Follow the Camino delivers human-centered travel experiences at scale with Zoho Desk

Overview

Follow the Camino customized Zoho Desk to operate its "Holiday Success" and "Reservation" departments, managing customers and suppliers from within a single platform.

The company

Founded in 2006, Follow the Camino is a pioneering travel operator that transforms the historic Camino de Santiago and other iconic pilgrimage routes into accessible, deeply personal journeys. Their customized Camino itineraries excel at removing the logistical friction from long-distance walking and cycling to create memorable life experiences for travellers.

By expertly handling the behind-the-scenes details—from seamless baggage transfers to hand-picking accommodations that range from budget-friendly to four-star deluxe—their team allows the travelers to focus entirely on the experience of the trail. They offer highly tailored trips for every type of traveler, including school groups, charity groups, solo travelers, couples, and both self-guided and guided adventurers.

The company's customer-first philosophy has become a defining part of the brand—and it's what led them to try Zoho Desk.

The challenge

As Follow the Camino grew, managing customer and supplier communications through shared Gmail inboxes became increasingly difficult. Teams relied on labels, tags, flags and other manual organization methods to manage large volumes of emails, but this created operational inefficiencies and made it harder to maintain visibility and accountability across bookings.

The reservations process was especially complex because every booking involved multiple moving parts, including hotel reservations, itinerary changes, supplier coordination, and customer-specific requests. Since multiple agents could potentially work on the same booking, there was a risk that important details or booking history could be missed. Internal communication between teams also became harder to manage efficiently through disconnected email chains.

The business needed a system that could create clearer ownership, improve collaboration between departments, and ensure customers consistently received fast, reliable, and personalized support.

The solution

Dedicated ticket ownership and departmental workflows

Follow the Camino implemented Zoho Desk to replace generalized inbox management with a structured ticketing system. Each booking is assigned to both a dedicated customer consultant and a dedicated Holiday Success agent responsible for supplier coordination. By using queues and department-based workflows, the company created clear ownership across every booking while ensuring all communication remained linked to a single customer journey.

This structure significantly reduced operational friction. Agents could work independently within their own areas of responsibility while still maintaining full visibility into booking history and customer requirements. If itinerary changes or supplier updates needed to be communicated to customers, teams could coordinate efficiently within the same ticket environment.

Internal collaboration and customer communication

Zoho Desk also improved collaboration between teams by enabling internal discussions directly within tickets. Instead of forwarding emails or managing separate communication threads, staff could coordinate privately behind the scenes while maintaining a seamless customer-facing experience. This allowed teams to resolve issues more efficiently without exposing operational discussions to travelers.

The company also integrated WhatsApp into its emergency support workflows for customers already on the road. This enabled customers and staff to quickly exchange images, share locations, and coordinate urgent travel situations such as airport pickups or taxi arrangements. According to the team, this became especially valuable when travelers had limited access to email during their journeys.

Knowledge base, templates, and consistency

As the company became more familiar with Zoho Desk, it expanded its use of advanced features such as response snippets, templates, and centralized knowledge base articles. Agents can now quickly access standardized responses for common customer questions while still tailoring conversations to each traveler’s needs.

The company places strong importance on consistency in customer communication. If different customers ask the same question, the expectation is that they receive the same accurate answer regardless of which team member responds. The centralized knowledge base helps reinforce this standard while also reducing repetitive work for agents and improving response efficiency.

Reporting and team visibility

Zoho Desk’s reporting and dashboard capabilities gave managers better oversight into workloads, ticket resolution times, and team performance. Rather than using ticket volume alone as a performance metric, Follow the Camino evaluates employees within the context of their specific responsibilities and specialties. For instance, they reward employees who answered the highest number of calls in a month or who helped a customer who had an emergency query related to their booking while traveling.

The reporting tools also support employee development by helping managers identify opportunities for additional training, particularly around using snippets and templates more effectively. The business views these insights as a way to improve delivery standards and support employee growth rather than simply measuring output.

Benefits and ROI

Since implementing Zoho Desk, Follow the Camino has experienced substantial operational improvements across customer service, team collaboration, and workflow management. The company credits Zoho Desk with helping create a more reliable and professional operation while maintaining its human-centered approach to customer care.

Key benefits include:

• Improved accountability and ownership through dedicated queues and ticket assignments
• Greater operational reliability with reduced risk of missed or forgotten customer requests
• Faster and more consistent customer responses using centralized templates and knowledge articles
• Better collaboration between departments through internal ticket communication
• Improved employee satisfaction through clearer workflows and recognition opportunities
• Stronger management oversight through dashboards and reporting tools
• Enhanced emergency support capabilities through WhatsApp integration