For users of the TourCMS tour operator ecommerce platform

How do you ensure customers agree to T&Cs for staff entered bookings

We are finding that sending out quotations/provisional booking emails works great as a call to action on bookings. The only thing is that customers go through the booking engine they have to tick the box re reading terms and conds. If thy book through a quotation email or make payment directly, how to we get them to agree to T&C's? (i.e. if the booking was added by a member of staff)

And we also need to repeat (or incorporate) the process for disclaimers too.

Has anyone got any suggestions on how we can achieve this from quotation emails?

Thanks,

Rob

NOTE: Edited by TourCMS team for clarity ^AB

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Permalink Reply by Alex Bainbridge on January 11, 2012 at 4:30pm

Hi Rob

Was kind of hoping other people would jump in and answer this with how they do it - maybe this comment will spur them on!

A key point (before getting to actually answering the question) - is that you could ask your customer to go down the booking engine - even if they have emailed you..... so your call to action is "ok, thanks for your interest, now go and book it on our website"..... not only would that get them seeing and agreeing to the terms & conditions - but also you would pick up any associated online marketing tracking (e.g. which advert it was who had referred that traffic to you (if you are using the TourCMS tracking, of course) - and minimise your own data entry - hence quite a few benefits.

But onto an idea.... Could you build a page on your website with your terms & conditions on? Then, in your outbound email for staff entered bookings - add a link to that page and say - here are our terms & conditions - payment of your deposit indicates acceptance etc. Would that work?

For bonus points we have an API call http://www.tourcms.com/support/api/mp/customer_update.php so with some development work (unnecessary I think) it would be possible to add to the customer record in some way that the customer had actually see the T&Cs)

Alex

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Permalink Reply by Rob Rankin on January 11, 2012 at 9:00pm

Hi Alex,

Glad someone is talking to me!

Thanks though, i think what I will do is send them through to the website booking engine so they have to follow the procedure. The only thing there though is that it will be a separate booking, not the same provisional booking being confirmed, but I am not sure that really matters?

We do have a page with terms and conds on our website, which the booking engine links to. Is there another way to do it without leaving tour cms?

But that could work, that by paying for their tour, they are agreeing that they had read and undertstood the T&C's

Is there a token to take people to each tour's specific booking page on tourcms?

Thanks,

Rob

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Permalink Reply by Vicki Roberts on January 12, 2012 at 11:29am

Hi Rob

We give guests the option to use the online system or to use a traditional booking form.

This in then done using 2 different methods.

For new guests when we take the initial provisional booking we email a booking form (and T&C) to collect all the details and get their signature agreeing to T&C.

For repeat guests (where we already know all their details) I have set up a confirmation invoice on TourCMS (basically a summary of the booking) but with an agreement box on the bottom and this gets emailed to them with T&C allowing the guest to check we have everything correct and sign to say they accept and return to us to confirm their booking.

Hope that helps

Vicki

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Permalink Reply by Rob Rankin on January 12, 2012 at 3:31pm

Thanks Vicki, good advice. I will look into that.

Thanks

Rob

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Permalink Reply by Actief in Tsjechie on January 17, 2012 at 8:30pm

Hello Rob,

Here in the Netherlands it is enough to just send the T&C (PDF or printed) to clients as an addendum to e.g. the booking confirmation or the invoice. Some companies have the T&C printed on the back side of the invoice.

Regards, Luit

P.S. Nice website your company has!

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Permalink Reply by Rob Rankin on January 17, 2012 at 10:24pm

Hi Luit,

Thanks for the reply and kind words on our website. I think we can probably do the same and say that by booking the tour the customer is agreeing to our terms and conditions (which are included in the quotation email) and disclaimers. Just need to check with a legal expert though. Thanks for the advice.