hi I’m Evan Carmichael welcome to
another edition of ask Evan in today’s
episode I’m going to answer a question
from one of my newsletter readers
Christine who’s an entrepreneur
and she’s a tour operator so she takes
tourists around in Kenya who are
visiting and shows him a good time which
was in the country pretty new business
and one of my advice on growing it so
she has three main target markets that
she’s going after one are the tourists
so international tourists looking to
view the country the second are
honeymooners so people coming just after
getting married and on vacation and the
third are corporate clients and they’re
often coming for different team-building
activities so Christine having been on a
number of trips myself internationally
and I’ve never been to Africa but I’ve
gone to a number of different countries
on trips especially when you’re coming
off of cruise ships or you’re looking
for two offers to go with the biggest
thing that I think you can offer is
service most of the time when you land
I don’t think especially offer cruise
ships when you let you get off and
there’s a thousand different tour
operators coming at you and you don’t
know how to differentiate one for the
other and the biggest fear that you’re
going to have is that you’re going to
make a mistake and go with the wrong
person you’re gonna have a bad
experience some people worried about
safety depending on the country they’re
going into but for most part is having a
bad experience and being stuck for a
whole day with the tour operator who’s
not going to give you either good value
or good service and it’s really really
hard to tell what a good service is
going to be for bad service just from
landing on you know going to the dock or
going to the airport and seeing the
people kind of pitching you the
different ideas so it’s the biggest fear
that people going to have and for agents
who are going to be referring you for
international travel agents who are
booking trips on behalf of these guys
it’s also really hard for them to tell
who’s going to provide good service or
not so service five-star service
excellent service is really going to
help you stand out so it’s a couple
different ways you can do it the first
thing I would do is I would put people
in uniforms
if you have somebody in uniform and I
appreciate that it’s very hot in Kenya
so you know short sleeves shorts even
but something that looks professional if
you did that right away you’re going to
stand out from everybody else is on
coming at you so I’ve been to a lot of
different cities and countries and again
you’re pitched by all sorts of people
and they often look you know they’re in
regular street clothes you don’t really
know this is a company or just some guy
in the back of his van that you’re
getting into so if you had professional
sign professional uniforms that people
were into you’re already setting a
standard of service that’s higher than
everybody else and it’s going to be a
lot easier for you to get the
north-american clients who are looking
for some kind of trust and people put a
lot of trust in that service and having
uniforms the next thing make sure
everything is clean and make sure
everybody you hire is super friendly so
clean again if they’re in uniform make
sure the uniforms are clean whatever
vehicle they’re coming to pick people up
in make sure those are clean because a
lot of times they’re not in a lot of
countries that I’ve been to at least
make sure the signage is clean it’s not
all scuffed up and people handing you
kind of photocopies of things that don’t
look very professional you want to have
a professional image and you can even
charge a premium people who are on
vacation or who are honeymooning or
corporate they are looking to spend
money right when I get off on a cruise
ship and I’m landing in a country I want
to spend money I want to have a good
time I’m just worried I’m going to spend
it with the wrong person so people would
pay you a premium to ensure that they’re
going to have a really good experience
and that’s why people on cruise ships
often booked through the cruise operator
because they know they’re going to get a
pretty good experience and it’s been
vetted by the cruise ship before but
it’s a huge huge price increase and
they’re willing to pay it so if you can
immediately off the off the boat or
people line it on their plane or however
they’re getting there show them that you
look highly professional and guarantee
they’re going to have a good experience
you’re going to be able to charge your
premium and get more business so again
everything must be clean and you want
people to be friendly so greet with a
smile ask people how they’re doing you
know you want to Train anybody who is
working on the front lines dealing with
customers to be friendly answer
questions make it a good time people are
there to have fun so you want to make
sure you’re having fun people who your
hire is
something that I would also encourage
you to do and I don’t know how feasible
it is but I would try to hire expats or
students from the countries that you’re
trying to recruit from so for example if
you’re trying to attract Americans to
come in and sign up I would try to get
an expat American or American students
to be there selling your services for
you if I see somebody who is more like
me you’re more likely to sign up with
them and a quick example when I went to
Japan I was the only guy from from North
American work at sea in Japan there’s
you know very Japanese centric which is
great and and immediately you’re faced
with culture shock so you’re not quite
sure what to do you may not understand
the language you’re walking around
you’re not quite sure where you’re going
and there was another guy who I met on
the streets who was from North America
and immediately you make friends because
you’re the only two who are the same and
everybody else is is different vistas
big culture shock and immediately we
were able to strike up conversation
start talking he introduced me to you
