Press Release
Germany’s first direct tour operator recognised early on that customer-centric communication does not work using the shotgun approach. For this reason, Berge & Meer set itself the goal of making customer communication as personal and individual as possible – as individual as dream holidays are. In order to make this possible and provide customers with the best offers on round trips, adventure tours, cruises and holidays in Germany on all channels, the company implemented Salesforce Service Cloud and Salesforce Marketing Cloud with the help of the digital agency dotSource. This enables the tour operator from the Westerwald region to communicate with customers in a modern way, which was the reason why the company was ranked first in the independent »E-Mail Marketing Benchmarks 2021« study.
Today, companies like Berge & Meer reach customers differently than they did 20 years ago: Whereas customers used to go to travel agencies with a vague idea of their next holiday, they now increasingly look for their next round trip while sitting on the couch in the evening, are influenced by user reviews and tend to make decisions more spontaneously. They get their inspiration from various channels – newsletters in the evening, occasional social media posts and Instagram Stories during weekends now influence purchasing decisions just as much as advertising brochures by post or personal contact with travel agents. In order to be able to reach customers at any time, both at the beginning of the customer journey and afterwards, companies need not only a modern strategy, but also the right software that allows them to centrally manage various services and communicate with customers in a modern way.
Personal Dream Holidays with Modern CRM and Marketing Automation
After a thorough system evaluation, Berge & Meer opted for Salesforce Service Cloud and Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Together with dotSource as its implementation partner, the direct tour operator went ahead with the implementation. The first step was to use the new systems to cleanse existing data, link it and make it segmentable more quickly. This included not only data on customers, but also data on all service providers involved in the tours organised by Berge & Meer, such as a bus company on Fuerteventura, a hotel in Sydney or a Bergen-based company offering fjord cruises.
With the new CRM system, all of the company’s employees now have permanent access to the data they need to be successful with a 360-degree view of the customer. In combination with Salesforce Marketing Cloud, engaging campaigns can be created and rolled out with just a few clicks. In addition, Berge & Meer received not only an easy-to-use newsletter tool, but also a complete sign-up journey with a preference centre. Among other things, this gives customers the option to pause and specify the newsletter – depending on what they are most interested in. Accordingly, Berge & Meer can now better tailor its marketing content to customers’ preferences.
CRM and Marketing Automation: Award-Winning E-Mail Campaigns
Within the framework of customer-centric communication, it was also important for the direct tour operator to implement special aspects of customer retention: The company not only sends out birthday mailings, but also offers customers something to celebrate their name day. Last but not least, Berge & Meer created and implemented a modern voucher journey and simplified communication, for example when cancelling a tour. This makes a digitalised, efficient, customer-friendly and modern customer journey all the more valuable. Exciting marketing automation campaigns can be planned and targeted at specific audiences; even personal greetings, such as the aforementioned birthday mailings with personalised offers, can now be sent without much manual effort.
»We really learned to appreciate the close cooperation with a brilliant team! The proposed solutions were excellent every time and the communication channels were direct, fast and unbureaucratic. dotSource really helped us to implement Salesforce Service Cloud and Salesforce Marketing Cloud,« Alexander Ramseger, Head of Business Applications at Berge & Meer, comments on the project.
With Salesforce Service Cloud and Salesforce Marketing Cloud, valuable tools for future-oriented and customer-centric communication were implemented. With the help of these systems, Berge & Meer can target e-mail campaigns at specific audiences and personalise them. The independent »E-Mail Marketing Benchmarks 2021« study, which examined the communication of 5043 companies on the basis of 150 criteria, shows that the company excels in customer communication at all levels. In first place: Berge & Meer.
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