Web 2.0 :: Travel Manager

February 7, 2009 – 8:45 am

This morning we rolled out the following functionality:

[1] IMG / GPN Member Profiles. This can be found under the MyAccount -> Profile Builder section.

[2] Customisable vehicle types for the quotation widget. You can now add your own vehicle types under the “Charter Settings” screen and these vehicles show up in your quotations widget as options for users to choose.

[3] Documents created as PDF files now have a more obvious naming convention . The file name is the quote or invoice number. eg. Quote 324 will create a PDF file Q000324.pdf etc.

Regards

Dean

January 30, 2009 – 1:42 pm

The last few weeks I’ve been working with TravelManager users on reviewing their websites. We’d looked at how they track their traffic and the benefits of adding the Online Quoting Widget to their website.

During the process I started looking at their PageRank; which is a value between 0 and 10 that Google gives websites based on importance. 10 being the highest, but anything over 4 is good but if your site has 5 or 6 you’re really doing well as some of Google’s on sites like Google.ie only have a PageRank of 7!

Or as Google says on their website:
“PageRank Technology: PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.”
So why does all this mean to Motor Coach Companies? Simple, the higher your website PageRank the better chance I have of listing near the top of Google.
How can I increase my PageRank? Basically, you need to get links to your website on other websites that are relevant to your industry. So in the case of the Motor Coach Industry links on Tourism Websites, Tour Operator Websites are great. If you do work for Universities or Sports Teams or State Body and Government Agencies getting a link on their website would be fantastic as these typically are regarded as very important by search engines.
So if you do one thing on your website after adding the Online Quotation Widget to your website …. You need to start getting some good links to your website.

Regards,
Eamonn

**All search engines work on a similar basis so it’s universally good to have links to your website. So what are you waiting for get link building today.

January 28, 2009 – 10:26 am

Microsoft has finally shipped the latest version of Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) – and first impressions are they finally have a decent browser to compete with the likes of Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari. IE8 is considerably faster that IE6 & IE7 – so if you are still using these (especially IE6) then I would recommend you update your browser as soon as you have the opportunity to.

One of the main improvements to IE8 is the conformance to web standards – which has been a bug-bear of developers around the world for a very long time. Microsoft has finally caught up with the rest of the market and designed their latest browser to be fully compliant with the latest web standards

TravelManager runs a dream on IE8 – just as it does on Chrome, Safari & Firefox.

A full list of the improvemens can be found on Microsofts homepage.

Dean

January 24, 2009 – 8:40 am

We have rolled out a number of improvements to the platform this morning – as requested by users. They are:-

[1] Ability to change the default terms on quotations

[2] Amendments to the “All Quotes Status” report. We have added the referrer site to quotes so you can see exactly where the quote came in from online

[3] Improved the viewing of emails sent to customers

[4] Improvements to the mileage calculations within North American locations.

[5] Amended the wording and order of certain fields on the North American version of the quotations form.

[6] Improvements to the main dashboard screen from a cosmetic and performance perspective.

[7] Improved navigation of searching for quotes from the quotes listing screen

[8] Improved the performance of 2 reports – brought the run tme down from 8s to less than 1s

As per the previous posting we are also working on improvements to the “Additional Fields” section of the quotation process as well as a number of new reports to help you plan your marketing strategy and gather intelligence on your ROI etc.

We have now clsoed 89 feedback items since December 1st 2008 and have 9 outstanding feedback requests which look as though they will all be completed within the next 2 weeks amongst other items. So keep your feedback coming

Regards

Dean

January 23, 2009 – 4:43 pm

We are working on anumber of improvements to the quotation widget – based on feedback from the community. We are looking to rollout the ability to add your own additional fields at the bottom of each quote form. So you could add in checkboxes for DVD equipment or PA / Microphones for example and the prospective customer can choose from your available options.

When the customer chooses a number of these additional fields then his / her choices show up in the quotation details screen inside TravelManager.

So you will then be able to generate reports such as “How many people request DVD equipment? Or how many require a shuttle service? etc.” Its just one more way of finding our more information about your customers and prospective customers

We are looking to rollout this functionality on Saturday 31st January if testing goes to plan.

Regards

Dean

January 21, 2009 – 8:48 am

then take a look at these facts and figures published this morning on the inauguration of President Obama.

600,000 status updates were posted through CNN.com during the broadcast
Facebook averaged 4,000 status updates per second
8,500 status updates were updated in the first minute of his speech
Millions of people logged onto Facebook during the broadcast to “listen” to the feedback
1.5m status updates on facebook as of this morning

The Internet actually “slowed down” here. My 24MB DSL connection at home was crawling along at one stage by the sheer weight of traffic being sent across the network.

