Group travel is behind online. Here’s how.

Group travel has fallen behind when it comes to online shopping. While not known as early adopters, it is fair to say that we have slipped further behind than usual when it comes to the use of the web to drive consumers to buy from us. 

Much of this comes as a byproduct of technology that hasn’t allowed us to execute the way we want, while others come from an antiquated view of what our website should do for us. 

The chart below shows just how far behind we are from our industry cohorts. So let’s discuss each in some detail.

Data Gathering/Shopping

At the dawn of the internet, there were contact us websites, basically virtual listings of how to get ahold of the company you were interested in. Then, that moved to “brochure” sites. Virtual advertisements that showcased what the company did, how they did it, and the tools they used to do it. These were fancy, digital brochures designed to influence buyers to want to work with the company. 

The next evolution because the ability online to “do.” That is to move from what they have learned to take the next step of actually doing a deal of some sort. From buying a car to booking a hotel, buyers want to be able to say “yes, that is the one I want” and click a few buttons and buy it. 

The data gathering step has also changed. What used to be huge sites designed to deliver tons of information has shifted to pages designed to give everything someone needs to make a decision in a few seconds. This includes photos, videos, social proof, and more, all organized for speed. 

For many in the group transportation space, their sites stalled at the “online brochure” stage and have yet to evolve further. 

Instant Online Pricing

Imagine, if you will, for a moment how you would feel if, when trying to book a hotel for an upcoming weekend away, you went to a website, found the room at the hotel you wanted to book, and then had to submit your data to that company and wait an indeterminate amount of time for someone to send you back a quote, that you then had to send back to them that you wanted, and wait again to see if they actually still had availability of that room on that day. 

You are probably thinking what I am thinking… nope. 

In the charter industry, we have long hung onto the idea that getting a quote is so challenging that it requires the focused efforts of an experienced salesperson to get it right. This means that until the launch of SalesDriver, there hasn’t been a meaningful way to get instant pricing when shopping for group transportation. 

This has left our buyers in the exact scenario mentioned above. Frustrating and behind the times. 

Calendar-based pricing

Sometimes when I book a vacation, I try to do it on a budget. One of the ways that I am able to do this is to shop what days things are less expensive than others and play with what I am looking to bring the cost down. 

For example, when shopping for a cruise, what month I go, what port I leave from, what type of cabin I book, and what excursions I decide I want to take can make a HUGE impact on the total cost. The best part is that I can do it all in a few minutes online. I can tweak all the parameters and get exactly what I want before I commit to booking. Even if I am daydreaming and trying to budget, I can do it all and never have to talk to a person or wait for a price. 

Because of how the motorcoach industry has held on to our legacy quoting process, this puts all of this on our sales teams to quote, update, re-quote, and on and on as we work to give our buyers what they want. 

Comparative shopping

We often think of comparative shopping in terms of comparing our product/service with others. But there is a more powerful type of this when we enable technology to let buyers compare our own products against themselves. 

Think in terms of rental cars. If you go to a website like Enterprise Rental Cars, you can compare the cost of vehicles based on your dates and locations, all within the Enterprise brand.

You can quickly see the difference between a full-size, mid-size, compact, and SUV. You can see what happens if you move the dates or the pickup location, and you can make an informed buying decision. 

In group travel, much like the calendar pricing above, this falls to salespeople to manage, and if you are like most companies… when someone starts down this comparison type of shopping, they feel like a never-ending time suck and often get pushed to the back of the list, never to be communicated with again. 

Online Reservations/Bookings

This one is pretty obvious. If you look at every category on that chart above, it’s easy to see that you can book any that you want except a charter bus. We have all booked tickets and made reservations and hardly given it a second thought because that is the standard we are accustomed to. That is unless they want to reserve a bus. Then the game changes. 

Send an email, and wait for a response. Ask for the booking, get a confirmation that the booking is actually available, sign a document and email it back that you understand the terms and conditions, pay a deposit via check, and then you have a booking. 

I don’t have to say much to highlight just how different things are for our industry vs. the rest.