The Yourway Project – A New Concept in Booking Cars Online

Exceed Online is proud to announce the launch of Yourway Car Rentals, a fully online Car Rental business with two locations based in Auckland and Christchurch. The Senior Management team of Budget Rent A Car New Zealand approached Exceed Online stating they have plans to take on the third tier car rental market, and felt an online business model was the best approach. The Exceed team felt there was potential to be involved with something special. What made the project more interesting was they guidelines under which the project must follow:

1. Budget Rent A Car want to compete in the third tier car rental market but:
2. No name has been established for the new company,
3. No brand has been created,
4. No design or software platform has been considered,
5. Exceed Online is unable to link the new brand to the Budget brand,
6. Create the best online booking engine/sales machine in the world. If this works in New Zealand, it will become Global.
7. Deadline is October 1st (Exceed was approached in mid July)
8. Can you do it?

Exceed Online is a Company never to step down from a challenge, and this was no exception. Exceed Online accepted the project with Senior Management’s complete trust in our ability to make the right decisions and to do them quickly. Exceed also knew full support had been provided by the Contegro team which made the decision easier. Contegro’s flexible platform was the perfect software fit for this business application.

The challenge was accepted, and it was time to get to work.

Building the Perfect Selling Machine:

While part of the Exceed Online team worked on the new name and brand concept of the company, the other team conducted intense research on booking engines around the world. After the research was completed, Exceed Online quickly realised no one in the world was doing this well. With Exceed’s vast knowledge of eCommerce, and the support of two key partners (Contegro and Alkemi NZ) confidence was strong around creating a high performing booking engine. Exceed Online identified key requirements for core elements of the booking engine:

1) It would have to build credibility, especially when considering it was not to align itself to Budget Rent A Car. This can be achieved in many ways: quick download of all pages, sales copy, professional images, selling steps being intuitive to the visitor.

2) It had to educate visitors. Part of the target market is the young independent traveller who may not have booked a vehicle before, or would prefer to take a bus tour instead. The majority of booking engines risk the scent path when educating their market, pulling visitors away from the booking process resulting in significant bailout rates. This booking engine needs to educate and sell simultaneously.

3) The selling process had to be flexible. When I say flexible, I am referring to Exceed’s ability to make ongoing changes to the booking process to enhance results. Persuading visitors to take four to six consecutive micro events (booking steps) leading to a single macro event (confirmation of booking), is extremely difficult to achieve, and in many ways more complex than straight eCommerce. By building a selling process which can be changed over time, Exceed is future proofing the business model. All sales people know and understand the importance of modifying a sales pitch when customer needs evolve. The Contegro platform provides Exceed Online the flexibility required.

4) Each stage of the booking process needs to be accurately measured. The Contegro platform allowed Exceed to customise and install Google Analytics around all criticial steps of the booking process, which gave Exceed the visibility it required to review visitor feedback: through their actions.

5) Access to testing tools to learn what visitors react to. There are specific tools, such as Mulitvariate Testing, which test visitor behaviour in a controlled environment. Clear conditions are created which accurately define what visitors positively (and negatively) react to, with the intention of increasing ROI.

The complexity of selling online:

Having the booking process flexible, fully transparent, with ongoing testing, is critical to Yourway’s success. I recently wrote an article on the complexity of selling online which says it all. The article discusses how everybody can sell online, however few can do it successfully. There is a reason global eCommerce is converting 2% online, while physical retail averages 40% to 60%. When sales people are face to face with potential customers, it is easier for sales people to modify their sales pitch to match the visitor’s buying process. Visual cues of the visitor can determine the salesperson’s approach. Successful face to face selling is when you are able to match the selling process to the visitor’s buying process. This concept becomes more relevant (and more complex) when online. The greater the similarity between the selling (retailer) and the buying (customer) processes, the greater the conversion rate. The process of measuring visitor behaviour will provide the Yourway team the information needed to match these processes.

Enter Alkemi New Zealand:

The next step was to call in Alkemi New Zealand, an Auckland based Consultancy Company who generates significant improvements in website ROI and business results using exclusive Web Efficiency Architecture expertise. Alkemi provides a series of different services to help improve conversion rates in Websites both in Australia and New Zealand. For this project, they will drive the Multivariate testing (testing tools line 5), Pay Per Click campaign management and provide ongoing consulting services.

Alkemi uses Google Optimiser to implement Multivariate Testing, a Google tool used to test variations of the same page at various stages of the buying process. This will prove to the Yourway team the effectiveness of changing such things as button colours and/or terminology, adjusting terminology around pricing, and changing terminology for Online Deals. The outcome is a quantitative measure of what worked and what did not.

Alkemi New Zealand is also managing the Pay Per Click strategy. Alkemi worked closely with Exceed Online to ensure specific landing pages were created to coincide with the Strategic Online Marketing plan. Alkemi’s strategic conduct in managing the Pay Per Click campaign will see the Yourway cost per click drop while its positioning for terms remains prominent. Google supports relevancy based campaigns and rewards this conduct, benefiting Yourway.

In closing:

Success in getting this project live was a team effort. The ongoing success of this business model will require the continued collaboration of Exceed Online, Alkemi New Zealand and Contegro, all working together ensuring visitor actions are tested, measured, and appropriate changes are implemented.

Yourway went live on time and on budget. Traffic is being driven to the site landing on various pages throughout the site, the testing of the booking process is underway, changes are already being made, and bookings are coming in.

Exceed Online has another happy customer.