Customer Care
Booking services
Guides booking procedures
Customer Care is in charge of booking the guides on all the confirmed tours. It is essential to book guides in advance according to the client’s expectations and to avoid emergencies during the high season.
Part 1: Requesting a guide
Once in Group book, substitute the general supplier line with the TP code of the guide you want by:
Place you on the line you want to substitute, click substitute service.
Then enter the supplier code of the guide, click on scroll services.
Select to service needed and double click.
The following will appear, click save
Last step is to make sure that pick up and drop off points are inserted in order to have this information when you will send the request to the guide.
Service list, pick up drop off and if not done, insert the information, ok:
That is all you have to do for now in groupbook.
Open Operation Functions, Bulk messaging, 1 supplier request:
Go to Filter and fill in the supplier, tick TB in service status and all status you need to appear from the booking status:
Once it is done go to filter 2 and tick all itinerary status:
Click on services and all tours where the guide is in TB appears on the below list, click tag in order to tick all services and send.
The following box pop, insert GUBR, email, tick edit message prior to send, tick update service status and RQ in new service status, send.
The message pop and you will need to write your email as usual, and then send
Choose the correct email address and ok twice
Click allow
Part 2: when the guide replies:
There are 2 options: either the guide confirms a tour or the guide can’t do the tour.
-
The guide confirms a tour:
In groupbook change the status in OK
Then open the guide’s chart and update it by putting in green the date of the tour for this guide:
The tour confirmed by the guide is from the 03rd of June to the 10th of June. We can see here that her next tour is starting on 09th of June. In order to have a clear overview we colour the overlapping days in light orange. We have the 09th and 10th of June overlapping, so we will need a replacement on the 1st tour for the 10th which is the last day of this tour and a replacement on the 09h of June for the second tour- which means she will finish 1st tour on the 09th of June and start the 2nd one on the 10th of June. In order for the person in charge of the local guides to know that she needs to book a guide on those date, we will insert general supplier lines in each bookings:
10th of June in GRFR481127 and 09th of June in GRFR458084.
If it is a local guide there is only one difference which is in the way we insert the information in the guide’s chart. We colour the day in blue, right click on this cell and insert comment with the reference of the tour:
B - The guide isn’t available for a tour:
In groupbook change the status in NA
Then insert a new general supplier line
In the guide’s chart and update it by putting in red the date of the tour for this guide:
Coaches for series
Customer Care is in charge of booking all the coaches for tour series. This is done in bulk for a more efficient procedure.
Coaching for tour series is booked by Customer Care. Mark Browne in Contracting will send an email regularly to advise which coach company is now contracted and ready to be booked.
Customer Care will decide which coach company gets what tour series. If there were no issues in the previous year, you will usually keep the same tours with the same company.
All group bookings will have a General Supplier service line for coaching. The first step is to bulk substitute these lines with the actual supplier. To do so you will have to go in the “Operations” tab in Tourplan, and then “Substitute Service”.
Once in the correct tab, start filling all the required fields:
Note: You need to provide an option code so that only the necessary lines are substituted and not all general lines ! This means that if you have several coach lines (Airport Transfer, Evening return .. for example), you will have to bulk substitute several times for each option code.
Once done, go to the next page, and once again filter as necessary:
You should not have to fill in any fields on the next page (“Filter 2”), you can go directly to the next page “Select”. There you will have to select all lines that you want substituted:
We are now going on to the last page “Service Details”. That is where you can input the details of the supplier you want to substitute with :
The next step will be to change the status of all your coaching service line to RQ. Once again, we will do that in bulk. To do so, stay on the “Operation” tab, and go to “Bulk Messaging”.
Some messages are already set up and can be used, but can NOT BE CHANGED as they are templates. Alternatively you can use the Manual Selection and start from scratch. Here we will use one bulk message that is already set up.
Once your message type selected, move on to the next page and fill in details as appropriate. Not all fields will need to be filled, see example below:
Note: The information should match on both side of the window.
You should not need to fill in any fields in the next 2 pages, “Filter 2” and “Filter 3”, and can move on to the last page “Services”. There you will select all the lines you need the status changed to RQ.
For the next step click on “Send”.
A pop up window will appear and again you need to fill in the info as required.
The message code used will be “TRBR”, we want to “File” and finally “Update Service Status” to “RQ” and click “Send”. Please see below:
File the document on your Desktop, you will not need it afterwards.
All your service lines will now be on RQ in each Group booking!
The next step is to prepare your Online Booking request form using this link: https://web.abbey.ie/onRequest/webform1.aspx
Fill in the details as needed and click on “Populate”.
elect the bookings you want to request to the supplier and click on “Generate Link”.
You will then receive an email advising you the link has been generated, and the link will also show on your webpage.
Copy this link and send it in an email to the supplier.
He/she will then be able to confirm or reject the groups from the online form.
Any group that are confirmed online will automatically update to OK in your group booking. Any groups rejected on the online form will automatically update to NA in your group booking.
And that’s it ! Your coaching for series is done :)
Requesting difficult services
Ireland is a very popular destination and as a result some visits and attractions are more and more difficult to confirm. Here is the procedure to follow for all the services identified as difficult.
When you link your PCM at hand over stage, you will have a quick look to the service lines in it.
If there is a difficult visit such as
- Bru na Boinne
- Clonmacnoise
- Connemara Smokehouse
- Muckross House
- Killbeggan distillery
- Kilmainham Gaol
- …
Or an evening entertainment such as
-Trad on the Prom
-Siamsa Tire
-Celtic Step
- Arlington
- …
You will need to send the request yourself if BD did not previously do so. This will help us with availability and avoid having to wait for the itinerary to be edit and services to be booked at operation stage.
To do so, verify the service line inserted is the correct one.
Go into pick up drop off and insert the time desired.
After that go to send
GRSR
Edit
Once you get the below page
Click e-mail
Then send, select the right contact.
Once this is done please change the line status on RQ by clicking the…
When you receive a confirmation you can updated the status on OK.
If not available change the status to NA and advise the client ASAP.
If they are not available at the time requested but another slot, please update PU/DO and itinerary.