What is an Instant Quote Funnel?

Instant Quote Funnels are a powerful tool that allow you to generate quotes for large group events directly from customer selections without any staff intervention. Though Funnels can be used for nearly any purpose, this article will specifically cover the Instant Quote use.

Go here to find more articles on different uses for Funnels.

Put simply a Funnel is a series of connected web pages designed to ease users to a desired outcome. While there is no wrong way to use a Funnel there are a set of best practices that will make your quoting process simple and effective. 

For a business where individuals book a room, that process has been studied, simplified, and mastered, but the more guests added to a booking, increasing from double to triple digits, the process bloats from minutes to weeks. More guests means special rates, and requests, hitting capacity on inventory, and coordinating dozens of variables to align. 

All of that work put into one booking just to be done again for the next week when it could be done once increasing the size and frequency of all your bookings. 

To make a Funnel that accounts for this complexity is a large task made small with our Instant Quote AI and ready made Funnel Templates, though for now we will just be sticking to what makes an Instant Quote Funnel what it is.

When creating an account, the first thing you will do is generate an Instant Quote Funnel using the Instant Quote AI. After you can go through the process again by going to the All Funnels page (Funnels > All Funnels) and selecting a template or create one from scratch clicking "+ New Funnel".

Let's take a look at one of our Funnel Templates for a closer look at what makes it work.

There are many ways to structure a Funnel to get consistent results. Here is one we have seen a high volume of success with.

The Funnel starts with prompting the customer to select their event type, this gives them the assurance that they're in the right place as the rest of the funnel takes the shape of the theme for the chosen group type, and it provides valuable data on for comparing the performance of different group types against each other.

From all sides of a booking the most important pieces of information is the number of people in the booking (children optional), taking this information early in the process allows you to divide the funnel down paths for small or large groups for a more tailored experience. Customers are often eager to give this information so it should never take more than a few button presses before they have the opportunity to do so.

Foundational to any event is when it takes place, this will influence the availability of products.

This is the first step that makes use of the advanced product system and powerful Category Element. By default your account is pre populated with a handful of different room types that can be customized and duplicated so you can accurately represent your available inventory for booking.

The Category Element will take all the products in the Guest Room category and put them on display for customers to book in an easy to navigate interface, displaying available images and the option for deeper descriptions of the product and it's available features.

For larger groups it's recommended to use the simple view to allow users to enter the number of each room they want to book, displaying only the cost, availability, and capacity. This step also displays the capacity needed for the number of people attending.

For the venues that support meeting spaces, the option to book individual spaces is invaluable. This step can be customized to offer more specific booking time frames but by default they are booked for the duration of the event.

To keep from overwhelming the booking process, activities are a selection of what is available to book for sub-invoices to determine the timeslots and quantity

Meals make use of the Advanced Booking Element to select available timeslots for each meal type in the date range made available.

The penultimate step of the Funnel is one of the most important, to gather contact information from the customer to be able to send the invoice, and follow up with them to confirm details or confirm the booking. Keep this step simple by communicating what they can expect to get from leaving their contact information and keeping the required information fields to a minimum

For this template the final step is a loading screen before the user is redirected to their newly created Customer Booking Dashboard where they can manage their invoice, make payments/ deposits, and invite people to the booking.

There are a couple different ways to end an Instant Quote Funnel, such as displaying the invoice directly in the Funnel and taking payment for the booking inside the Funnel, though we have found customers vastly prefer having a home for their booking where they can manage the Event to their liking, within the guidelines you have set for editing permissions.

Checkout these articles for expanded information discussed in this article:

• What is the Instant Quote AI?
• How do I use Funnel Templates?
• How do I put an Instant Quote Funnel on my website?