Feedback from client surveys

First off, sorry we haven't been posting regularly the past couple of weeks. Besides being crazy busy, I have been on vacation for a chunk of that time and haven't been connected for blogging.

With the summer season about half over, our clients are starting to send in evaluation forms that cover all aspects of their vacation, especially our quality of service. We learn so much from these surveys, including both the good and the bad of what happened on our clients' vacations. We take all the feedback we receive and pile it back into our systems and processes for creating the best possible vacations for our clients.

I wanted to share one client's feedback we just received. The Poderski's from Florida took a 13 night adventure that covered Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon and Lake Powell in early June:

"I want to thank you for our best-ever family vacation. This was our first RV experience and it won't be our last. I never expected it would be so fun, relaxing and de-stressing.
We are very impressed with Tracks & Trails. Everything you suggested and planned was perfect. At first we were slightly concerned about potentially being "overscheduled". Actually the schedule was the best. What a time saver to have activities lined up ahead. Having everything already set up made the trip more relaxing. I would never try to do this on my own - I would always use Tracks & Trails."

Thank you Robin for such glowing remarks! And thanks to Lisa, the Poderski's trip consultant, for taking such good care of them and helping to create a memorable vacation for client's that are ready to plan their 2010 family vacation. As we get more surveys back from our clients, we share more of their experiences of what it was like to work with us. If you'd like to talk to Lisa or one of our other trip consultants, give us a ring toll free at 800-247-0970!

Our clients are out there traveling!

With all the new technology these days, we have a unique ability to follow along with our client's adventures. And now that the summer is here and our client's are hitting the road, many will be keeping journals, updating family blogs and taking tons of pictures and video. We will be posting most everything that comes to us in the coming months, both here and on our Facebook page (if you are on Facebook, just search for "Tracks & Trails" and become a fan!).

In the links section on the left side of our blog, we've just added a link to the Justices' personal travel journal. They are using www.mytripjournal.com to chronicle their adventure this month. They will be heading out this Friday for Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

Keep checking back here to see what our clients see and do on a Tracks & Trails National park driving vacation! And we are still talking to folks about trips later this summer and fall as well as in 2010. So if you want to have as much fun as our clients after you see examples of what a great time they have, check out our website and pick a trip that's great for you!

The Wynne's blog of their trip

Some of our clients are pretty tech savvy and have created blogs detailing their trip adventures. The Wynne's trip started on July 25th and was 18 days long, 16 in the RV from Pierce RV out of Billings. Their custom trip took them to Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, Devil's Tower, Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone. I won't even begin to describe their trip. You'll have to read the blog for yourself. It's pretty simple - they had a great time! (The picture on the right is from the last day.) Of course, we appreciate the mention of Tracks & Trails and how we helped design "the perfect family vacation". Here's the link - http://thewildwestadventure.blogspot.com/ If you have any questions about how to create your custom trip, just give us a ring at 800-247-0970.

Surveys and client feedback

Earlier I had talked a little about our staff and how valuable their experience is when helping to create your vacation. Another crucial component of our knowledge of the West and keeping up to date with everything that happens in the parks, on the road and in the campgrounds is the direct feedback we get from our clients. We include a survey in every Adventure Kit that is four pages long.

The survey is the most comprehensive tool we have to get a feel from our clients about their trip experience. We ask a variety of questions about the RV, campgrounds, excursions, what exceeded expectations, what disappointed, how they found us and their perception of value. We also have a freeform section where our clients can write anything they want. Many of our testimonials that we put on the website come from that information.

We also have had clients that have documented their trips on family blogs, including pictures and daily postings. And, of course, many clients simply call from the road to ask questions, get clarifications or ask for help.

We take all of this information very seriously and make changes to our itineraries, internal procedures and outfitters based on all of the feedback we get from our clients. We do this because we are always striving to make each client's experiences exceed their expectations.

So a big thank you to all of our clients from past years - you have helped make today's clients' vacations even better!

More pictures from the road - Team Harper

As our clients come back from their trips, we occasionaly get pictures. The Harper's took a 13 night trip that started in Billings, MT. They traveled the Beartooth Highway into Yellowstone, then through the Grand Teton National Park, on down to Jackson, WY and back to Billings. This family was really adventurous. They took a scenic float trip in the Tetons and had a private, guided, all-day, lunch included hike in Yellowstone (the most popular excursion with our clients). They did unfortunately miss out on a fishing trip due to high water (real bummer) and a chuckwagon dinner (reservation snafu by the outfitter).

They sent us a couple of pictures showing how much fun they had and awesome scenery. We get asked quite often what it's like to be in the outdoors RV camping in the National Parks. Well, it doesn't get much better than this! Not only does a family like Team Harper see some phenomenal sites, they get up close to them. And they get closer to each other.

Sharing one client's pictures

This is the time of year for us at Tracks & Trails where most of the planning and reservations are complete for our clients' summer trips. And we get feedback on how much fun everyone has had. Including pictures! This is great for us in the office to see through our clients' eyes what they liked and didn't like. We use this information for planning future trips and talking to prospective clients about the type of trip they would like to take. Here's a couple of pictures from our clients, the Guidry's.


They took the Jasper & Banff National Park trip for 9 days. The first picture on the left is a male bull elk they came by while hiking around Jasper. The picture on the right is from Horseshoe Lake. We were just amazed at the color of the lake! They tell us that they had a great time and highly recommend the 'scary' catwalk at Johnson Canyon, taking the gondola up to Sulphur Mountain, hiking with a guide at Mt. Edith Cavell and hiking up to the Mt. Agnes Teahouse at Lake Louise.

As we get more pics from our clients, I'll post them here along with any other news that's fit to 'print'.