When people find something that they can “engage” with then then join the conversation and those conversations can be very very powerful.

The secret is to identify what your customers want to engage in with you. Why do they buy from you? What keeps them coming back? How do you get them to tell everyone else and join in a conversation about you?

Regards

Dean

January 19, 2009 – 11:02 am

With all those news related websites, Blogs and general content online I asked myself the question. What is being said or written about my Business? Unless I wanted to go searching everyday, which is not the most productive use of my time, how do I answer the question?

Well I started using a great service from Google called “Google Alerts*” and after some tweaking of the search terms (e.g. “yourcompany.com” or “Your Company Name”) I was able to answer that question and more.

Once I started getting this information on a daily basis (you can set it up to be less frequent) – it started giving me a better picture about how our services were perceived online. Which leads me to the next question, so how does this affect the Motor Coach Industry? Your website is important, or it’s becoming more important everyday as your customer base moves online.

But customers are becoming more savvy so their using the Internet not only to find your service but to compare and review you against you competitors and often it’s not just about price! What it comes down to is your reputation and much like you’ve built your reputation by your customer’s recommendations you now need to do the same with your online reputation.

So if your reputation online were important, wouldn’t it be nice to track the positive (for Marketing) and the negative (for resolving potential issues)? Better still if you have an Blog or news section of your website you could add a link to those positive stories?

Remember you don’t have to just track your company news maybe it would be a good idea to find out what’s being said about your local competitor? Or monitoring a section of your core business like School Contracts or Sightseeing Tours would give you some more insight into recent events or potential opportunities.

Regards,

Eamonn

*Google Alerts is a FREE service from Google that lets sends me regular emails that track News, Websites, Blogs, Video and user Groups for anything related to my search term.

January 15, 2009 – 5:36 pm

The International Motorcoach Group (www.imgcoach.com) and the Motorcoach Council (www.motorcoachcouncil.org) have put together a nice video explaining their services and the benefits of travelling by coach.

Get the Flash Player to see this content.

IMG represent 60 of the very best operators in North America – if you need services in the USA / Canada – then I would thoroughly recommend you talk to these guys.

Regards

Dean

January 10, 2009 – 9:35 am

This morning we rolled out some new functionality / improvements.

They include:

[1] Included company contact details on all quote correspondance from the system

[2] Multiple users in multiple offices to be able to share / distribute quotes

[3] Quotes status report – showing all incoming quotes and their current status (responded, booked, declined etc.)

[4] Users can now have personalised signatures with their own contact details

[5] Ability to have a “canned” message for all quote correspondance. The message can be updated in real-time and templates can be added on a per company basis.

[6] New report showing where quotes are coming from (your website or 3rd party website)

[7] Customer contact information is now displayed at the top of each quote page

[8] Ability to duplicate a quote so you can create multiple bookings from the one query

We will be posting next weeks development schedule each monday morning and posting a post-rollout article each weekend to keep you abreast of the new additions / improvements to the TravelManager platform. So if you are interested in whats new and whats coming up please subscribe to our RSS feed on the right of this screen – or add the Blog widget to your dashboard in TravelManager.

Regards

Dean

January 6, 2009 – 4:38 pm

The world is one strange place right now – but that doesnt mean that its not filled with hope and opportunity – quite the opposite in fact. The following are some of the trends we can expect to see in the technical area which may impact our industry.

[1] Web 2.0 (the feedback component anyway) will morph into Feedback 3.0

Feedback 1.0 was all about individuals providing scathing reviews or complaints to a company email / contact form. Feedback 2.0 moved into the mass appeal where sites such as yelp.com and twitter.com where consumers could rant to a targetted group of people. Feedback 3.0 is all about companies joining in on the conversation and sharing their stories in front of a mass audience. The smart ones are not only providing images and blogs on their websites but also full video capability to show off what makes them different.

Consumers are becoming more selective with their descretionary spending power – and want to make informed choices – so businesses need to work hard to provide them with all the information they can.

[2] Consumers will continue to focus on “green” issues. Business that can prove their green credentials will stand out in the crowd and win admirers. Car manufacturers such as Fiat in Europe are already getting in on the act with their ecoDrive solution.

[3] The power of the Internet in your pocket. The blackberry gave way to the iPhone in 2008 and it wont revert. Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android platform will continue to develop and take market share in 2009 leaving Nokia and Motorola scratching their heads. You will soon be able to run all aspects of your business from your phone.

Regards

Dean

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