Integration of your online booking system/store into Odyssey will provide you with significant time savings, by being able to pull the online bookings directly into Odyssey, and onto the appropriate departure.
Once we have worked with you to make the necessary configurations, the online bookings can automatically flow towards Odyssey. Alternatively, you may have to manually trigger the push of records from your online booking website to Odyssey.
The data gets pushed to a separate URL first, which separates out the content from the online booking into useable chucks, and then automatically creates the Bookings to import into Odyssey).
Bookings can then be reviewed, allowing you to have control of the records you import into Odyssey. Bookings can be added to exisiting Tours, or new Tours can be created automatically from the first booking received.
When do the bookings to import appear? They appear almost instantly. You will receive an email notification that the booking has been received; at the same time, you should find the booking ready to import.
To Import Online Bookings
Stage 1 - Review the incoming bookings
You will know when there are new bookings to import, because there will be a notification above the Main Menu (also visible from the Departures and Bookings menu). Also, you will receive an email notification that the booking/s have been received.
Online Bookings ready to import
From the Main Menu | Bookings
Click To Import
Import the Bookings from the Main Menu | Bookings | To Import...
The list of records which have flowed from your online store/website, ready to be imported, can be viewed
Here's the list of bookings waiting to be reviewed and imported
The data is arranged under the following headings: Import, Name (first name and last names, and these are editable), email, master name, code, departure date (editable, if necessary to match one in your system), live, max, review.
The Live column provides you with a live count of the number of passengers on that specific departure, including any you may have already had.
Test bookings will be indicated in orange to identify them as not real
Online Booking buttons: learn about each button below:
(1) Freeform text to match alert: The alert symbol indicates that the customer has entered some freeform text, which you will need to manually match with a selection in a drop down list. The alert symbol will disappear once there are no more manual matches to make.
Note: Occasionally the import button may not appear. This could be because the trip code could not be matched, perhaps if you have created a special which is not yet on your online booking system. Read step (4) to learn how to review and update the trip code
(3) Possible existing name match Alert : Where Odyssey thinks there could be a match to an existing client in Odyssey (based on first name and last name), there will be an alert beside the client's name. Odyssey does not consolidate this booking to the existing client - it's up to you to cross check and decide how you wish to proceed.
If the trip code is highlighted in Orange, this means the trip code does not match exactly a trip code in your system. The booking will not be able to be imported (i.e. the import button will not be available) until you follow the review process below, and replace the trip code with a valid one.
(4) Review and match records: Clicking on the review button allows you to view all of the content of the imported booking, where any changes can be made. This means you can correct any typos, or obvious data errors before they get imported into Odyssey.
Once you click on the Review 'arrow', a pop-up window will appear.
Tabs for Personal, Medical, Kin & Passport info, and extras requested can be viewed. To learn more about all of these fields, click Here
It's up to staff to make a selection from the Diet dropdown list, of an option that best suits the comments beside it.
If no selection is made, then Odyssey will continue to use the option it's been told is the default for your company.
There will be a delete button to enable you to delete any test or unwanted bookings (deleted bookings cannot be recovered; however as part of the normal process is that you are emailed a copy of the booking, the booking can be manually created using those emailed details)
test bookings will show in a different window, labelled Test Booking
You can edit/change details as required here, prior to importing into Odyssey. For example, you can change the first name, or an email address, if necessary.
Importing Bookings: Personal tab
If ever there is some information from the online Booking, that has NOT had its corresponding dropdown list value selected, the field will be highlighted, and the original information shown below in green text, for your reference to help you make your choice.
Importing Bookings: Medical tab
Medical Tab: On the Diet field there will be a highlight bright'ish orange colour, if it's empty AND there are Diet Notes in place. As well as the 'alert' icon added. It's up to staff to make a selection from the Diet dropdown list, of an option that best suits the comments beside it.
If no selection is made, then Odyssey will continue to use the option it's been told is the default for your company.
Any bookings that you do not want to import can be deleted using the Delete button
Stage 2 - Import the Booking into Odyssey
• the '1st' passenger with the 'New' option selected, will be the record that creates a Trip.
If the Import button is GREEN, this suggests that the trip selected by the client is not yet created in Odyssey. The trip will be created automatically when you import, and this first client booking will automatically be added to it.
• the 2nd person will have the 'Join' option selected, and then you can either let the process add them to the Trip it displays.
For the subsequent clients (the next ones in the import list until there is another green button) who were also part of the same online transaction, will have an ORANGE button, and there will be a TRIP CODE in the RH column, showing which Trip they will then be joined into. The User only has to click the Orange button to add them, making their client record at the same time.
• or you can manually enter a Trip code - if there was already a Trip for that Master/Date combo, but you need to change it to a different one, for this passenger to join...
If the Import button is ORANGE, go ahead and import the booking, following the bullet points below
When you have reviewed the booking and are ready to import it, click the Import button beside the booking name
Note: the import button will only appear when Odyssey can find a match, i.e. if the Departure code which has been imported does not match one in your system, the import button won't appear. Edit the Departure code to match an existing one in your system, and the Import button will then appear.
There is an import booking button for each individual booking
You will receive a message to indicate that this person has been added as a client and booking, telling you how long the import process took. Job done!!
You have successfully imported the booking
Every piece of info from the created booking has been imported, creating the Client record, creating the Booking Record (attached to the required Departure), and creating every bike hire day record, if a Bike is being hired/used as part of the Booking.
When all bookings have not been made by one person, but by several clients over a period of time their record shows the GREEN import icon, (since they placed their own online booking - therefore they are considered a solo traveller) - but Odyssey provides the ability to override this:
in the popup window the top radio button is highlighted, [ B ] , showing a NEW Trip would be created for her.
BUT If the client is meant to be joining others on a Trip... the matching Date/Master of a Trip already created, will show in the peachy coloured column on the original main list page, [ C ] as well as under the 2nd radio button [ D ].
And finally....
There is a 3rd option available, and that is to type in a Trip code for this client to join ANY exiting trip in your Odyssey file. Please be aware you must type the code correctly.
When the data entry of a code is used, that code will be written in Orange, the entered code WILL be eg: [ 24PETL7 ] in this screenshot example.
To view a list of records which have been imported
Click the orange triangle button at the top of the Import Bookings screen
To view a list of records which have been imported
This takes you to the Bookings Imported list
Imported Bookings List
Here you will see an entry for each online order which has been imported into Odyssey. The entry is timestamped with the date of the import, and the relevant Departure details are on the right.
Double clicking the imported booking entry will display a pop-up window containing the Departure details, and contact details for this customer.
Double clicking an imported booking from the list provides you with a pop up showing all the details
To view the imported booking on the Departure
Click the orange > button at the end of the record to be taken directly to the new Departure/Booking record
Click the > button to view the new Booking record on it's Departure
the new Booking record sitting on the correct Departure
To delete unwanted bookings after they have been successfully imported
Click the review button at the right hand end of the successfully imported booking
On the Personal tab of the review window, click the Delete button
Click the Delete button on the imported booking to remove it
What the import process does not do:
Double check to see if the client already exists and/or update existing client records (it will alert you there COULD be a match though), by the use of the multi client icon
The indicator that this client might already exist in your system
We recommend that you create records for these existing clients manually, copying the data from the import list. Importing them automatically from the import list would create a duplicate "profile" for this client, resulting in a database which doesn't help you find true analytic search results such as how many repeat clients did we have this year, or how many people over the age of xx. And these repeat clients would appear multiple times in your email lists.
Automatically match ‘some’ of the long free flow WorldEx text - to the dropdown list choices (but the alert symbol will indicate to you that you need to do this)
