Irish specialist tour operator Follow the Camino has been shortlisted as one of the finalists in the Customer Experience Awards 2024 for ‘Best Customer Experience: Tourism & Hospitality’.
The company has been nominated for its dedication to creating the most flexible and seamless walking holiday planning process of any Camino tour operator in the sector.
Winners will be revealed at a ceremony on 14 November 2024 in the Royal Marine Hotel, Dún Laoghaire.
The Customer Experience Awards are run by CMG Events, Ireland’s largest proprietary conference organisers, with 30+ major meetings and awards shows run annually. Follow the Camino’s application was built around a strategic shift to address the lack of itinerary customisation available to clients of Camino tour operators.
After conducting in-depth customer research, Follow the Camino identified that many repeat visitors to the Camino found the most sought-after travel package (of a similar duration and quality of accommodation on the most popular leg of the Camino Frances) didn’t offer a new experience with each new visit.
Clients also said many tour operators didn’t offer personalised service, instead using automated messaging and communication lines across multiple sales and booking agents.
Follow the Camino switched its customer experience strategy to address this shortfall by: ● Diversifying our tour products to target specific audiences, such as offering cycling route alternatives along the Portuguese Way or deluxe walking tour packages. ● Offering customisable itineraries for all travel packages, with options to add rest days, incorporate day tours, upgrade/change accommodation, and arrange private transfers. ● Restructuring our sales and booking process to ensure each itinerary is handled by one sales agent and booking agent, for more consistency across lines of communication. We also started calling clients mid-trip to check on them.
CEO and Founder of Follow the Camino, Umberto di Venosa, said: “We are thrilled to have our unique approach to customer service recognised. Our team is built on the ideas of sharing our collective knowledge of the Camino and treating our customers how we would want to be treated. Part of this collaboration is the time we spend with each person building their holiday. Our clients value that we pick up the phone and help them directly. The answer is not ‘Check our FAQs’ or ‘Look online’. We guide them to a solution that works best for them and us.”
Follow the Camino was the first Irish tour operator along the Camino de Santiago and has been leading the market since 2007.
