Zero to 500

hari.ganapathy
Jul 21, 2017 · 4 min read

Our obsession with customer happiness

Good things come to those who wait

In this age of instant gratification that line could be the worst thing to start your blog with. But if you are one of those who believe in that, then read on.

Beginning in a one-room apartment, at first it was just three of us, soldiering on and keeping the dream of bringing vacations online, alive. Several months and 10 more people later, we had the makings of a soccer team — always on our toes and ready to score the next vacation. That year ended on a high — we took part in our first ever international trade show! We still have goosebumps to show.

And perhaps they do. But we have remained the same since the day we started — restless. Restless to travel, restless to create happy — happiest, even — trails. Rewind back to our Eurotrip back in 2012 where our love for travel took flight. And we have been flying ever since — with our fair share of turbulence, of course.

For our second year, we proclaimed our love for technology and gave our heart and soul for our app — Travel Genie. After its successful launch, we took an inventory and found we had 300 trails to show for the two-year journey. 300 people surfing the globe with us. Imagine that! Our next high was when — among many, many travel companies — ours was among the top 10 at the Phocuswright Asia-Pacific Travel Innovation Summit 2016. Ready to give it all, our journey to make vacations entirely online began here. We called it VEHO — a platform where you can theme, customise and book your vacation. Every destination we launched here was a moment of celebration. See, we have this bell strung up on our wall as we enter the office. Every happy moment, every win — we pull a string, ring the bell and declare it a happy moment! And with every destination we launched, the bell was rung. Those were some happy moments. Down the year, we were declared Aussie specialists and moved office.

A generic climb to glory, you say? It isn’t. While we definitely celebrate our wins, we have recognised our losses, too. Every unhappy customer, every trail gone wrong, every mishap with our partners, every worrisome feedback was accounted for. And we didn’t “take it in our stride”. We took it seriously — and wherever necessary, we mended our ways, became better. And people noticed the ‘new’ us — Google India-BCG, for instance, mentioned us in their latest Travel Trends report. Or take The Hindu Business Line which detailed our journey so far.

Today is a very special day. More than one 5 star review is added to our Facebook Page every day by travellers and when we count our wins to 500 five-star reviews, we feel more than just pride. We brim with a sense of fulfilment and achievement. And, of course, excitement for what lays ahead of us. Sure, good things come to those who wait. And work. We have worked and we are here now.

And we have so much more to scale. For now, I leave you with the time line of our journey from Zero to 500.

If you are planning an international trip, or a product aficionado or love helping startups — do give Pickyourtrail a spin and let me know what you think! Am just an email away. And maybe while you are at it — share it and spread the word? We are a proud bootstrapped team that continues to grow on good karma from folks like you. As TIA — Here is a video from a bunch of our travellers who were in Spain chasing bulls, tasting wine, scuba diving and getting hit with tomatoes. Am sure this will pep you up! Dont forget to hit share once you view the video!

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hari.ganapathy

Written by

Co-Founder @PickYourTrail — platform to create, customise and book personalized international vacations. http://pickyourtrail.com/

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