Advertising Feature
For Lucketts Travel, solid partnerships are built on enduring relationships
Lucketts Travel Owner/Director Ian Luckett, sits back in his chair and smiles.
We’ve just asked him what he regards as the key strength of his family firm, which has served customers from its Fareham, Hampshire base since his grandfather Harry Luckett began the business back in 1926.
For a firm that now runs 120 coaches and minibuses and is involved in all types of coaching from contracts and private hire to excursions and tours, you might expect a corporate-style answer focusing on quality, professionalism and service.
But that’s not what you get, and the reason for it soon becomes clear.
For as Ian Luckett says, all those things have to be a given for an organisation of this scale if it is to continue winning the business it needs to keep the fleet wheels turning.
For Lucketts, he explains, getting to the real heart of the matter – the core attribute of the business which keep on bringing people back for more – is more about exploring a state-of-mind rather than looking at what you do.
“Our key strength – which I interpret as being what our brand really stands for – is a great question, and one we’ve not only thought about but is something we have also invested in,” says Ian.
“We appreciate we are in a people business, and that our customers expect great service from us in every respect. So like every other operator, we work hard to deliver the best possible customer experience – after all, it’s a competitive world out there and people have plenty of choice.
“The fact of the matter, though, is that customers do return to us. Time after time, in many cases. The question we wanted to ask is; Why? To find the answer, we invited a sample of staff and customers to join a focus group. We asked them a series of questions about the service we provide and the way in which we deliver it.
“The responses we received were translated into word clouds, where the words which crop up most are displayed larger than words which occur less frequently. With these before us, we set about analysing the messages – what were people really thinking about us?
“The eventual outcome surprised us. Far from comments along the lines of ‘nice vehicles, nice driver’ we could see the real attraction of our business – the added value if you like – is that people felt they knew us.
“It was personal, almost as if they were dealing with friends. It’s always been said that people buy from people and this came ringing through in our research. Our customers genuinely sensed they are in a relationship with us, a two-way partnership with the business and the people who work for it.
“From our point-of-view, three words say it all: You know us. That’s our key strength, for those three words bring with them a host of benefits; customers know they can trust us, they can rely on us, we can be depended upon. And those are precious attributes indeed.
“Of course, relationships like this cannot be built overnight; they are the outcome of long-term positive partnerships. It’s the same with suppliers; we have to be able to trust and rely on those we depend upon to keep our business running.
“The partnership we have with Scania is a good example here. Our relationship started in 1991 when we bought our first Scania coach. That was a J-reg vehicle with a Berkhof Excellence 2000 body. In truth, we bought it because at that time we were primarily buying Berkhofs. But we had an unusual job coming up, supporting a charity cycle ride around Romania, and needed a coach in warranty with international backup if it was needed.
“Scania was extremely helpful from the outset, and worked out what would be available to us to. So we were comfortable there. However, in the event, the vehicle developed a fault the week before it was due to leave.
The local Scania team wasn’t able to solve the problem immediately, but they stuck at it and eventually came up with a solution with a day to go. But the technician working on the job wasn’t happy with it. We thought it was okay, but he didn’t. So, at his own insistence, he stayed on until around 2200hrs that night until he was convinced the vehicle was good to go. And it was; it didn’t miss a beat after that.
“The technician’s commitment didn’t go unnoticed; I would have to say it was over and above what we had received from other manufacturers at that time. We continued to receive excellent service from that day on, and we bought our next two Scania coaches, which were a further two Berkhof bodied Scanias.
“Our partnership continued to grow over the years, and today is extremely strong – around 40% of our fleet is Scania.
“The work we have done together has included specification optimisation and confirming theoretical fuel consumption models in real-life applications.
Our National Express vehicles are an ideal test bed for fuel trials because they run the same routes every day, giving a perfect basis for comparisons. By modifying settings on the engine management system and gearbox, we have partnered Scania by providing live data over a number of on-road trials.
“For us, it is great to be so involved and contributing in this way. Like us, Scania seeks to deliver class-leading service and we share similar core values. We are comfortable working together, not only on day-to-day business, but also in development work and looking to the future, where we discuss future technologies and consider ways in which we can both use it to our mutual benefit. It’s a great partnership, and long may it continue.
“And if I had to sum it all up in a single word, that word, without a doubt, would be ‘trust’.”
