How to survive the hot season
Is there any way to survive this nasty period for mobility companies? Sure! Here at Onde, we know how to keep your existing clients and get new ones among visitors to your country.
Rule #1. Be prepared
If you know that your country or city is one of the famous tourist destinations you should be ready to meet travelers fully armed. You can definitely find the statistics about how many tourists visit your country, so then you approximately count how many of them can use your services. As soon as you know the number you will be able to estimate passengers load increase.
Rule #2. Partner
Collaborate with hotels, airports or any other tourist destinations because they can order taxi ride services from your company. Also, if you’re expecting a large event (like European Games in Belarus) with a lot of foreigners coming it would be ok to try to cooperate with some of your local competitors. If all your drivers are booked and not able to take an order it’s always better to send a client to another company. Yes, at that time you won’t get money for the ride but you will not lose the client (which is more important from the long-term perspective). Next time, these users will get back to you.
Rule #3. Language
English is an international language, so usually tourists use it to reach out to locals. It’s good if your drivers know at least a few commonly used phrases and can answer basis questions. It will help a lot both riders and drivers to understand each other.
If your drivers’ English is poor and you don’t see any way to improve it, buy phrasebooks and put them on the back seats. Otherwise, get Wi-Fi in your cars, and then your riders can use Google translate.
Rule #4. Get more drivers
Have enough drivers. Targeting tourists is a good way to increase revenue but you can’t lose your local clients who are loyal and will stay with you after the season is over. The client can bear with the lack of drivers once but when one sees the same situation twice he or she will look for another, more reliable service that will not make him/her wait too long. So, get more drivers.
Rule #5. Politeness
Your drivers and support have to be as polite as possible. Follow basic etiquette rules every day no matter who the rider is. Nevertheless, when it comes to foreigners it’s always better to try harder. Your drivers are the face of the country along with other service staff. I don’t think you want the rest of the world imagine your people as rude, greedy and arrogant.
Rule #6. Define the most popular sights and routes
Prepare a list of the most used destinations for tourists. It should include an airport, a railway station, the most popular streets with cafes and restaurants, sights and museums that are visited by a large number of people. Send more cars to stay near these places (if you haven’t done it yet). Then there will be no need to wait for tourists and next time they will call you not anyone else. You know your location better than we do, don’t forget to use all the advantages your city has.
Rule #7. Do not forget about locals
Again, your local clients, especially loyal ones will stay with you even after the holiday season. So keep your focus on tourists but do not leave locals behind. It’s not the best time to start any campaign to push them use your service more, but if you have any loyalty program just proceed with it. If you don’t have any it’s a good chance to create it.
Summer is the best time to get more clients and make the rest of the world learn about your services and hospitality. At the same time, you have to start preparing for the holiday season as soon as you can to take into account all the details. Now you know how to be ready. In the next article we will describe how you can attract more tourists and turn them into your clients. Stay tuned.
