London City Tour also offers you an audio guide in 10 different languages. In addition, all the buses have free Wi-Fi and USB chargers. The company owns a fleet of 24 double-decker buses and it can be hired for private groups and special services. 
Customers can purchase tickets for the duration of 24 hours or 48 hours and, they can Hop-off and Hop-on as often as they like at any of the stops during the ticket validity. London City Tour customers also have the advantage of an Iventure card which gives them free entry to one or more attractions in London (London City Tour, 2015).

Business use systems and technology to improve efficiency, to keep competitive, to improve relationships between suppliers and customers, to operationally analyse, forecast, make strategies, calculate results and store data. In addition, technology also includes learning and development and also gives the opportunity to connect business from all over the world.  

According to Muhsinzoda, M (2015) ‘The main purpose of information systems are provide the right information to the right people at the right time.’
 

Radios (DCRS): Radios are used by the controllers, sales supervisors, and sales agents to communicate between each other thought out the day and to ensure the smooth run of the day. 

Tablets: Tablets are used by controllers to monitor and track buses.

Instant ticketing machine: Instant ticketing machines are used by sales agents, controllers, and bus drivers to validate tickets and redeem vouchers. 

Information Systems (IS)
Iventure Cards, used to buy different London attractions.
Mobile application: Use for customers to check routes, bus stops and timetables.
Website: Used to give information about the company and sell tickets.
Headphones. Used as a tour guide in different languages while on route.

This system allows you to sell tickets wherever is the customer is, as well as redeem all sort of vouchers. 

The sales staff is able to give customer directly the tickets with the Palisis System. All the vouchers that the clients may have can be redeemed or checked at the entrance of the service.

With this advanced information system City Tour can now make unique package destination deals for the clients. 

Having lots of sales agents leads to immense workload for the management team. Managing the commission and deposit is not automated and now Palsis does all the calculation for city tour.

 

 

The Palisis permits the company to manage the entire sales channel in one system. Also providing last minute availability before the tour starts.

Working with Palisis System does not longer require City Tour to work with different systems. This is becasue Palisis already provides the entire essential package that the sales staff needs in order to sell tickets or redeem vouchers, which also gives City Tour an opportunity to grow and develop for the future. 

 

Palisis information system helps to manage the business in an effective and efficient way, allowing the management team to know how much sales an individual sales staff is doing or all staff together. 

 

Clients can now purchase and reserve tickets via credit card, through the online websites. The tickets then must be validated by a sales agent. 

These online reservations are then automatically recorded on the Palisis head-offices.

A disadvantage of the technology as well as the systems is that it is expensive to run. o

According to Rouse, M (2016), customer life cycle is a term used to describe the progression of steps a customer goes though when considering, purchasing, using, and maintaining loyalty to a product or service.

There are 5 steps that the customers have to go through:

PRE- ARRIVAL, this stage can be conducted in two ways either online or with sales agents. The pre-arrival is when a customer researches information online or meets a sales agent in order to gain information about the product.  

THE ARRIVAL:  this stage is when the customer meets a sales agent to validate its ticket and go into the bus. If the customer has booked its ticket online they will need to validate the voucher with one of the sales agents alternatively, customers can also purchase a ticket directly with the sales agent before boarding the bus. 

OCCUPANCY:  Once the ticket has been purchase and validated the sales agent will direct the costumer to the nearest bus stop in order to board the bus and begin the experience. 

DEPARTURE: this stage happens when the ticket has expired and therefore the experience has finished. 

POST PURCHASE:  This stage gives the customer the opportunity to write a review on the experience, give feedback and thank you notes. This can be done personally, online or by getting in contact with the customer service department. 

Customer Relationship Management also known as CRM, have different roles to maintain the relationship between the customers and business, this sections are: 

MARKETING is put into 7 sectors; PRICE, PROMOTION, PLACE, PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT, PRODUCT, PROCESS and PEOPLE. 

City Tour pricing is similar to its competitors although they do offer extra service such as Iventure cards.  The promotions that City Tour provides to its clients are discounts, voucher/coupons that can be found on the website. In addition, City Tours also differentiates from its competitors by being the only tour company offering a tour around Camden Market. For City Tour to have a relationship with the customer the company must consider ways to satisfy and please the customer with the Marketing Mix.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT is another system used to please unsatisfied customers, some of the problems the technical support might encounter are; the audio commentary not working, and instant ticketing machine issues. 

