Representing your business accurately online is hard – especially if you run a bigger operation with more than a single captain or boat. Whenever you expand your business, whether with more boats, captains, or fishing locations covered, getting the word out to customers is crucial.
After all, a customer can’t book a trip on your shiny new boat if they’re not aware it exists. Likewise, they’ll be surprised to find out they would be fishing with a different captain if his or her name isn’t mentioned anywhere on the listing.
Below we’ll talk about the three pillars of customer expectations, and what you can do to keep your customers happy and recommending you to their friends.
Accuracy vs. Confusion
It’s crucial that the information on your listing is 100% correct if you want to win over and keep customer confidence. Make sure your calendar is up to date 24/7 and you’ll avoid numerous headaches.
Before booking, a customer is bound to check out at least a few photos, trip options, and extras included in the price. Having outdated information on the listing will cause confusion at best. At worst, they’ll be angry and disappointed, something we all want to avoid.
Dependability vs. Unreliability
Being dependable means your customers can trust you to uphold your end of the bargain. Customers count on having a fishing trip without any complications. You can be sure they’ll hold you responsible for any sudden changes to the plan. Say there’s a chance you might change a trip’s exact starting time depending on the tide. If you add that info to the listing, your customers will know it’s a possibility.
Building trust with them ensures you’ll be the first on their list when they want to go fishing again. And if your customers can rely on the listing to do the talking with no strings attached, they’ll be that much more likely to share it with their friends.
Transparency vs. Misunderstanding
Sometimes you just run out of luck. Your first mate might get sick, or you find out your engine’s busted a few hours before the trip. Whatever happens, it’s important to be upfront and transparent with your customers so they know what’s going on. An informed customer is more likely to be understanding when things change, and you’ll avoid awkward misunderstandings and loss of trust. Read on to see what you can do to nurture a trusting relationship with your customers.
How to Put This into Practice
We’ve mentioned the main things that define customer expectations. Now let’s discuss some of the ways you can ensure customer satisfaction in the long haul:
List Your Boats Separately
While it might be tempting to keep all your boats on a single listing, it loses its appeal after the first big misunderstanding with a customer who was expecting to fish on a different boat. Unless you have identical boats, you should make sure that all your boats have separate listings on FishingBooker. Your customers will be happy and you’ll be spared a potential headache in the future.
Read more: Can I list multiple boats on one listing?
Keep Things Up to Date
Whenever you make even the smallest change on one of your boats, make sure to update your listing on FishingBooker. If you’ve made significant changes, like getting a completely new boat, there’s all the more reason to update your listing. What good is a new fighting chair if you don’t get to advertise it directly to your potential customers?
The same applies to trips. If you decide to change the way a trip works, whether it’s going after different fish species or using different techniques, send us a change request so we can amend the text where needed.
Read more: How to get your listing ready for high season
Communicate with Customers
After all’s said and done, the best way to ensure customer satisfaction is through regular communication. Dropping a line to one of your customers via FishingBooker’s instant messaging system is quick and easy. Calming down an unsatisfied customer can be much, much harder. It’s all the more essential to reach out straight away when you need to do something like change a boat due to engine failure or similar.
Read more: Keep in Touch – Use Instant Messaging to Your Advantage
When customers know that you’re someone they can rely on and trust, they’ll come back to fish another day. Not only that, but they’ll be more likely to write a positive review online and recommend you to their friends as well. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.
What do you think is the most important thing for building trust with your new guests? Have any stories to share? Let us know in the comments below!
