SANParks online booking is brilliant

Posted by Tony Park on 5 January 2009

My nearest and dearest, Mrs Blog, makes all our bookings in the national parks when we travel around Africa and she is a huge fan of SANParks’ real-time online booking system.

For a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it’s great to be able to book online, without having to wait on the telephone. It’s quicker and cheaper and very convenient if you’ve got a reasonable internet connection.

Online booking is just one of many examples I use when telling fellow travellers and people back in Australia why I love South African National Parks.

Whatever you might say about the increases in accommodation prices and entry fees in recent years South African parks still provide the best facilities and the best value for money on the continent, and they should be commended for this.

But (and there shouldn’t have to be a ‘but’, but there is)

You want to know the BEST thing about real-time online booking? It’s when you need to change a booking.

If you’ve booked and paid online you can’t change that booking online – you have to call Central Reservations or go to reception at one of the camps to change a booking.

Mrs Blog has just done that – we needed to change a couple of days to different rest camps as our Land Rover is currently undergoing repairs and we can’t move far from it.

She went online to check what was available in the camps we wanted to change our bookings to – a couple of huts and a bungalow here and there. Despite this being a busy time of the year, luckily she could see there was space available. She phoned reservations.

“There is nothing available anywhere in the park on that day,” the bored sounding operator at Central Reservations told Mrs Blog when she asked about availability.

“Are you sure?” she asked, more than once.

“Yes I am sure,” said the man on the phone.

“Well,” said Mrs Blog, “I am looking at my computer and I can see there is accommodation available at the camps I’ve just asked you about.” She then proceeded to read out all of the accommodation, using the national parks codes for each bungalow and rondavel.

“Ah, but those huts you want don’t have bathrooms,” the man said to her.

This was quite a change from being told “there is nothing available in the park on that day”.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Here we have a national parks system which is world’s best, on so many fronts, embracing new technology and using it to help its customers (and its staff, by relieving the burden on them).

Yet, because one operator is too bored or overworked or lazy or whatever the whole system (almost) collapses.

Perhaps it comes down to training – and I don’t just mean computer training. If you empower your customers, SANPARKS, you have to empower your staff so that they know as much (hopefully more) about what’s going on in and around the system than the customers.

Online real-time booking is a great system, but it shouldn’t be a tool for exposing poor customer service.

What’s been your experience with SANPARKS or their reservations system lately?

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