SOCIAL MEDIA is used to attract social attention this can be done through Facebook, twitter, online websites or the APP. City Tour also uses social media to stay in contact with loyal customers and give them promotions or discount for their next visit in London. 

 CUSTOMER SERVICE is vital to satisfy the client’s needs and increase their loyalty, some of these are; answering to any problems, helping with enquiries and giving complimentary tickets to customer to maintain a good  relationship. 

Strategy helps City Tour understand the aim and objectives that is required to achieve the overall goal, obtaining the relationship between the business and customer; building public trust, safety, encaging the community and being creative.

City tours pricing does not change during seasonality or during weekends or week days. In order to maximise it sales they use Iventure cards where customers have the option to buy from three and up to ten London attractions at a discounted price. They also have special prices for corporation groups and families. 

The first step does not apply to us in the term of product, but service. City Tours needs to consider whether their services are needed. How much will the customers benefit from the service provided? 

The second step is the specific need. So the product or service had to be made specifically for its job. City Tour uses scanners that scan the tickets before boarding. They have to be set up correctly according to their job so that they are always scanned and the data is transferred into the right system.

Source opinion is the place that the product is obtained at. The products that City tour uses has been produced by Palisis. This ensure that the system and the programs are all synchronised. 

Price and terms have to be set up correctly according to the ticket and the timing. Depending on where the person wants to go, and for how long. The system calculates the correct price.

Purchase order is relevant when the client buys the ticket online. This ensures that they get the confirmation email with the right details of the order and the ticket that they have purchased. The last step is the delivery of the product. Once the customer buys the ticket online they will receive it as an email.

They could use their app to retain customers and create loyalty. The idea behind is that new customers can download the app and create an account to use it in the city they are visiting. Upon departure, the details about their trip will be saved in the app so when they are visiting another city they will automatically receive discounts and vouchers to use, which will make them come back to City Tour regardless of the city they are visiting. 

Customers can only purchase tickets through the website or through a sales assistant. Even if they buy the tickets online they still need to have the ticket validated by a sales assistant in order to get on board. A good recommendation for City Tour is for customers to be able to purchase and store their tickets through the app, once they arrive to the bus they can scan the barcode and enter the bus. This will reduce labour and the commission they are giving to the sales agents. 

In order to have competitive advantage City Tour could create additional tours such as London at Night. In addition, they could offer guided tours around the city by using Iventure Cards. 

They have long and short term plans that they are working towards, that will ensure them better reviews and customer satisfaction. Their equipment is being updated as the technology progresses. They have reliable and good staff that is happy to work for them. 

2)      PalisisCH (2016) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXMSKscCniw Accessed: 10 November 2016

3)      Rouse, M (2016), salesforce, Customer Life cycle. Available at: http://searchsalesforce.techtarget.com/definition/Customer-Life-Cycle (Accessed: 12 November 2016)

4)      Sales Force (2016). What is CRM. How do we define CRM? Available at: http://www.salesforce.com/uk/crm/what-is-crm.jsp (Accessed: 10 November 2016)

5)      Palisis (2013). Ticketing terminal. Available at: http://www.palisis.com/ticket-terminal/ (Accessed: 09 November 2016

6)      Palisis (2013).  About Palisis. Available at: http://www.palisis.com/about-us/ (Accessed: 8 November 2016)

7)      Walker, JR (2008) Introduction to hospitality management. 2nd edn. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice H 

8)       City Tour Official website (2016) Available at: http://london.city-tour.com/en  Accesses: 12 November 2016

9)      Nathan, L (2016) The 10 Steps of the Procurement Cycle. Available at: http://www.businessdictionary.com/article/572/the-10-steps-of-the-procurement-cycle/, Accessed: 12 November 2016

10)  Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=aff-maxthon-maxthon4&hs=6Nz&affdom=maxthon.com&channel=t39&site=webhp&q=city+tour+&oq=city+tour+&gs_l=serp.3..35i39k1j0l9.10167.10167.0.10348.1.1.0.0.0.0.85.85.1.1.0....0...1c.1.64.serp..0.1.84.v_znJz1K6Lw#lrd=0x4876052099584b9f:0x53639eb63d4390f8,1, (City Tour, google reviews.) Accessed : 13 November 2016.