The Bookster Podcast: A Low Barrier

  • Episode 3
Who's Talking?
  • Simon Beattie
  • Robin Morris
  • Adam Aaron
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Simon, Robin and Adam discuss one of Bookster's key pillars - a low barrier to entry.

In this episode of the Bookster podcast, Simon hosts Robin Morris, CEO and Co-founder, and Adam Aaron, Bookster's support lead.

Key takeaways

They delve into Bookster's ethos of maintaining a low barrier to entry for their holiday rental software. 

This approach aims to simplify the client onboarding process, allowing users to swiftly set up and start using Bookster without traditional obstacles like setup fees or lengthy contracts. 

Adam highlights the evolution of his role from managing a caravan site finder to focusing on customer support, underscoring Bookster's commitment to adaptability and client-centric service. 

They discuss the challenges of this approach, such as potential mismatches with clients seeking solutions beyond property management. 

Despite these, Bookster's strategy of fostering trust through accessibility and support appears pivotal in their journey. 

The important bits

● [00:00] - Intro to Robin, Adam Aaron our Support Lead and the podcast

● [01:02] - What is Adam's role as a Support Lead?

● [02:50] - Providing a low Barrier to Entry

Key points covered

● How Adam moved to the Support Team

● What is a Low Barrier to Entry and some examples of these?

● What are disadvantages of having low Barriers of Entry?

● How does Bookster achieve the low Barrier of Entry for its' clients?

● Does a low Barrier to entry create a higher support burden?

● How does this build trust with clients?

● How does the size of the team impact how Bookster runs?

Next Episode

In the next episode will be looking further at how high quality support is at the heart of how Bookster provides its service.

Credits

Editor
Simon Beattie
Music
Jonathan Brannen
Producer
Joint Beat Productions

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Transcript

Hello, I am Simon and welcome back to the Bookster podcast from inside the SaaS holiday rental software company Bookster based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Follow along as Bookster, discuss their journey and their inner workings.

Thank you for joining us, and we hope that you find these conversations insightful and ultimately helpful.

Minute 1
Uh, today I'm joined as always by CEO and Co-founder of Bookster, Robin Morris.

Robin.

Hello.

Hello, Simon.

Nice to see you again.

Nice to see you too.

Yeah.

Uh, today though, we're also joined by Bookster's support lead, Adam Aaron.

Hello, Adam.

Hello Simon.

Um, you've, you've obviously told, told everyone what I do now, so, um, stolen, I Gave it away, sorry.

Well, perhaps you could explain what support lead means and what your role is.

Uh, well, my role, um, when I started Bookster was actually different.

So I've, I've been with Bookster quite a while.

Um, but I actually started, I believe the la last episode was on, uh, caravan Site Finder.

So I actually started, um, when, in, in those days, um, and was, was hired to originally help with a, a sort of shoot off site, um, for, for that, for caravans and motor homes, I believe.

Minute 2
Um, turns out I wasn't very good at it.

Um, so had had a conversation with, uh, with Robin, uh, one day where he said, how would you like to, uh, concentrate a bit more on support? So that's kind of where I've, I've been ever since.

Um, now I would say support lead.

We're a fairly small team, so we all, you know, contribute to support.

Um, but yeah, I, I suppose I, I get to control it, so I'm the lead.

Um, great.

Yeah, and, and I've been doing that, uh, I think for most of the time I worked at Bookster now, um, which is, yeah, quite a while.

Cool.

No, great.

We'll come back to the, uh, the size of the, the business later on, 'cause we haven't had a question from one of our listeners about that.

So that ties in.

Well, um, last week, uh, we were talking Robin about the sort of four pillars that the business is structured on.

Minute 3
That's right.

Um, for key pillars.

Uh, so what we thought we'd do is we, we'd take an episode per pillar for the next four sort of episodes, so a mini series on the pillars of the business.

Uh, today we're gonna look at, I guess, pillar one, which is, uh, sort of a key pillar for you guys, which is the low barrier to entry.

Um, perhaps you could start off by just telling us what you mean by the terms low barrier to entry and expanding on what we said last week.

Yeah, so basically, um, it's about being as easy as possible for our clients to, uh, sign up to Bookster and get, well really get to the point where they are finding it useful.

So the low barrier to entry means that there's as quick as possible or as easy as possible to get from, um, finding out about us to taking bookings, uh, for their properties.

And that goes through the whole setup process and et cetera.

Minute 4
Uh, yeah, that's, that summarizes it.

That's it.

I'm not sure.

Okay.

So, uh, I guess then the next question would be, what are the, what are the typical barriers that people would come across normally that you're trying to help Them with? Yeah, so when we first, um, so I suppose like if you look at other software companies in our sector, and we're obviously B2B, so we are business to business.

