How an RV Rental Company Rallied Their Community to Support Healthcare Heroes During the COVID-19 Pandemic
How an RV Rental Company Rallied Their Community to Support Healthcare Heroes During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Facebook BusinessWhen the coronavirus outbreak began, peer-to-peer RV rental platform Outdoorsy had to hit the brakes on their Q2 marketing planning. Renters cancelled trips and RV owners followed suit, which had the team looking for ways to keep the engine of their business running.
“If the roads couldn’t connect us to one another due to stay-at-home restrictions, we knew the strength and support of our Outdoorsy community could,” says Jessa Brown, Community Engagement Manager, Outdoorsy. “By leveraging our community of highly engaged RV owners, we’ve been able to iterate, foster and build solutions specifically around their needs.”
Interested in learning more about Jessa’s approach to community management, we caught up with her about how the Outdoorsy team has been navigating the pandemic and rallying their community around new initiatives.
What were some of the immediate effects your business faced when the COVID-19 pandemic began?
As a startup in the travel industry space, we saw a huge spike in cancellation rates when COVID-19 hit, which led to our lowest bookings in March. Then we saw our highest bookings in June, which was a direct rebound effect from a massive media frenzy around the renaissance of the road trip as the way to travel and enjoy the outdoors safely during the pandemic.
What did your team do as a result of the spike in bookings during an uncertain time?
We polled the community in our Facebook Group to learn about top concerns related to COVID-19. We then responded to those concerns by compiling information from official sources, like the CDC, and connecting community members with credible sources of information. We built an dedicated to COVID-19 policies and questions that could also help people with their travel decisions and provide additional information regarding trips for the 2020 season.
What were the results of these new efforts?
From our lowest bookings day in March to our highest bookings day in June, we saw Outdoorsy's growth take off by more than 4,500 percent. We had our best bookings day on record in June, with 400 percent year over year growth that day. More than 93 percent of our bookings in May and June came from first-time Outdoorsy renters.
How have you used your online community to support your business and engage with customers more recently?
When COVID-19 hit, our team decided to rally together and focus on those who were putting their health on the front lines every day for the wellbeing of their communities. We launched our give back program in May, which allowed our community to nominate a healthcare hero in their community to receive a free trip from Outdoorsy. We were blown away with more than 1,500 nominations — stories of the doctors, nurses, EMTs and others who continue to make a difference in their own corner of the world. Since May 1, Outdoorsy has been honored to give away free road trip nights to over 140 of these nominated healthcare heroes and their families to thank them for their service and help them recuperate in the outdoors.
How did the success of this new program influence your roadmap for the future?
Wanting to encourage the momentum, excitement and abounding pride we experienced by banding together in this time, we'll be launching a longer-term giveback program in the near future.
What are some benefits you see to using an online community to support your business moving forward?
In the last quarter we've been able to leverage community insights for countless projects to improve our overall product experience and customer service operations, and generate content that’s relevant to the success of their rentals in the midst of a world crisis. Moving forward we're excited to continue keeping the community profoundly involved in what we build via user feedback, customer interviews and expanding our Outdoorsy Community Council of expert RV owners.
What advice would you give to other small business owners who are interested in exploring how to build a community to support their businesses?
Build your community by leading with your mission and vision, but don't stop there. To build an engaged and indispensable community, you need a massive amount of empathy, goals and accountability. Don't simply chase engagement — focus on the behaviors and feedback that really matter. Your community will help you build products your team has never thought of, give you invaluable insight that can impact real change in your organization and build trust for your brand that advertising cannot.
If you’re interested in learning more about community management, take a look at our online educational resources through , where you’ll have access to all of our .
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Interviews
September 10, 2020
How an RV Rental Company Rallied Their Community to Support Healthcare Heroes During the COVID-19 Pandemic
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“If the roads couldn’t connect us to one another due to stay-at-home restrictions, we knew the strength and support of our Outdoorsy community could,” says Jessa Brown, Community Engagement Manager, Outdoorsy. “By leveraging our community of highly engaged RV owners, we’ve been able to iterate, foster and build solutions specifically around their needs.”
Interested in learning more about Jessa’s approach to community management, we caught up with her about how the Outdoorsy team has been navigating the pandemic and rallying their community around new initiatives.
What were some of the immediate effects your business faced when the COVID-19 pandemic began?
As a startup in the travel industry space, we saw a huge spike in cancellation rates when COVID-19 hit, which led to our lowest bookings in March. Then we saw our highest bookings in June, which was a direct rebound effect from a massive media frenzy around the renaissance of the road trip as the way to travel and enjoy the outdoors safely during the pandemic.
What did your team do as a result of the spike in bookings during an uncertain time?
We polled the community in our Facebook Group to learn about top concerns related to COVID-19. We then responded to those concerns by compiling information from official sources, like the CDC, and connecting community members with credible sources of information. We built an FAQ page dedicated to COVID-19 policies and questions that could also help people with their travel decisions and provide additional information regarding trips for the 2020 season.
What were the results of these new efforts?
From our lowest bookings day in March to our highest bookings day in June, we saw Outdoorsy's growth take off by more than 4,500 percent. We had our best bookings day on record in June, with 400 percent year over year growth that day. More than 93 percent of our bookings in May and June came from first-time Outdoorsy renters.
How have you used your online community to support your business and engage with customers more recently?
When COVID-19 hit, our team decided to rally together and focus on those who were putting their health on the front lines every day for the wellbeing of their communities. We launched our Healthcare Heroes give back program in May, which allowed our community to nominate a healthcare hero in their community to receive a free trip from Outdoorsy. We were blown away with more than 1,500 nominations — stories of the doctors, nurses, EMTs and others who continue to make a difference in their own corner of the world. Since May 1, Outdoorsy has been honored to give away free road trip nights to over 140 of these nominated healthcare heroes and their families to thank them for their service and help them recuperate in the outdoors.
How did the success of this new program influence your roadmap for the future?
Wanting to encourage the momentum, excitement and abounding pride we experienced by banding together in this time, we'll be launching a longer-term giveback program in the near future.
What are some benefits you see to using an online community to support your business moving forward?
In the last quarter we've been able to leverage community insights for countless projects to improve our overall product experience and customer service operations, and generate content that’s relevant to the success of their rentals in the midst of a world crisis. Moving forward we're excited to continue keeping the community profoundly involved in what we build via user feedback, customer interviews and expanding our Outdoorsy Community Council of expert RV owners.
What advice would you give to other small business owners who are interested in exploring how to build a community to support their businesses?
Build your community by leading with your mission and vision, but don't stop there. To build an engaged and indispensable community, you need a massive amount of empathy, goals and accountability. Don't simply chase engagement — focus on the behaviors and feedback that really matter. Your community will help you build products your team has never thought of, give you invaluable insight that can impact real change in your organization and build trust for your brand that advertising cannot.
If you’re interested in learning more about community management, take a look at our online educational resources through Facebook Blueprint, where you’ll have access to all of our Community Manager eLearning courses.
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