As a tour operator, finding ways to streamline your business and improve efficiency is crucial. One way to go about this is through website automation, which will not just save you time and money, but you’ll actually increase bookings too because you’ll improve the customer experience. In this article, we’ll examine the benefits of website automation for tour operators, what you can automate on your website, and how to do it so you can grow your business without all the manual work. What Is Website Automation? “Website automation” simply means using technology and software to automate various tasks and processes...
Automating your marketing efforts is crucial in today’s fast-paced world of travel and tourism. And tour operators need to find innovative ways to reach their target audience without having to hire an additional staff member to take care of it. That’s where marketing automation comes in. It’s a great solution for tour operators to help automate their marketing processes as a small business (or large business, even). In this post, we’ll cover the benefits and strategies that tour operators can employ to automate their marketing efforts, streamline operations, and drive remarkable success. Table of Contents What is Marketing Automation? Create...
In the fast-paced world of tour operations, efficient document management is crucial to stay organized and compliant. With the advent of digital waivers, Google Sheets, and booking software, and the power of automation tools like Zapier, tour operators now have the opportunity to streamline their document management processes easier than they ever could. In this article, we’re going to explore how to automate document management, including digital waivers, Google Sheets integration, and using Zapier to establish automatic connections, ultimately helping tour operators save time, reduce manual effort, eliminate errors, and improve productivity. The Benefits of Automating Document Management Automating document...
It’s our goal to always be improving the Origin platform, and we’re excited to announce two new upgrades to Origin: QuickBooks integration and Lead Guides Category. Keep reading to learn more about both of these updates. Create a free account today to test these features yourself. Origin x QuickBooks Integration With our new QuickBooks integration, you’ll save even more time by automating bookkeeping tasks. Your office manager and accountant will thank you! Here's how it works: Connecting Origin to QuickBooks We’ve made it super simple to connect Origin to your QuickBooks account. When you're ready, you'll be prompted to sign...
How much time do you spend scheduling your guides and staff per week? Too much probably? Nearly half of tour operators still do many of their processes manually, which means they’re wasting a ton of valuable time. It’s a time-consuming and labor-intensive task for adventure tour companies. It requires coordinating multiple factors, such as guide availability, skills, and experience to ensure you have the right guide leading the right trip every time. With manual scheduling, you’re prone to human errors and inefficiency which can lead to overbooking a guide, not having a guide at all to lead a trip, missed...
As a business owner, you’re well aware you need to provide excellent customer service as it’s crucial to the success of your company. You don’t have a business without customers. However, managing customer questions, support requests, and customer information can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. As a small tour guiding business, it makes it that much more challenging to stay on top of customer service while also managing the rest of the business. By automating some of your customer service tasks, you’ll free up your time and save yourself some money along the way. Jump ahead to a section What is...
Administrative, office work is the bane of everyone’s existence. It’s why there are actual roles at companies—so people who don’t want to do the admin work can pay someone else to do it. It’s especially challenging for small to medium-sized tour operators who don’t have the time to cover all the administrative work while also guiding or the money to pay someone else to do it. Even the big tour guiding companies who can afford front staff can benefit from automating mundane office tasks and instead, give their employees something more exciting to do. What you'll read: Hack #1: Automate...
We’ve all abandoned a booking for one reason or another. But when your guiding company depends on as many reservations as you can handle, it’s important to know why your website visitors may be leaving before paying for an adventure with you. What are abandoned bookings? Abandoned bookings are when a customer doesn’t complete the trip reservation process. They may have started selecting a date for their adventure or entered in their details, but they left your website at some point. There could be a number of reasons why too. Why is it important to lower them? The more booking...
A website design can make or break your chance of getting more online tour bookings. With a strong website, your customers can go through the booking process quickly and with ease. Everything on the website fulfills a need, it’s all easy to find, and navigable. While your customer browses your site, it should cause some sort of emotion in them and they should feel like they can trust you. Further, your site should help customers along their path to book a trip with you. By clearly showing steps, making the interaction seamless and efficient, and having the system perform when...
An online booking process needs to be quick and simple or your customers will go somewhere else. We’ve seen too many sites with clunky booking steps either using online booking software or a manual process like calling to book a trip. Neither is good for your customers and prevents you from making sales. The current problem with websites we’ve seen is too many clicks to book. Step after step after step of entering information, confirming that information, and entering more details. Or, alternatively, making website visitors call or email you to book a trip. Both methods deter guests, especially Gen...
We scoured the internet for online booking stats that our clients will care about. While researching, we saw the shift to online booking has seen significant changes from pre-pandemic levels. While many guiding companies are making the move to online booking, there are still too many putting it off and gripping too tightly to the pen and paper. Those who don’t jump on board now will be left behind and lose out to their competitors. Here are 25 online booking statistics showing the shift to online booking, travelers’ habits and interests, and how important it is to adopt reservation technology...
Marketing for guiding companies doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, you can keep it super basic if you want. We’ve previously written about all the aspects of digital marketing in our Journal, but it helps to put it together in a digestible way. So, that’s what we’re going to do here. Here’s a simple strategy for marketing that should help you get started marketing for your guiding company. In other words, to spread the word about what you do and who you can guide. 1. Determine Your Target Audience Figuring out who your ideal customers are will help you...
The guiding season is non-stop. There’s always an adventure to go on with an expert guide, but some guiding companies only operate during a specific season or two. For those preparing for their upcoming season, here are eight tech aspects to have dialed before you take clients on their next adventure. Review Or Update Your Liability Waivers Have liability waivers for your guided trips? It’s a good idea to review your liability waiver text and make sure they’re up-to-date. If you have a new trip that requires an additional waiver, it’s important to upload that before the season. Origin users...
Have you ever wondered what your booking process says about your business? Imagine this: You’re seeing a return of travel, but your bookings are lackluster. You’re open for business. You get a decent amount of interest from travelers, especially after COVID, but you’re ready for more bookings. In fact, you need more bookings. There’s one thing: You haven’t touched your booking process in ages. You may not even realize that’s likely the problem for the small number of tour reservations filtering through. Maybe you’re still blaming COVID (which is fair). But the fact is, if you’ve been struggling to increase...
Tour deposit functionality, especially those that are higher-priced, makes it more appealing to customers when they can book now and pay later. With the uncertainty of travel currently, especially with airlines, deposits give travelers peace of mind —knowing that they don’t have to pay in full right now in case a trip is canceled outside of their control. The Problem - Without Deposit Functionality When you don’t have automatic deposit functionality, you can take the initial deposit, but collecting the rest is a pain. It becomes a manual and insecure process of charging a credit card. For tour operators who...