Did you know that the top two reasons for great reviews on FishingBooker are an excellent experience on the boat and good communication before the trip? We know you’ve got the first one in the bag. But here’s our advice for securing those star ratings with excellent pre-trip communication, too. This can help tip the balance for customer satisfaction even on days that the fish just aren’t biting.
This article will show you how to use FishingBooker’s toolset to build a relationship with your client, even before they book their first trip with you. Avoid pitfalls by preparing your customer for the trip and keep your review score high with these simple tips. Let’s get started!
How Instant Messaging Works
As soon as you publish a listing on FishingBooker, customers can reach out to you through our messaging tool. They can contact you before even booking a trip by clicking “Message Captain” at the bottom of your listing.
Once you receive a message, you’ll see a yellow spot at the top right of your Inbox on FishingBooker. You’ll also get an email and a notification on your Captain App. Simply click the dot to see and reply to your messages.
As soon as a customer has sent you a message or booked a trip with you, you can start a conversation. You can:
- Answer potential customers’ questions
- Invite customers to book trips with you
- Discuss upcoming trips with people who have booked you through FishingBooker
- Refine and update details about upcoming bookings
Note: FishingBooker’s messenger tool filters out contact details if the customer hasn’t booked a trip yet. This means they won’t receive any messages that include your phone number or email address. Why? We only allow an exchange of contact details once a booking has taken place.
How to find your customer’s contact details
Once you accept a booking on FishingBooker, you’ll be able to find your client’s phone number directly within our system. You can do this from the Messaging tool.
Here’s how it works:
- Open your inbox and click on the name of the customer you want to contact. This will take you to your messages with this customer.
- At the top right of the screen, you’ll see a link with the text View Booking Details. Click this.
- You’ll be taken to a page detailing the date, time, and trip that the customer booked. You can find your customer’s contact details at the top of this page.
- If you want to return to messaging after having called or emailed your customer, press the “Back” button at the top left of the screen.
If you’re viewing your messages on your computer, you’ll be able to see the booking details and messages together on the same web page, directly after clicking on the customer’s name from the inbox:
It’s best to contact your customer by phone for urgent updates or last minute changes of plan, while messaging is useful for sharing general information. If your customer’s traveling from abroad, they may not be able to receive online messages, making phone contact essential.
What if the customer hasn’t booked with you yet?
If you’ve received a message from a customer but they haven’t made a booking yet, you can seal the deal by sending them a booking invitation. You can do this directly from the messaging app by clicking “View Inquiry Details” at the top of the screen.
Once you’re there, you’ll see the initial date and trip type that the customer was interested in. You can invite them to book this specific package, or update the trip details to suit them better now that you’ve heard from them and know what they’re looking for.
Do this by clicking either “Invite to book” or “Create new offer” from the Inquiry details page:
When you invite a customer to book, you’re telling them that you’re available and ready to take them on a trip. If they decide to place the booking, it will automatically be added to your calendar. You don’t need to manually accept it, even if you don’t have instant book!
You’ll only be able to see your customer’s contact details – and vice versa – once they’ve accepted your invitation. But don’t worry, you can still talk to them over messenger before that.
We hope this clears up how to find your customer’s contact details and when and how to use Instant Messenger. Let us know if you have any questions in the comments below!
