1. How to create a New Inquiry
   
2. How to edit a saved Inquiry
   
3. What you can do after saving an Inquiry
   

Creating & Editing a New Inquiry

1. At the Home Page, click onto the arrow next to ‘Inquiries’, and click on ‘+ New Inquiry’.
   
2. On the ‘New Inquiry’ window add as much or as little of the information as you want, you would need to fill out fields marked with ‘*’ as those would be mandatory fields for your company. Below is a screenshot of our standard version of a ‘New Inquiry’ however your organization may have it set up differently.
   
1. Inquiry Name this is a required field because when converted this would become the booking name
   
2. Status is ‘Received’ by default however you can adjust this to ‘Lost’ if you know the Inquiry will not go further. If you select lost, a new field will appear called ‘Lost Reason’* which is a required field.
   
3. Source is where that lead came from. 
   
4. Business Segments are different categories of business for example ‘Transient’. We now use ‘Corporate Business Segment’ which would be useful for those with above property sales teams. Read more about it here.
   
5. Requested Properties if the client has requested specific properties you can select those here. This is also available on the Saved Inquiry in case the client informs you later on. 
   
6. 'Convert into a Booking on Save' (checkbox) This checkbox is available if you would like to automatically convert the inquiry into a booking when saving it. This will convert the properties selected in the 'Requested Properties' section above. Read more about converting here.
7. Account & Contact lookups here you can search if the account, contact, agency or agency contact already exists within Thynk. 
   
8. If they don’t exist you can use these Account & Contact fields to add their information. Once converted the system will automatically create the account and contact with those details.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Click on ‘Save’ to save the Inquiry. The inquiry that you have created now appears on your screen.
   
1. If you had added Requested Properties you can now view and edit these under the Saved Inquiries 'Requested Properties' section
   
2. If you selected the 'Convert into a Booking on save' checkbox, you will see under the related Bookings, your converted booking for each property requested.

What can I do after I save my inquiry?

1. Edit the Inquiry and add more details
   
2. Add Inquiry Events and Guest Rooms
   
3. Add Inquiry Products
   
4. Convert your inquiry into booking

Best Practices for Creating Inquiries

1. Start by checking with your Director of Sales, as your hotel may have strict policies on how to use Inquiries. The SOPs will provide guidance on when and how to classify a piece of business as an inquiry or a booking.
   
2. Typically, if a lead has very basic information, you don’t know the source, or feel it’s not going to really materialize, you can track this as an inquiry. This allows you to track the business and the lost business without spending too much time detailing it
3. Always check if the account / contact already exist via their lookup fields to prevent duplication. These lookup fields can help you find them if they exist. The system will search as you type and find the contact.
   
1. If they don’t exist, you can enter the details you have on the window as well
   
2. Ensure you also enter the email address and phone number so you can follow up.
   
4. If you are part of a Central Sales Team, you are essentially routing leads to various properties by using Inquiries. Again, follow your own internal SOPs.
   
5. Inquiries can be a treasure trove for prospecting for new business. Review lost inquiries and see if maybe you should get to know the account/contact better in order to find new business.
   
6. Some hotels use ‘generic accounts’ to track their inquiries, or social business. For instance, you may have the following ‘generic accounts’: Wedding Account, Social Account, (Sales Manager’s name) Paul Smith’s Inquiry Account, etc. This allows you to link your inquiries to the generic account, without creating brand new accounts, especially if you don’t have the time now to really research the account.
   

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