Summer holidays, public holidays, long weekends and special opening hours affect the opening times of many motorbike dealerships.
Requests for test rides, however, may continue to come in even when opening hours change or the dealership is closed for several days. If availability is not updated correctly, there is a risk of accepting bookings for dates when the dealership is unavailable and having to contact customers to reschedule or cancel the test drive. In other words, wasted time and disappointed potential customers.
With the new update to Performing Ride, managing the test ride calendar becomes more flexible and better aligned with the dealership’s actual operations.
The problem with manual calendar management
When test rides are managed via phone calls, emails, spreadsheets or non-integrated calendars, every change requires manual intervention. In the event of holidays, public holidays or changes to opening hours, staff must:
- update availability;
- temporarily suspend bookings;
- create separate tasks, online forms or website pages;
- check any appointments that have already been confirmed;
- contact customers in the event of clashes or unavailability.
The longer the booking period, the greater the risk of errors, double bookings and out-of-date communications.
How to manage holidays and closing days with Performing Ride
Performing Ride is the platform developed to digitise the management of test rides: from bookings to vehicle availability, from document collection to digital signatures, right through to the analysis of results.
With the new feature, you can configure the following within the test ride booking process itself:
- different opening hours for each day of the week;
- holiday periods;
- public holidays;
- individual days when the business is closed.
The calendar automatically shows users only the dates and time slots that are actually available. It is therefore not necessary to suspend the entire test ride service, duplicate events or manually edit bookings every time the dealership’s opening hours change.
A calendar that is always consistent with the dealership’s operations
The new configuration allows bookings to remain active even when there are exceptions in the calendar. A dealership can, for example:
- set different opening hours for weekdays and Saturdays;
- exclude days when the dealership is closed for the summer;
- block a public holiday;
- adjust availability for special opening days;
- keep the same configuration active throughout the season.
Users always see up-to-date availability and can only book on days when the test drive can actually take place.
The benefits for dealerships and brands
More precise calendar management reduces administrative workload and also improves the customer experience. For the dealership, this means:
- fewer manual changes;
- less risk of bookings on days when the dealership is closed;
- fewer phone calls and emails to reschedule test drives;
- greater control over availability;
- more time to devote to welcoming customers and building business relationships.
For brands and multi-site groups, it means being able to adopt a standardised process, whilst allowing each site to configure opening hours and closing times according to its own operations.
Performing Ride evolves alongside its users
This new feature is the result of feedback gathered from dealerships and operators who use Performing Ride in the day-to-day management of test drives.
The aim is not to add complexity, but to make the system increasingly aligned with real-world workflows: automating repetitive tasks, reducing the risk of error and providing users with accurate information.
Are you already using Performing Ride? The feature is already available in your account.
Not using Performing Ride yet? Request a free demo now!