If your tour company offers coach travel services or specializes in bus tours to the most popular attractions in the area, you likely already realize the importance of the customer experience. Your traveler’s expectations are more than solely transporting them to their next attraction. Many travelers seek an all-around experience, moreover, the journey should be as exciting as the destination itself.

As you look to expand your tour business and improve your bus travel service, you may want to consider these tips that can help you and your business reach the next level:

Hire tour guides with powerful personalities

Your tour guides are the face and the voice of your business. Not only will your customers remember their experiences at a destination, but most often, they will remember your tour guides. Your tour guides will be one of the main reasons your customers will remember your company. When you recognize the importance of the role your tour guides play, you’ll realize that it’s imperative that you hire the right guides.

You will want to hire tour guides with powerful and engaging personalities to represent your tour company. Some of the top characteristics that make up a stellar tour guide personality include:

  • Personable
  • Professional
  • Knowledgeable

Tour guides with these characteristics will become the best ambassadors for your brand. They will be dedicated to providing your customers with a unique and authentic experience.

Companies like Busy Blue Bus are great examples of companies that hire personable tour guides that travelers admire. The majority of their reviews directly mention their tour guides and how they delivered an amazing and memorable experience.

bus or coach business

Send out booking reminder messages to stay in touch with your travelers

To reduce last-minute cancellations and effectively plan your schedule, it’s best to remind travelers about their upcoming reservations. The easiest way to send out booking reminders is to implement an online bus booking system that will manage your manifest and allow you to schedule automatic e-mails. With the right bus booking software in place, you can send automatic confirmation e-mails as well as reminder messages that provide your customers with more information about what they can expect on your tours and how they can come prepared for their experience. These messages will help you build a relationship with your customers before they even arrive for their tour or excursion.

Seek out feedback from your bus tour customers

Your relationship with your bus tour customers does not end when the tour does. You should stay in touch with these travelers and solicit feedback from them. In addition to asking for feedback upon completion of the tour, you could also schedule automatic online review emails. There are many ways to incentivize customers to leave feedback, but one of the best ways to get honest and reliable reviews from your travelers is to politely ask. Most people understand the power of reviews, and are often happy to provide insight into their experiences with your company.

Offer unique and distinct experiences

While conditions of your buses and the presentation of your tour guides are important, providing wow-worthy moments is just as important. You can create unique and distinct experiences by:

  • Adding stops to your bus tours that other nearby tour companies do not include. Search for hidden gems in your area and provide your travelers with an authentic, local experience that stands apart from the competition.
  • Enhancing your bus tours with luxurious extras. Champagne toasts, charcuterie box snacks or comfortable blankets make their ride more comfortable and enjoyable.
  • Offering personalized interactions with your customers. When you make an effort to make customers feel like your friends, they will feel more relaxed during the tour. They are sure to remember these interactions and will be more likely to recommend your tour company to others.

A great example of a company that has managed to offer a unique and distinct experience is Hop It in Australia. They offer bus tours to Australia’s finest wineries, breweries, distilleries, hot springs, and landmarks within Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula regions. The best part about their tours is that their customers get to decide which destination they’d like to go to and how long they’d like to stay. Hop It simply transports them to their desired destination without their customers needing to worry whose going to be the next designated driver.

online bus booking software

Use an online bus booking software

Before you begin building your business and your brand, you may want to evaluate your existing bus booking software. It’s important to have a dynamic online bus booking system that will automatically allocate your resources and prevent you from overbooking your tours. The bus reservation system at Rezdy was designed with bus tour operators in mind. Our innovative features can help you effectively manage your business and reduce your administrative tasks. This will ultimately allow you to focus more on the customer experience.

Curious to see whether Rezdy is right for you? Book a free demo today, or register for your complimentary FREE 21-day trial, we know you’ll love it.

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