Over the years, the main indicator of our growth at Living has been repeat customers/partners and word of mouth. Our philosophy has been to channel most of the money that would otherwise be spent on advertising and invest it in customer care, experience and service, leaving our customers to do word of mouth marketing.

What is great customer service?

It starts with what customers see first when they visit our site. We have a service in four languages, Portuguese, English, French and Spanish, 365 days a year, with a chat and whatsapp number, direct to the customer service back office, as soon as we open the Living website on the first page and on any navigation page, there is always someone on the other side just a click away.

On most sites, contact information is usually buried at least five links deep, and even when we do find it, it's a form or email address that can only be used once.

We take the exact opposite approach, whether online or offline.

We put our telephone number (+351 228 320 992) right on the front page in the contacts and in all departments and areas of Living Tours.

A google search for the contact is also available immediately from all addresses and locations, from our face-to-face service agencies in Porto and Lisbon, because we really want to talk to our customers, in person or by phone, by chat, by whatsapp or by email.

Personally, I think it's funny when I go to marketing or branding conferences and hear companies talk about consumers being bombarded with thousands of advertising messages every day, because there's usually a lot of speech and brainstorming between companies. companies and advertising agencies on how to get your message across or how to make your message stand out.

There is a lot of buzz these days about “social media” and “integration marketing”. As outdated and low-tech as it may seem, our belief is that the phone is one of the best ways to build and manage brands out there.

We have the customer's full attention for two, five or 10 minutes, and if you manage to interact correctly, we believe that he will remember the experience for a long time and will tell his friends.

Many companies think about minimizing call center costs. We believe it's a huge untapped opportunity for most businesses, not only because it can result in word-of-mouth marketing, but because of its potential to increase customer lifetime value.

Typically, marketing departments assume that the lifetime (time) value of a customer is fixed when making their ROI calculations. We understand that the lifetime value of a customer is a moving target that can increase if we can create more and more emotional associations with our brand in every interaction a person has with us.

Another common trap that many marketers fall into is focusing too much effort on trying to figure out how to generate a lot of buzz, when really they should be focusing on establishing commitment and trust.

I can say that my mother is not one to talk a lot, but when she says something, I pay attention.