Why Celestial Mountains?
There comes a time every year, (it’s usually around February of March), when I surprise everyone by announcing that “I’ve already forgotten about this year – I am thinking about next year already”.
To be honest, it’s partly said for effect, (and it is usually successful in that respect), but there is also more than just a grain of truth behind it.
I normally utter the phrase when we are talking about marketing. Usually by February/March we have already received most of the enquiries that we are likely to receive for that year’s business. That’s not to say that we won’t have more clients contact us later in the year, we do have quite a few that we “pick up” during the course of the summer, just that any marketing activities are likely to yield fewer results in the short term.
Most of our tourists are “long haul” clients – they come from, what is known here as, the “far abroad” - so they tend to plan their visits well in advance. They will have started thinking about this year’s holiday sometime last year, probably after they have returned from last year’s holiday, and some even earlier, we often get enquiries from people who say that are planning a visit in two years time. When I was growing up, back in the UK, the holiday adverts always seem to start appearing in the newspapers and on television straight after Christmas and ran for several months, followed by a series of travel programmes during the Spring and early summer.
The destinations that tend to benefit from “spur of the moment” decisions are much closer to home and usually involve shorter trips such as Weekend Breaks or City Breaks. When I lived in London, for example, I took advantage of several such schemes and explored several of Europe’s major cities. Here in Kyrgyzstan, such tourists would come from Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan – and China. Being, basically, an English owned and operated company we haven’t really explored in this market, and have concentrated our marketing efforts on Europe, and in particular the English speaking world – although, to be fair, an awful lot of our clients come from France.
In fact, when we opened the company back in 1997, many of those working in tourism in Kyrgyzstan were afraid that we would capture all of the British tourists and much of the European business as well. It hasn’t worked out that way, of course. Many of the companies sending tourists to Kyrgyzstan, and Central Asia in general, already had well established itineraries and good relationships with their local partners. We weren’t going to interfere with those, to go out of our way to try and “steal” clients. Apart from the fact that it’s unethical and would have given the signal that it was appropriate behaviour, so others would have been free to do the same to us, we felt that there was sufficient potential for the development of tourism in Kyrgyzstan and we would be able to attract new business. (Of course, it’s a buyer’s market and sometimes foreign tour operators decide to shop around – for a variety of reasons – and so if a potential client approached us and asked us for a quote we would be happy to provide it … and as a result we have won some business and in some cases the foreign company works with us for some of their tours and with another company for others.)
When it comes to choosing Celestial Mountains over a different Kyrgyz tour operator, I suppose that there are some clients for whom the nationality, (the fact that we are “British owned and operated”), is important – but they probably account for just a handful of the tourists that we have served. In fact, however, being “British owned and operated” hasn’t always been an advantage, even when dealing with British clients. In our early years, for example, one client told us, (after the tour), that when they were planning their trip they decided to shop around and sent us an enquiry simply for the sake of completeness. They didn’t think that they would choose because they didn’t think that a Brit could cope with the local bureaucracy in the same way as a local company could. They did choose us, however, as their agent and were happy to be “proven wrong”.
So why would a potential client chose Celestial Mountains as their agent in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia?
That’s a good question, a very good question and one that, to be honest, I haven’t thought about for some time. Obviously we considered the question when we were setting up the company and in the early years, and it’s always been an issue “at the back of my mind”, if not one that I have sat down and positively concentrated on for some time as my mind has been busy, occupied on other practical questions as they arose. Then, last week, one of my staff actually posed the question to me and my immediate answer surprised him a little: “because we treat our clients as individuals“.
In fact, there are lots of answers to the question “why choose a particular tour operator”, after all every client is different, with different interests and they each apply different criteria when it comes to making a choice. For some, for example, price is the all important criteria, whilst others search out companies with ecological and social responsibility policies. The standard advice given to consumers is to do research, to shop around, and compare price, quality, reliability and levels of service. There is usually a caveat included that although one of these may be a “deciding factor”, it can often “boil down” to a balance between them – especially where competition is tight and there appears to be little to differentiate between potential suppliers.
Let’s look at these criteria in turn:
Price: To some people this is the overriding issue – they search for the cheapest option – and that is understandable, especially when they have a limited budget,
In other cases, price is the deciding issue when it comes to choosing a tour operator. Two apparently similar itineraries can offered by different tour companies at different prices, and sometimes the difference is considerable. Now I am no different than any other consumer in that I don’t want to pay “over the odds” for goods and services. I have been known to turn and walk away when I consider that the price I am being asked for is excessive – and I don’t blame other people for doing so.
The general advice, however, is to remember that “cheaper is not always better”. Where there is a significant difference in price, then there might well be a good reason for this and it’s often a good idea to ask why it is so, and I am pleased to say that some people do ask. Sometimes, however, they tell us that they have received a quote for a tour itinerary that is actually lower than it would cost us to deliver the service, without any commission or taxes. I can only guess at how this is possible – I can think of several possible explanations, not all of them good.
Frankly, although we are always willing to try and be competitive, trying to offer the cheapest price it is not our overriding principle.
For the record: The way we calculate our prices is as follows:
- we work out what it will cost us to provide the service
- we add a service charge – usually about 10% of the overall price and and although people often assume that it’s all profit, it isn’t, it goes to pay our overheads as well as, hopefully, providing us with a profit
- we calculate and add the indirect taxes (sales tax and VAT)
Reducing the price the price means cutting back either cutting back on the services delivered in one way or another, or by reducing the service fee which will have an effect on our efficiency.
