NAVIS – the #1 Hospitality CRM – announced strong customer revenue growth and platform performance improvements to its reservations sales and lead management CRM solution during the annual Navigate conference. Chief among a series of new product features aimed at helping customers capture direct booking revenue includes the general availability of an integrated shopping cart abandonment solution, which connects the industry’s most popular website booking engines with NAVIS CRM.
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When a guest exits a hotelier’s website booking engine before checking out, the new shopping cart abandonment application pushes leads into NAVIS, where automatic follow-up emails are triggered and reservations sales teams can act. The initial release connects to the industry’s leading booking engines, with future integration plans on the way. Currently supported booking engine technology partners include SynxisBE by Saber, RezFusion by Bluetent, TravelClick, Fuel, and SMS World NXT from Springer-Miller Systems.
The release follows an eight-month pilot period where beta clients saw impressive early results. During their pilots, customers achieved an average abandonment lead conversion rate of 25-40%. “The Shopping Cart Abandonment tool has helped us convert more revenue and allowed us to follow up with potential guests in an extremely targeted and personal way,” says Travis Johnson, Vice President of Marketing, TradeWinds Island Grand. The solution has the potential to generate anywhere from three to five times the number of leads compared to just collecting completed website bookings.
With shopping cart abandonment tools being common among online travel agencies and retail websites, consumers have become accustomed to receiving emails reminding them about purchases left behind. However, this type of website intelligence has not seen high penetration rates in the hospitality industry. Investing in these tools holds great potential for hospitality leaders that, on average, experience an 85% cart abandonment rate. One of the highest of any industry, including retail e-commerce.
Having a website lead land in a CRM platform, merged and deduped with existing records, allows both sales and marketing teams to take action and immediately engage and convert unbooked guests. Because the NAVIS CRM continually syncs with property management systems, communications remain up to date in real-time, based on the latest guest data regardless of how a person ultimately books a room. This improved process creates a lifetime opportunity to build lasting guest relationships driven by advanced segmentation and personalization based on needs, behaviors, and value.
“We’re excited to bring this shopping cart abandonment solution to the market at a time when it’s needed most,” said Kyle Buehner, NAVIS CEO. “We’ve worked closely with our customers to build a product that will have a dramatic impact on their ability to drive direct bookings, and recapture revenue that has historically been left on the table.”
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During the Navigate Conference, Buehner took to the stage to announce the new product release and share other memorable customer achievements in 2019, including clients booking $2.5B in room revenue as a result of implementing NAVIS CRM. Technology and tactics pioneered by NAVIS, such as revenue generation from outbound voice strategies and sales automation tools, have helped their customers increase direct bookings – the gold standard for profitability and overall guest experience. These successes were celebrated Tuesday at the annual Navvie Awards dinner at the famous Don Strange Ranch, where outstanding individuals and teams received a range of awards for championing these innovative revenue strategies. For a complete list of finalists and winners, you can find award descriptions and nominee stories on the NAVIS website.
Throughout the conference, customers shared an emphasis on the voice channel, which drives a majority of direct business for many NAVIS clients and produces the highest stay values, most profitable guests, and sources the most valuable leads. Most importantly, reservation teams are often the first stop on a guest’s experience, with agents now acting as guides and experience creators. This kind of sales performance simply cannot be matched by a website or cutting-edge booking technology. “Our outbound efforts have seen the craziest ROI ever,” says Jeremy Fain, Director of Revenue Management at Ojai Valley Inn – a five-star property located about 80 miles northwest of LA. “Last year alone we generated $1.7M in outbound revenue.”
The Navigate Conference grew to over 300 attendees this year – up 50% over last year. The event’s expanded mission added broader industry themes while still maintaining its roots as a NAVIS customer-focused event. NAVIS CEO Kyle Buehner says, “We’ve worked hard to balance big ideas and industry thought leaders with more NAVIS-specific content. One way we accomplished that is by adding a full day of hands-on product workshops and introducing the industry’s first Hospitality CRM Endorsement Certification at the event.”
