The new year always brings a lot of excitement, and this one’s no different. Starting this month, FishingBooker is rolling out its Angler’s Choice Award for 2021. Limited to the top 10% of best-performing captains, this exclusive recognition is one of our most desireable achievements. In this month’s video, we explain how getting the Angler’s Choice can boost your business, as well as what you need in order to get your hands on it!
Just like last year, all the winners of the Angler’s Choice Award have received an email notifying them about the good news. If you received the award, congrats – you’re in some elite company!
The Angler’s Choice Award – Why You Should Care
Listings that have won the Angler’s Choice Award are highlighted in FishingBooker’s search results, but the benefits go far beyond a cool-looking badge. On average, listings with the Angler’s Choice Award are likely to get almost five times as many bookings compared to a regular listing!
On top of that, award winners receive an exclusive widget that they can add to their own website to gain increased trust and recognition from customers everywhere. And that’s not all! Building on last year’s Angler’s Choice Award, the winners will be promoted to their local media for a chance to earn even wider acclaim.
Criteria
This year, the Angler’s Choice Award is going to the best performing listings between February 2020 and February 2021. To qualify, this is what you needed to achieve:
7+ Verified Reviews
Unlike reviews received through invitations, verified reviews only include those from your FishingBooker customers. As you know, reviews are a huge deal for anglers looking for a charter. They show your customers who you are before they even set foot on your boat.
We always recommend inviting your own customers to leave a review for you, but know that these don’t count towards your eligibility for the Angler’s Choice Award. Here’s a short article that will help you understand how reviews work.
4.5+ Star Review Rating
We know that you set high standards, and a good review rating will help customers see that. If your customers had a good story to tell when they left your boat, chances are that more bookings are on their way!
Just like all the other criteria, the review score counts reviews that came in from February 2020 to February 2021.
>70% Realization Rate
The realization rate is the percentage of your bookings that turn into trips. Our research has shown that, in addition to safety, this is what customers care about the most when choosing a fishing charter. Let’s face it, who likes to have their booking fall through?
To get the 2021 Angler’s Choice Award, you needed to reach a realization rate of at least 70%. Why 70? Well, as you know, running a fishing charter isn’t the same as running a delivery service.
To set our criteria, we looked at how listings performed over the year, taking bad weather, boat malfunctions and customer cancellations into account. We also looked at how frequently captains updated their availability.
After analyzing hundreds of thousands of bookings, we realized that captains who consistently go the extra mile tend to reach a realization rate of around 80%. The important thing here is that we looked at how your listing performs in the long term.
Now, we understand that 2020 was an unprecedented year. This is why, just like in August, we lowered the realization rate requirement from 80% to 70% to make the award more attainable.
Keeping your realization rate high can get you a lot more than an award, mind you. In this article, we dig into how the realization rate influences your listing, explain some common misconceptions, and uncover what steps you can take to improve it.
💡 Striving for a high realization rate doesn’t mean you should ever feel pressured to go through with a trip in unsafe weather conditions. Canceling due to bad weather will not count negatively towards your ranking. With that said, we always encourage you to take advantage of our features to try to reschedule the trip for a brighter day.
> 90% Response Rate
The response rate measures how many booking requests you replied to within 24 hours. We understand that things can get busy when you’re running trips but, thankfully, your app makes it easy to manage booking requests wherever you are.
More importantly, why risk losing a potential customer to a more responsive captain when you could be the one who gets the trip? Even if you’re not able to go on the customer’s requested date, responding early can give you the chance to reschedule, and effectively keep the booking!
If you have Instant Book enabled, things are even easier as your booking requests will be automatically confirmed. As long as your calendar is up to date, Instant Book will save you time, as well as give you a valuable ranking boost!
Looking Ahead
You can expect the next edition of the Angler’s Choice Award to feature a similar set of requirements. If any of the criteria end up changing, we’ll make sure to let you know in advance.
Speaking of requirements, tracking your progress towards the next release of the Angler’s Choice Award has just gotten a lot easier. The all-new Angler’s Choice Progress Tracker lets you check your performance right on your mobile app!
Last but not least, we’re working hard on making the next edition of Angler’s Choice even bigger. Stay on track with the requirements, and you’ll be able to look forward to some exciting new perks!
Once again, to all the recipients of the Angler’s Choice Award, congratulations! If you’re among the lucky winners, it’s time to reap the rewards. If not, the running for the next edition of the award has already started – time to go fishing!
Here’s a rundown of the perks you get, as well as some commonly asked questions about the Angler’s Choice Award.
Did you get the award this year? Have questions about the criteria? Drop us a comment below, we always like hearing from you!
