When switching to a new booking system, a lot of resources are usually dedicated to the process. Right from the research to the set up to the long-term maintenance, your company needs to make investments at various points of the purchasing process to ensure you get the most out of your system.
Here's a breakdown of the three different types of investments your company will need to dedicate as you embark on a process to find the best booking system for your business.
1. Invest time into researching the market
When you first decide that your business needs a booking system, companies tend to assign one person (or a team of people if you work in a really large company) to begin the research and vetting of various booking systems on the market. Already, that person (or team) has to dedicate working hours to this process.
At the same time, they also have to find out what your business really needs, from your admin team who processes bookings, to your sales team and guides, each team member is likely to use a different part of the system on a regular basis.
Next up, you'll have to also consider what features would come in handy for different teams and how it can impact your business not just now but in two, three, five years down the line. This process can be rather tedious as there is no industry standard for how booking systems refer to the same feature. On top of that, not all features will work the same, despite achieving the same goal.
To help speed up this process, we at TrekkSoft often encourage businesses to schedule a call with us so that we can understand what your business really needs, and figure out if our software is a good fit for your business. This can save you a lot of time during the research process.
We have also written this handy ebook packed with research on the market leading booking systems.
2. Invest time and money to set up your booking system
Once you've chosen the right booking system for you, there will be some upfront monetary investments needed to get your system running. Whether it's the cost of hiring a web designer to help you embed your booking widget or paying an upfront fee to get your booking software provider to do it.
Time is again another investment you will have to make to not only setup your booking system (i.e. upload your tours, activities, prices and schedules), but for the training of your own team members.
At TrekkSoft to make this easier, we offer three on-boarding calls for new users. Here, we recommend that team members who will be using the system on a regular basis attend the call. If you have an IT team, getting someone from their team join the on-boarding training is also a good shout.
Read more: How to get the most our of your booking system
3. Invest for the long-term
To grow alongside your booking system, your business should invest in small and easy ways to keep up to date with software developments.
At TrekkSoft, we often run customer research and user testing sessions to verify ideas and get customer feedback about features we've developed and released. We value our customers and the ideas they bring to the table.
If you pay a fixed subscription, I would highly encourage you to make use of the resources available to you. You could schedule quarterly meetings with your Account Manager to run-through your performance over the previous quarter. During these meetings, you could ask for best-practices to tackle certain issues or enquire about demonstration of new features.
Knowing where your booking software provider is headed in the long-run can help you plan for the future of your own business. For TrekkSoft, we're dedicated to offering an independent and reliable solution for tour and activity businesses to ensure the security of your data and the long-term growth of your business.
What could happen if you choose not to invest in your business
When speaking to customers who switched from competitor systems to ours, they often cited "needing a booking system that facilitated growth" as their main reason for switching over to TrekkSoft. While the needs of each growing company might vary, a business that is experiencing growth in bookings should use a booking system that can support and accelerate that.
However, with any decision or indecision you make (or do not make), there's an opportunity cost you will also incur. By making or not making a choice, you inherently say "no" to all other opportunities.
This applies to businesses who wish to stick to the same old booking system (or Excel spreadsheet). There is a an inherent loss of productivity which will impact your bottom line when businesses choose to delay switching to a better and more efficient booking system.
Sea Saffron increase direct sales by 50% and reduce marketing expenses by 75% with TrekkSoft
Sea Saffron offers guided food tours and tastings by local hosts in Valencia, Spain, aiming to provide an authentic and real experience to guests.
Founded in 2017, Sea Saffron, with the help of the TrekkSoft brought their food tour business online. Quickly, they were able to attract a wider audience, reduce the time spent for administrative tasks and overall, increase the number of bookings received to their own website.
We're so grateful to TrekkSoft for allowing us to concentrate our company efforts on sales instead of administration. This has reduced the time invested in logistics by more than 50%!
Learn more about Sea Saffron's success here.
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