We say this every year, but 2020 took the phrase “full of surprises” to the next level. This was a year of change and upheaval – we all needed to think on our feet to stay standing.
But on the whole, fishing charters pulled through. And as we enter this new reality, we’re working on making FishingBooker better suited to your changing needs.
Our biggest updates over the last year, and the things we’ll keep improving into 2021, all come into three categories: Flexibility, Support, and Quality. Find out how this affects you as a captain, and what you can expect from us at FishingBooker over the upcoming year.
Flexibility
We know that when you’re busy dealing with scheduling, providing a great service, and navigating the waterways, the last thing you need is tricky technology. That’s why we’re constantly trying to make FishingBooker fit your business better – wherever you are and however you work.
To help you stay on track, we’ve summed up the year’s most important features and improvements.
Manage Your Bookings in an Easier Way
Last year, the way you change, cancel, and decline bookings changed – all with the aim of making it easier for you to save your trips and keep your customers.
- Now, you don’t need to cancel bookings in order to rebook them on a different date. Instead, simply request a booking change that your customer can respond to, without needing to call FishingBooker support.
- If you do need to cancel, you can do so in just a few taps. The improved cancellation feature helps you communicate with your customers more easily, and shows you how different types of cancellations affect your FishingBooker listing. This also lets us help you a lot quicker – no more waiting on the phone!
- Lastly, if you receive a booking request for a day you can’t make, it’s now easier to offer an alternative date instead of declining. That can help you keep that customer, and also ensure your listing ranks well!
Pro-tip: Keeping your availability up to date and rescheduling your bookings instead of canceling them will boost what’s called your realization rate. A high realization rate brings you more customers, and can put you in the running for the prestigious Angler’s Choice award!
Managing Your Listings is Now Easier, Too!
Before last year, our FishingBooker for Captains app was essentially just a scheduling service. Now, you can use it to edit every part of your FishingBooker presence. No more needing to go to your computer simply to change your trip prices!
The calendar functionalities got a revamp, too. The new availability options allow you to fine-tune your calendar to exactly the way your schedule works. Check out these tips to learn more.
What’s coming up in 2021?
We’re working on making it possible for you to sync your Apple and Google calendars up to your FishingBooker calendar, so you don’t need to update the same dates more than once. We’re also perfecting the way you change bookings, so even changes that would incur a price change can happen directly between you and your customer.
Support
One big change we received a lot of feedback about is the new approach to our support channels.
Ever since we started sending bookings your way, we’ve faced one persistent problem: we can’ guarantee that we’d be able to answer urgent calls quickly, as so many customers and captains were getting in touch to talk about things that could in fact be solved through our Help Center content.
So, in the second half of last year we took a drastic step. We organised the support page in such a way that you could see the Help Center first – and then, depending on the problem you were facing, could either reach us by email or by phone.
We hoped that this would allow us to answer your urgent questions fast – and provide top notch support through our website so you could solve your problems without needing to spend time on the phone.
In hindsight, we recognize that we made this change very quickly and didn’t provide the support needed to answer your questions smoothly. We’ve reopened our phone numbers for a wider variety of calls again. But we want to keep improving the way you get help so you get answers immediately without getting stuck in a queue.
You can help us do that! If there’s one part of your online business that you’d always want to have urgent assistance with, what would it be? Please let us know by filling in this super-short survey. It will literally take a minute!
What’s new?
- You now have more helpful content about making the most of your online presence when you most need it – whether you’re using your app or computer.
- You can now receive and store communication from us on your FishingBooker dashboard, thanks to our new notifications.
What’s coming up in 2021?
We plan to keep working on our support, so you know you’ll be able to get the answers you need, whenever you need them. In addition to our growing Help Center content, you’ll still be able to reach us via email and over the phone.
Quality
As more people book fishing charters online every year, they rely even more on getting trustworthy information about how safe and legitimate these charters are.
We’re really proud to showcase the most comprehensive collection of legitimate charters from all over the world.
We haven’t always been able to monitor the verification status of every single individual who lists with us – not to mention all their boats! But in 2020, we took some massive steps forward in our mission to only promote legitimate captains. Here’s what you need to know:
- Now, it’s impossible for new listings to be booked anywhere in the world until we can verify they’re legitimate.
- We also show customers fishing in the Gulf of Mexico whether their listing is licensed to fish in state or federal waters. This means customers can easily find out how far offshore each charter is allowed to fish.
- FishingBooker’s awards are now more exclusive, too – focusing on the full experience captains provide to customers. Our reworked Angler’s Choice Award now highlights the top 10% of captains handpicked according to bookings, realization rate, response time, and customer ratings.
Pro-tip: Make sure to upload your appropriate documentation when publishing a new listing to make it live as soon as possible. That way, you won’t miss out on any bookings!
What’s coming up in 2021?
Our 2021 resolution is to display verified listings only, all over the world.
Now that only legitimate listings are bookable in the U.S. and Australia, and we know all the documentation that’s needed across the globe, we’re ready to promote reliable captains on an even higher level.
To keep getting bookings, always make sure to keep your documents up to date. It’s easy – whenever you renew any of your papers, just send us a photo of them. We encourage that you block out any personal information when sending us your verification documents.
A Year to Look Forward To
So there you have it. The past year certainly had its ups and downs, but we’re hopefully heading towards calmer waters in 2021. One thing’s for sure, though: we’ll always be here to help your online charter business thrive!
We hope that our recap of 2020’s biggest changes was useful. Once again, make sure to keep your documents and calendar up to date, so we can continue sending you bookings. Also, don’t forget to fill out our short survey and, as always, feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Tight lines!
