Are You Using Your Booking System to the Max?

Because if your confirmation email still sounds like it was written by the company you bought it from, we need to talk.

You’ve paid for the booking system, set it up and customers are using it every day. But are you actually using it to the max? Because tucked away inside most booking platforms and POS systems are a bunch of tools designed to communicate with your customers before and after they visit.

And yet, far too often, those tools are sitting there happily firing off the same default emails they came with. You know the ones.

“Your reservation has been confirmed.”

“Thank you for your booking.”

“Please do not reply to this automated message.”

Sexy, not! Nothing says “we can’t wait to welcome you” quite like an email that sounds as though it was generated by an office printer.

Your customer experience starts before they walk through the door

We talk a lot in hospitality and tourism about creating memorable experiences. The welcome, the service, the little touches and the surprise and delight, but your customer experience doesn’t begin when someone walks through your front door, steps onto your tour bus or checks into their room. It starts the moment they decide to book, which means your booking confirmation email is part of the experience.

So is the booking reminder and the thank you afterwards. If those messages sound nothing like the experience you’ve worked so hard to create in real life, there’s a disconnect.

Imagine booking into a gorgeous boutique winery where the website is warm, clever and full of personality, only to receive: “BOOKING CONFIRMED. REFERENCE 84729.”

Well, cheers Ali the AI bot.

When did you last read your own automated emails?

Here’s a little challenge for you. Go into your booking system and book your own business, then go through the process like a customer. What arrives in your inbox? Does it sound like you? Does it make people feel excited about coming? Is it useful? Most importantly, does it sound like an actual human wrote it?

Automation should save you time, not remove your personality.

The default template is exactly that: a default

Your booking software doesn’t know your business like you do. It doesn’t know the little details your customers appreciate, the things they should know before they arrive or the bits of personality that make your experience yours.

That’s your job.

A boring transactional email can still do its job, but it can also do a little more. Instead of simply saying, “Your booking is confirmed for Saturday at 7pm”, could it welcome them, build a little anticipation and give them one useful piece of information before they arrive?

Same email. Better experience.

What else is hiding in there?

Once you’re inside your system, have a poke around. Can you customise your reminders, pre arrival information, post visit thank you messages, review requests or rebooking prompts?

You don’t need to switch everything on and create some giant marketing monster with seventeen arms and a dashboard you’ll never look at again. Start with the email that gets sent most often and make it sound like your business.

Then move to the next one.

Want a head start? I’ve put together a Booking Email AI Prompt Swipe File which will create your very own on brand email so you can stop staring at a blinking cursor wondering what the hell to write.

Grab the Booking Email AI Prompt Swipe File

You’ve already got the tech. Now let’s make it sound like you.