Recent volcanic disruption: how we coped!

As a tour operator one of the most important things to us is customer care and making sure that our clients feel comfortable and looked after in resort.

The importance of this is shown in the way we have structured our business... we are the first British diving tour operator to operate and manage our own Red Sea liveaboard fleet. With offices in both the UK and Egypt, we make quality of service paramount, from initial enquiry to ground operations. Providing accessible channels for communication and feedback is essential to customer satisfaction and care; we offer a fully accountable service from start to finish.

This unique business structure was key to our customer care during the recent volcanic disruption.

Our customers unable to fly out of the UK...
We had just less than 60 divers due to fly out from London Gatwick to Egypt on Friday 16th April.  The flight was marked as 'delayed' on Friday and this delay continued into Saturday and Sunday.  Throughout this period we kept in constant contact with our clients and offered them partial refunds for the holiday time lost; this partial refund increased as the delay progressed.  On Sunday when the flight was still delayed we took the decision to cancel the trip and offered our clients the opportunity to transfer their trip to another week anytime within our published schedule dates (end 2011).  This offer was very well received and we have now successfully re-booked the majority of clients.

Our customers stranded in Egypt...
On Fridays our clients have day use of the Marriott hotel while waiting for their flight.  When the news came that the flight was going to be delayed until at least the next day, clients were transferred back to our boats (Marriott marina) for dinner and to stay the night. 

When it came to light that the flight was going to be very delayed and there would be no-one travelling out from the UK or back from Egypt anytime soon, we came up with a plan to try and make the best out of a potentially disastrous situation for our stranded guests. This plan involved the following options...

1. Another liveaboard safari

or

2. Local activities such as golf and quad biking, Free use of the Marriott facilities including the Health & Fitness centre, followed by a mini safari later in the week if the situation did not improve.

All of these activities were provided at a very minimal cost.

As a tour operator we have certain legal responsibilities and a duty of care to our guests which we believe we far exceeded.  In most circumstances being stranded abroad can be tough both physically and mentally, not to mention frustrating and costly.  Most of this frustration is caused by uncertainty and lack of information or communication from your tour operator.  We did everything possible to make sure that all guests were kept up to date on the entire situation as it unfolded, made sure everybody was safe and looked after, provided assistance when needed, provided a free laundry service and generally tried to make the whole experience as stress free as possible for our guests.

This volcanic disruption enabled us to put our business ethics into practice and the showed the lengths we will go to. We are very pleased that we were able to help our guests make the most of this unexpected turn of events!

Volcanic Ash Tour 2010...

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