In the fast-paced world of B2B inventory booking platforms, seamless communication is key to enhancing user experience and ensuring smooth journeys for travellers. With over 3.5 crore notifications sent per month, it's crucial for these platforms to efficiently manage transactional notifications. We spoke to one such platform, which caters to a large network and helped gather crucial insights into what goes behind the scenes in keeping their users engaged and well-informed. In this blog post, we will explore the challenges faced by inventory booking platforms in handling transactional notifications and highlight a potential solution that can streamline the process.
- The complex landscape of inventory booking platforms:
The platform we spoke to is serving over 1600 bus operators across 6+ countries. This translates to managing a massive network of 1600+ booking portals. To enable a seamless booking experience, the platform relies on multiple APIs for every channel through which ticket information is transmitted.
- Beyond just ticket bookings:
The inventory booking platform offers more than just bookings. It provides users with real-time bus tracking capabilities and facilitates communication with travellers throughout their journey. Transactional notifications play a vital role in this process, ensuring a smooth and hassle-free travel experience
Some examples of transactional notifications include:
- OTPs for booking
- booking confirmations
- upcoming travel details (bus number, driver information)
- in-journey updates (bus progress, upcoming stops)
- journey completion notifications
- feedback requests from bus operators
3. Potential challenges and complexities: Handling a large number of bus operators and their unique requirements can pose several challenges for inventory booking platforms.
These challenges include:
- Integration Complexities: Each bus operator comes with its own set of providers, resulting in numerous integrations that the booking platform must handle.
- Backend Template Management: The platform must efficiently manage notification templates, accommodating diverse content requirements for different bus operators.
- Resource Allocation: Engineers and product managers face the challenge of maintaining a large client base and ensuring smooth operations.
- Customer Experience Pressure: The customer experience team shoulders the responsibility of managing and configuring communications for multiple bus operators.
4. Outdated tech stack:
travellersThe majority of communication systems in inventory booking platforms operate on outdated technology stacks, hindering scalability and performance. This limits the platform's ability to meet growing demands and deliver an optimal user experience.
Simplifying Notification Management with Fyno
To overcome the challenges associated with transactional notifications, inventory booking platforms can consider outsourcing their communication needs to specialized platforms like Fyno. By consolidating every bus operator's account under a single main account, Fyno offers a streamlined approach to managing notifications. This solution eliminates the need for individual integrations and simplifies template management, reducing the strain on engineers, product managers, and customer experience teams.
Conclusion
Efficient transactional notifications are vital for B2B inventory booking platforms to enhance the overall travel experience. By leveraging specialized platforms like Fyno, these platforms can overcome integration complexities, streamline template management, and alleviate the burden on resources. Implementing a robust and scalable notification system ensures that travelers receive timely and relevant information, making their journeys less cumbersome and more enjoyable.