As a result, it seems to me, the issue shouldn’t be one of price, as such, but rather “value for money“, which brings us to the question of quality.
Quality: I am British, so in my thinking I often return to British background. Now, in the United Kingdom, one of the principle pieces of legislation governing commercial activity is the Sale of Goods Act, which specifies that the item on offer should be “fit for the purpose”, that is: do what it is supposed to do. Of course, tourism is a “service industry” so when someone purchases a tour they are not buying a “good” as such, but a service and there is another piece of legislation, the Sales of Good and Services Act, which lays down basic principles concerning the provision of services, that: the supplier will carry out the service with reasonable care and skill; they will perform the service in reasonable time and at a reasonable cost – so we are back to price, the price should be not be excessive but commensurate with the service delivered.
Buying a service, such as a tour, is always difficult because you can’t “try it for size”. The consumer has to rely on other things, like reputation or recommendations. Quite a few of our individual clients do come to us as the result of referrals. Maybe they have read about us in a news article, in a guidebook, or one of their family, friends or colleagues has told them about us. Sometimes we get asked for references or recommendations.
Being a service industry, a lot depends on our personnel. There is a lot of truth in the old adage that “our staff are our greatest asset”. Hence are careful when selecting staff and we try to respect and “take care of” them.
(The same is true, incidentally, when it comes to the environment and traditional culture. What we “sell” is an experience, an encounter with the country, its mountains, natural environment, its peoples, their history and culture. If we don’t respect those and “take care” of them then we risk damaging, or even destroying, that which people have traveled so far to see and experience.)
Of course, like other tour operators in Kyrgyzstan, we have to rely on the quality available in the country – in transport, accommodation and other facilities. That can vary quite considerably at various places around the country. For example, one foreign tour operator approached us with a request for an itinerary for their clients who expected luxury accommodation throughout the tour, and we were able to recommend only one itinerary, because the availability of four and five star quality accommodation is concentrated in just a few areas of the country. Although the situation is improving year by year, Kyrgyzstan still has some way to go, (as we are constantly being reminded by the government), before it can boast that it can meet international standards in all respects. I have always taken the view that, however, that although this is a problem, it need not be critical if we are up front with our potential clients at the outset. I know that is what I want and what I expect when I book a tour – I don’t like surprises – they tend to be unpleasant. If someone is warned what to expect beforehand, then they are prepared “for the worst” and are often pleasantly surprised when things turn out in reality.
Hence we try to tell people, as a matter of policy, about possible issues that might arise when we discuss a possible itinerary with them.
Reliability: It is important for a client to feel that they can rely upon their service provider. They want to feel confident that their tour operator will deliver on their promises. That’s one of the reasons why we prefer the “warts and all approach” when it comes to informing clients about possible problems or issues. I know that this is what I would want – and expect – when I am the consumer.
Several clients have told us that it was this “down to earth” approach that they liked when they were looking at the replies and offers that different companies had sent in response to their enquiries. One client said that the appreciated our explanations and treated them as an “individual” and not as “cattle fodder”.
Consistency is also an important issue – especially when the client is a foreign tour company who are looking to send us several groups. Although we’ve been in business – offering tours and accommodation – since 1997, as they say in the financial markets: “past performance is not an indicator of future results” (and as recent history has shown). It is, however, an indicator that the company is not a fly by night enterprise: “here today, gone tomorrow”. It is a sign that we must have been doing something right to have been able to stay in business for that period of time. Once again, reputation and recommendations can be important things which potential clients can look for.
Levels of Service: The literature about marketing and sales suggests that when considering making a purchase one should look “a sense of partnership” – after all the transaction should benefit both parties and not be one sided. The customer should feel that they, too, benefit from the purchase – in this case from their tour – and that their business is valued. Like the client who said that they valued being treated as an individual.
In fact, I learned very early on the value and importance of the quality of communications. Clients not only value strong, clear and informative messages – but also timely ones. On one occasion a client told me that they had sent out enquiries to several firms and received a variety of responses. Our reply was the last to arrive and, in fact, they had almost given up on us. When, however, they read our reply, (it was quite long and detailed), they changed their mind and we began a detailed correspondence with the result that, eventually, they placed their business with us.
I hasten to add that we weren’t that late in replying, but in this modern world of instant messaging and fast paced lifestyles, even a day’s delay over the weekend can, sometimes, “seem like an eternity” to the other person – especially if competitors manage to . As a result, checking the email always takes top priority and is the first thing I do every time I enter the office – even if I have been away for only a short time.
Another client once told me that he chose us because when we received his request for a quote, we actually addressed that request and tried to fulfill it – explaining where it wasn’t possible for one reason or another and suggesting where we thought there was a better option – instead of sending him a standard, “off the peg” itinerary. In fact, we have a wide variety of itineraries that we have developed over the years and it wouldn’t be difficult to simply select one and send that out … but the client had done some research, had specific interests and requests and it was only right that we should try and fulfill that instead of “taking the easy way out”. As it happens, most of our business involves customizing tours. Even where we have standard itineraries, there are often special circumstances that have to be taken into consideration and adaptations made.
If all of this sound “too good to be true”, then let me say straightaway that we don’t live in a perfect world and we, too, are not perfect. Sometimes we make mistakes. Something goes wrong or is less than satisfactory. This is where “after sales” service is important. We remember the golden rule, that we are also consumers and so strive to treat our customers as we would want to be treated ourselves. When something does go wrong, then we try to try and put things right and we try to learn from the experience.
Bishkek