Run your entire business on Zoho with our unified cloud software, designed to help you break down silos between departments and increase organizational efficiency.
Objective: Manage and track bookings for different trips and automate sales activities based on the position of the lead in the sales process.
Scenario: A tourism company offers three different types of trip: international cruises, destination tour packages, and domestic road trips. They receive inquiries through the company's website, emails, agents, and phone calls. Depending on the type of trip, the traveler moves through the following sales stages:
International cruise bookings:
Inquiry received
Request quote
Quote sent
Negotiation
Booking approved or canceled
Payment received
Booking closed
Destination tour packages:
Inquiry received
Create quote
Quote sent
Booking confirmed or canceled
Payment received
Booking closed
Domestic road trips:
Inquiry received
Prepare itinerary
Customer review
Revise itinerary
Invoice and quote generated
Payment received
Booking closed
The company creates a sales pipeline to keep track of the booking cycle and generate a quarterly report to find the trips that have the highest number of bookings.
So what's the problem?
Using a single pipeline for all types of bookings makes it difficult to:
Track individual bookings and performing actions based on pipeline stage
Quantify the average conversion rate due to skewed statistics.
Make accurate forecasts based on key sales metrics like the total number of deals in the pipeline, the average size of the deals, the average lifetime of a deal before it’s closed, and the percentage of deals that are likely to close.
Focus on sales-ready and high value leads due to lack of clarity in the sales data.
Let's see how creating different pipelines can solve their problem.
Solution
As each trip follows different sales stages, creating separate pipelines will help users to:
View progress of each booking.
Take steps to avoid stagnating of bookings at a particular stage.
Automate sales activities at each stage to speed up booking closures.
Make sales decisions promptly based on the stage of a booking
Monitor sales velocity by determining the average time taken to close a deal.
Troubleshoot delays in conversion from one stage to the next.
Find the highest value deals and focus on closing them quickly.
Now that you understand the benefits of multiple pipelines, let us proceed with creation of multiple pipelines. Below are the pre-requisites to setup the CRM account.
Pre-requisites
Pipelines for different booking types
Create custom fields in the Bookings module
Add fields to store information like the date of travel, booking type, payment mode, accommodation details, etc. as provided in the table below.
Tip: If needed, you can rename some of the system-defined fields. You can also rename the deals module to Bookings, if needed.
1. Under Setup > Customization > Modules > and click the Deals module to open the layout editor.
2. Drag and drop New section to the layout.
3. Drag and drop the following fields to the new section.
Section name: Customer details
Field name
Field type
Specific properties
First name
Single line
Mandatory
Last name
Single line
Mandatory
Email address
Email
Mandatory
Last name
Single line
Mandatory
Correspondence address
Multi-line
Mandatory
Contact number
Phone
Mandatory
Section name: Cruise Booking
Field name
Field type
Specific properties
Traveling on
Date
Mandatory
Cruise type
Pick-list
Options: Mainstream, Luxury, River, Adventure
Booking date
Date
None
No. of travelers
Pick-list
Options: 1-2, 2-4, more than 5
Food preferences
Single line
None
Advance payment
Currency
None
Section name: Destination tour package
Field name
Field type
Specific properties
Booking date
Date
Mandatory
--
Traveling on
Date
Mandatory
--
Destination
Pick-list
Options: European tourism, Australian tourism, South African tourism
Tour type
Pick-list
Options: Adventure, Leisure, Sightseeing, Camping
Section name: Domestic road trip
Field name
Field type
Specific properties
Travelling on
Date
Mandatory
--
Traveling with
Pick-list
Options: Solo, Friends, Group
Road trip route
Pick-list
Options: Route 66, Great River Road, Pacific Coast Highway, Hill Country
Choice of vehicle
Pick-list
Options: Bike, Hired Car, Own car
Create layout rule
As customer inquiries for all three trips are captured in the Deals module, we should create layout rules so that only the fields which are relevant to the relevant booking type are shown.
For example, the fields for cruise booking will be shown when the booking type is selected as cruise booking. Read more about layout rules here.
1.Navigate to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.
2.Choose the Bookings module, click the More icon, and then click Layouts.
3.Click Layout Rules and then + New Layout Rule.
