People who work in travel industry come across many issues every day. Essentially, they have heard it all from “The receptionist was not nice” to “The bed was too small”. The feedback they receive is most often aimed at bad things, no matter how small or rare they are. With traveler surveys, agencies and operators can actually get comprehensive experiences from travelers that range way beyond a few unsatisfactory ones. Surveys offer an insight into traveler psychology and show you how best to meet the expectations of people. How and why you and your agency should start using surveys?
Why conduct a travel survey?
Travel surveys have many benefits. Firstly, they indicate certain trends in the travel and hospitality industry and show people’s needs and wants. Thanks to surveys, agencies and operators insight into changes they need to implement and knowledge they are missing. Brans can use the knowledge to plan their future growth.
Surveys also show your clients that you care about their experiences and opinions. With surveys, you can find out what makes a destination special, what the destination is missing, how your services can be improved and how you can reach more customers.
Set goals
Before writing any questions, it’s important to figure out what information you want to learn from your survey. Do you want to learn more about your target audience? Do you want to learn about a certain destination and how it reflects on the travelers? Or maybe you want to learn how your clients are satisfied with your tour operators, offers, etc? Make sure to have your goal clear and you’ll compile your survey much easier.
Handle demographics
It’s crucial to know who your base audience is, but this part can be quite boring and awkward for your clients. Luckily, if you choose a professional tool for surveys, you can allow your users to run through this part and check boxes or fill gaps quickly and efficiently. Make sure to include all important information like age, location and certain characteristics. It’s crucial to be respectful, especially when asking about gender, race, sexuality or any other sensitive question.
Organize your questions
When creating questions for your survey, keep your clients in mind and make sure to include questions they are bound to understand. All the words should be present in everyday use and questions should be straightforward. Your survey should be organized logically with a nice flow of questions. After all, your clients are doing you a favor by filling out these surveys, so the least you could do is provide them with a quality and logical survey.
Find out about their travel habits
One of the main reasons why agencies choose to give out surveys is to gain the knowledge necessary for the creation of new packages, services and offers. Therefore, make sure to ask about your clients’ travel habits: Are they DIY travelers or do they prefer tours with guides? Do they travel alone or with someone? Do they prefer short or long trips? Do they plan their trips well in advance?
Ask about satisfaction
Satisfaction questions make clients feel appreciated and give you valuable feedback. So make sure to include questions that concern their satisfaction with first impressions, staff, hygiene, communication, service value, expectations, overall satisfaction, etc. If you want to improve your services, this is the most valuable information for you.
How did they hear about you?
Here’s another important question to ask: How did they learn about your agency? For instance, let’s say you’ve been pouring money into TV commercials, yet people on the survey said they didn’t see your commercial. This is your cue to change marketing strategies.
Ask about challenges
Travelers face a lot of challenges while on the road and it’s your job to try and make their lives easier. Ask whether your users need more help with planning activities and discovering new places. Or maybe they struggle with finding authentic experiences or catching rides while traveling. Identify their challenges and try to find solutions.
And finally, make sure to end your survey with a question such as: “Do you have anything else to share or add?” If your customers have anything they want to get off their chest, this will be a nice way to do so. All in all, you will learn much from your survey, and if you know how to use that information, it can be amazing for your agency.
