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4 TIPS to Track, Increase Motorcoach Quote-to-Close Ratios Operators share practices crucial to boosting sales, including the use of data management software, engaging the customer and providing quick responses. k BY NICOLE SCHLOSSER, Senior Editor eeping track of quote-to-close ratios, a practice that motorcoach operators are becoming increasingly mindful of, helps optimize customer data and increase sales. The ratios, as Autumn Dipert Brown, chief operating officer of Arlington, Texasbased Dan Dipert Tours & Coaches puts it, serve as a scorecard for your business. "It's really hard to coach or play in a game if you don't know the score," Brown says. "I'm the coach and have these players, and without all of us knowing the score, it's really hard to push them in the right direction." Brown and other operators offer tips here to help operators score and increase their ratios. 38 2012 year-end charter sales revenue was the highest ever for Anchor Tours, due to tracking quotes and extra client face time. < mETRO mAGAZINE APRIL 2013 TRACKING, APPLYING DATA Dan Dipert Tours uses RBS Software Solutions to generate a "Supersales Summary" report every week, which breaks down quotes and sales by month and year-to-date (YTD), as well as shows sales booked for future months, Dipert Brown says. Te operator has been using the report since the beginning of 2011 to track the average charter booking size and number of quotes and sales compared with the same time last year. Te report helped identify the cause of a recent dip in revenue. Dipert Brown recalls that at the end of January, the carrier had about the same number 1. of quotes as last year, for slightly more money each, but booked significantly fewer trips for noticeably less revenue. Last year's YTD showed several large tour bookings from a company that had since gone out of business. "That was the big hit between last year and this year," Dipert Brown says. "They normally booked seven tours throughout Europe in January. We can look at what was going on last year and use that data to know when we need to [make] calls." Similarly, Nashville, Tenn.'s Anchor Tours, formerly Anchor Trailways, uses weekly reports to track inquiries, quotes and face time with customers, including those that may be at the end metro-magazine.com