Case Study: 702 Helicopters

Navigate Your Tour Business Towards Success

They say the only way to see the Sin City is from above. Brian Lorenz of 702 Helicopters surely has to agree, considering he’s been successfully running and operating his Vegas helicopter business since 2007.

What initially started as a flight training school soon outgrew its capacity, and Brian was quick enough to acknowledge and capitalize on the growing demand for private flight tours.

As the business grew, so did the Internet. People’s buying habits started to shift to online. Brian first tried to build his own online reservation system using Google’s solutions but soon found there wasn’t much product support when things wouldn’t function. Then he tried other booking systems that also didn’t quite live up to his expectations.

“We trialed several other online booking companies. They tried to work with us, and they made a lot of promises. But, they just didn’t get our business. They didn’t understand it, the complexities of it. Rezdy’s team did, and that made all the difference in the world. We knew after 15 minutes we were going to stick with it.

Rezdy was the perfect choice because it equipped us with the tools necessary to build a better reservation system, whilst letting us keep some of our old processes. Since then, it’s added so many new features, it’s given us ideas on how to grow our business even further.”

Due to the nature of his business, Brian and his staff still have to spend some time on the phone with their customers. Before Rezdy, the average phone time per customer was approximately 20 minutes. After automating and simplifying some of the processes, that time is now 5 minutes. This significant saving enables Brian and his crew to have more real, meaningful interactions with their guests. This proved to be a lucrative opportunity for upselling, which drove significant revenue growth and has helped 702 Helicopters go from 2 vessels to 4 in just under 2 years.

“We trialed several other online booking companies. They tried to work with us, and they made a lot of promises. But, they just didn’t get our business. They didn’t understand it. Rezdy’s team did, and that made all the difference in the world.”

Some of the key features Brian describes as incredibly valuable are the manifest, the follow-up emails, the liability forms integration. But he also appreciates how easy Rezdy is to navigate and retrieve information when he needs it the most.

“The ability to search for any customer or order based on their name or number is very valuable. There are so many different ways you can find someone and you can do it really quickly. When a person calls us and says, “Oh, I don’t know when my tour was because I forgot my email”, I just punch in their last name, pull them up and from there it’s super easy to provide the support they need. Our guests are really happy with that.

As a small business, we’re a team of eternal all-rounders. The people who mind the phones are also the ones who meet, greet and sometimes even load and fly the passengers. With our phone times now drastically reduced, the team has time to really take care of the guests, have conversations with them that drive even more sales. It increases our revenue but also improves our customer service. People notice our level of commitment and it shows in our reviews as well.”

But Brian is adamant the ease of use wasn’t the only reason his business had settled for Rezdy.

“The reason we chose Rezdy was the personal touch. During our decision-making process, Rezdy reached out to us and offered help. Since we’re Vegas locals, they came out our way to assist in setting us up. They showed interest in how our business worked and made sure we were deployed correctly.”

“Rezdy helped us grow and gave us ideas on how we can improve our own business.”

Brian also mentions Rezdy does more than just facilitate bookings: “I’ve met more people through Rezdy than I have probably in the last two or three years. A lot of the other small operators like me. When we find out we have Rezdy in common, we share tips and exchange ideas on how to make the most use of the system. That way we develop each other’s businesses and grow together. It’s more than software; it’s become a community.

As a business owner, I get so many benefits from Rezdy, it’s difficult to name them all. For example, thanks to Rezdy we switched to Stripe, even though initially we didn’t want to. We found our chargebacks have dropped by 50% because Stripe’s also fighting for us.

I’d definitely recommend Rezdy to any tour business. It’s a hugely valuable tool, a great product. It’s easy to learn for anybody. There’s abundant support, it’s inexpensive and it integrates seamlessly. It’s helped us grow and it’s given us ideas on how we can improve our own business. We’ve doubled our fleet in under two years. Quite frankly, I don’t know how we’d do it without Rezdy now. It saves us a ton of time, and we wouldn’t give that up.”