ASK FOR REVIEWS: EMAIL TEMPLATES FOR OPERATORS

ASK FOR REVIEWS:

EMAIL TEMPLATES

FOR OPERATORS

Best practices guide for obtaining and

maximising reviews.

TURNING LOOKERS INTO BOOKERS

Reviews can be the best marketing tool to help you convince potential customers

to book with you. This sort of social proof is the ﬁnal push for most customers to

actually buy, so your efforts at obtaining and maximising reviews are vital to the

success of your business.

Don’t let the fear of negative reviews hold you back. Know that you simply cannot

please everyone and that, inevitably, you will receive some bad feedback from

someone along the way. Knowing that, you can also rest assured that today’s

customers are cynical and rarely trust a perfect record of only 5-star reviews! A

few moderate or even negative reviews can prove to customers that the reviews

are real.

The key here is to reply to any and all negative reviews with a positive response.

As the business owner, you get the last word here and you can spin that negative

into a positive for future review readers.

To obtain and maximise reviews, we have some advice on best practices that may

help you...

TURNING LOOKERS INTO BOOKERS

OBTAINING REVIEWS

FROM CUSTOMERS

Getting reviews after a tour can be a challenge, but it’s one worth pursuing to the

best of your abilities. Remember, reviews will be one of your best marketing tools

for converting future customers!

Your best chance for obtaining reviews is by contacting past customers via email.

Collecting email addresses and permission to contact your customers is one of the

best things you can do during the booking process or during the tour/experience

itself. Building an email list can offer you endless possibilities for marketing.

Following Up By Email

Collecting email addresses so you can follow up with your tour customers later is

vital. Perhaps you could add the email request to a waiver form or a simple sign-

in form before the tour starts, or you could require it for itinerary details for a

full-day or multi-day tour.

However you collect it, just be sure to gather the email addresses and permission

to contact them by email. This opens up opportunities for continued marketing

efforts after the tour.

We don’t recommend that you email asking for a review straight away. First, send

an initial follow-up email asking if everything was alright with the tour. If the

customer comes back with any issue or complaint, then you can address it through

private communications.

If you ask for a review straight away, there is a chance that any dissatisﬁed customer

may leave a bad review. However, if the customer says that everything was great

with the tour, then that is when you ask for a review, knowing that the review is

more likely to be positive.

Ideally, the emails being sent to the customer should be from the tour guides, or

at least look like they are from the tour guide, and not from a generic company

email address. People don’t really care about a tour company with which they

don’t have a personal connection. They are more likely to leave a review if they

feel they are helping out the individual tour guide they got to know during the

tour or experience.

That personal connection is almost always a better incentive for customers to

leave a review.

These follow-up emails can be as simple as a few lines of text or they could include

a group photo from their exact tour. You could include your links to social channels

to stay in touch, encouraging them to share their own photos and experiences

with others in the community.

You also have the option of offering a special discount or bonus for signing up

for another tour. While international visitors aren’t likely to pursue this, it’s still a

feel-good offer that leaves a positive feeling.

TURNING LOOKERS INTO BOOKERS

SAMPLE FOLLOW-UP

EMAILS

As mentioned above, it’s ideal to send these from the actual tour guide. If you can’t

identify the tour guide who took a speciﬁc customer, you can send from yourself

as the owner/founder or from someone else on your team.

Just be sure to have an individual name associated with the email address and

signing off on the message. Personal emails are always more effective.

The following text can and should be adapted to your brand voice and tour

speciﬁcs. This is a general framework to give you an idea of how to approach the

conversation...

EMAIL 1

Recent Customers - 3 Days After a Day Tour or 1 Week After a Multi-day Tour

NOTE: Please adjust for UK/US English.

Hi [insert name here]

Thank you for joining me at [Brand Name] for a [Tour Name]. I really hope you had

a great time and that the experience met — or exceeded! — your expectations.

I’d love to know what you thought and to hear any feedback you have about me as

a tour guide, about the tour content and logistics, and about your whole experience

with [Brand Name].

[Add buttons for Loved it or Needs improvement that can offer an immediate

reaction sent directly to you.]

Thanks again,

[Tour Guide’s Name]

Grab this template here.

TURNING LOOKERS INTO BOOKERS

EMAIL 2

For those who replied: Loved it. Send the next day.

NOTE: Please adjust for UK/US English.

Hey [name],

I’m thrilled that you loved your experience with [Brand Name]! Thanks so much

for taking the time to give me that initial feedback.

If you have a free minute, I would be so grateful if you could leave a review.

