RESMARK Systems Focuses On How to Help Tour Operators In Post-Pandemic World
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- Released on Monday, 09 November 2020 14:15
SALT LAK CITY, UT, Nov 9, 2020 – Chip Broyles has his finger on the pulse of the tours and activities industry and what tour operators can be doing now to prepare for a post-pandemic future.
Broyles is Vice President of Client Success for RESMARK Systems in Salt Lake City, Utah. Founded in 2005, this company helps clients manage all functions of a tour operator business from online reservations and marketing to finances and accounting. RESMARK’s automated functions stretch marketing dollars and reduce staff costs. Clients pay fees based on actual transactions.
Along with much of the broader hospitality industry, many tour and activity operators throughout the world have been in freefall this year.
“We are preparing for the inevitable return in the coming months. Things will eventually return to pre-pandemic levels. We learned a lot with this pandemic about how to rethink tours, rethink social spacing and how to accommodate what’s going on in the world. Everything is not about COVID-19 but is a reality of what has affected tours and activities,” says Broyles.
Among the issues facing tour operators this year were:
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● Cancelled reservations including an almost total drop-off in international travel. Broyles says this is slowly coming back. ● An unexpected demand on some tour operators to meet domestic requests in June, July and August. “A lot of people were pent up and wanted to get out. Those tour operators who could accommodate found themselves extremely busy. Some had more business than they could handle because of limited staff. They might be open but they might not have all of the guides who would be comfortable working in these times,” says Broyles. ● Learning to push forward, plan ahead, clean house and get ready to be busy again. “We have no idea when this will happen. Things are happening slowly. Certain islands in the Caribbean are starting to open up,” he says. “Now is still a great time to look at tightening things up. So often, tour operators have too many offerings, too many activities and tours.” |
Broyles and his team are providing counsel on these and other issues to existing RESMARK clients and to others who aren’t yet on board.
“We’re seeing movement where we didn’t have traction before. People are deciding suddenly they need a reservation system to manage the flow of people. Perhaps they have had to cut staff during the pandemic and probably missed revenue projections. We help them think outside of the box and show them how they can manage customers by leveraging the tools that a reservation system like RESMARK offers: marketing, built-in waivers and customer service are all built into the platform.”
“It’s uncanny how spot on RESMARK’s well rounded feature set is right now for the times,” he says. “RESMARK Systems is like having four-wheel drive on a truck. It’s there when you need it; otherwise it’s not in your way.”
RESMARK’s fields are completely customizable, from the minimum first and last name and email address to custom fields and questions about such particulars as food and drink allergies.
“The tour and activity world is a very diverse universe. You need different information from people for different activities. For a hot air balloon ride, for example, you need people’s weights. A rafting outfitter on a backcountry trip that includes being in a National Park may need detailed medical and dietary information. RESMARK allows you to choose what fields you need; it can store or create manifests on each launch and each reservation on every single launch.”
He says his team is doing all they can to help tour and activity operators get back online. “These companies are struggling financially. RESMARK’s transactional billing solution allows companies to use this slower time to get their business fully configured in the RESMARK platform at little to no cost. When volume begins to ramp up again, the business can now operate at a lower cost due to all the automation in the system. This will be key to a successful recovery for many tour operators.”
“Part of our goal is to provide not just reservation software but support to our users. We want to share the knowledge and information that we’re learning from each other on how to run the business and how to leverage technology and use it in the right way,” he says. The company shares webinars, blog posts and press and marketing communiques to give people confidence in navigating the road ahead and ideas on how best to use the system.
The RESMARK team had no way of envisioning 15 years ago that one of RESMARK’s turn-off or turn-on features, WaiverSign, would emerge as a key player during the pandemic. This function that allows businesses to collect digital waivers also inherently has the capability of helping to track where and when people may have been exposed to COVID-19.
Subsequently, workout centers, dog groomers and beauty salons are among the myriad of assorted businesses that have recognized WaiverSign’s potential for keeping them on the straight and narrow, notes Broyles.
About WaiverSign
For more information, visit https://www.waiversign.com/ or call 877.741.7705.
About RESMARK Systems
The premier marketing and reservation software platform for tour and activity providers was founded in 2005 in Salt Lake City, Utah. RESMARK Systems offers comprehensive tour operator software created by tour operators with multiple years of experience. RESMARK Systems software is designed to manage all functions of the tour operator business from online reservations and marketing to finances and accounting. RESMARK provides proven cost savings, comprehensive tracking and reporting and unparalleled lead conversion. For more information, visit http://www.resmarksystems.com/ or call 888.RESMARK (737.6275).
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