As passengers step up travel in 2022, the team behind Trailways.com has been expanding features on the system’s website to help North American operators boost line-run and charter revenues.
In June 2019, Trailways established Trailways Ticketing & Marketing LLC, DBA “Trailways.com”, naming Alexander Berardi President, and launched the all-new Trailways.com site later that same year. Berardi is supported by a dedicated team responsible for 24/7 monitoring of transactions, customer service and implementing cutting-edge digital marketing strategies.
“The launch of the new website took Trailways in a new direction,” said Berardi, “We are now able to market our services directly to the consumer both at the regional level and on a national scale. We’ve been able to add features over time and our search rankings are strong with hundreds visiting our site in any given moment.”
“Trailways’ online operation now connects”, with several software platforms and related inter-connected line-run carriers, including Greyhound Lines, to support easier city-to-city online booking and offers first-of-its-kind digital features such as ticket rescheduling. This feature allows customers to change their intended time of departure without visiting a terminal. The website also takes care of regulatory compliance for individual carriers by meeting PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security) and ADA (American Disability Act) standards.
Digital marketing is also an important part of Trailways.com’s new infrastructure. “Our priority is to convert browsing visitors into paying customers,” said Berardi. “I’m proud to say we have the technology and a growing team in place to make that happen. By combining resources and leveraging the national brand, we have done what some carriers found difficult on their own: near instant advertising to customers that visit the Trailways.com website, across an array of media channels, with personalized imagery targeting the products they are likely to purchase.”
Trailways’ digital marketing strategies are paying off. Some campaigns are logging a conversion to sales rate of more than 15% as of mid-December with bookings up 20% year-to-year. In the last week of November, the Trailways site had 25,000 visitors and October 2021 individual gross sales volume reached 730,000. “We are now hitting our first highs (following COVID-19 March 2020 shutdown) with room to go higher,” said Berardi.
Trailways.com already has 60,000 members enrolled in its Driven Rewards by Trailways, a loyalty program which tracks travel and allows riders to redeem points toward new travel. The program is heavily promoted via the site and in passenger email correspondence.
In 2022, Trailways.com will launch a new business-building charter lead system that Berardi says will help operators streamline the quote process.
“Charter is an important part of every operator’s business – even for line-run carriers who need to keep their coaches out earning revenue at every chance they get. And it makes sense for us to have the best technology for charter as we do for line-run. The industry is changing. Riders and charter customers are price-shopping and we are meeting them where they are – and that’s online. We want to serve them on desktop and mobile. If passengers and groups are more comfortable with paper tickets and schedules, we’ll make sure we accommodate their needs. We want to serve and accommodate all Trailways customers equally — and Trailways.com will help make that happen.”
Every day, Trailways.com is building a more robust digital marketing program that will help you and your team members increase sales. You are invited to hear more from Alex and other Trailways leaders about building your business at Trailways 2022: Roadmap for Success, Jan. 6-8 in Grapevine, TX.
3900 Jermantown Road, Suite 300, Fairfax, VA 22030
Tel. 703.691.3052