I had lunch with a prospective travel and tourism client last week and we enjoyed a little downtown Sacramento dining, I mentioned that one of the things that make the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau stand out is the level of personal service we extend to our customers and visitors, and more specifically what exactly we do for our travel and tourism clients.
The client seemed intrigued and asked what I meant as he had worked with many CVB's over his 20+ years in the industry. He said he rarely found one that did anything unique. In fact, he had shied away from using CVB's as a resource because he had many of his own contacts and often found working with a CVB to be more cumbersome than he felt was necessary.
I explained how we listen to clients' needs and try and find the best variety of products or services that will make their program successful and their experience memorable. Whether you are looking for Sacramento recreation, Sacramento student travel options, or simply various Sacramento tourist attractions, we go above and beyond and truly cater your trip to your needs. One specific example I shared is that we do not provide contact details of our customers in the leads we generate, unless requested by the client. Why? Because our customers don't want to be contacted by every business, nor do they want to be handed a list of names & businesses for them to sort. They have entrusted us to help them find the services they need and provide them with the best possible solutions. And we value that trust and abide by the customer's wishes.He was genuinely surprised at this. "Other CVB's send leads out to everyone whether the business is appropriate or not, which results in a flurry of unwanted phone calls, emails, etc.," he said. "Essentially, wasting my time."
Whether we get his business or not remains to be seen, but this discussion with the customer reminded me how the simple effort of listening to the customer and treating customers needs first were somewhat of an anomaly in this modern day of marketing and sales.
