May 2023 Newsletter: Prepping staff for busy season, building your brand

Updated 1 year ago by Carrie Mamantov

In this newsletter, we're focused on reminders that help many operators excel in these last weeks of prep before the North American summer peak season. We're also excited to have many new accounts on board from around the world. You should be able to build your businesses up with these same tips. View past issues here.

In this issue:

Top 5 Most Used Features in PicThrive Workspace
Ramping Up: New Staff Need Training
3 Ways Tech Integrations Improve Sales
Marketing Best Practice: More Direct Bookings
New Waiver Integration Partner: WaiverFile

Top 5 Most Used Features in PicThrive Workspace

As we continue to use data to learn from operator and guest behaviors, we've been tracking the most used features in the Workspace.

Over the past 7 years, we've always worked with operators to create features they really wanted. So, there's a good chance you can benefit from some or all of these features, too.

Auto Sales - Turning on this new feature with your reservation or waiver system means your guests will have another chance to purchase photos even after they leave. We are seeing this extra sales touch increase sales more effectively than a regular follow-up email sent by reservation systems, 35% MORE.
Auto Complete - Another integrations feature makes it easy for those operators using one of our waivers integration partners. Put photos in guests' inboxes faster with a quick name search look up and autofill at the point of sale.
TV slideshow - Haven't tried this one yet? Anyone with a gift shop or a monitor can be running a "Best of" slideshow. Buying an Amazon firestick or Google Chromecast extension is around $30-$50USD.
Souvenir Albums - Have a beautiful shot everyone wishes they had? Or maybe you have a furry mascot that is part of the brand experience. Add these to a souvenir album so every guest can automatically have these extra shots available in their album. It's a branding opportunity and feels like a nice surprise to guests.
AutoEnhance - Soon to surpass other features in usage, you should check this one out. Not sure you want to upgrade ALL photos ALL the time? It's easy to toggler this feature on and off to adjust for weather (think shadows at high noon, or bad weather gloomy shots).

Ramping Up: New Staff Need Training

We have created weekly live training sessions for you and your team to refresh your memories on all the Workspace features. We highly recommend ALL new staff take the Workspace course. You can also attend the Branding Live Session to get additional best practices that can generate more direct bookings, and WOW your guests throughout their experience.

3 Ways our tech integrations improve sales for your business

Recapture missed sales

With Auto Sales turned on, your Reservations system or Waiver system sends PicThrive the guest info. Then, your workspace checks to see if they've purchased photos or videos, and automatically sends a reminder email to buy photos and videos online. Cool, right?

Give staff a chance to get ahead

Currently in Beta, our NEW Auto-Album feature within Scheduling will create a separate album for each booking using whatever naming convention works with your business and your branding. It's much easier than having a photographer or staff member manually naming each one while they upload.

Cut down guest waiting time

For those operators using one of our Waivers integration partners, activating Guest Name Search Auto-Complete gives your staff another way to save a little time at the check out process. They can start typing the guest's name when purchasing on-site to quickly shoot them a purchased album.

Marketing Best Practice: Get More Direct Bookings

We have included several marketing tools within the PicThrive workspace. Within each store you can customize the branding and social sharing, run display ads, and add Google tracking for marketing analytics.

You can even focus these features to drive more direct bookings through the guest gallery.

Seasonal email coupons are a good way to drive return business.
Use the “most referrals” report to reward guests with the most word-of-mouth activity.
Offer an exclusive promotion or discount to your best customers – as a refer a friend discount and it’s only valid if they book direct.

For more ideas to drive direct bookings, you can read our latest blog post here.

New Integration Partner: WaiverFile

We've added a third waiver system so more operators can benefit from the automation we've built for integration partners. If you're using WaiverFile, you should reach out to ask for Auto Complete to be activated for free. View details here.