Effective Booking for Effective Work: Boosting Your Revenues with a Smart Reservation Application12/1/2017
Your website doesn’t just mark your presence in the Internet or serves as a pretty forefront: a well-organized website can be one of the most effective sales tools. This statement is 100% valid for HoReCa businesses: if you work with hotel reservations, restaurant management or tourism, a smart booking system can remarkably increase your effectiveness.
Advantages of installing a booking system
A smart booking system makes business 24/7 available for clients in case they want to make a reservation and receive a confirmation: it makes for a good customer service – and HoReCa businesses are about satisfying customers’ needs. It can maximize the number of reservations: once they booked, clients are more likely to show up, thus making no-shows less possible. In case they do cancel their appointment, a booking system makes it possible for other customers to book. With a well-designed booking system it becomes easier to up-sell any additional perks to your customers. So a booking program can multiply the amount of your customers and raise the level of services which you are providing. You have an array of options to choose from: · ‘Do-It-Yourself’ type of system which represents a mixture of available tools at hand of any computer user: Google Calendar, E-mail forms, Paypal buttons – you can add other options to this construction. The so-called ‘Frankenstein booking system’ is, by far, the most affordable solution, with no need to engage a developer into developing a program or integrating the system to your website. But at the same time one needs to realize that the main idea of having a booking program is to sell more services at a higher rate, which is possible only with a constantly and effectively functioning booking program. In this case its smooth functioning can’t be guaranteed, nor can you rely on customer support once something goes wrong. · Desktop-based booking system: this system in installed as a software on your computer and can be independently deployed, i.e. it functions as a stand-alone program and can be used offline, when the Internet connection is interrupted. These programs were the first on the market and now may seem quite old-fashioned as they don’t possess the features which are basically required for an efficient reservation system. The system works only on the computer on which it has been installed – and every additional installation demands an additional payment. Obviously, one doesn’t talk about mobile-friendliness or cross-platform functionality of this solution. Another concern regarding the desktop-based booking systems is its price: you have to pay the full set-up price up front – and this initial expenditure can be pretty large. Nonetheless, the solution can be optimal if you don’t have a constant access to the Internet or for some reasons your Internet connection is not stable. It may seem a rare situation now, but, for example, some hotels are located in areas where these problems exist. · A cloud-based solution, also known as a ’Software-as-a-service’ (SaaS), is the program which has been developed and is already functioning. Its service is provided to you on demand and is downloaded and installed upon a commission fee payment with minimal time loss. That’s why another name for such programs is ‘a turnkey solution’: they operate as a key put into a sock. A serious disadvantage of this solution is that, even if it has an open API and lets you make certain changes to the program, these changes are limited, so this program can’t be called the most customizable solution. Another problem is the level of control you have over the booking process. With ready-made solutions a customer is very often redirected to an external website and is completing the booking process on a third-party resource. It means that part of the process is skipping from your attention. Also, once your customer is redirected to another booking website, it creates an obstacle for the most valuable analytics, which is mapping out your customer’s booking journey in order to find out which moments create obstacles and turn him off. Knowing this can be exceptionally helpful for improving the functioning of the website and increasing the conversions – but the access to this possibility can be lost because of the eventual redirection. The advantages of this solution are also obvious: first, the upfront cost is lower than in case you decide to get a custom program; second, it is the quickest solution you can have. · Custom booking system is the best choice for those who have exact and strict requirements for the reservation system. Choosing this solution, you can be sure that the program will respond to all your needs and will look and function exactly the way you need it. But be aware: when developed from scratch, the program can face certain problems when integrating third-party services (payment mode, side applications and plugins, etc.). That’s why it is so important to contact high-level specialists in this domain, with good references so that you will be sure that the tailor-made program won’t keep you isolated from other important online tools. The price can be a serious turn-away issue. Needless to say, here you pay for your exact demands and necessities to be taken into account, which, if a highly professional team of developers is hired, can bring you benefits in the nearest future. So in case you are facing the constant ‘make or buy’ dilemma, you should first of all carefully distinguish a feature set needed for your business in order to realize whether a ready-made solution will work for you – or your requirements demand a custom booking system. Effective booking program features With booking programs, there are certain points to be taken into account. First, mobile compatibility. According to the statistics, only 48% of US customers use nothing more than a desktop for travel booking, i.e. more than half of users need a cross-platform service before they proceed to booking online.[1]
At the same time, when asked why they don’t use a smartphone for research and further booking, 93% of respondents state that desktop browsing is more convenient.[2] So it becomes extremely important to get a responsive website which will look good both on desktop and mobile platforms so that all categories of users will be satisfied. The booking engine team you are addressing should be able to know not only how to create a booking system, but also how to make it work effectively on different platforms.
Second, compatibility with extra services. Your booking system shouldn’t function as a website within website. For making it effective, it should be coordinated with payment systems, calendars and different plugins (social media, review websites, etc.). For example, a channel manager integrated as part of your reservation system, will provide you with total control over all the distribution channels your services are being sold. Thus, you will avoid an uncomfortable situation once your customer finds that a price on your website is different from a booking website aggregator (for example, Booking.com for travels or LateRooms service for hotel reservations). Third, security. Many customers are worried about the security of payment data they are providing, with 37% abandoning online purchases because of security concerns.[3] A solution which can make them feel more comfortable when booking and you – empowered with an insurance policy tool in case something goes wrong, is to have a supplier who is PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards) compliant: this compliance is hard to get and, once granted, means that a booking engine partner adheres to high standards. It doesn’t give 100% assurance that there will be no data breach – but in case it happens credit card companies will support the customer whose payment data have been stolen. Conclusion When choosing a type of booking system solution, you need to weigh the pros and cons of each in order to get the program which suits your business needs and responds to your expectations. But in each case there are important features which should be present in the booking system, like being efficient on different platform be it desktop or mobile, high level of security awareness of the program developer and a possibility to receive quick and effective customer support in case something goes wrong with the program.
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