know where he was hanging out and gave
me gave me some recommendations so I can
see the same thing happening where it
could be a big culture shock for
somebody from North America coming to
Kenya not knowing you know where to go
not knowing the language the culture so
if you had somebody working for your
company who was from North America or UK
or Australia who spoke the language once
the culture and could speak with people
on their own terms in their own in their
own culture it’d be a lot easier to get
people to sign up so if a tour operator
came to me in any of the countries that
I landed in and it was somebody from the
US or Canada or or Britain I’d be a lot
more willing to start talking to them
and be easier for me to sign up with
them if they were clean-cut friendly in
uniform and look like me it’d be a lot
easier for me to want to do business
with them so just because there’s so
much culture shock it’s an easy way for
you to stand out now you still want to
provide the Kenyan experience where
people are there to experience Kenya but
if you had some people in the front
lines who are more like the people who
you’re selling to as much as you can
relate to your customer the easier it is
to be able to sell them
look at if there’s any expats or
students from the countries to be able
to bring them on board to be on your
front lines as well to help talk to
customers the last thing we do then is
also get on TripAdvisor and encourage
people to leave positive comments so
whenever we do any of our travels will
always go on TripAdvisor and see what
are the most common things that people
do where it’s getting the most feedback
and we’re trying to plan our day right
we may not have a lot of time in
whatever city we’re going to whatever
country so we want to make sure it’s
time well-spent and you’re getting kind
of the maximum value from it so to
provide is a great place to go and if we
see that one to operator is getting tons
of great remarks for the great service
they have and how friendly everybody is
and how clean everybody is I’m gonna go
and book with those guys even if it’s at
a premium to everybody else and I’ll
probably even do the booking in advance
to make sure I get my spot so then
there’s less sales that you’ll have to
do when people get there they’re already
pre booking and that’ll help with a lot
of your cash flow issues as well because
people are paying upfront and you’re
delivering the service whenever they
arrive in in your country so hopefully
that helps might be a little different
than what you’re expecting but I think
there’s a real opportunity for you to be
able to stand out using that five-star
service methodology and be able to get a
lot of those people to come and want to
work with you and pay you more money
than they’d be paying the other guys so
hopefully that helps if you guys liked
the video please give it a thumbs up
below and I also look forward to hearing
your comments if you want to leave one
under the video and stay tuned for next
episode
you
you
another edition of ask Evan in today’s
episode I’m going to answer a question
from one of my newsletter readers
Christine who’s an entrepreneur
and she’s a tour operator so she takes
tourists around in Kenya who are
visiting and shows him a good time which
was in the country pretty new business
and one of my advice on growing it so
she has three main target markets that
she’s going after one are the tourists
so international tourists looking to
view the country the second are
honeymooners so people coming just after
getting married and on vacation and the
third are corporate clients and they’re
often coming for different team-building
activities so Christine having been on a
number of trips myself internationally
and I’ve never been to Africa but I’ve
gone to a number of different countries
on trips especially when you’re coming
off of cruise ships or you’re looking
for two offers to go with the biggest
thing that I think you can offer is
service most of the time when you land
I don’t think especially offer cruise
ships when you let you get off and
there’s a thousand different tour
operators coming at you and you don’t
know how to differentiate one for the
other and the biggest fear that you’re
going to have is that you’re going to
make a mistake and go with the wrong
person you’re gonna have a bad
experience some people worried about
safety depending on the country they’re
going into but for most part is having a
bad experience and being stuck for a
whole day with the tour operator who’s
not going to give you either good value
or good service and it’s really really
hard to tell what a good service is
going to be for bad service just from
landing on you know going to the dock or
going to the airport and seeing the
people kind of pitching you the
different ideas so it’s the biggest fear
that people going to have and for agents
who are going to be referring you for
international travel agents who are
booking trips on behalf of these guys
it’s also really hard for them to tell
who’s going to provide good service or
not so service five-star service
excellent service is really going to
help you stand out so it’s a couple
different ways you can do it the first
thing I would do is I would put people
in uniforms
if you have somebody in uniform and I
appreciate that it’s very hot in Kenya
so you know short sleeves shorts even
but something that looks professional if
you did that right away you’re going to
stand out from everybody else is on
coming at you so I’ve been to a lot of
different cities and countries and again
you’re pitched by all sorts of people
and they often look you know they’re in
regular street clothes you don’t really
know this is a company or just some guy
in the back of his van that you’re
getting into so if you had professional
sign professional uniforms that people
were into you’re already setting a
standard of service that’s higher than
everybody else and it’s going to be a
lot easier for you to get the
north-american clients who are looking
for some kind of trust and people put a