4.Enter the following details in the New Layout Rule pop-up:
Rule name
Show booking type
Description
Only show fields specific to one booking type
Select the layout
Standard
Choose primary fields
Booking Type
Condition to initiate the rule
Booking Type is "International Cruise"
Trigger an action
Show sections > Cruise booking details
Choose an option
Booking Type is "Destination Tour Package"
Trigger an action
Show sections > Destination tour package details
Choose an option
Booking Type is "Domestic Road Trip"
Trigger an action
Show sections > Domestic road trip details
International Cruise Booking
Destination Tour Package
Domestic Road Trip
Part 1. Create deal or booking stages for International Cruise Booking
The booking stages for International Cruise must be added to the Bookings or Deals module.
1.Navigate to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields > Deals.
2.Click the More icon and select Stage Probability Mapping.
3.Click on the existing deal stage fields and edit their values. You can click on the + icon to add new fields.
5.Enter the probability value, forecast type, and forecast category as shown in the table below:
Deal Stage
Probability (%)
Forecast Type
Forecast Category
Inquiry received
70
Open
Pipeline
Request Quote
80
Open
Pipeline
Quote sent
90
Open
Pipeline
Negotiation
95
Open
Pipeline
Booking approved
95
Open
Pipeline
Booking canceled
45
Closed Lost
Omitted
Payment received
95
Open
Pipeline
Booking closed
100
Closed won
Closed
Part 2. Build the sales pipeline
1.Navigate to Setup > Customization > Pipelines.
2.Click New Pipeline.
3.Enter the following details:
Pipeline name: Cruise bookings
Layout to which the pipeline is associated: Standard layout
4.Select all the booking stages in the layout and add them to the pipeline.
5.Click Save.
Tip: We recommend not checking the "Set as a Default" option because it will automatically assign all the deals created in CRM to the Cruise Booking pipeline.
Part 3. Additional configuration for automating the sales activities
Record creation through webforms and workflow-based task notifications and email alerts
Receipt of inquiry: When an inquiry is received through the company's web page, a booking request is created in CRM and a workflow notification is sent to the agent to follow up with the customer.
Payment confirmed: Once the final payment is received, the booking is marked as confirmed. The customers are sent trip confirmations, payment details, and booking dates through automated emails.
The table below shows the different sales activities performed by the agents at every stage of a booking:
Deal Stage
Sales activities
Customer response
Inquiry received
- Send an email with the list of available cruise lines.
- Call and explain the itinerary, food and stay details, and room tariffs and discuss personalizing the travel plans.
- Check if this is a group booking or a family trip.
- Get details of the travelers
Requests for a quote
Request Quote
Send a quote request to the vendor with the travel details.
Awaits response from the travel agent.
Quote sent
Email the quote to the customer
Requests a discount
Negotiation
- Check with the manager if a discount is allowed.
- Call the vendor and negotiate.
- Request a revised quote.
Gives approval for booking
Booking approved
- Create invoice
- Inform the vendor
- Generate travel tickets
- Email the invoice to the customer
Makes payment
Booking canceled
- Call the customer and confirm the payment and booking details
- Send the invoice to the vendor
- Share tickets with the customer
Confirms booking
Payment received
- Call the customer and confirm the payment and booking details
- Send the invoice to the vendor
- Share tickets with the customer
Confirms booking
Booking closed
- Send an email with all the booking details to the customer
- Schedule reminder emails four and two days before the travel date
- Call, email, and SMS any change of timing or booking cancellation
NA
Part 1. Create deal or booking stages for Destination Tour Package
The booking stages for Destination Tour Package must added to the Bookings or Deals module.
1.Navigate to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields > Deals.
2.Click the More icon and select Stage Probability Mapping.
3.Click on the existing deal stage fields and edit their values. You can click on the + icon to add new stages.
5.Enter the probability value, forecast type, and forecast category as shown in the table below:
Deal Stage
Probability (%)
Forecast Type
Forecast Category
Inquiry received
90
Open
Pipeline
Create Quote
95
Open
Pipeline
Quote sent
95
Open
Pipeline
Booking confirmed
95
Open
Pipeline
Booking canceled
45
Closed Lost
Omitted
Payment received
100
Open
Pipeline
Booking closed
100
Closed Won
Closed
Part 2. Build the sales pipeline
1.Navigate to Setup > Customization > Pipelines.
