One of the challenges faced by organisations who offer training courses, classes or activities through 3rd parties and partner providers is how to take bookings and manage the product range consistently and efficiently for all users and customers.
Some of the questions that need to be answered include:
- How easy is it for each provider to set-up their own products in a central booking system?
- Does each provider need its own unique identity within the system, or are all the products branded against the central organisation? Or, perhaps, does there need to be a combination of the two?
- Can a client book multiple products from multiple providers on the same transaction?
- What access to data and reporting does each provider get?
Business types where this may apply
Think about governing bodies or industry associations who offer accredited training, courses and qualifications. Often, they come via a central process, but the delivery will be from a member partner.
Or, maybe it’s a sports organisation offering a platform for clubs within the sport to promote coaching courses, activities, camps or events, either as a development service or, more likely, as a revenue stream.
It’s a set-up that may also be familiar to leisure and tourist groups, facilities brokers or franchises.
The thinkBooker solution
Within the thinkBooker platform, we’ve developed a solution that takes away the pain of managing bookings and the requirements of partner providers. Our Multi-Tenant system creating a platform that makes it easy for both a central organisation and its partners to operate upon.
Each partner is a tenant on the main system
This means that a partner will, in effect, have their own little portion of the overall booking platform. This will give them the ability to:
- Create their own products (camp, course, activity or similar event)
- Set their own pricing
- Manage their own bookings
- Have a view of their own booking information and client data (in a secure silo that other partners cannot access)
- Extract their data to external CRMs via download or API integration
Maintaining Brand Consistency
To add value to the system for each partner, maintaining a brand consistency will likely be important.
While the booking system will probably be branded in line with the central organisation guidelines, each partner will be able to apply their own brand to their own space on the site.
For instance, in our work with Premiership Rugby, when a fan from a particular club accesses the system via their club website, not only will they only see products for that club, but the booking journey will be branded accordingly.
Should a customer wish to purchase another product from another club, the system infers that club affiliation is not as important and defaults back to the Premiership Rugby brand.
Centralised and Partner Data Access
Data is crucial for all businesses, the source from which to glean customer insight that fuels future marketing, client engagement, personalised sales targeting and improvement of service.
As we’ve already mentioned, partners will have access to the data that is relevant and applies to their business. This data is held on the central database of the system, securely siloed by each partner. Meaning, while partners can access their customer data, the main organisation retains a control and view of the entire database of clients and booking activity (of which are subject to appropriate permissions and legislation, of course).
Scalable with your business
While offering a perfect solution for large-scale enterprises who work with many partners across different regions and countries, the system also suits those of a more modest scale who still require a multi-tenant approach.
It works as well whether you have 2 or 2000 partners.
The system is designed to scale as required for your business. When you need a new partner adding, we create their space on the system and set up a new licence for them. If a partner leaves, they can be removed.
At thinkBooker, we specialise in online booking systems for training courses, classes, activities and events – optimised for efficiency, growth and ongoing client satisfaction.
Browse the site to learn more about course booking systems, sports booking systems, event booking systems and more, or get in touch directly to find out how we can help you.
