Convert more clicks into customers

Last week’s Internet Secrets looked at how retailers and manufacturers could use the web to move customers closer to the sale.  This week we look at how appointment and reservation based services can close the sale and even have a hefty deposit made to their bank accounts while their operators are sleeping.

As outlined last week, it’s now imperative to close your sales online as much as your budget will allow to:

• Increase sales.
• Improve cashflow.
• Improve productivity.
• Increase your ‘opening hours’.
• Prevent losing sales to competitors.

“Booked” services operate on a time-as-inventory business model, where revenues are made out of blocks of time allocated.  Examples include accommodation, live entertainment, professional services, specialist training courses and services, restaurants and more.

A mix of early and slow adopters

What is unusual about this sector is the polarity of its members when it comes to adopting e-commerce.

On the one hand, tourism operators embracing and pioneering online booking and prepared to discount to encourage uptake, on the other, similar service providers not even offering a professional website let alone one that will take bookings and in turn revenue.

The reasons for this polarity can be answered in a single word: Size.

Big firms realise big savings

Large organisations such as airlines and hotel chains have been quick to understand all of the massive productivity, process improvement, labour savings and cashflow benefits that online booking provides, whereas smaller businesses are generally so focused on generating revenue that they lack the resources to properly assess and research online booking solutions.

The exception is smaller accommodation providers that are well serviced when it comes to affordable booking solutions and agencies.  Of course adoption is driven by a tourism industry operating on low margins and hence gaining a huge benefit from automated reservation and payment systems.

But there isn’t a single business that can’t benefit from affordable online booking and payment systems.

Online booking as a defensive strategy

The other massive benefit of implementing such a system is a defensive one. 

Quite simply customers are now so accustomed to finalising bookings online – due mainly to cheaper online airfares, that if they can’t fully book and even pay via your website, they will quickly go somewhere they can.

More then ever before, time is money.  And they simply don’t have time to wait and see if you get back to them to make the booking – they want the immediate gratification of a real time confirmation and are prepared to pay for it.

The great news is that like most technology, online booking and reservation systems have become affordable to even the smallest of businesses.

Readers of this blog must get tired of reading about it, but developments in the  software-as-a-service industry now mean that systems that once cost tens of thousands of dollars to develop can now be obtained for well under $100 a month, plus setup costs.  Sometimes systems might be even more affordable as some vendors move to a commission, rather than a set fee basis.

Integrate your systems and processes

Best of all is an integrated system, where all of your website, booking system, customer relationship management, content management system, email marketing system and more are integrated into a single system.

As outlined here recently, an integrated system may cost more initially, it quickly pays itself off in reducing layers of duplication across “legacy” systems. 

You can also save on such an investment by introducing as much technology “in one sitting” as you can, even if you don’t plan to take it up immediately.  Like many technology developments, it costs less to add a feature while setting up a larger development rather than pay to have it added later.

Some lower cost workarounds

If your budget won’t stretch to accommodate a full e-commerce capable booking system, you can always implement a “book now, pay later” system, which makes the reservation but doesn’t make a payment online.

At least this way you have confirmed the booking if not received either full or deposit payment.

If this approach can’t be accommodated then the next best is an appointment request form.  This allows visitors to at least provide a few times they are available for an appointment for you to respond as soon as possible to firm up the booking.  By having more than one available time indicated means that the chances of securing the booking are increased compared to just one which requires further to’s and fro’s to confirm the booking.

The biggest mistake you can make is to assume that the prospect will simply “call you in the morning” to make a booking.

As outlined above, they just won’t anymore.

Next week: We look at how project-based service providers can close sales online

Craig Reardon is a leading eBusiness educator and founder and director of independent web services firm The E Team which provide the gamut of ‘pre-built’ website solutions, technologies and services to SMEs in Melbourne and beyond. www.theeteam.com.au

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