“Mở Bát”, open the bowl is a fun expression we talk about a gamble game, to try the luck in the new year. Inside the secret bowl placed upon the plate, the dice are held. This year, on the first day of 2024, we ‘mở bát’ with six groups of customers, resulting in six sides of green HEARTS for highest satisfaction.
We shared the appreciation of the travelers as well as their travel agents. A great sense of accomplishment is also experienced by our team, guides, host communities, and cyclo drivers. Though it is a great start, we have never considered it as a random result of LUCK. It is an on-going journey that our “happy turtles” joint to build “Customer Experience Excellence”.
Let’s take a deep look through our six sides of H-E-A-R-T-S, standing for six pillars of customer experience excellence.
H for Humanization: Individualize attention for enhanced emotional connection
From reservation agents, tour guides to host families, we embrace an individualized attention to drive emotional connections. When we know the customers’ travel style and preferences, ages, FIT, GIT, or Family, etc., we arrange the corresponding tour guides and alternate the visits, activities to suit them best. With AI, it takes 3s to render a travel program that personalizes with all the input keywords, but it takes years and human intelligence to realize customer insights.
For this reason, we refrain from offering travel experience as a commodity, to optimize the max productivity as we value personalized services. All our tours are on a private basis, from one passenger to 40+ (if from the agent).

E for Empathy: Understand different circumstances to drive deep rapport
There are tons of concerns that the customers may have, but they might not share them all. Your job on the field is to cleverly understand the customer’s circumstances to drive deep rapport. Families travel with small kids, senior travelers, persons with disabilities (we got the training of Inclucare Travel Designer and Reservations).

A for Assurance: Manage, meet and exceed expectations
Customers aren’t afraid of local interactions but are concerned about invading privacy, falling victim to a commercial approach, or causing negative social and environmental impacts. Working mainly with B2B partners, we provide reliable advice on DO’s and DON’Ts, emphasizing the “WHY” behind each activity, crucial for managing and exceeding customer expectations.

When asked by travel experts or direct customers about not wanting to bother villagers or avoiding persistent sales approaches, we confidently assure them.
We can confidently assure: “There is nothing as such. For all the visit to the local families, it is our community involved tourism concept that we share the benefit for them when they host the tourist. It comes already from your tour payment, and you don’t need to pay anything else. It is a responsible tourism concept that creates impact for local family”.
It’s crucial for customers to realize they’re investing in a meaningful travel experience, avoiding the frustrations of cheap tours. Positive experiences may lead them to express, “It think that this amazing what you guys are doing and I hope more companies adopt this type of travelling”.
R for Resolution: Dare to lead with services
In many cases, our team received notifications from the agent that the customers were exceedingly difficult and were not happy with their travel experience in Vietnam so far. We do not claim to be game-changers, but our passion and dedication have turned poor experiences into great ones. Our success lies in our commitment to addressing the concerns of difficult clients. The objective is not merely completing a tour and cashing in on revenue but always being ready to offer memorable experiences for all guests, making our partners confident when working with an in-destination experience creator like us.
Time and Effort: Reduce customer efforts for non-added value
If we consider Time and Efforts as costs, we must adopt a LEAN mindset in all steps of our operations. Waste (waiting time, unnecessary movements, incorrect information, etc.) should be limited to reduce customer efforts for activities that bring no added value. Slow Travel Hue offers a select number of tours and services that we excel at, having done so for the past 10 years. We aim to create frictionless processes for you, DMCs, Tour Operators, and your customers. We take charge of all meticulous arrangements, ensuring your customers spend quality time on activities that make sense.
S for Sincerity: Build consistent commitment and trustworthy partnership
Finally, it is SINCERITY, and integrity that serve as the red thread guiding all our people, services, and communication. Sometimes it may not make everyone happy, as there is a conflict of interest; for example, the escort guide (from our partner) might push us to shorten the tour so that he squeeze in shopping time elsewhere, but it will affect the committed services and emotions for the travelers.

Sincerity also lies in the way we build trust with our guides, associates, farmers, and grassroots suppliers. Not only the travelers, but these individuals are also our very important customers. Without their sharing of happy HEARTS, there is no way we could strive for Customer Experience Excellence.