With an estimated 700 million people making online bookings in 2023, now is the time to improve your online journey. Through creating an smooth client journey on your website, you could be able to increase bookings and sales more than ever before. Therefore, we have compiled several starting areas to help with this process.
Attract prospective clients to start their online journey
First and foremost, a prospective guest or client may not be aware of your packages or services. Therefore, you will need to implement methods of attracting people to your spa packages and offerings. The first of these is implementing keywords and phrases into your package details so that these will appear high in search engine listings. Implementing this Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) will ultimately help surge interest in your online or leisure business online.
Another method is to implement any guest or client reviews clearly on your website. 85% of consumers place as much trust in online reviews as personal recommendations, meaning many will read these before placing a booking for any of your experiences. These will be an invaluable part of your client’s online journey before.
We have plenty more advice on how to improve your spa’s client experience and online feedback to aid with this step, should you need more.
Improve your website with easy-to-read navigation
When a guest or client lands on your website, they have arrived with a purpose. More often than not for spa, leisure and hospitality, this intent will be to place a suitable booking. In fact, over 75% of consumers stated that the most important factor of a website is that it makes it easy for them to find what they are looking for (according to Hubspot survey results). Therefore, your website must be easy to navigate to what the guest or client is looking for, otherwise they will simply leave.
One of the most common issues for difficult website use is unclear navigation, with a cluttered layout not far behind. That means it is vital your offerings are easy to find, labelled clearly and detail what is featured in the spa package, room or facility booking.
Simplify the booking process in the online journey
Once a guest or client has found a suitable package for booking and read user reviews, they will likely want to place a booking. Is it easy to proceed with a booking through your website, or will they need to call? With 42% of spa bookings now being made outside of traditional business hours, having an online booking procedure will ensure bookings can still be made when no one is available to take a call on-site. Any online booking process should therefore be as simple and straight-forward as possible, with clear button locations to take guests or clients to the next step until completion.
Up-sell and cross-sell suitable items during the online journey
If a guest or client is looking to book a spa package, chances are they will be enticed by something more to enhance their experience. You will have plenty more to offer too, such as complimentary items for spa treatments (such as slippers or bath robes), or food and drink experiences that can be added on. It is important you are therefore maximising every opportunity to upsell and cross-sell items that match the booking, especially during the online journey. Guests and clients will be more likely to add these to their basket if they are offered at natural points in the booking journey, increasing revenue opportunities.
Streamline filling out client details and payment
The final step of the online journey is to make the process of filling out any details as easy as possible. Filling our names, address details and payment information can be a deterrent if this has to occur every time, so why not provide options for a guest or client to sign up so that their details can be remembered for next time? Potential enhancements, such as autofill options for address details, will aid this further, as will a variety of payment options to match clients’ preferences.
Once payment has been made, make sure clients receive any final details they need straight to their chosen method of communication.
Journey Hospitality’s onejourney® is the ultimate online spa booking platform that streamlines the guest or client’s online journey. Integrating with Core by Premier Software®, the system pulls together multiple areas of your business into one booking experience. To find out how onejourney® can help you with the above, head to our partners page for more.