lot of trust in that service and having
uniforms the next thing make sure
everything is clean and make sure
everybody you hire is super friendly so
clean again if they’re in uniform make
sure the uniforms are clean whatever
vehicle they’re coming to pick people up
in make sure those are clean because a
lot of times they’re not in a lot of
countries that I’ve been to at least
make sure the signage is clean it’s not
all scuffed up and people handing you
kind of photocopies of things that don’t
look very professional you want to have
a professional image and you can even
charge a premium people who are on
vacation or who are honeymooning or
corporate they are looking to spend
money right when I get off on a cruise
ship and I’m landing in a country I want
to spend money I want to have a good
time I’m just worried I’m going to spend
it with the wrong person so people would
pay you a premium to ensure that they’re
going to have a really good experience
and that’s why people on cruise ships
often booked through the cruise operator
because they know they’re going to get a
pretty good experience and it’s been
vetted by the cruise ship before but
it’s a huge huge price increase and
they’re willing to pay it so if you can
immediately off the off the boat or
people line it on their plane or however
they’re getting there show them that you
look highly professional and guarantee
they’re going to have a good experience
you’re going to be able to charge your
premium and get more business so again
everything must be clean and you want
people to be friendly so greet with a
smile ask people how they’re doing you
know you want to Train anybody who is
working on the front lines dealing with
customers to be friendly answer
questions make it a good time people are
there to have fun so you want to make
sure you’re having fun people who your
hire is
something that I would also encourage
you to do and I don’t know how feasible
it is but I would try to hire expats or
students from the countries that you’re
trying to recruit from so for example if
you’re trying to attract Americans to
come in and sign up I would try to get
an expat American or American students
to be there selling your services for
you if I see somebody who is more like
me you’re more likely to sign up with
them and a quick example when I went to
Japan I was the only guy from from North
American work at sea in Japan there’s
you know very Japanese centric which is
great and and immediately you’re faced
with culture shock so you’re not quite
sure what to do you may not understand
the language you’re walking around
you’re not quite sure where you’re going
and there was another guy who I met on
the streets who was from North America
and immediately you make friends because
you’re the only two who are the same and
everybody else is is different vistas
big culture shock and immediately we
were able to strike up conversation
start talking he introduced me to you
know where he was hanging out and gave
me gave me some recommendations so I can
see the same thing happening where it
could be a big culture shock for
somebody from North America coming to
Kenya not knowing you know where to go
not knowing the language the culture so
if you had somebody working for your
company who was from North America or UK
or Australia who spoke the language once
the culture and could speak with people
on their own terms in their own in their
own culture it’d be a lot easier to get
people to sign up so if a tour operator
came to me in any of the countries that
I landed in and it was somebody from the
US or Canada or or Britain I’d be a lot
more willing to start talking to them
and be easier for me to sign up with
them if they were clean-cut friendly in
uniform and look like me it’d be a lot
easier for me to want to do business
with them so just because there’s so
much culture shock it’s an easy way for
you to stand out now you still want to
provide the Kenyan experience where
people are there to experience Kenya but
if you had some people in the front
lines who are more like the people who
you’re selling to as much as you can
relate to your customer the easier it is
to be able to sell them
look at if there’s any expats or
students from the countries to be able
to bring them on board to be on your
front lines as well to help talk to
customers the last thing we do then is
also get on TripAdvisor and encourage
people to leave positive comments so
whenever we do any of our travels will
always go on TripAdvisor and see what
are the most common things that people
do where it’s getting the most feedback
and we’re trying to plan our day right
we may not have a lot of time in
whatever city we’re going to whatever
country so we want to make sure it’s
time well-spent and you’re getting kind
of the maximum value from it so to
provide is a great place to go and if we
see that one to operator is getting tons
of great remarks for the great service
they have and how friendly everybody is
and how clean everybody is I’m gonna go
and book with those guys even if it’s at
a premium to everybody else and I’ll
probably even do the booking in advance
to make sure I get my spot so then
there’s less sales that you’ll have to
do when people get there they’re already
pre booking and that’ll help with a lot
of your cash flow issues as well because
people are paying upfront and you’re
delivering the service whenever they
arrive in in your country so hopefully
that helps might be a little different
than what you’re expecting but I think
there’s a real opportunity for you to be
able to stand out using that five-star
service methodology and be able to get a
lot of those people to come and want to
work with you and pay you more money
than they’d be paying the other guys so
hopefully that helps if you guys liked
the video please give it a thumbs up
below and I also look forward to hearing
your comments if you want to leave one
under the video and stay tuned for next
episode
you
you
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