Outbound calling is a great way to start booking more reservations….and right now! Next to inbound call conversion, outbound phone sales are the next best way to increase revenue for your company. By utilizing some simple Best Practices and outbound calling strategies, you can capture more second chance bookings as well as engage repeat guests and your Inquiry List leads in a proactive and personal way.
Revinate provides several features associated with outbound calling:
- Outbound phone calls, when made through the lead form, update your lead response time for both RezForce and email leads. These two lead sources measure response throughout The Reservation Sales Suite.
- Outbound phone calls update the last follow-up date/time for leads.
- Leads become “expired” or turn to auto-complete seven days after the last follow-up date/time. By using Revinate outbound calling you will know the last time your agents followed up on their leads.
- Outbound call conversion can be measured on both the Outbound Call Conversion and Booking Method reports. You can see how many calls were placed, how many were booked, and how much revenue was associated with outbound calling.
Best Practices
- Assign a specific “sales” person to make outbound calls. We suggest using someone with proven sales experience.
- Give them outbound sales goals. For example: Set these goals based on last month’s number of lead calls and by converting 10% of the Hot Lead calls.
- Put an incentive plan in place to compensate them based on a percentage of what they sell.
- Pay them based on good data. That means making sure they are using the Revinate lead form to track their bookings. You can then compare this against your Property Management System.
- Start a campaign titled: Outbound Call Campaign. Please see your Customer Success Manager for more details on how to set this up.
- Use the designated Outbound Call Campaign Toll-Free Number when you leave messages for guests to call back.
- Put promotional offers in the Enhanced Campaign area of the Campaign.
There are three types of outbound sales calls. 2nd Chance Bookings, Inquiry List Selling Opportunities, and Past Guest Selling Opportunities. We have developed scripts and processes for each type of sales calls. Each of these scripts is generic so that your salespeople can add their own personality to the call and make them more personal. This is especially valuable if that salesperson spoke with the potential guest to begin with! Regardless of the type of outbound call, it is important that the outbound sales agent confirm availability for the desired stay dates/accommodation (if provided) prior to calling the potential guest back. This allows the agent to quickly answer any additional questions the caller may have as well as provide a quote and confirm the reservation. If the desired dates/accommodation are not available, the outbound sales agent can be prepared to offer alternatives.
2nd Chance Bookings
These are “Hot Lead” calls that have been left in Follow-Up by the reservation agent from the previous day(s). These leads are produced from your own staff and RezForce and have a very high likelihood of booking with you. We suggest you call these potential guests no later than 48 hours after they initially called you. The Reservation Manager should be assigning these leads to the outbound sales person.
When following up with the caller, we suggest using this opportunity to follow up with the guest regarding their last inquiry to see if they had any more questions. If the guest is price resistant it can be a good time to “discount” or offer a promotion/package. This will help you keep your rate integrity for guests you can get to book on the first call while providing the outbound sales agent the ability to leverage a discount or promotion in order to secure the 2nd chance booking.
2nd Chance Bookings Script
Note: With the 2nd Chance Bookings you will be using the lead from the original call.
Voicemail message scripts:
“Hi, {Name of client}. This is {Name of Reservation Agent} from {Company Name}. I wanted to follow up with you regarding your inquiry yesterday. Please give me a call at {Toll-Free Number} Again, my name is {Name of Reservation Agent} and my number is {Toll-Free Number}. Thank you for your interest in {Company Name}.
If discounts available:
“Hi, {Name of client}. This is {Name of Reservation Agent} from {Company Name}. We have been given the approval to offer a great promotion over your dates of stay and based on what I heard in your call – wanted to call you first. Please give me a call at {Toll-Free Number} to hear about how we can save you some money when you stay with us. Again, my name is {Name of Reservation Agent} and my number is {Toll-Free Number}. Thank you for your interest in {Company Name}.
When you have reached someone:
“Hi, {Name of client}. This is {Name of Reservation Agent} from {Company Name}. You inquired with our company about a vacation stay over the dates of ______________________. Did you have any other questions before we confirm your reservation?
