How Fleewinter increased conversion rates by 17% with Spark
Case Study
About Fleewinter
Fleewinter is a collective of travel obsessed individuals, with a genuine passion for scouting out the best possible destination for their clients.
A testament to this is how much time the team spends in these destinations; living, working and even holding weddings there.
Leveraging this first hand knowledge, Fleewinter is able to plan truly excellent holidays for their clients.
Personalisation is a key part of what Fleewinter does so well and each itinerary is completely customised to the needs of the client. Every booking begins with a friendly chat and increasingly ends with an ‘oh my word, that was incredible, I’d like to book my next trip please.'
The Challenge
Given Fleewinter's passion and commitment to delivering extraordinary experiences, they needed tools that reflected the quality of their work behind the scenes.
At around 700 trips annually, Fleewinter were searching for a software that not only wowed customers, convincing them to book a trip, but drastically helped their operational workflow.
Before Spark, Fleewinter’s process was largely done through emails, multiple softwares and complicated spreadsheets, relying on the patience and hard work of the team to maintain a smooth flow.
The length of booking for each trip was unpredictable, with a lot of back and forth. A typical booking was made through emails, incompatible software, double data entry, currency exchange calculations and continuous tweaking of spreadsheets.
“The messiness of admin was a huge time-waste, and the amount of individual tasks - including triple checking every financial detail, or re-pricing based on updated exchanged rates for complicated bookings that were slow to convert - was too large to maintain whilst wishing to grow the business.”
The old way of working was clearly unsustainable and relied heavily on team members to spend a lot of time on administrative tasks.
The Solution: Fleewinter x Spark
• Improved Conversions
One of the biggest wins for Fleewinter is a reported relative increase of 17% in conversion rates. This has been achieved through a combination of stunning sales tools like the interactive online proposals as well as a more joined up sales process ensuring that no leads get lost.
“We are spending fewer hours on routine tasks and have recovered more hours that can now be spent persuading our customers to book with us.”
• Increased Efficiency
Spark has increased efficiency by removing multiple touch points required from different departments and enabling a more autonomous team.
“Our team is more independent in the financial management of their bookings…the amount of time saved can be measured in the wideness of our financial controller’s smile on a Monday.”
• Better Workflow Management
Using Spark has streamlined the booking process and removed the friction points that used to prevent the customer journey from moving forward.
“Spark has made information easier to find and manage, minimised time needed for tasks that previously sucked up available working hours, and has meant that every quote - with less time needed - results in a consistently fantastic experience for our clients.”
• Better Operational Security
With Spark, Fleewinter has peace of mind that their entire workflow is backed up and on an easily accessible centralised system.
“Working primarily offline - with complicated spreadsheets - had its challenges too, with a limited view of trips or enquiries for the team. There was also the stress of ensuring continuous operational resilience and making sure everything was backed up in multiple locations.”
• Improved Scalability
Switching to Spark was not only a strategic choice but an essential one to allow Fleewinter to continue to grow whilst maintaining its high level of quality.
“Our capacity for back end management is significantly increased - meaning it is much more realistic to grow the business with a stronger infrastructure at its core.”
• Supported Onboarding
A crucial element of software transitions is the onboarding process provided, ensuring that the whole team is confident with the way their day to day workflow can adapt to a new system.
“The support team at Spark were available every day to help us with the onboarding, and offered teaching sessions before we made the switch.
We had a ‘sandbox’ or practice version of the software to learn, before going live - and then the Helpdesk service was invaluable.”
The Results
17% relative increase in conversion rate, driven by Spark's interactive proposals and a more joined-up sales process
Less time spent on administrative tasks, freeing the team from the manual, spreadsheet-heavy workflow that used to eat into their week
More time focusing on clients, so the team can put their energy back into crafting the personalised itineraries Fleewinter is known for
Consistently great customer experience, with a streamlined booking process that removes the friction points that used to slow customers down
Increased capacity for growth, with a stronger operational backbone that makes scaling the business far more realistic
Final Thoughts
"Day to day management of bookings is now like a bowling alley with the side barriers up — it's much harder to mess up."
With administrative bottlenecks cleared and a scalable system in place, Fleewinter is now positioned to maintain its growth without losing the personal touch that sets them apart.
“I can recommend Spark to any tour operator looking to spend more time doing the things they love within their job, and less time on the tasks that they have to do as part of their job.”
– THEODORA TAYLOR FRANKS, GENERAL MANAGER
Want to find out how Spark can help your travel company improve conversions and scale effectively? Book a demo here.
