Cruise 1st

Cruise 1st – part of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd – is an international cruise operator, providing luxury travel for passengers at competitive prices.

The Challenge

Cruise1st.co.uk gets a high volume of customers looking to find a great deal. They offer trips to a wide range of destinations, aboard many cruise lines and ships. A cruise holiday has many options available when booking; from adding drinks packages, to pre paying tips, adding optional onboard spend, dining preferences, bed configurations or even whether to add car parking when sailing from the UK.

This often leads to customers abandoning the website while they consider the options with family and friends, or look around for other holidays. Cruise 1st – like many travel websites – needed a way of engaging with online visitors so they could explain the options available before they abandoned the booking.

The Solution

Optilead’s booking abandonment solution lets Cruise 1st reconnect with web visitors that have left the website without completing their booking. If a customer spends time looking at a deal then exits the browser, Optilead immediately calls an advisor at Cruise 1st then calls out to the customer, all in less than 60 seconds. This gives advisors a great opportunity to explain the services and complete the booking. Calls can also be recorded for quality and training purposes.

Optilead have also installed a Callback button alongside every holiday on the Cruise 1st website, giving the customer the option to request a call from one of their agents.

This gives customers the option of speaking to an agent at the Cruise 1st help centre so they can talk about their booking. An optional pop-up screen can be added if required, to provide the customer with information about who will call them and when they can expect to receive a call.

Once connected, customers receive advice and support in a much more engaging way. They can ask questions about what the package includes and receive straightforward, honest answers without having to search the website.

The Results

Figures in the UK have been fantastic for Cruise1stco.uk and they have now installed Optilead on their Australian site, Cruise1st.com.au and are investigating the opportunities for their Irish and Singaporean sites.

Decision-maker contact rates in particular have been very high, achieving 82% for their booking recovery solution and 96% for their Callbacks. This gives their cruise agents the best opportunity to offer assistance and recover the sale.

As a result, a conversion rate of around 24% was achieved by using the Optilead booking recovery solution. A timely phone call has proven to be a useful tool for engaging with customers before they search for another offer elsewhere.

“We have been working with Optilead for a number of years and over that time we have recovered a significant amount of revenue that would have otherwise left our website. Implementation was easy and we now use Optilead for our Australian operation to great success” – Mike Kindon, Head of Ecommerce