Um, other we're companies may charge, for example, a setup fee that would be a barrier to entry.

Um, or they don't let someone register for their own account.

Um, or they require that someone has, um, you know, takes out an annual contract, uh, or, uh, they don't allow them to use the software if, um, I mean this actually was happened yesterday.

One of our competitors, um, we, we had a, someone come to us and they, the reason why they came to us was that their competitor refused to take them on, uh,
Minute 5
because they didn't have their own website.

So these, these other companies, they put these barriers up.

Um, now there's, there are reasons for doing that, obviously that they have potentially good reasons, but we try to, one of our key things is to try and strip those barriers away And it clearly working.

'cause you're, you're getting new business from it, I guess, that way you're thinking? Yes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We do get new business, but new business from it, it, it has its downsides as well.

Um, so, uh, it means that we get, uh, quite a lot of people signing up who maybe aren't appropriate for us or for Bookster.

So they might be looking to, um, I dunno, run a running a hotel or a, you know, maybe they've got a, um, tennis coaching business or something, or with our name, they're maybe looking to sell books or something like that.

Minute 6
I dunno, Adam's maybe got a few of these that he, that, uh, of people who sign up and it's, it's not quite the best fit for them.

So they don't necessarily go through that vetting.

Yeah, sometimes they like books to so much they want to use it for other things that it's not, not designed for.

Um, would, would be, I suppose, a fairly typical one.

Um, you know, can, it would be great.

I think we had a client one time who said, um, you know, I want, I want to run my customer relationship manager.

I want, I want that to be Bookster.

Um, un unfortunately, we're property management software, not a customer relationship manager.

So, um, it's not, not something we do, but, um, yeah, people, people tend to like it because, because of, you know, the, the low barrier I suppose.

So, I mean, how does, but then, I mean, as a, a team, I guess, how do you achieve this, uh, sort of low barrier for the customer?
Minute 7
What, what's sort of different, I guess? I mean, you've sort of outlined it already, I suppose, but I mean, as working as a small team, does that make it different for clients? Well, RO Robin says jump, we say how high, And He, and he says low 'cause it's low barrier to the truth.

So that's, that's general.

The gist of it.

I forgot to tell, I forgot to warn Simon about your jokes.

Um, uh, yeah, I, I suppose, um, it's something sort of, obviously we've just set up to do that inherently.

So allowing people to sign up for an account on their own, and we sh it's trying to allow them to do everything on their own, should they want to or be able to.

So that's a kind of, you might describe that as a barrier.

So they can register themselves, they can create their properties, they can add, um, you know, connect themselves up to Stripe or PayPal on their own for taking payments.

They can, um, connect up to Airbnb on their own with us,
Minute 8
without us, they can set, set the pricing.

They can do all of those things on their own.

So we have to constantly keep an eye on that and make sure that we are not, um, you know, adding features or facilities that, uh, put a block in the way of that.

So that would be one way, one sort of thing, making sure they can do everything on their own.

Um, but also, um, yeah, the, the, the sort of annual contract thing, for example, now is quite tempting to, uh, ask people to sign up for an annual contract because obviously then they're obliged to use you for a year.

But we have to sort of continue to resist that because we know that's something that some people don't want basically, and or they would say would be a barrier.

Um, right.

So yeah, so those are the kinds of, those are yeah, the kinds of barriers, yeah.

As I say, from from a support perspective, um, like one
Minute 9
of the things I came across yesterday that could be described as a low barrier to entry, you mentioned connecting to Stripe.

Um, when, when you connect to Stripe, which is the payment processor that most people use, uh, with, with Berk Stern, it automatically on Stripe's product, they're also trying to create a low barrier to entry.

Um, hence they have the same form for registering and logging in.

So in other words, if you don't have a login, it will register you.

If you do have a login, it will try and log in using the email password, uh, to the email address that we pass over.

That's not always correct.

So from a support, uh, perspective, there's some low barriers to entry that, that we're working in the background to, you know, to make sure to follow up, uh, you know, to, to make sure that they've connected the correct Stripe account, for example.

You know, do they have more than one Stripe account
Minute 10
or more than than one login? So low barrier to entry doesn't mean once you are in, you're in the deep end.

Uh, we, we will obviously from a support perspective continue to, you know, to make sure your, your head is above water, so to speak.

And, and, uh, you know, the, the actions you can take initially might not necessarily be the right actions.

So you might connect the wrong Stripe account.

How would we resolve that? But the fact that you've done it and were able to do it on your own, um, is, is still a benefit in, in terms of getting, you know, a customer through, through a process, uh, and, and getting them on, on board from, you know, from our perspective and from their perspective as smooth as possible and asking them the right questions at, at the right time to, you know, to ensure that process goes as smoothly as possible.

