OutsideAgents.com has unveiled My Booking Genie, a technology tool that not only takes the hassle out of booking groups, but also helps agents promote them. "My Booking Genie automates the process of promoting the group, has social networking integration, streamlines the payment collection process and automates the payment reminder process," said Chad Burt, co-owner of OutsideAgents.com. "In a nutshell, it really frees up the agent to service their clients better than just taking credit card numbers over the phone."
With My Booking Genie, agents can nimbly create microsites that provide clients with all the standardized information they need to book, including supplementary products, travel itinerary, accommodations categories, payment information and legal disclaimers.
"My Booking Genie standardizes the information in a manner that everybody can view it, take a look at it and then go ahead and register for group," said Burt. After registering for the trip, clients are able to send the agent payment information through an encrypted PDF. "The agent then has a record of what the client chose along with their billing information, so they can just go ahead and apply that payment and not have to be on the phone with 16 different people collecting 16 different payments," said Burt. "The bottom line here is that the agent slashes the time it takes to explain the trip and collect payments for the group, enabling them to spend more time wowing the client."
Maybe best of all, the microsites feature social networking integration, enabling clients to promote the agent's brand and group. "Agents can send a microsite to a church group who then posts it to their Facebook pages and now every member of the congregation sees the upcoming trip," said Burt.
Once OutsideAgents.com travel started a group for a student cruise with just 10 cabins. "There are now 108 cabins booked because the group was promoted across all these social networks," said Burt. "Even if an agent didn't get a single extra booking, consider the hundreds, if not thousands, of extra potential clients who would see the agent's name and brand."
Burt said approximately 400 OutsideAgent.com agents are using My Booking Genie. "It's just exploding," he said. "The agents are all promoting huge jumps in their group conversion rates as well as huge decreases in the amount of time they're spending on the phone doing menial tasks like taking payments and what not."
Agents who are not affiliated with OutsideAgents.com can use My Booking Genie by booking through OutsideAgents.com when they use the tool.
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