Chelsea Roberts has worked with Segways for eight years, and she still rides one to work every morning, four blocks, mini-Segway in the trunk of her coupe on days she needs the car. As general manager of San Francisco’s Electric Tour Company, she runs the highest-ranked Segway operator in the United States, the #1 tour company out of 297 in San Francisco on TripAdvisor. None of that happens if a first-timer can’t get through the liability waiver fast enough to actually make it onto the Segway.
What Electric Tour Company Was Missing
The company was drowning in paper. Waivers piled up fast enough that Electric Tour Company had to rent a separate storage unit just to house them.
The bigger risk was operational. Running out of paper or ink didn’t just mean an inconvenience, it meant guests couldn’t take the tour at all.
“If we couldn’t print it they couldn’t sign the liability waiver. And if they can’t sign the liability waiver they definitely can’t take the tour!”
— Chelsea Roberts, Electric Tour Company
They tried fixing it themselves first, building an in-house iPad check-in system. It didn’t work. A clunky app made the guest experience worse, not better, and that was the one thing they couldn’t afford to break.
What Happened When They Switched to Wherewolf
Electric Tour Company runs on Rezdy booking software, and it was Rezdy’s own team that pointed them to Wherewolf, digital waiver software built specifically for tourism operators going paperless. After a demo and a few calls with existing customers, they switched.
“We’ve saved on paper and the cost of ink has gone down.”
Guests now walk in and go straight to the Wherewolf check-in app: sign the waiver, answer a few marketing questions, check in, all in one motion.
“Our staff is way less frazzled now. They’re not running around at the last second printing waivers. We can just enter a reservation and check them in simply.”
Marketing manager Brandon Luse pointed to how far Wherewolf went to fit the business, not the other way around.
“They worked with us to add features and tweaked a lot of stuff and really made it work for us as a business.”
A Clearer Picture, Sharper Marketing
Wherewolf automatically emails every guest after the tour, not just whoever made the booking, with a direct prompt to leave a review.
“Our staff can ask guests to remember to rate us online when they leave, but when they get that email, right on their device and just have to tap a button to post a review, it’s immediate and easy. They had a great time and are happy to do it.”
That steady stream of reviews is a big part of how Electric Tour Company climbed to #1 on TripAdvisor out of 297 San Francisco tour companies. Luse also uses the data day to day, from anywhere.
“I can pull the Wherewolf Dashboard up on my cell phone or on the iPad at any office. Being able to do it quickly is really nice.”
Electric Tour Company Went Electronic. The Rankings Followed.
Going paperless wasn’t just an operations fix, it fit who Electric Tour Company already was: zero-emission vehicles, a sustainability-minded home city, and a name that was practically asking for it.
“We pride ourselves in being green, with zero emission vehicles. We’re the ‘Electric’ company, so it made sense for our process to be electronic.”
— Chelsea Roberts, Electric Tour Company