After booking: are you giving good customer care?

After booking customer careIn any industry, there can often be a bit of a gap between a customer making a purchase and actually using the product. It can be hard to make your customers feel looked after.

This is especially true in the travel business. Unless your customers are making a last minute break for the sunshine months can pass between the booking and their actual holiday. So what do you do? Leave them to it and trust that their excitement will build the closer they get to their break? You could, but then you run the risk of your valued customers feeling neglected. If you want to deliver great customer care from the time they book to the journey home, here are a few ideas.

Talk about communication

Your method of keeping in touch with a customer will depend on how they contacted you in the first place. If they can click through and book an offer on your website you may not have spoken to them, but you will have an email address.

As I write this I’m in the throes of preparing for the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) to come into effect in the UK. I could write a whole post about that but for now I’ll confine myself to telling you to be careful what you email. Your website and booking forms should give customers information about the way you’ll use their information. That includes the reasons you will contact them. The general consensus in the conversations I’ve had is that you should be letting people know that you’ll need to email them regarding their booking but that you should ask for separate authorisation if you want to send them other marketing emails.

If someone rang you to ask you to arrange their holiday, they might prefer that as a means of communication. However, check what they want you to do about sending documents. Would they prefer to collect in person or provide an email?

Get them excited about their booking

If your customers have booked their summer holiday in the depths of winter it could be months before they travel. If you’re able to email them you have the perfect opportunity to build the excitement.

You could potentially send them something different every month. They may already have done some research on the resort, but could you add to that? Send them information on the hidden gems or essential places to visit. Send them something that shows you’ve thought about the sort of holiday they want – family fun if they’re travelling with children or the romantic hotspots for couples.

As their holiday gets nearer you can tell them more about the hotel. Maybe even include a weather forecast before they travel.

Providing essential information

If your service includes delivering a package of documents with their flight tickets, is there anything else you can add? You’ve probably already included your contact details if there are any problems or emergencies. Is there any local information that you could include which they’ll find useful?

As with all good customer care, the service you provide between the booking and the holiday should help your customers to feel looked after. They know that they can trust you with your holiday and happy customers mean repeat business for you. It’s a win-win situation.

 

How do you look after your customers? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Further reading

If you haven’t already read my blog on after sales care, you can catch up here.

Could good e-commerce customer care have something to teach you? Find out here.

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