Attended by the cream of the coach industry, the annual CoachMarque conference was held once again at East Midlands Airport’s Radisson Blu Hotel, this year with a theme of 'improving the customer experience'.
It included sessions on insurance, luxury touring and diet and nutrition, plus a motivational speaker on leadership.
Irizar supported the conference for the first time, bringing along the UK’s first hybrid coach, the Irizar i4H integral; and Distinctive Systems gave a useful update on its ever-changing software products.
CocahMarque Chair Chris Owens of Alpine Travel opened the conference, followed by an update on coach industry insurance from Phil White of insurance broker Gallagher and Julian Cashen of Unicorn Underwriting.
Richard Oxspring of Skills Coaches, formerly of Leger Holidays, spoke about the future of luxury coach tours, specifically Leger’s groundbreaking Silver Service and Luxuria brands.
Nutritional expert Michelle Chester spoke about diet and nutrition for drivers in an eye-opening session for the assembled operators.
The headline speaker was Nigel Risner, who gave a funny and engaging motivational talk around being a better leader and emulating good business practice.
He spoke about how customers feel about the experience of a business, and used Tiffany’s as an example: Tiffany’s customers will usually keep the jewellery packaging because it’s part of the experience. He asked operators to consider how their own business is packaged, and how customers feel when they see one of their coaches.
CoachMarque is a quality kitemarking scheme run by the Confederation of Passenger Transport, designed to accredit the best coach operators, and allow them to share best practice.
