Monthly Archives: July 2019

Testing. Testing. 1, 2, 3. . .

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Have you ever been training someone or even trying to look at a new configuration you put into place in Arctic for the guest-facing site, and wished and longed and hoped for a way to make test reservations through your guest-facing site that didn’t require a bloody payment? Have you silently cursed in frustration as you finally with great reluctance entered your own personal card details or that of the company to be able to complete a test purchase, then frantically rushed into the backend of Arctic to void the charge? Or worse forgotten to void the charge? 🤦‍♀️

Well, I’m gonna let you in on a little known feature that will end all of your testing misery and fulfill all of your wishes, hopes and desires. As an Arctic user you can test the guest-facing site experience all the way through checkout without needing to make a payment. 😱

We have a feature that allows any backend Arctic user to access the guest-facing site to make test reservations and transactions without needing to also process a payment. The feature recognizes the fact that you are an Arctic user and will give you an option to “Pay Later”.

No, I am not kidding. No, it is not witch craft. And no, it is not new. But it is easily overlooked.

How do you access this magical feature, you ask? Well, first you have to open a tomb, fight some scary, overly large scorpions and snakes, and then escape some enchanted booby traps to get to the secret chamber where the magic lamp is hidden. Once you find the lamp, you have to rub it three times counter clockwise. Trust me, you do not want to know what happens if you rub it clockwise. . . Oh wait. Those are the instructions for summoning a genie 🧞‍♀️. Sorry, about that. Wrong book. We need the book of Arctic secrets not the book on fabulous fantastical creatures and how to summon them.

Ah, here we are, page 29.1, to access the guest-facing site and be able to skip payment, go to the “User Menu” with your name on it in the upper left hand corner just under the Fox and select “Access Guest-Facing Site.”

When the guest-facing site is accessed through the “User Menu,” Arctic will know that you are an Arctic user and will give you the option to “Pay Later” so you can complete all test transactions without having to provide an actual form of payment. I know, mind blow right? 🤯

Analyze This & Track That

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Have you ever wondered about the path your guests take on their journey through the vastness of the internet until they land on one of your tours? Or wondered which ad campaigns were the most effective at reaching your particular market and clientele? Sometimes these two questions can seem almost as impenetrable as pondering the source of life in the vastness of the vacuum of space or the even harder one of what to have for lunch. 🤔

To help you find the answers you seek, Arctic supports the use of analytics code and conversion tracking code which are designed to give you valuable metrics so you can make good decisions about how your website might need to be revised to maximize its efficacy or where you are getting the most bang for your advertising dollars.

Analytics code is designed to track your guests throughout their interweb journey, keeping up with how they arrived at your website following the meandering path they took while on your site through their final checkout. This data can be invaluable to understanding how your guests are getting to your website, how easily they can find the information they need to make a decision, and how easy it is for them to complete a booking. Analytics can also help you track the revenue generated through your website, conversion rates (i.e. the number of users that actually complete booking), what is being booked, and so much more.

Conversion tracking code provides you with invaluable data regarding how effective a particular ad source, like Facebook or Google Adwords, is at reaching your particular market. Such code can tell you about conversions directly linked to the ad source and, depending on the code provided by the vendor, can also incorporate revenue figures, all of which helps you make the most informed decisions about how best to reach your customers.

The analytics code and conversion tracking code are generally provided to you by your analytics or ad vendor respectively. Once you have the code, you or your web designer can easily integrate them into your Arctic installation and guest-facing site. Arctic has a full set of tools that makes doing so simple and straight forward.

Once the code is installed and merrily pumping out data, clearer answers to those large impenetrable questions will start to emerge. Well, at least the ones about your websites and ad campaigns. The ones about the source of life or what to have for lunch will still be pretty murky. 🙃

As always, if you or your designer has any questions about installing analytics or conversion tracking codes, please let us know, we are always happy to help. And if you ask nicely, we might even throw in some suggestions for lunch but you’re on your own with the source of life. That one is totally outside the realm of Arctic support. 😉