2.Click New Pipeline.
3.Enter the following details:
Pipeline name: Destination bookings
Layout to which the pipeline is associated: Standard layout
4.Select all the booking stages in the layout and add them to the pipeline.
5.Click Save.
Tip: We recommend not checking the "Set as a Default" option because it will automatically assign all the deals created in CRM to the Destination Booking pipeline.
Part 3. Additional configurations for automating the sales activities
Workflow-based webhook notification and email alerts
Payment receipt: Once the payment is received, the reservation will be confirmed at the hotel and a task will be created for the agent to wire the room tariff to the hotel within a week.
Booking confirmation: Once the hotel confirms the receipt of the payment, the booking is confirmed by the company and the travel details are sent via email to the customer.
The table below shows the different sales activities performed by the agents at every stage of a booking:
Deal stage
Sales activities
Customer response
Inquiry received
- Email the list of tour package
- Call the customer to get travel preferences and discuss the itinerary
Shows interest and requests a quote
Create quote
-Coordinate with the hotel and inform them of the date of travel
- Confirm room availability and price with the hotel
- Create and send a quote to the customer
Quote sent
Email the quote to the customer
Confirms booking and makes payment
Booking confirmed
- Complete travel formalities with the vendor
- Get date and accommodation confirmation from the hotel
- Send a confirmation email to the customer with details of the hotel, travel dates, co-travelers, etc.
Acknowledges the email
Booking closed
- Schedule reminder emails for four and two days before the travel date.
- Call, email, and SMS any change of timing or booking cancellation
Submits a service feedback survey
Closed
Part 1. Create deal or booking stages for Domestic Road Trip
The booking stages for Domestic Road Trip must added to the Bookings or Deals module.
1.Navigate to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields > Deals.
2.Click the More icon and select Stage Probability Mapping.
3.Click on the existing deal stage fields and edit their values. You can click on the + icon to add new stages.
5.Enter the probability value, forecast type, and forecast category as shown in the table below:
Deal Stage
Probability (%)
Forecast Type
Forecast Category
Inquiry received
90
Open
Pipeline
Prepare itinerary
90
Open
Pipeline
Customer review
95
Open
Pipeline
Revise itinerary
95
Open
Pipeline
Invoice and quote generated
95
Open
Pipeline
Payment received
100
Open
Pipeline
Booking closed
100
Closed Won
Closed
Part 2. Build the sales pipeline
1.Navigate to Setup > Customization > Pipelines.
2.Click New Pipeline.
3.Enter the following details:
Pipeline name: Road trip bookings
Layout to which the pipeline is associated: Standard layout
4.Select all the booking stages in the layout and add them to the pipeline.
5.Click Save.
Tip: We recommend not checking the "Set as a Default" option because it will automatically assign all the deals created in CRM to the Road trips pipeline.
Part 3. Additional configurations for automating the sales activities
Blueprint to guide the travel agents on how to proceed with the booking process from start to end.
Once the agent receives the travel details from the customer, they will be prompted about the next step, which is preparing the itinerary.
The checklist added to the blueprint will provide them with cues on the details they need to gather at every stage.
Invoice generation is restricted to confirmed itineraries only. So the agent must confirm the itinerary status before moving to the next step.
The table below shows the different sales activities performed by the agents at every stage of a booking:
Deal stage
Sales activities
Customer response
Inquiry received
Collect travel plans, destination, and itinerary details from the customer
Awaits the itinerary
Prepare itinerary
- Collect rates from different service agencies
- Calculate total cost from each agency and prepare a comparative itinerary
-
Customer review
Email the itinerary to the customer
Reviews and requests change of itinerary
Revise itinerary
- Discuss the changes with vendors and revise the itinerary
- Accepts the revised rates
Invoice and quote generated
- Generate invoice
- Create a quote
- Create a service number
Reviews and accepts quote
Receive payment
- Send the invoice to the accounts team and get a purchase order
- Send the payment link to the customer
Makes payment
Booking closed
- Coordinate with the service agencies and share the travel details and itinerary with the customer
- Send service feedback link through survey
Submits feedback
You have successfully built multiple sales pipeline for managing different types of travel bookings.
