Inquiries, inquiries, inquiries

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We just released a major update that includes, among other things, our first attempt at inquiry management and tracking.

The next time you login, you'll notice a shiny new menu called "Inquiries".  Click on it, and you'll see an instructional page that talks about routing inquiries into the system.

inquiry management overview page, empty with instructions

Over the next few days and weeks, I'll be discussing all of the new inquiry features, how they work, answering some of your questions and talking about the future of inquiry management.

From the very first moment I started getting inquiries from listing sites I always wondered which site gave me the best ROI.  VRBO sends a lot of inquiries, but do those inquiries convert into bookings as well as inquires from Vacation Home Rentals?  If so, who's better and how much better?  This new inquiry tracking will allow us to generate reports and charts that answer these questions in future updates.

Inquiries management and tracking has really been an exciting area for us to work in.  We have a lot of great ideas, and we're already hard at work on the second pass.

6 Comments (add yours)

DPVR.info
Aug 24, 2011 8:36 AM
Joined Apr, 2011 33 posts

This is nice - two questions. Is there a way to edit the standard inquiry response? Also can you view the email that was sent as part of the response.

Thanks,
David

Michelle J
Aug 24, 2011 8:43 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jan, 2011 582 posts

Good Morning David,

DPVR.info said:

Is there a way to edit the standard inquiry response?

Absolutely. The "answer" page looks very similar to the email page for quotes. You can edit every part of the response including the subject, body and even the to name/email address.

By default, we supply a standard template message (just like with quote email) for various scenarios.

For instance, if the dates are already taken, the message defaults to:


Hi [First Name],

Thanks for your inquiry. Unfortunately, those dates are already taken. Are you able to move your dates at all?

Thanks,

-[Your Name]

Again, you are free to edit this before sending. We are planning on adding a lot of email options in upcoming sprints so that you can define your own email templates with rich text, mail merge fields and tracking.

DPVR.info said:

Also can you view the email that was sent as part of the response.

Yes. As with quote email, there is a "Send me a copy" check box that is selected by default.

Sam will be blogging about all this in detail over the next few days.

DPVR.info
Aug 24, 2011 9:04 AM
Joined Apr, 2011 33 posts

Thanks for the quick reply - I should have made my questions clearer. Is there a way to edit the reply template, like the booking response template - this would be nice. As for viewing the response, I do send a copy to myself, but I have already found it would be more convenient to be able to see an archived copy of the email sent within Ownerreservations.com

Thanks,
David

Paul W
Aug 24, 2011 9:34 AM
Joined Dec, 2010 1 post

I see. Both of those things are coming in future email updates. Sent email will be stored and tracked, and you'll have the ability to see if a guest "clicked" or "opened" it as well. At the moment - no, there is no way to create custom templates for email. But they're coming, I promise. :-)

Michelle J
Aug 24, 2011 9:36 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jan, 2011 582 posts

Hi David,

At the moment, there is no way to do that automatically but they're both on the developer roadmap,

Thanks,

Michelle

DPVR.info
Aug 24, 2011 9:43 AM
Joined Apr, 2011 33 posts

Thanks - the requests keep coming only because you folks have such a good product and are spoiling us with great features :)

David