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One of North America’s premier sport fishing adventure providers manages client relationships with Maximizer Enterprise
Langara Fishing Adventures is one of North America’s premier sport fishing and wilderness adventure providers. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the company operates five luxurious lodges situated in the province’s remote Queen Charlotte Islands and interior Chilcotin region. Langara Fishing Adventures caters to a high-end clientele of international anglers and adventure-seekers by offering access to some of the world’s best sport fishing opportunities in environments of untouched wilderness and abundant wildlife. With client experience as a primary differentiator, the company needed a high-tech solution to help provide guests with a truly exceptional level of service in all aspects of the client experience – before, during and following their adventure. Having reviewed competing systems, the company chose Maximizer Enterprise with consulting support from Vancouver-based Alpha Pacific Technologies. With Maximizer Enterprise at the heart of the company’s client management process, Langara Fishing Adventures now boasts a return guest rate that exceeds 70 percent.
Taking the Comforts of Home to the Wilds: Langara Fishing Adventures
Langara Fishing Adventures began over twenty five years ago with the opening of Langara Fishing Lodge, situated at Langara Island in the remote Queen Charlotte Islands, an archipelago off the coast of Northern British Columbia. As the first sport fishing operation in the Queen Charlotte Islands, the company has since introduced thousands of anglers and outdoor enthusiasts to the beauty and bounty of this incredible location, and have earned Langara Island a place amongst the great fishing destinations of the world.
Today, Langara Fishing Adventures offers all-inclusive adventures to five luxurious resorts showcasing the best of British Columbia’s dramatic wilderness, diverse wildlife and incredible sport fishing opportunities: from salmon fishing and whale watching at Langara Island, to steelhead fishing in the quiet rivers of the Queen Charlotte Islands, and wild rainbow trout in the wilderness of BC’s Chilcotin region. Operating in the highly-competitive adventure tourism industry, Langara Fishing Adventures’ competitors include other sport fishing operators in British Columbia and Alaska, but also resorts around the world that cater to those seeking luxurious experiences in unique and remote locations. The majority of the company’s operations are seasonal, with most trips taking place between May and September. Langara’s success and profitability depend on ensuring a high percentage of the company’s guests return year-after-year.
“From the beginning, Langara Fishing Adventures has built its reputation by offering world-class experience, both on and off the water,” says Scott Mehlenbacher, Chief Financial Officer, Langara Fishing Adventures. “Every single aspect of our business is focused on creating the perfect client experience – from the first moment they contact us, to managing the logistics of their flights, accommodations and, of course, time on the water.”
Technology and Know-How: Maximizer Enterprise
Having grown exponentially over the quarter century since its founding, Langara Fishing Adventures found that as the annual number of guests increased, it became increasingly difficult to maintain the company’s founding commitment to extremely personalized service. With that in mind, Langara sought out the advice of Vancouver-based Alpha Pacific technologies. After an evaluation of Langara’s vision for client management and available technologies, the company elected to deploy Maximizer Enterprise – selecting the system for its ease of use, and options for fast rollout. “Because of Langara’s unique requirement for personalized service, combined with a need for an easy to learn and use product, Maximizer Enterprise is a perfect fit,” says Byard Wood, President, Alpha Pacific Technologies. It provides the company with an all-in-one software package for keeping track of clients and progressively learning more about their preferences and therefore, how to bring them back again and again.”
With more than 7,500 customers, Maximizer Enterprise is the industry’s most popular and proven full-suite customer relationship management product. The system provides organizations like Langara Fishing Adventures with complete sales, marketing, customer service and support functionality at a very low total cost of ownership.
Personalizing the Experience
Working with Maximizer Enterprise, Langara’s sales team, administrators and lodge managers have access to a complete history of every interaction each client has with the company. And with over 4,000 individual and corporate guests each year, this information is critical to the company’s success, allowing the sales team to provide each guest with the feeling that the company remembers their last visit in detail and is welcoming a preferred guest back to the lodge.
“Before we had Maximizer Enterprise, we had no standardized way of collecting information from our guests,” says Mehlenbacher. “Now, we have a process for tracking every detail of our guests’ stay, along with all of their personal preferences, to ensure that each client receives a high level of communication and service. It’s working. Using the system has helped us secure more than 70% of our clients for a return visit, a full year in advance. This return business is a critical source of revenue and a clear indication that our client management efforts are really paying off.”
Benefits
Langara uses the guest profile information contained in Maximizer Enterprise to power its direct mail newsletter, which is delivered to more than 40,000 current and potential guests, in addition to monthly newsletters and sales promotions. The company can then use the system to track the results of its newsletter, tradeshow and advertising efforts and better understand the return it is getting on its marketing efforts.
One of the most important benefits Langara Fishing Adventures has realized with the help of Maximizer Enterprise has been a greater understanding of its repeat client business. Using the system, Langara’s sales team can easily determine the number of clients who return year after year and focus their efforts on increasing the group size of repeat customers. Since the decision to deploy Maximizer Enterprise, Langara Fishing Adventures has enjoyed:
A return guest rate averaging more than 70 percent year over year;
- Management of more than 4,000 luxury fishing vacations annually;
- Successful management of more than 40,000 contacts;
- Visibility into marketing effectiveness;
- Standardized processes for gathering client information;
- Email marketing to more than 10,000 subscribers monthly
What’s Next
The next step in Langara Fishing Adventures’ client management strategy will see the company deploy the latest generation of Maximizer Enterprise to take advantage of the system’s powerful Outlook email integration capabilities. Using the integrated applications, Langara’s sales team will be able to instantly save email communications with clients to the client’s profile. The company also plans to integrate Maximizer Enterprise with Langara’s Accpac accounting package – to offer its sales team a complete 360 degree view of each client’s history with the company. “We’re already taking advantage of the power of Maximizer Enterprise to change the way we interact with our clients. By feeding Maximizer Enterprise with key information from our Outlook email and accounting systems, we’ll further simplify the administrative efforts of our staff while enhancing the personalized feel we offer our clients.”
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