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Running a successful business takes more than just a well-trained staff and effective management. It also takes the right tools, which is why using a reservation system to run your outdoor property can help scale your business and lead your campground, RV park, or marina to success.
The main difference between growing your business and scaling is that the latter means planning how to scale a business in a way that enables a smooth expansion across the board without any “growing pains.” According to Score.org, scaling “requires planning, some funding, and the right systems, staff, processes, technology, and partners.”
Scaling your business involves:
That’s why it’s crucial to choose a reservation management system that offers all the features your property needs in order to stay on top of trends in the industry and enhance the customer experience. Below, we’ll discuss how to scale a business by making the most of a reservation management system.
While managing any business can be a challenge, it can become more difficult if you decide to open another location — especially if you use different systems for every property. Instead, you’ll need a variety of integrated tools within one reservation management system to help you achieve success efficiently. The right reservation management solution should provide multiple ways to assist you in scaling your business:
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Managing your reservations can be time-consuming, but if your software has the right tools, you can free up your staff’s time:
With an integrated Internet Booking Engine (IBE), you can maximize your direct bookings and ensure accurate reservation details every time.
If your system provides these tools as a part of the IBE, you can potentially pay fewer OTA fees across the board while improving the reservation process for your visitors.
To scale a business, you need to know what’s working… and what isn’t. With a data reporting feature, you can keep track of reservation trends and make adjustments to your operations to keep things running smoothly no matter the season.
Benefits of a reporting feature may include:
When you analyze the data from a reporting feature, you can identify and solve potential issues before your campers and boaters even know they exist. Being proactive means you'll have the capacity to handle increased bookings as you scale and improve your business.
To avoid purchasing separate software, you may be able to manage your associate owners — your long-term guests who own a specific slip or RV — by using an accounting feature already built into a reservation system. Your associate owners could also have access to export their own statements to help with their record keeping.
Empowering your associate owners to take care of their own business operations through the same software can keep you updated on their progress while giving you back time to further plan your own business growth.
You can also reduce your operational expenses if your software offers free 24/7 customer support. This can save you from having to wait until normal business hours to have your questions and concerns addressed. Since planned growth comes in stages, you’ll want to have the tools and support you need at-hand without having to stop everything to look — and possibly pay — for it.
To scale your business, you have to grow your loyal customer base. This can be done through smart marketing features built into a reservation management system.
Engage With Your Guests A key component of turning one-time visitors to repeat visitors is through guest communication. A tool that allows you to directly market to guests may also allow you to:
To effectively scale your business, you’ll need to know how to budget — and save — on marketing campaigns. You could spend less on marketing efforts if you gain repeat visitors.
Create your own bespoke rewards program to encourage loyalty to your business. With the right features, your guests can earn points every time they book a reservation, allowing them to use those points towards future reservation discounts.
Implementing a rewards program can also encourage your guests to tell their friends and family about your property, which can help you meet your new visitor reservation goals at the same time.
Having a customer-first reputation comes with supporting your campers and boaters from start to finish. According to a KOA report, 48% of new campers in 2018 said that they became interested in camping thanks to other campers.
By providing a positive experience for everyone, your customer base will include a healthy mix of loyal visitors and brand-new guests.
A reservation management system tailored to your needs will allow you to give every guest — whether they book in groups or separately — an exceptional reservation experience so that you can scale your business accordingly.
Some reservation management systems that have a self-service option could allow guests to take advantage of:
Additionally, a client portal reduces the need for additional staff to handle manual operations, as it empowers your guests to control their reservations on their own.
When talking about intentional growth, you want to make sure that you only plan to hire more team members when necessary to avoid added costs that aren’t required to reach your goals.
With clear communication lines, you can scale your business with confidence, knowing that your visitors will be provided with the same level of excellent customer service that they have come to expect from you and your staff.
A review feature within the right reservation management system would allow your guests to conveniently submit their honest concerns and thoughts about their stay. You would then have the opportunity to correct any reported issues and resolve problems that your visitors faced while at your property. With this tool you can turn concerned guests into repeat customers, allowing you to effectively increase your bookings.
Improving the customer experience by utilizing a review feature is a great way to improve and increase the reputation of your property without spending additional money or resources to address those same concerns.
Scaling is impossible without efficient employee management. You need to know if your employees can take on more responsibility as your brand grows, or if it’s time to add to the team.
With a cloud-based task management feature, you can make sure that your staff can complete daily tasks on time. A task management tool may allow property managers to create and assign tasks to staff, who can then complete the tasks and track their progress within the portal. This streamlined approach can help ensure that your property is properly maintained every day.
By offering continuous training for your staff, you’ll feel confident that they can handle the campground reservation system, know customer service best practices, and stay organized. Through a staff task management feature on your reservation management system, you are setting your team up for a streamlined approach to handling daily operations with accuracy and efficiency.
To properly scale your business and make sure your employees are ready for anything, it’s important to keep up with the latest hospitality trends. By ensuring your employees are prepared to handle influxes in reservations and customer requests, you’ll be able to effectively manage staff growth.
While managing your employees, you’ll need to keep track of their progress. This is key for identifying potential promotion opportunities, as well as learning opportunities for every team member. Some reservation management solutions may enable you to set key performance indicators (KPIs) to track their success and learning opportunities. The KPIs you choose to measure should go hand in hand with providing the best guest experience possible.
There are several key components to consider when planning how to scale a business. Combining the tools and features of your chosen reservation software to align with your goals can help your business grow with fewer complications.
For example, using a reporting feature to keep track of the rate of reservations during the slow season can give you insight on when to set or adjust your dynamic pricing rules. And, if your reservations are updated in real-time, you won’t have to worry about overbooking.
The right system should be configurable to your needs and business goals while providing features that empower your team to plan for growth. When you effectively utilize the features of your reservation management software in your business evaluations and planning, you can easily keep track of your progress to streamline operations and accurately predict future business needs as you purposely grow.
Find out how you can streamline your operations and more with a reservation management system like RMS in our free guide on Operational Excellence.
