Company type:Tour Operator
Company location:New Zealand
Our profit has grown 20% year over year, and that’s the direct impact Lemax had on our business. Lemax allowed us to design and sell more tours, which directly impacted our business by ensuring new, additional revenue. Because of Lemax we were safe to invest in increasing not only the total number, but also the quality of our tours.
Challenge: eliminating spreadsheets that covered both itineraries and costing models
Andy and Sarah Somerville established No.8 Tours in 2008. They began by providing tours for the cruise ship industry and quickly decided to specialize in single and multi-day excursions for the senior community throughout New Zealand. With hard work and a successful formula, they’ve become one of New Zealand’s largest travel clubs for seniors.
Andy soon realized they needed help from software to enable scaling the business and increasing the quality of the service provided to their travelers. They were looking for a solution to support many unique tours they were doing manually in giant spreadsheets that covered both itineraries and their costing models.
At one point, he considered going down the “build on my own” route. Still, after a few iterations with a development company, he soon realized that building your solution is costly and very time consuming, so he gave the search another try and found Lemax.
“By using technology, we could put ourselves ahead of the competition that wasn’t in the market then, but I knew it was coming.”
Solution: automated and streamlined core processes – greater efficiency and resources management
Andy shortlisted three different vendors to have a deep dive with. They quickly gravitated to Lemax, which he says was at their level. Despite the time difference, the communication was efficient, No.8 got all the answers on time and felt that Lemax addressed all their needs.
They saw Lemax as a solution that solved their current problems and had a vast potential for future development. Their goal was to cover their main processes – product development, sales, accounting, administration and marketing.
Early in the implementation, they saw that they had found a solution that would automate and streamline the processes making No.8 employees’ jobs easier, faster, and in the end, more efficient and profitable. Lemax gave No.8 “homework” during the implementation, as Andy calls it. It’s important to stress the importance of commitment to training from both sides – by being diligent, they were able to put everything in place before the upcoming season.
“Lemax was an integral part of our business when Covid-19 pandemic started. Had we not had Lemax, trying to handle what someone paid, who’s transferring their booking to a later date, and who’s claiming insurance would be impossible. Lemax helped us handle that seamlessly.”
Impact: 43% growth of the number of sold tours, contributing to the 20% growth of their profit
In these last two years of using Lemax, they managed to:
- grow their business to the point where they can take time and resources to invest in other areas.
- increase the standard of their tours, accommodation, transport and guides.
When the lockdown occurred, they were facing a large number of cancellations. They gave their customers the option to postpone the tour or to claim their insurance. By managing all that through Lemax, they could keep track of what was booked and paid, reschedule the tour, or claim the insurance. This overview and seamless process vastly minimized the negative effect that the lockdown had on their business.
By doing all of that, Lemax also allowed them to stay ahead of the competition.
“Lemax allowed us to be creative, and put more products out there. Our calendar is now full and we don’t have any room for new tours.”
No.8 Tours grew the number of sold tours by 43% since using Lemax
Co-founder and CEO
No.8 Tours, New Zealand