Picture this. There’s a storm forecast for the day you’re due to take a trip out and you need to reschedule. But in order to do so, you have to call the customer, call us, cancel the trip, and then rebook it. Right?
Not any more.
Now, you can suggest changes to the date and start time of your upcoming trips directly through the FishingBooker for Captains app. And so can your customers!
This gives you more control over your bookings, letting you and your customer agree on details such as alternative dates and flexible departure times. Every change you agree on will show up in your FishingBooker calendar immediately, so you’ll find it easier to manage your time, all the while avoiding any communication issues.
The people fishing with you will have a smoother experience, too. As well as requesting a different date or time to fish, they can also inform you about changes to the size of their group. This way, you can prepare appropriately, and they will come to meet you at the dock happier and more confident about their trip.
Here’s how to use the feature yourself – and what to do when a customer requests to change their trip.
How to suggest a change to your trip
You can request changes to the date, start time, or group size for any of your confirmed bookings. Do this on your app, or on the FishingBooker website. All you need to do is click “Change booking” from the page that shows the booking details. Then, the customer will get a notification and the option to accept your suggestion or not. Either way, we’ll let you know what they decide!
Note: you need to accept the booking before you can request to change the time or date.
This feature is connected to your FishingBooker calendar. So, if you want to change the trip’s time or date, you’ll only be able to select new slots that don’t already have other trips booked. The same thing applies when customers request changes. This way, you won’t risk having overlapping trips.
Once you make a change request, both the original and the new trip details will be registered in your calendar. They will stay this way until you get a response from your customer.
We’ll let you know whether the customer accepts or declines the request via email, text, and in the app. If the customer doesn’t respond within 48 hours, the request will get withdrawn and we’ll give you a heads up. Everything will be updated in your calendar automatically.
Tip: If you’re making a change because you can no longer make the original trip date and time, don’t forget to update your calendar! Otherwise, you may get more bookings that you can’t accept for that date.
What if you change your mind?
Change requests are valid for 48 hours. Once you’ve suggested a change, the first thing you’ll see is how much longer the request is valid for. As long as the request is open and hasn’t had a response from your customer, you’ll see an option to “Withdraw request.”
When you do this, the customer will get a notification saying the request has been withdrawn. The booking will keep the original details it had before.
You can only withdraw requests before the customer accepts them. If they already accepted the change and it was a mistake, you’ll need to suggest another change.
Responding to a customer’s change request
If your customer asks to change a trip, you’ll get an email, SMS, and a notification on your FishingBooker for Captains app. This will show you all the details of the change they want to make, and all you need to do is decide whether or not you want to accept it.
There are no negative consequences for declining a request to change an upcoming booking. Just let your customer know why you can’t make it and suggest some alternative times and dates that would work better for you.
You’ll have 48 hours to respond to your customer’s request. During this time, both the original trip date/time and the suggested changes will be blocked in your calendar.
Tip: when you get a request, pay extra attention to the start time. Customers can choose any time of the day – or night! – when rescheduling their trips, so make sure you’re accepting a change that you can commit to.
Good to know
As well as suggesting changes to the time and date of a trip, you and your customer can also change the number of people in the group.
When the change request affects the trip’s pricing (for instance, if you have an additional person charge and they increase the group size) the request will need to go through us at FishingBooker. If this happens, we’ll manually reach out to you – you won’t get an automated email through the system.
The same goes if you initiate the request. We’ll handle communicating with the customer manually, so you won’t see the change in “Manage Bookings” until it gets confirmed.
It is only possible to change the date and group size for shared trips – the start time will stay fixed for these packages.
Note: Customers can also request changes to trips that haven’t been accepted yet. If this happens, you’ll see the new date and time they want to fish in your booking details tab. This date/time will be different from the one you were initially emailed about, so make sure to refer to your app for the most up to date information.
With more control over your bookings and greater flexibility, we hope you find our new Change Booking feature very useful. Let us know below if you have any questions or comments!