Can you guess what that one thing is that all travel business owners depend so much on these days for the success of their enterprise? We shall tell you what it is: customers’ reviews on a web portal post availing your services. Customer reviews have become one of the bedrocks of the travel booking business.
Studies conducted in recent times show that more than half of contemporary travellers do not book a travel-related service without going through customer reviews. The surveys have also revealed that it is not one or two but more than ten reviews that potential clients check out before deciding on their service choice.
To give way to a major tectonic shift in the travel booking industry, TripAdvisor altered the algorithm of their travel portal popularity ranking in February 2018. Even though this was met with some negative backlashes from within the industry, the new norm became a mainstay henceforth. This new algorithm considers customer reviews’ quality, quantity, and recency on any particular business page.
In other words, anyone looking to make it big with their travel business will now require travel agency reviews posted at regular intervals in a time period. The more positive reviews one party can gather, the better the chances that that company will thrive in the market.
It is no wonder that travel operators these days have this one crucial thought hovering over their minds – ‘How to get more travel agency reviews?’ We are here to help you out in your quest to get those additional positive reviews, which would skyrocket your endeavour to newer heights.
In the next section of the Pathfndr article, we are going to discuss five ways by which you can attract more travel agency reviews to your website. So, stay calm and continue reading this Pathfndr article.
Make Sure Your Company is Active on Popular Review Platforms
Currently, the most used platform by the travel industry to collect travel agency reviews is TripAdvisor. But this one-sided monopoly is causing more harm than good to the newer companies fighting to get a foothold in the highly competitive travel industry space.
One of the things that you, as a travel agency owner, could do is identify your customer base and act accordingly. Once you find out from which part of the planet most of your customers come, you can then track what websites they use the most. For example, suppose you operate mainly in Asia, and a significant chunk of your clients naturally hail from Asian countries.
In this scenario, the intelligent thing to do would be to advertise your tours and services on the review platform ‘Klook’. This is where close to 70% of the Asian market visit to get a look at travel agency reviews. So, make sure you have your company listed on sites such as TripAdvisor and Klook. You will be able to garner a lot of reviews via these and other platforms such as Google business, marketplaces, your personal website, and, not to forget social media accounts.
Always Send an Email Within 24 Hours of the Trip
As a travel operator, your task will be to give your valued customers the best services. Once a trip reaches its culmination point, you should be ready to send an email to your clients thanking them for having opted for your company. For your post-trip thank you email to create the most impact, do not wait longer than a day to send it.
As human memory is naturally conducive to erasure, your clients would likely forget the details about their travels with you soon after they have gone back to their everyday lives. But for you, that nitty-gritty will be as valuable as gold.
In the follow-up email, you can add direct questions about any particular service you have offered your client. They could share their fantastic experience either on the review platform you have mentioned, or anywhere they would like. To make things easy for your clients, you can even include relevant link/s in the mail.
Approach Clients During the Tour for Reviews
One of the best choices a travel operator can make is to ask their clients for reviews during the tour. This is because, when your clients have just finished travelling with you, their experiences will be new and fresh. From that point of view, it will be wise to train your staff members to know when to ask your customers for that review.
Even though the best time to extract positive reviews from your customers is when they are actually enjoying your services right in front of you, few owners take the risk of doing so with the plan risking disappointing their clients. You must know the opportune time to ask for travel agency reviews in this endeavour. Perhaps the best time to approach your customers would be when you are dropping them off at the airport, the railway station, or the bus depot.
This is a time when the tour has just been wrapped up, and clients are in their most relaxed state. So, you need to have someone in your team who knows how to speak to people smartly and develop a connection with almost anyone.
Give Your Tour Guides Incentive for Five-Star Reviews
If you want to truly expand your travel business and stand out amongst your competitors, then you need to invest more time and money in your tour guides. The tour guide remains in direct contact with your clients for the duration of a trip.
So, if you seek positive reviews for your company, the tour guides will be the ones who will make the most powerful impression on the guests. You can start by having a strict selection criterion for your travel companions. Only those who meet your set standards can be hired to lead a group of guests on tour.
Remember that the tour guide will ramp up or destroy the image of your travel company. Always look for candidates who have exceptional interpersonal communication skills, as that will bridge the gap between your clients and your company. From the very start, the tour guides are the ones who will introduce themselves to your guests, spend time getting to know them, and fulfil most of their queries.
From the travel company’s standpoint, tour guides are the ones who have the most excellent chances of managing to bag five-star reviews from clients. As the boss, your task will be to keep your tour guides’ motivation high.
To that end, a great measure you can take is announcing monetary incentives for the guides who bring in the top reviews.
Never Forget to Acknowledge Customer Feedback
Once you have received reviews and feedback from your valued clients, it will be your job to reply to them individually. After all the hard work that you have put in to muster those travel agency reviews, finish your task by going through all the reviews.
Not all reviews you will receive will be positive and pleasant to read, and there will be some negative reviews that will cause distress in the ranks. However, in more cases than once, negative reviews give businesses the opportunity to rectify and improve their services. So, rather than ignoring the not-so-friendly reviews, take the time to explain all the things you are planning to introduce to correct them.
At the end of the day, you should never underestimate the power of a top travel agency review. We live in a digital world where the power of words on online platforms holds immense weight. The best remain ahead, thanks mainly to a pool of grateful clients. And travel agency reviews will give you the means to understand and serve your customers better. Whenever you succeed in getting a top-rated review for your enterprise, post it on as many online portals as possible. Your next super client could be just one great review away!
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