Uh, it strikes me perhaps that, um, you know, if you're encouraging your client, I guess, to be able to do all these things, uh, themselves,
Minute 11
well, there's two things actually.

One is from a support point of view, does that mean you have perhaps more work to do sometimes? 'cause they they'll mess up along the route and, you know, So sometimes Yeah, yeah.

I mean, but that's, that's, uh, that's our problem.

Not, you know, it shouldn't be the client's problem.

And, and in other words, and, and I mean, that's, it, it it's just one of those things, it's part of, it's part of reality.

You can make technical solutions go so far, but at the end of the day, we, we are human beings talking to other human beings.

You know, there, there's a a lot of, of just how you relate to people.

Um, you know, and I think, I think another low, low barrier to to entry could be described as how, how approachable you are and how personable you are as as a company.

And I think we do, we do pride ourselves in, in, in that.

Um, and that is one of the reasons we have probably remained a, a small team, um, is because I think it is more, you know, a, a approachable from a, from a client's point of view, um,
Minute 12
Yeah, being, being very approachable.

And so we have weekly drop in calls where anyone can just come along and, uh, and say, hi, we've got chat, we have got email, we've got, um, telephone support.

So yeah, we'll probably, I think we're gonna cover kind of quality support in the next episode, but that all contributes to the barrier of entry being low.

Um, so that, you know, people feel like they've got that support there.

They can do it themselves, make some mistakes, but they'll, they'll be helped out.

Sure, yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, the other thing that I think, I think I did mention this last week or ask about last week, but maybe I just try and go over it again, is that with the low barrier to entry sort of pillar, um, and you're letting customers do their own thing, you're not charging the sort of annual fee.

Um, are you a genuine sort question? Are you doing yourselves out of
Minute 13
money potentially from the client because you're letting them do so much themselves? Um, I mean there's al there are probably always ways to make more money.

Um, uh, it's Just an interesting choice, isn't it, to, to allow the customer to do so much by themselves, I guess.

Yeah, I mean the, a lot of our competitors would, uh, charge, so they would be explicit about it.

They would charge a setup fee, so the kind of onboarding sort of covered by some, by like a setup fee basically.

Um, and, you know, those setup fees can be quite large.

Um, you know, hundreds and hundreds of pounds, basically a thousand pounds or whatever to make sure everything's working.

Um, we essentially do that for free.

So there is an argument that, yeah, we're losing money by not charging that fee, but, um, you know, we want to make it as easy as possible
Minute 14
for people to get themselves up and running.

So, yeah.

Um, I suppose, I suppose also the, the proof, you know, as in, as in the service.

So, you know, you can, you can claim software is better because you're charging, you know, this, this fee up front.

But you know what, what you'll tend to find is people stick around for a year and then they leave because they're just covering, covering their costs.

Whereas we're, we're trying to get people to, you know, to to be on board with us as, as, you know, on, on our journey as much as, as theirs, I suppose.

And, and it's, it's important that, that we build that trust in a natural way.

I feel like a, an upfront cost is you, you're, you're kind of asking for that trust before you've earned it in some ways.

And, and I, I think it's important to earn that trust.

Minute 15
Yeah, I mean, I, that was the other thing I was just sort of thinking while you're talking there, does, does your method, does your um, yeah.

Method the way you do things, does that build trust you think with your clients easier than perhaps someone who is only with you? 'cause they've paid a thousand pound on January and they have have to be different another year? I think so.

I, I mean, I would like to think so.

Um, you know, I would hope, I would hope a a client testimonials could, you know, could speak for that.

But yeah, I mean, I, I I, I would say yes is, is the answer I would, I would say, yeah.

Yeah, everyone's, you know, people have different attitudes to things, I suppose.

So there are, there might well be some clients who, uh, want to commit to something they want to pay for a year.

They want to, you know, make sure that it's kind of by paying that amount, they've got a contract.

So there are, there are clients that would like that too.

Minute 16
So, you know, um, that's, you know, we do have that ability if that's what they want.

Um, but, uh, but yeah, I think waiving those fees makes it, makes the barrier lower.

Um, the other, the other sort of area, which again, maybe we'll we'll cover in more depth later on, but we try to, Bookster as a solution is an attempt to cover most bases reasonably well.

So we're kind of, uh, I mean, jack of all trades isn't maybe the right way, but we, we are trying to get something in place where, um, it can, it's trying to solve that problem of running a holiday rental business.

Um, now other software, for example, a good example of this is our instant websites.

So, um, you can go in, create an instant website, get it up
Minute 17
and running on your own domain super quick.

