Twiddy Vacation Rentals Modernizes Guest Communication with Avochato
For Twiddy and Company, the leading vacation rental company in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, their guests are like family. And when you want to tell a family member about an upcoming vacation, you don’t send an email that might get buried between newsletters and work updates. When Twiddy wants to reach their guests, they send them a text.
“We were doing a lot of emailing, outbounding, and taking a lot of inbound calls,” according to Mike Wilson, CFO of Twiddy. Given the intimate nature of a vacation, and the emotional connection that many guests feel towards the Outer Banks, texting was a natural channel to test. Texting also provided an easy way for guests to have realtime, two-way conversations directly with Twiddy. “We saw at least a 40% lift in conversion just using texting as a channel,” Wilson said.
We saw at least a 40% lift in conversion just using texting as a channel
Benefits
Texting provides guests an easy way to have two-way dialogues with Twiddy
Avochato manages on-the-go teams of housekeepers, inspectors, and other field operators
Easy-to-use platform spread organically through the company
A growing company that processes tens of thousands of reservations annually, Twiddy sought out a solution that could match their scale. They found Avochato to be a natural fit, impressed with the ease of use and quick onboarding process. “We started using it to talk to guests, but then our department heads all learned how to use it themselves,” Wilson said.
A growing company that processes tens of thousands of reservations annually, Twiddy sought out a solution that could match their scale.
Many different teams within Twiddy soon adopted Avochato, using it to get in touch with inspectors, housekeepers, or to enable guests to report maintenance requests. “It was a flywheel effect, it spread rapidly and organically throughout the company,” according to Ross Twiddy, CEO.
As usage spread, the Twiddy team observed firsthand how texting encouraged more back-and-forth dialogue. One guest who had reported a broken hot tub informed Twiddy that the repair had been successful by sending a selfie of himself in the fixed tub with a beer. “That made the rounds internally,” according to Wilson. “Wow — pictures really do say a thousand words.”
As Twiddy grows its operations and moves to larger platforms such as Salesforce, they continue to leverage Avochato by using the Salesforce integration. The integration will let them seamlessly send text messages through Salesforce, and log the activities automatically.
The integration will let them seamlessly send text messages through Salesforce, and log the activities automatically.
Twiddy also implemented a “click to text” widget on their website, which drove massive conversion for prospective guests who wanted to learn more about the rental process. For those immediate interactions, it can be “really, really hard to have that conversation over email,” Wilson said. With texting, “we’re able to drive conversions, able to have those one-on-one conversations with guests on their terms.”
While use cases for Avochato have expanded through the company, the team has embraced texting for its immediacy, its convenience, and its efficacy. As Brooke Puckett, Guest Sales Manager, puts it, “We’re not just drinking the Kool-Aid — we’re eating the guac!”
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