quote:

Originally posted by John Boulding:
Thanks to all for the candid feedback. As mentioned, these are just ideas in fact were based on a review by our special tours team of comments and reviewing the poll. Nothing has been set just yet so very happy to take on board latest comments! Our special groups team will look at the 19 day itinerary proposed by "Dragon" as it seems to be what most members want? If that is the case then it is most certainly worth to attempting to build it. We will also move the departure to September 2010 as that is the month that is suitable for most members based on comments rather than poll. As promised, more information will be available shortly.

Thanks again and please keep the feedback coming!

I was not at all impressed by this comment, John. If these ideas are a reflection of the quality of the special tours team, then I suggest something needs to be done internally. Either they cannot read, or they are not able to understand what they are reading. Your latest posting really amounts to a reversal of the earlier one, which is also a poor reflection on the standard of customer service from Insight.

Paul via Tuppence

quote:

Your latest posting really amounts to a reversal of the earlier one, which is also a poor reflection on the standard of customer service from Insight.

I'm sure that JB has the picture by now Paul!!! Jim

Paul, In general, I agree with your first two sentences. Obviously the team got it wrong. For what reason, we may never know.
As to your last sentence, I cannot disagree more. It is apparent to me that Mr. Boulding takes a great personal interest in this board and the needs and wants of his customers. A rare thing for a person in his position. However he found out, he found out that we were disappointed and immediately took steps to correct the problem. I would call this great customer service.

To Paul (and Tuppence),
I had the same feeling as you did.

Dear All,
Just to bring you up to speed.
I apologise if it seems we have not given this trip due attention recently but it is simply because we are in the height of the operating season and there are very many urgent pressures on all departments. We have felt comfortable all along in letting this forum run freely with ideas however so the upcoming tour becomes something of an organic development. This is not something we normally do of course. Our standard brochure tours are decided upon quite systematically based on initial research and feedback and are timed to meet print deadlines, etc.
Clearly, contributing members are keen for us to begin to give this some shape which is why I have asked our operations and special tours people to begin to nail it down. Clearly we skimmed it when we shouldn't have done so. Right now our operating departments have hundreds of tours on the road that require a great deal of attention but they are re-focused on the members tour and we will get this fully back on track soon. As johninwa noted, we did go down a wrong road in a hurry to try to get it moving but as soon as we were aware that this was a mistake we put it right.
I have been very tied up recently which is why I haven't posted much. Along with all our marketing teams I am working on 2010 brochures and programming and there is a huge amount to do. It is the same every year. It takes a lot of time but it is worth it when the brochures come out!
I'm also in the middle of moving home from Bermuda to Guernsey. We are relocating our head office so there are boxes everywhere and I'm back and forth across the Atlantic several times a month at the moment. It should be completed by early September and I'm looking forward to settling down for a few weeks before our product launches around the world in October.
Anyway - that's the background. The fact that I poked a hornets nest serves to show that people really do care and I am truly glad we have such a vibrant board; that's what makes it all worthwhile.
Thanks as always for your contributions!
John

John, thank you. I for one appreciate the time that you are able to give to this BB considering how busy your schedule appears to be. I, and others on this bb, look forward to getting more definite information about the president's tour. I also look forward each October to the new brochures. Take care and good luck with the move....Bermuda to Guernsey...what a change.

John Boulding...

Thanks for your reply to all of us relative to the special tour next year.

"I'm also in the middle of moving home from Bermuda to Guernsey."

Q: Could this be the part of the reason why Insight was not up to speed on the tour? Afterall, you were in Bermuda, a vacation place. (Grin)

Get back to work, John! (My wife said it!)

Hi John and thank you for your responses.

We do understand how busy you and your team are at this time of the year and we are delighted to hear that you have now asked your operations and special tours people to begin to nail down the 2010 BB tour as a lot of the BB members are anxiously waiting to see the final itinerary.

Discussions among the Bulletin Board Community, on where to go, have evolved a long way since Phil’s original 3 suggestions of “CR of Portugal, Spain & Southern France”, “CR of NE France plus Burgundy & Provence River tour”(both in October last year) and “Enchanting Italy” (in November last year) as well as my suggestion of “Austria-Hungary-Romania-Bulgaria-Bosnia-Serbia-Croatia-Slovenia-Italy” and shortened variants thereof which concentrated more on The Balkans and Croatia (in November last year). At one stage I had even suggested, as an attempt to add something a bit different to the rest of a Balkans tour with its Castles and Old Towns, by adding an extra 4 or 5 days so as to include the beautiful Plitvice Lakes and perhaps even Slovenia.

In the end, the final draft itinerary that eventually found much favour among quite a few of the BB members was the result of quite a bit of discussion, changes and suggestions from a number of BB members over many months. It is this final form of a 19 or so day tour that we are looking forward to and hopefully we will soon be able to see an early indication of the actual final itinerary from Insight.

Finally let me say that the efforts of you and your team are greatly appreciated, both in putting together last year’s fantastic tour of Germany & the Alps and in now moving towards organising another BB tour for us in 2010.

If the next BB tour is anywhere near as good as the last then it will certainly be a huge success and if you are able to join us yourself, even if only briefly, then I look forward to once again making your acquaintance.

John

There are approx 30 pages of mixed value postings on the subject of the 2010 president's tour so we were perhaps a little naive to expect Insight to be following their every twist and turn slap bang in the middle of their hectic planning period; particularly so this year with the added complication of an economic downturn.

In spite of the many criticisms and provocations it was particularly pleasing to note that your responses have been entirely positive. We now also appreciate better that you care as much about our holidays as we do, so thanks from us for that.

Good to see that you are on the ' case ' ..... hope you enjoy Guernsey.

Roger & Angela