At eola, our mission is to make our customers' lives easier. That’s why we’ve recently been rebuilding our online booking flow.

At eola, our mission is to make our customers' lives easier. That’s why we’ve recently been rebuilding the online booking flow from the bottom up.

In this article, eola product manager Jamie outlines what’s been going on behind the scenes to bring your customers the best booking experience possible.

In our old model, customers could only check out one item at a time. We knew this was a major limitation, so one of our earliest goals was to add a shopping basket.

The basket needed to work for combinations of products, discounts and vouchers. Several thousand lines of code later, we are happy to announce that our new booking experience allows your customers to check out as many items as they like, at once!

This was a big step forward, and whilst we were happy with what we had achieved we knew there was lots more to do. We now had to consider how customers moved between products and their basket. This led to the creation of a new navigation system.

Our goal was to make the booking experience so simple, it was instinctive. The new approach allows customers to move between pages and products with ease, without ever losing track of where they are.

Booking an activity online is more complex than a standard ecommerce purchase. The customer has to consider value for money, their own ability, and their availability. Often, they are doing this for several other people as part of the same booking. When the next step is unclear, or information is confusing, they could be put off.

Our existing design performed well, but our rebuild allowed us to make some crucial improvements. Our goal was to simplify decision making and reduce the likelihood of a customer making a mistake.

The new booking experience breaks down each decision into isolated steps. As each decision is made, we indicate the next step and show the relevant information. Once a customer is ready to book, we show them the decisions they’ve made, allowing them to easily spot any mistakes.

Prior to this update, we knew vouchers were not what they could be. We tried to figure out how we could optimise the voucher booking experience. In the end, it was the eola tech team that came up with a solution.

In our new booking experience, the customer can enter their voucher codes at any time. The platform can then recognise their voucher and take them to the next step in their flow. No confusion. No separate voucher boxes. All they need is their code. Simple.

When we started to look at improving the booking experience, we had a big decision to make. We had to decide between adding new features to the existing booking flow, or rebuilding it from scratch.

Adding to the existing experience would save us a lot of time, but it meant we were limited in terms of what we could change. Rebuilding, on the other hand, would allow us to completely rework our design from scratch, but it would also require a lot of time and effort to achieve.

To help us decide, we focused on the experience you need to deliver to your customers. Our research showed that imagery and design were effective at encouraging customers to book activities, as it helped them visualise the kinds of experiences they were considering.

With this in mind, we decided it was worth investing in a rebuild. Our new booking flow uses prominent imagery and animations to create a smooth, memorable customer experience. You can also now add your own logo, connecting the journey between your website and the booking experience.

We’ve launched an Alpha version of the new booking experience, which we are adding to every day. It’s available to test right now - just use the link below to request more information!

We hope you found this update on the new booking experience helpful. If you have any further questions or want to discuss the update in more detail with the eola product team, you can do so at the link above.

How to create an activity on the eola platform

Creating a new booking experience

We built eola based on conversations and feedback we've gotten from ski centres and similar businesses to help make processes simple and streamlined. Our mission is to make it easy to manage day-to-day admin via one beautifully simple platform.

Running a ski centre means juggling a number of complex issues. Everything takes time, from managing bookings and payments across a wide range of activities and skill levels, to managing resources and dealing with cancellations.

We built eola based on conversations and feedback we've gotten from ski centres and similar businesses to help make these processes simple and streamlined. Our mission is to make it easy to manage day-to-day admin via one beautifully simple platform.

“Eola has cut down our paperwork massively. It’s such an easy platform to use - we’re very pleased that we made the move.”

Clive Marshall, Business Manager, Alpine Snowsports Aldershot & Southampton

From solo enthusiasts to families and large groups, the needs of your customers vary. With eola, you can customise your offering to cater to them all:

Set different prices for children and adults

Offer multi-session passes for returning enthusiasts

Make activities optionally exclusive for private bookings

For more information on customising your offering, check out our article - How to create an activity on the eola platform

Over half of all bookings come outside of working hours. With eola, there’s no need to man the phones - you can take payments through your existing website, straight away.

Our customisable ‘Book Now’ button is easily integrated with your website, allowing customers to access your entire offering with the click of a button.

The eola calendar lets you easily manage all your ski centre’s bookings day-to-day. Colour coding allows you to monitor activity capacity at a glance, and you can add useful notes such as doctor’s appointments or staff holidays directly.

Need to make amendments to a booking? All it takes is a couple of clicks to email your customers, make changes, reschedule or cancel an activity.

Our industry-leading resource management system lets you ensure you’re never overbooked. Simply list resources and quantities, input which activities require certain resources, and let our system handle the rest.

You can also use eola to easily assign instructors to booked activities, building adaptability into your management plan.

With eola, it’s easy to create and share private activities for club members. They’ll experience the same straightforward booking process as any other customer.

Our mission has always been to help grow the activity industry by making it easy to manage day-to-day admin via one beautifully simple platform. With no fixed terms or monthly fees, our flat 4% + VAT booking fee structure includes all transaction fees and ensures that we always thrive to grow together with our partners.

If you’re interested in managing your business with eola, sign up today and get set up in a matter of minutes. For more tips and tricks on how to use eola or grow your business have a look at the eola Academy.

This year we are proud headline sponsors for the amazing eola GBR Series. If your centre or club has not joined in the fun yet, take a look at the event schedule to find out more.

The business management platform for ski centres

Customise your offering

Take payments automatically, 24/7

Review your calendar at a glance

Keep on top of availability

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