Reviews are really important for other guests who are thinking about booking

with us. If you can share your kind words, I’d be so appreciative! You can review us

easily on Google here [add link].

If you want to stay in touch, you can follow us on [Facebook, Instagram, YouTube].

I would love to see your photos from our tour, too! Feel free to tag us with

[@BrandNameSocial] wherever you share.

I hope to see you back here again soon! As a thank you for joining us and taking

the time to reply, we’d like to offer a [10% discount] on another tour. Just use the

code [LovedIt] when you book again.

Until next time,

[Tour Guide’s Name]

Grab this template here.

EMAIL 3

For those who replied: Needs improvement. Send the next day from the

business owner’s email address. This allows the guest to feel comfortable

providing feedback about the tour guide (if applicable) and to feel like the

owner is accountable and listening.

NOTE: Please adjust for UK/US English.

Hi [name],

Thanks so much for taking the time to give us that initial feedback about your tour

with [Brand Name]. I sincerely appreciate your time and I’d really like to hear more

from you.

If you have a moment, I would be grateful if you could offer some additional

feedback on your experience. I can only improve [Brand’s] services if I hear from

guests, so please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions when you ﬁnd the

time.

Just hit reply and speak your mind. I read every email and it would beneﬁt all our

future guests to know how we could do better next time.

Thanks again for your time,

[Business Owners Name]

[Your Title as the business owner/founder, etc]

Grab this template here.

TURNING LOOKERS INTO BOOKERS

POST-COVID EMAILS

We have created the following two emails to help you ask for reviews with a

focus on helping your business after the devastating affects of Covid.

To ask from a guide perspective

NOTE: Please adjust for UK/US English.

Hey [insert name here],

I hope you have been well during these challenging times.

As you probably know, it has been equally challenging for the tourism industry

but as we look to dust ourselves off and show people like you around our amazing

destination, I would like to ask you for a small favour…

If you loved our time together can I ask you to please leave a review here[add link].

This will not only help me personally; I hope it will also help us rebuild our business,

while helping to bring more like-minded people to [enter tour destination] so

they can have the same amazing experience as you hopefully did.

Thank you in advance for your help, and I hope our paths cross again in the future.

Cheers,

[Tour Guide Name]

Grab this template here.

To ask from a Business Perspective

NOTE: Please adjust for UK/US English.

Hi [insert name here],

I hope you have been well during these challenging times.

As you probably know, it has been equally challenging for the tourism industry.

But as we look to dust ourselves off and show people like you around our amazing

destination, I would like to ask you for a small favour…

If you loved our time together can I ask you to please leave us a review here[add

link]..

This will help us rebuild our business, while helping to bring more like-minded

people to [Enter Tour Destination] so they can have the same great experience as

you hopefully did.

Thank you in advance for your help and your time. I hope our paths will cross

again.

Kind regards

[Business Owner Name]

[Your Title as the business owner/founder, etc]

TURNING LOOKERS INTO BOOKERS

5 MIN A DAY TASK

Spend 5 minutes a day to set up and send your post-covid emails. Below is a

guide on the tasks you may need to take each day...

Sample timeline

Day 1: Collate/download all your past customer names and emails and

upload to your email software (MailerLite, MailChimp etc) or if

available direct from your reservation system and/or OTA. If you know

which tour guide served which customer, segrate these into seperate

lists so you can send as if from that guide.

Day 2: Select one of our templates and add this to your email system,

updating the areas with your own information and add your dynamic

ﬁelds to pull in the customers name.

Day 3: Send out your email to your customers and if your platform allows

select that the platform selects the appropriate time to send out.

In terms of which day to send out, I would recommend a

Tuesday or Thursday as not that many look at email over a weekend.

Day 4-6: For anyone who leaves a review, you must leave a response to thank

them. Make it personal to that customer so don’t cookie cut a response.

Make it unique as it shows that you care and will come across better to

anyone reading reviews in the future. Build that trust!

Day 7: Send a follow up email to the entire list, thanking those who

took the time to leave a review and ask those again who did not.

“TMA have been greatly supportive

from start to ﬁnish, especially during

the Covid-19 crisis, helping to maintain

our marketing needs during this time.

They respond quickly with every

question we have and assists with new

ideas to grow our business. We are

extremely thankful and hope to work

with the team for many years to come.

Thanks TMA!”

Nicola Holland - Horizon Sail

Tourism Marketing Agency

The Garden Room

25 Polnoon Avenue

Glasgow G13 3HQ

hel[email protected]

+44 20 3920 9135

tourismmarketing.agency