Why instant confirmation matters or how to make your business work for you 24/7
Should you be concerned about time zones affecting your liveaboard diving business? Surely, it is always easier to conduct business with someone when business hours match. Although it might not appear to be a big deal, the time zones create communication gaps and thus affect your performance significantly.
Because you reach worldwide your business should be working 24 hours a day. The time is money and when it comes to trip planning and booking we all know every minute counts. Working with clients and customers in different time zones is challenging. Your guests as well as agents are exposed to multiple sources and may be browsing alternative options simultaneously, so each request is really time sensitive. Whoever finds a way to be more responsive, wins the deal.
Whereas you don’t necessarily need to cover all working hours in different time zones yourself, you must really think about making your business work for you 24/7. Having an appropriate booking management system is a key to efficient reservation process and operations. There are a few core things to focus on when building your internal procedures.
- Real time schedule and availability. With a well developed Online Booking concept in hotels and airlines travel, we have been still struggling to reach a point where all liveaboard diving trips could be booked online instantly. We can’t deny the industry hasn’t been modernized well enough and we still find lots of outdated information about the trips schedule and spaces available. This would be the first area for improvement. The more accurate your schedule and availability is, the more likely you are to have higher conversion rates and confirmed bookings. The accurate information not only influences your KPIs, but also helps you to build more trustworthy relationships with your agents and resellers.
- Easy access for Agents and resellers. In addition to real time schedule and availability, agent login and instant booking confirmation makes it really easy to sell your trips. Providing your trusted agents with a personalized login to your booking management system enables them to work for you despite the time zones difference. They wouldn’t need to wait for your confirmation, saving countless hours of communicating over the phone and email.
- Online Booking Engine. Enabling online bookings for your direct clients on your website would be a cherry on a top of a cake. Because you are reaching worldwide an online booking engine on your website would significantly improve your customer experience. Whatever time zone your client is, he/she would be able to check out your schedule and instantly book a trip in a few clicks. With all industries heading Online, our purchase habits have also changed drastically. Guests enjoy their experience more having the freedom to browse and book online while facing a modern and user friendly interface. And you get the bookings when you sleep.