It's quite fixed.

There's only a few different styles.

Um, it's, you know, relatively, uh, you know, doesn't have a blog section.

It doesn't, you know, it, it is not super flexible, uh, but it does let you get a website up and running super, super fast, like literally five minutes.

So that's a kind of good example of the philosophy that we brought to that.

If you want to your own website that's very flexible, you go off, use WordPress, go off use, um, you know, Squarespace or something else.

If you want something that you, you can mess around with yourself.

But inside Bookster we've got this solution that's fast, simple to use, simple to understand, and very quick.

And that kind of applies across, hopefully across a lot of the bases.

You know, it's quick to sign up to Stripe and easy, um, hopefully it's relatively quick and easy to get your properties up and running.

So that, that's the philosophy of the software,
Minute 18
but it does link into the barrier being low.

So it's like, yeah, you can get yourself up and running fast.

Uh, hopefully that makes sense.

And I guess, um, it, it maybe helps because you're a small team that people can do so much themselves potentially, and not taking up a lot of staff time to do all this work that other companies would perhaps do with them.

Do you know what I mean? I, I'm not so sure if that makes a difference between a small team or not.

I mean, I would say we're a small team comes into that, is there's not as much bureaucracy, um, you know, going, you know, it's not departments, talking to other departments, um, you know, it's, it's, it is very much more ad ad hoc I suppose, in, in terms of, of, of how we deal, deal with that.

But I mean, that being said, I, I'd say it's almost, um,
Minute 19
I mean we, we've, it's perhaps subject for another episode, Robin, I dunno.

Um, but you know, we, we've talked in the past about, about actually, you know, the tendency to just, you know, shout out what, what we need without, you know, without distracting, you know, or doing that and distracting other people from their work.

'cause it's such a small and, and, and close-knit team.

There's a, there is a tendency sometimes to, um, you know, to disturb people from, from doing their job, I suppose.

Um, and you know, for, for me it's just telling, you know, bad jokes, but for, you know, for, for other people it might, you know, it it might be, you know, a, a tendency to yeah, just, just be too, uh, in informal sometimes.

So I think, I think there's a balance to be struck there.

Um, as far as the size of the team, in reference to your question, I don't, I don't know that it does make a difference,
Minute 20
um, in, in that regard.

Okay.

No, that's cool.

Um, I mean, I think, like you said, there's a size of team, et cetera.

We'll talk about maybe a bit more in, uh, the next episode anyway, but, um, I think we've probably sort of gone through most of the questions about low entry, uh, low barrier to entry, unless you have anything else to sort of add to this that you haven't mentioned already? Um, no, I mean, I suppose only, um, that, I mean I probably, we briefly covered on that.

There, there are some downsides to this approach.

Uh, yeah.

Which is that, yeah, people do sign up and it's not always, uh, the right thing for them or, um, uh, because it's kind of easy to get into.

In fact, you know, people, uh, sign up when they're actually looking to book a holiday.

That is quite common.

'cause we turn up, we turn, we turn up in those search results.

So yeah, our sales guy will follow up with them and say, oh, you know, I, you see, you registered
Minute 21
for Bookster and you haven't done very much, you know, how can we help? And they're like, oh, I was trying to book a holiday, Or, or the, or the barrier to, to entry is lower for, for us in terms of asking us than asking one of our suppliers Directly.

That is true.

Yeah.

Integration is very true.

So there is that, but I think that's, yeah, yeah.

So that, yeah, an example of that.

So we, we connect to booking.com, Airbnb verbal stripes that you were talking about.

Now people have support questions about those services and Right.

They, because we are very accessible, they'll ask us first.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

So, uh, I guess, yeah, so there's, there's a danger that your time is taken up from for ques by questions that don't necessarily concern you, I guess.

Yeah, yeah, Yeah, Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, cool.

Okay.

Uh, well look, I think, um, this, it's been an interesting chat again.

Uh, I think, uh, it is a great sort of, uh,
Minute 22
way into these four pillars that you sort of run Bookster to on, uh, interested to learn about this one.

Um, if anyone has any questions on what they've heard today, uh, it'd be great to email them in to the, the usual email address, which is podcast@booksterhq.com.

Um, we've also got our sister podcast smashing your holiday rental goals.

Uh, that's, uh, out there in the world as well.

So check that one out.

We'll put a link to that in our show notes here.

Uh, if you'd like to leave a positive review for this podcast or the smashing your Holiday Rental Goals podcast, that would be a great thing to do as well.

Um, thank you both for your time this afternoon.

Thank you.

Um, And we will do this all again very soon.

Uh, so for now, goodbye.

Goodbye.

Bye.

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