Best Ways for Tour Operators to Get Connected with Customers

Among many challenges related to running a travel business, getting to know your customer better is one of the most common challenges for tour operators. In this blog, we’ll share with you some pro tips on how to get to know your customers better for growing your travel & attraction company.

Table of Contents

• Focus on Returning Customer
• #1: Get Your Customer’s Contact Information
• #2: See What’s Trending on Social Media
  • Instagram Reels and TikTok Videos
  • Facebook Posts
  • Twitter Tweets
• Sign up for Google Alerts
• Conclusion

Focus on Returning Customers

Retaining customers can help you find out what makes travelers and vacationers come back to book your tours & rentals again and serve as a starting point for growing your customer database. There are several reasons why tour operators should stay in touch with their old customers and try attracting them to purchase again:

1. You don’t need to sell your product to them: It’s much easier to attract the old customers back than chasing the new ones simply because they already know your brand. If something went wrong, however, such as customers arrived late, difficult customer situations or clients returning watersport equipment late, then you can check on online reviews to make sure you’ve provided a good experience.
2. They are your best salespeople: Word-Of-Mouth is the best form of advertising strategy and probably the cheapest to utilize, so why not leverage it?
3. They can recommend you the directions for growing your travel business: This can help you attract new customers as easily as possible. Some information that previous customers can share may include insights on how they got attracted to your travel business in the first place and what they hope to see in the future.

With that in mind, let’s look at the best ways to bridge the gap between you and your customers.

#1: Get Your Customer’s Contact Information

Be cautious of how you collect your customer information and the extent you do it, as people become more careful these days when it comes to sharing their data. Here are some pieces of information that you can try collecting from your customers and ways of how you can use it:

1. Customer’s first name: Make your emails personal when reaching out to your customers. Instead of referring to them as to simple “Dear customer”, use their first name to personalize your communication with them.
2. Customer’s birthday date: Offer a discount to them next time they book with you to celebrate their special days!
3. Information release form: Ask vacationers if they don’t mind being featured on your marketing materials (e.g., social media content) by asking them to sign a form. Once you feature tourists visiting you and feature this content on your social media, tag your customers on pictures & videos. This will help make sure your social posts get more engagement, and your followers will be more likely to share your posts.

You can collect these pieces of information in a variety of ways:

1. When a customer signs the waiver.
2. Newsletter opt-in form or Instant pop-up signup form that you can set up on your website.
3. Ask your customers via direct messaging on social media.

#2: See What’s Trending on Social Media

This is one of the other best ways to get to know your customer better, as it helps you figure out what vacationers are into. Try replicating social content pieces that you come across by checking out the following spots within these social media platforms…

Instagram Reels and TikTok Videos

One of the key reasons why Instagram Reels and TikTok videos have gained success is that they are short and to the point. Did you know that the Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, has recently announced that Instagram will start prioritizing video content over other types of content (e.g., images)? It’s simply for the reason that many social media users, including travelers and vacationers, spend a lot of their time scrolling through their newsfeed to check out Instagram Reels and TikTok videos! Here are some factors that tour operators can take into account when trying to come up with ideas for making a viral video:

• Check out the list of most-liked TikTok videos for inspiration.
• What music is featured: It’s more likely for your video to become viral if you use the same audio file as in the other viral videos.
• What do users record: Find out what are current trending topics or memes and cover them in your way.
• Make it funny or problem-solving: As a rule of thumb, funny and problem-solving videos gain more engagement and, thus, are more likely to become viral. If your video doesn’t address either, you won’t likely make it to the top trending videos on Instagram Reels or TikTok videos. Examples of potentially viral video content can include your guests having a good time.

Additionally, If you run a watersport business, you might also be interested in finding out how to grow your watersport business via Instagram.

Facebook Posts

Unlike other major social media networks, Facebook lets users choose from various ways to react to the publications posted by users. From loving to hating – you can easily find out what drives positive and negative engagement. Leverage Facebook as an opportunity to discuss hot topics and debates associated with the nature of your business to gain attraction from interested users.

Twitter Tweets

Lastly, but certainly not least, definitely don’t overlook Twitter as a social media platform, especially the power of tweets. The evidence of that belongs to a single person – when Elon Musk tweets, crypto prices move, which is also the reason why many tour operators started considering taking cryptocurrency in exchange for services to travelers. Anyway, the point here is that Twitter can serve as a great foundation for your content ideas that have a solid potential to get widespread.

#3: Sign up for Google Alerts

Finally, another way for you to make sure you are up-to-date on the latest happenings in the travel industry is to sign up for Google Alerts. It’s really simple to use, as all you have to do is sign up with your Gmail account and choose the keywords of your interest. The way they work is they scan data across the web (e.g., news articles) that mentions the keywords you’ve specified, and you get those notifications directly to your email address daily. In the case of tour operators, the most likely keywords you want to set your Google Alerts for are “tourists”, “travelers”,  and “vacationers”. This will help you learn insights of your potential customers and explore new ways of interacting with them.

Conclusion

Setting up connections with your customers can be hard at times, especially if you just start running your travel business this season; however, establishing a personal relationship is vital to know your audience. Being connected to your audience is an essential aspect of your tour company branding & identity, and if it’s not you, travelers will choose another tour company to go with. To make sure your travel business doesn’t get overlooked by vacationers, reach out to us, and we will make sure to help you promote your attraction business in the best possible way to help you sell empty seats.