AOTC EP 27 - A Story Of Survival In The Travel Industry

On March 15th, 2020 – the Ides of March – the management team at Florida Tours.com, a large transportation company in Miami, began to shut down its operations in the early days of the global pandemic. Florida Tours plays a large role shuttling passengers and crew members from airports to cruise ships but when the ships stopped sailing, Florida Tours’ buses stopped as well. But, in the true spirit of entrepreneurship, the team buckled down, went into survival mode, and rode out the storm. Florida Tours’ story is a story of survival in the face of steep odds. We’d love to tell you that their survival was driven by CRM technology but it wasn’t. In fact, they didn’t have any such digital tools. However, both the CEO and the head of business development now realize how much a CRM system could have assisted in making their recovery even stronger and faster. In this episode, the CEO and head of business development tell the story of what they did to survive and how they could have done it so much more easily with a CRM system in place. Theirs is as much a cautionary tale as a success story. Guest Bios Crane Gladding - Crane has extensive experience in the cruise industry through years spent with Norwegian Cruise Line where he was the Senior V.P. of Revenue Management and Passenger Services. When he left, it was to create Florida Tours.com, a bus travel company that would work closely with cruise operators and others needing large capacity transportation vehicles. Aaron Florence – Aaron heads up business development at Florida Tours.com. He has spent 20 years in travel, at senior sales levels of travel and tour companies, including US Airtours, the cruise industry and now at Florida Tours.com where he’s responsible for generating new business and retaining existing customers. Key Ideas 02:03 – Aaron Florence describes the beginning of the long struggle to survive 06:16 – The survival plan and how it came about 13:01 – Implementing the plan was awkward. Why? No CRM technology 18:01 – – How a CRM would have accelerated Florida Tour’s survival