We’re sure you’ve put a lot of thought into the experience customers have during your tour or activity. But what happens afterward? If you don’t send a follow-up email or other communication, you could be missing out on opportunities for reviews and feedback.

A follow-up email is an automated message sent to your customers after they go on your tour or activity. Similar to a reminder email, when you optimize this messaging you will maximize its benefits.

This guide will cover why follow-up emails are important, which details to include, and how to set them up in your Dashboard. 

Benefits of Follow-Up Emails

Follow-up emails are sent during a crucial part of your customer’s journey—the sharing stage. This communication is an easy way to improve the customer experience and create lasting relationships. Below are a few of the top reasons we recommend sending them.

• Your tour or activity will stay in the top of customers’ minds.
• Customers will be prompted to share their experience with friends and family which increases referrals. 
• You’ll get more online reviews by adding a link to the email.
• This communication shows that you care about your customers’ experience. 
• They’re automated! Set them up once and only update when necessary. 

What to Include in Your Follow-Up Email

Although your follow-up email will be unique to your business, there are a few key elements every business should include. 

1. Say ‘Thank You’

First and foremost, you should thank your guests for going on your tour or activity. This small gesture shows each customer you care about their business and that they had a great experience.

2. Add a Link to Your Preferred Review Site

In order to reduce decision fatigue, it is helpful to ask customers to share their review in only one place rather than sharing buttons to each popular site. Remember you can always alter the link if you want to spread the reviews out.

3. Encourage customers to take a survey

In addition to reviews, you can also ask customers to take a survey to let you know how their experience was. This information is crucial to helping you learn what you could change about your business as well as things you should keep doing. 

Pro Tip: Go a step further to show customers the value in leaving a review or giving feedback. For instance, you can say something like “your feedback is very important to us as well as to potential future customers who will use your experience to decide who to rent a boat from in Austin.”

4. Include Links to Your Social Pages

Use your follow-up email to get extra followers across your social accounts!

Pro Tip: Add buttons to your social pages on every email you send to customers. You can simply build this into the footer in the email to always encourage a steady flow of new followers. Be sure to post regularly so customers know they will be following an active page!

A few other items you can include in your follow-up email:

• If your experience offers paid photos or videos, include the link where customers can find them.
• An offer for a discounted future tour or another incentive to encourage repeat business.
• Similarly, you can offer a discount if they leave a review or complete a survey. 
• An added ‘thank you’ at the bottom of the email to express you would hope to see them again soon. 

How to Send Your Automated Follow-Up Emails

Once you’ve written your customized follow-up email, you can set it up in your Dashboard by following these instructions.

A few things to remember:

• You can choose when the canned message will be sent (i.e. 24 hours after their tour or activity)
• You are able to save and reuse this email
• You can edit the content as necessary

Pro Tip: Don’t forget about text messages! You can choose to send text messages instead or in addition to your follow-up email. This message will be shorter than your email copy, and should include only one link and a thank you. 

No matter which details you include, a follow-up email is a low-lift way to get repeat business and make great customer connections.