If Discounts Available:
“Hi, {Name of client}. This is {Name of Reservation Agent} from {Company Name}. You inquired with our company about a vacation stay over the dates of ______________________. I noticed that you were looking for a little better deal than was previously available. We have been given the approval to offer a great promotion over your dates of stay and based on what you are looking for – I wanted to call you first. Are you still looking to book your stay in ________________and interested in saving money?
Inquiry List Selling Opportunities
Inquiry lists provide additional selling opportunities for your agents and more revenue for you! Following are examples of not-booked leads that you can contact for future stays:
- Contact leads that called you when there was no availability. For example, if they called you in June for a July stay, contact them in April or May for a July stay the following year.
- Contact leads that were not able to book with you because of a policy. For example, if guests were looking for a pet friendly accommodation, but you were sold out, you could call them the following year with a list of your pet friendly properties.
- Review all your not-booked reasons to find ways to contact potential guests for future stays. You will want to coordinate this effort with your marketing team.
Before you call the guest, open a new lead and select the campaign “Outbound Call Campaign”. Fill in the guest’s name and dates of interest as you call the guest. (This is all provided in the lead list.)
Inquiry List Script:
“Hello, {Name of client}. This is {Name of Reservation Agent} and I am with {Company Name} in beautiful {destination}. How are you today? You contacted us recently about a stay for {time frame}. Are you still planning on visiting {destination}?”
If the answer is yes –
“Do you have confirmed lodging or would you like to discuss what we can offer you?
If the answer is no –
“Well, we do have some wonderful amenities and activities for you to experience, so please consider {Company Name} on your next visit to fabulous {destination}.”
If you do not confirm a booking, make sure to give them the Toll-Free Number to call back on. Use the following language.
“If you have any more questions or are ready to confirm your stay, please contact us back at {Toll-Free Number}. We look forward to speaking with you again!
Past Guest Selling Opportunities
Past guests are guests that have stayed with you in the past but have not yet booked with you this year. We recommend contacting past guests and offering them a loyalty discount or value-added promotion to book with you early. The time that you call your client will vary but it should always be well before the booking window for your busy season. To track the effectiveness of your loyalty campaign, create a new marketing campaign in the Reservation Sales Suite.
Before you call the guest, open a new lead and select “Outbound Calling Campaign”. This list would be pulled from your guest history data. It should include all previous guests for the next 45 days that do not currently have reservations for this same time frame.
Past Guest Script:
“Hello, {Name of client}. This is {Name of Reservation Agent} and I am with {Company Name} in beautiful {destination}. How are you today? We have a fabulous guest loyalty program that tells us you have stayed with us over the last few years but have not yet booked your vacation for this year. Are you planning on visiting {destination} this year?
If the answer is yes –
“Would you like to hear about the great promotions and discounts we have running for this {time frame}?
If the answer is no –
“Well, if your plans change please consider a return stay with us at {Company Name}. The easiest way to reach us is at (Toll-Free Number). We look forward to hearing from you!
By utilizing these outbound selling strategies, you will be better able to engage your callers and offer a personalized service to capture more reservations.
Outbound Calls to Inbound Callers that Abandoned
Even in the most efficient call centers, we have found that agents are not always able to get to every caller that is interested in speaking with your property. Within Reservation Sales, Revinate tracks every call that is placed in queue and indicates those callers that disconnected while they were “on hold” waiting for the next available agent. The connection status for these calls is Abandoned.
Because we capture the caller’s phone number and the connection status, your agents can reach back out to these guests, by placing an outbound courtesy call to offer assistance.
This elevated level of service can lead to brand loyalty and keep the guest in your sales funnel.
Follow these tips for making outbound calls to Abandoned Callers:
- One key of this strategy of follow up is timing. The sooner your property can reach back out to the guest that abandoned their inbound call the better.
- Using our Q-Vue module allows a manager, supervisor or agent to see how many calls have “abandoned” within the last hour. As this number grows, the opportunity to reach back out to these guests grows.
- Before calling an abandoned call back, check to see if that phone number has called back and connected with someone since the abandoned call, if not, place an outbound call to the guest and offer to help.
This is another proactive way to connect with all guests that have interest in your property and another opportunity for Outbound Revenue.
Making and Managing Outbound Calls for Success
Outbound Call Conversion Report