Landing new clients for your travel business isn’t always easy. Between marketing, advertising, agent commissions, and nurturing relationships is a fair amount of your time and resources.
So why wave your customers goodbye after they have been on their travel experience? Instead, you should focus on ways to build customer loyalty and get more repeat bookings. There are so many benefits to operating a business this way; saving costs is just one of them. Let’s take a closer look.
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Why Repeat Clients Are The Best Clients
Savvy marketers will tell you that it costs less to keep an existing customer than it does to get a new one. You have already done the hard work getting the person through the door. After that, your travel experience will (hopefully) speak for itself and land you a new biggest fan!
Repeat customers also typically spend more with you the next time around. Compared to when they have just signed up and haven’t had the experience yet, they have now tried and tested it, trust you, and are willing to get more involved.
Did we mention that loyal customers are your biggest fans? They are the people who tell their friends and family about your great travel products and bring them along for the next experience too.
Here are nine ideas you can use to build customer loyalty and bring in more repeat bookings for your travel business.
How To Build Customer Loyalty and Get Repeat Bookings
1. Offer a Seamless Onboarding Process
First impressions count, and if your clients have a great experience from the start, they will be more likely to return.
When they make a reservation, ensure that the entire process is as seamless as possible. This includes offering an eye-catching booking page, straightforward signup process, as well as an easy to navigate payment platform.
Once that is done, you should also provide clear guidelines on what happens next. This way, your clients will know what to expect, and when.
2. Share Tips and Insights Before The Experience
Leading up to the travel dates, provide your clients with useful bits of information related to their experience. For example, give them recommendations of where they can eat in the area, or go sightseeing afterward.
Very simply: share tips, content, or insights that they might find relevant and helpful. This will help you to establish yourself as an authority in your niche, and build trust with your clients so that they book again.
3. Get To Know Your Clients By Name
Attention to detail never goes unappreciated or unnoticed. Something as simple as learning your client’s names can add a nice touch and help to build rapport with them. Use this to build customer loyalty and relationships when they are on your travel experience, trip, or tour, and leave them feeling valued and ready to do it again.
4. Provide an Amazing Travel Experience They Will Want To Repeat
Customers will keep coming back for unique and memorable travel experiences. No matter how great the onboarding or level of customer service you provide is, if they aren’t blown away by your travel product, they won’t be motivated to return.
Your tour guides play a role in customer experience, so make they are motivated to knock it out of the park.
5. Incentivize Customers To Book Again
Providing your clients with a little motivation to book again is another way to build customer loyalty. This could mean rewarding them with discount codes to apply to their next trip, or a complimentary activity to do on an upcoming tour.
Whatever you chose, it is a great way to stay on their radar. Chat to them in person after they have completed their first experience, or send the details over email within the next few days while everything is still fresh in their mind.
6. Sign Them Up To Your Social Media Accounts
While you have everyone’s email address and phone number from sign up, they might not be connected to your social media accounts. So, before your customers go their separate ways at the end of the experience, suggest that they follow your accounts to stay in touch and get the latest in updates and news.
Encourage them to share their photos and videos on the platforms too, as you can use this as social proof (with their consent) to market your business. Bear in mind that you need to be active on your accounts to keep your followers engaged and interested.
7. Gather Feedback After The Experience
Gathering feedback from clients is a valuable way to build customer loyalty. Asking them how their experience was and what they thought of it not only shows that you appreciate their input, but it will also highlight if there are any areas you need to improve.
Give it a few days after the experience, and then get in touch via email to ask them to submit a review. Thank them for taking the time to do so, and then use any relevant input you receive to make your offering even more amazing.
8. Address Any Negatives
Should any negatives come up in your reviews, be sure to respond. Even if it is to say thank you for raising the point, and you will contact them directly via email or phone. Leaving the review seemingly unanswered won’t help to build trust with other potential clients who are researching your travel business.
9. Personalize Offers
You have your clients' contact details and attention; make the most of this and build customer loyalty by finding out what else they enjoy.
Ask them about their interests and send them other trip, tour, or experience offers that they might want to try out. As they already know and trust you, it should be a simple decision as to who to make the reservation with.
Final Thoughts
You should be aiming to build customer loyalty at every chance you get. Of course, providing an amazing travel experience is already top of your list. From there it is up to you to form the ever-important relationships too. Adding a personal touch will go a long way in winning clients over and securing those repeat bookings.
