Memories of 16 Years of Beidong Drifting (Part 5)---Memories inspired by working in Canada.

From the end of 2001 to the early summer of 2004: I cooperated with my colleagues to open a travel agency in Beijing. During this period, my two younger brothers from Chongqing, my hometown, came to join us one after another, and my partner’s sister, brother and one of her friends also came to join us. company. In early 2002, my college alumni also came. In this way, a "family-style" small business was formed. The office was moved from the original building to a shop facing the street in Xidan. The shop was very grand, about 70 square meters, with two glass doors and large transparent glass windows on both sides. , push the door and go in. There is a wooden blue backboard on the wall opposite. There are lights behind the backboard. The name of the travel agency affiliated with the company is posted on it. There is also English under the name, which is very impressive.

In order to facilitate work, I also rented a two-bedroom apartment in a community in Gyeonggi Province, Xidan. Except for my partner’s friends, everyone else was crowded in this apartment; my two younger brothers and I also There were classmates from my hometown squeezed into the same bed, but I already felt very happy at that time. After all, it was a building, and you could walk to your work in 5 minutes. Before this, in order to save rent, we rented a house in Daxing. However, it takes nearly 2-3 hours to commute back and forth on the bus, which is very hard. I have already gritted my teeth to move to Xidan. Before living in Daxing, I moved to many places in Beijing. They were either bungalows, semi-basements, or even full basements.

At that time, our advertising was very popular in Beijing. The travel pages of "Beijing Evening News", "Beijing Youth Daily" and "Beijing Daily" were published simultaneously almost every week, and the page size was never ambiguous. In addition, Our products have always been at the forefront of innovation, and have carved a niche in the middle-aged and elderly market and established a firm foothold. However, the company name in our advertisements is still affiliated with others, and the contract is also their seal. If one day they don't want us Being affiliated, doesn’t this mean making wedding clothes for others?

But at that time, private individuals were not allowed to register travel agencies, and people who traveled in the 1990s had no choice but to register as a travel agency; I had realized the importance of the brand, so I used my personal ID card to register with the National Trademark Office at the end of 2002. We have a trademark. When advertising, we also carry this trademark in addition to the company name, and it is also printed on the letterhead of the tourist route. Because we know very well that one day we will have to officially register our own company.

Although we are unparalleled in the middle-aged and elderly tourism market, new imitators are constantly joining us. The most surprising thing to us is that a good friend of ours suddenly joined the Guozihao Grand Hotel. I took all the routes as they were, and added a few more attractions, but the prices were much cheaper than mine, and they appeared on the same page where we advertised (at that time, we mainly relied on newspapers to attract customers), and this person was able to persist, and followed We competed for about 6 years in the same period, and we did lose some customers. But we are still friends in private. At that time, my colleagues were still a little aggrieved. I said that there will always be competition, and it is better for friends to compete than strangers!

We have ranked first in the number of middle-aged and elderly people we receive in Beijing. There is a long queue of customers to sign up. At that time, two employees came to sign the contract. They often had to go home very late and had to carry a large amount of money back. I packed it in cash and went to the bank to deposit it the next morning; at that time, my two younger brothers were mainly responsible for going to the door to sign the contract. Many tours are full right away, and another tour will be opened on a nearby day and it will be full again.

Although we have a tour leader for each group and the customer satisfaction rate is higher than other conventional individual group tours, complaints still occur from time to time. Each of us has a complicated job: I design routes during the day, connect with the operation team of the local travel agency, and work overtime at night to optimize the web page (my alumni quit when SARS broke out); customers who complain always feel unhappy and unwilling to Accepting this reality, we often compare ourselves with other guests in the group. Why are others satisfied but you are not? Are you deliberately looking for trouble?

The Xidan Library is very close. When I had time, I would buy some business management books and read them. I basically read all the major management subjects. I remember that at that time, I mainly read foreign books. Written by the author.

I have read multiple editions of major subjects such as "Management", "Sales Management", "Innovation Management", and "Marketing".

A book called "Service Innovation" gave me great inspiration. We began to truly understand the importance of retaining old customers and the huge business value.

Since the beginning of 2003, we have made major adjustments to our services: each group must conduct door-to-door phone calls within 5 days after returning, and guest complaints are no longer treated as trivial matters. It is to attach great importance to it and face it positively.

I remember one time a team who came back from a trip to Sichuan came to complain. I took them to the lobby bar of Xidan Shanshui Hotel and sat down to chat, make tea and snacks, listen carefully to what they said, and reflect on it. What we really cannot do well is to sincerely communicate with the guests. Thinking about it from their perspective, if it were me or my parents who encountered such service, would they be equally angry? After chatting, they went to dinner, and they were taken to a nearby Sichuan restaurant for a banquet, and each guest was compensated 200 yuan.

When faced with serious customer complaints, I have personally visited the customer many times to apologize and explore the reasons in detail. Most of these guests have become our lifelong partners and free advertising ambassadors. We have also gradually discovered that the more we face customer complaints with a positive attitude, the easier it is to get positive responses and understanding from customers. The more rebellious we are, the more complaints there will be, and the more energy we will consume in the end and the price we will pay. That's bigger.

In short: our service awareness has begun to truly awaken!

However, some problems in company management have also arisen. Our two partners’ families are both in the company and live in the same house. They are very busy at work and both of us often work overtime. Sometimes it is inevitable that we will have disputes. , at this time, suspicion and estrangement gradually arose. The partner left with her family in 2004. Of the company's two original phone numbers, one was given to her and the other is still there. It was also that year that I registered a "XX Travel Consulting Company" using the trademark registered in 2002, but it was not a travel agency. I knew clearly that one day the registration of travel agencies would be open to private individuals, so I had to protect the brand first.

There are many things worthy of recording during the 2016 Beidiao. Time is limited. If you are interested, please listen to the next chapter for details.