Resources / Business Operations / Platform / Booking Software The Top 5 Under-Utilized Features of Rezdy and How to Use Them
We’re all guilty of it. We purchase a software platform with a wide variety of features. However, we end up only using the ones that are of immediate importance to us at one moment in time and never get around to the rest. I know I’ve certainly done that. My Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, or the included apps within my iPhone immediately come to mind.Last week, I went into the office and sat down with one of our onboarding specialists. I asked him this very question about our own product. Without further adieu, here is what he said are the top 5 most under-utilised features within Rezdy.In the article under each must have feature for a booking software, I’ll describe what it is, why you should use it, how to get started and a suggested tip.
What is it? This one is exactly as it sounds. They are the messages you can set up within your Rezdy account to remind your future guests about the experience they have booked with you. You can personalise these messages within your Rezdy account. On plans from Accelerate and up you can also automate these messages. Most users simply stick to email, but you have SMS as an option too. SMS is particularly powerful in the current climate when we consider that many operators just like you are trying to entice locals.
Why should you use it? The main reason is to mitigate no-shows and ensure that the guest(s) are still coming so you can plan your operations for that particular tour, activity or experience appropriately.It’s also an opportunity to get your future guests excited about their upcoming experience. It gives your business the opportunity to remind people what they need to bring, their check in time, your location and so on.A lot of successful operators during 2020 are using these messages to explain their COVID-safe policies to reassure guests that you take their safety seriously. Beyond that, you can use it to upsell auxiliary products. For example, you can offer an upgrade option, a meal, transfer or merchandise to bring in incremental revenue at a time when you need it most.How to get started: Set up won’t take you too long. Simply follow the steps in our support article. The article is a quick 2 minute read with instructions and screenshots to get you started. To navigate to where you can set this up within your Rezdy account, login and head over to Settings -> Emails -> Email Templates tab.Suggested tip: Why not add in your social media links? Encourage your future guests to like, follow or subscribe and tell them to get inspired about their upcoming trip by seeing your beautiful destination or past guests and guides having a blast!
What is it? Similar to reminder messages, but sent after your guests have experienced your tour, activity or attraction.
Why should you use it? Reviews, reviews, reviews! I’m sure you’ve read this many times that at least 70% of consumers read customer reviews before making a purchase decision. This is a great opportunity to grow your reviews and create a lasting impact on your brand’s perception for future guests.TripAdvisor Reviews Express is integrated already which will allow you to gain reviews through their platform at the product level.But don’t forget Google! Google is becoming increasingly important when it comes to reviews and increasing your website’s visibility in search results. The best part about this, is it’s at your business level, rather than your product level at this stage. That means if you haven’t started to grow reviews with Google, you can increase these easily. Simply add a link to your Google My Business profile within the template.How to get started: For more information and screenshots of how this looks within your Rezdy account, check out this support article. You’ll find the set-up in the same spot as reminders. So, just login to your Rezdy account and head over to Settings -> Emails -> Email Templates tab.Suggested tip: Do you sell merchandise, photos, videos etc? Why not add a link to these products within these templates and grow your incremental revenue just in case they missed out when they were on tour.Extra for experts: Desperate for content on your social media channels? Create a hashtag and ask people to share their videos and images tagging in your business. People love sharing experiences, and you may get some awesome imagery that you could use for future marketing efforts (with their permission of course).
What is it? Your Agenda view gives you a list of all your product sessions and orders. It starts at the date you select from your calendar. From here, you’re able to confirm or cancel multiple orders, refund or generate vouchers and do that for one, or all of your orders. You can also easily send email notifications to your booked guests.You can also quickly block out or delete multiple sessions for your tours and experiences.
Why should you use it? First and foremost, TIME MANAGEMENT. When you, or your team members use this feature, you will save so much time in your business on boring and tedious admin tasks. During COVID, it has become increasingly more important for our customers due to changes in travel and capacity restrictions.How to get started: Are you curious to learn more on how you could unlock this powerful features potential? Check out our ‘How to use the Agenda’ article here.Suggested tip: If you do need to cancel bookings in bulk due to changing restrictions related to COVID in your destination, use this feature to create and apply vouchers to a selection of sessions and orders, or to all sessions and orders for that day. By doing so, you can avoid cancelling bookings on a session that cannot take place and offer a voucher. That way, you’ll be able to maintain cash flow in your business. Find out more here.
What is it? The related products feature allows you to highlight other products on the same alternative product landing page that a website visitor might be on. Think about it like a ‘suggestion’ feature much like you might see on other websites where you see a headline such as: You might also like this.
Why should you use it? Related products are an enormous opportunity for tourism operators to increase their revenue. The best use of this feature is for upgrades. We know that many operators might have a low price point like, let’s say, a 3 hour kayak rental for $20. But, the purpose of that price point is to attract new potential customers to look at your business. Using this feature, you can highlight your higher margin, premium products to get your website visitors to upgrade and increase their basket size.How to get started: If upgrading guests to higher margin products, or cross-selling other items is an emerging and important part of your future business plans then you must read our ‘How to use Related Products’ article here. The feature is available on plans from Accelerate, and above.Suggested tip: Using our related products feature allows you to test new products too. You can try a couple of options and conduct an A/B test on new products you’ve been thinking about. If you want inspiration on new products to try that will attract local guests, you might like these 5 ideas in an article I recently wrote: ‘Your Tour or Activity Reimagined 5 Ways’.
What is it? An extra is a product you can upsell during your customers booking journey to increase the value of their cart and cash flow into your business. Most commonly, you might add something like ‘Add a photo package to your tour’, a meal, merchandise or something like that.
Why should you use it? It’s another untapped area of potential revenue. If you have new revenue goals that you want to achieve into the future, this feature is one of the places to start. Extras by nature, tend to be low cost, low risk to your business, but often with good margin. Something like a meal voucher with a local cafe or restaurant nearby immediately comes to mind.How to get started: If you’re yet to try it, or would like to see some examples in situ then you must check out our ‘How to Set up an Extra’ article here.Suggested tip: Do you have a bunch of caps or t-shirts you want to clear out? Perhaps you’ve started working with a local hotel or cafe that you want to provide an accommodation or meal voucher for that you’ve arranged with them. Then this feature is your new best friend.
I hope you enjoyed this article. If you’re not a customer, and haven’t yet to trial Rezdy for yourself, be sure you take us up on our 3 week all-access free trial here. If you’re wondering how a booking software could help your business during COVID, then you might find my article ‘The Top 5 COVID-19 Features for Tour and Activity Operators’ here.