from forest rope bridges and Tarzan swings to urban nets and axe-throwing.
Now employee-owned and welcoming over one million guests each year, Go Ape! blends rigorous safety standards with endless fun.
The Challenge
Go Ape!’s seasonality is extreme: With some sites closing in the winter, then demand spiking five-fold through summer and school holidays. Building an in-house team to cover peaks meant substantial idle capacity off-season and the brand could not risk diluted service.
Go Ape! needed a partner capable of scaling up and down seamlessly, while speaking with the same knowledgeable, enthusiastic voice that defines every on-site briefing.
The Solution
Go Ape! chose OpenContact precisely because the team felt like a natural extension of their own. Before taking calls, every OpenContact agent is encouraged to harness up and complete a full Go Ape! Course, absorbing the safety procedures, the thrill of each crossing and the genuine camaraderie that makes the experience so special.
This immersive approach is reinforced by a bespoke training programme - featuring walkthroughs, guest-scenario exercises and ongoing coaching - that ensures agents retain that on-course energy whether they’re answering emails or handling booking calls.
In the early years, OpenContact even developed a custom booking engine tailored to Go Ape!’s complex session requirements: synchronizing online and phone reservations, managing group discounts, re-scheduling bookings and adapting in real time to weather-related changes.
Today, the same UK-based team continues to manage multiple facets of Go Ape!’s customer contacts with ever growing volumes of telephone bookings, enquiry handling, back-office administration and gift-voucher fulfilment.
The Result
Over more than a decade, Go Ape! and OpenContact have forged a partnership built on trust, shared values and a mutual passion for outstanding guest experiences. Go Ape! regard OpenContact’s management and agents as co-guardians of their brand - integral members of the wider Go Ape! tribe who have helped drive the company’s remarkable growth.
With every call and click, OpenContact reflects Go Ape!’s hands-on, family-like culture and remains fully committed to supporting their ambitious plans for the future.