Behind Immersive stand two Dutch brothers named Ted and Luc Scholten and their partner Sebastiaan Nieuwenhuis. Their shared passion for racing and sports cars initially led them to start their own sports car rental company, where they rented a Maserati and an Audi R8.
In 2017, they decided to reshape their racing experience and embarked on their e-sport journey following the idea of Sebastiaan. That’s when Immersive was born.
The same year they opened a sim racecenter with professional moving race simulators, which makes Immersive unique in Europe. In the 4D race simulators with Virtual Reality you experience what it’s like to race in your favorite supercar.
But Immersive has grown to be more than a racecenter. They’ve created a true racing community. Regular guests can subscribe and race multiple times a week. Members are just as passionate about racing as the owners and will challenge each other at the race center.
Speed lovers from all over the country come to Immersive to try the exclusive racing experience and improve their racing skills. Smart racing tools analyze each individual guest’s driving style. After the race, you’ll see exactly how consistent you drive, how you can make faster turns and improve your overall driving.
At first Immersive took care of their own website and marketing. Then they soon found out that simracing was quite a specific product that wasn’t easy to advertise. They offered relatively new and unique products. There was no such thing as Immersive in the Netherlands back then.
Innovative products come with challenges. Package offers didn’t sell well, while they were cheaper than separate deals.
Ted and Luc realized that their guests often didn’t understand what Immersive exactly offered and what the different activities were like in a race simulator. On top of that, they encountered problems with integrating their agendas and different products and services. They had to make a different agenda for each package with the plugin they used before. This made it hard and very time consuming to schedule all activities. Also, it was impossible to upsell and cross-sell.
In sum, Immersive faced the challenge to better sell their packages, schedule them and upsell and cross-sell. So Luc started browsing on the internet, to see how competitors tackled similar problems. That’s how they came across the webshop of the Kartfabrique, the first venue that used Briq’s booking system.
“We were quite impressed with how simple the webshop of the Kartfabrique was. But at the same time with how many different activities were put together in a clever way.”
Ted got in touch with Nicolien from Briq Bookings to discuss possibilities for a collaboration. At that time, Briq Bookings was still in the process of whitelabeling Briq’s booking system and was more than happy to take Immersive along in the process. That’s how Immersive started off in 2019 as one of Briq’s first clients.
The onboarding was great and all customers now book through Briq’s booking system. Both guests and employees find Briq easy to work with.
“In addition, the marketing integrations are great. Guests receive an automatic booking confirmation and an email after their visit.”
With Briq’s booking software, Immersive now effortlessly schedules activities and includes upsells and cross sells. Briq has helped them improve their user experience, as well as their user interface.
“Guests like seeing and having multiple options when they make the booking. For example, maybe someone wants to do a longer race or buy a drink. It also saves us a lot of time when guests can already add the cross-sells during the bookings instead of having to send a separate email or call.”
Upsells and cross-sells are an important sales part for Immersive, especially when it comes to food and beverages. Briq gave Immersive the opportunity to provide such an all-inclusive booking experience to their guests, online and automated.
“It gives us a peace of mind that we no longer have to focus on that part of Immersive. We can now, for example, focus more on the frontend of the website.”
Immersive also tests new products and packages with Briq, something Immersive deeply cares about.
“You want to continuously innovate. But if you have an agenda in which everything has to be programmed, and every arrangement has to be independent, then you aren’t going to do that. It takes too much time.”
“Now we can try different product variations and switch quickly. If it doesn’t work, then we disable the offer and try something else. For example, I really love the Thursday night deals that we’ve added with Briq.’’
With Briq’s software, Immersive has a better understanding of who their guests are and what they like. This success is reflected in sales numbers.
“Our turnover has doubled. On top of that, we made an extra 30 to 40% from upselling and cross-selling alone.”
“At the end of November this year we had the busiest day ever, all simulators were full for the whole day. We could never have done that with our own applications. Preparing the simulators takes a lot of time, so we were happy that the booking process went seamlessly.“
Immersive has had to cut down other partners during COVID, because they were still charging high fees even when the business wasn’t receiving any bookings. No matter what, they were and will be able to stay with Briq, since Briq only charges a fee per booking. So no bookings due to COVID, means no fee.
“Our partnership with Briq has resulted in more than a doubled turnover alone. in Briq, we’ve also found a long-term strategic partner that helps us grow and achieve our ambitions.’’
80.2%
Online bookings
Only 0.9%
No shows
From 42% to 80%
Increase in multi-activity packages
The collaboration has been a pleasure, both for Briq Bookings and for Immersive. Immersive feels that the communication and the way Briq handles their customers’ data with care and in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) make Briq stand out. They would absolutely recommend Briq.
“You often hear people say: we can do that too. But they don’t see how much complexity goes behind a booking module. I’d say the benefits of Briq include the easy bookings and planning, the easy blockable timeslots, the clear and transparent billing process and the great support.”
Immersive is also a loyal fan of Briq’s fast releases and updates.
“At some point we run into problems, and then Briq is already a few releases ahead of working them out.”
Immersive will continue to gain a more in-depth understanding of their customers. The goal is to further grow and reinforce their racing community. Something Briq will support them in by providing insights into useful data, for example with the Google Analytics integration.
“We continue with marketing automation. We work on integrated discount codes, mail campaigns, logistics and cost prices, accounting, and scaling.’’
Ultimately, Immersive is becoming far more than a simrace center. They’re growing into an innovative and unique experience center. As Ted said: “Guests come for the experience and stay for the community.”
Briq is thrilled to be able to help Immersive in bringing their venue to the next level and we can’t wait to see what’s next. Immersive was one of Briq’s first clients and we’re proud of the relationship we’ve built over the years.
Have you already visited their venue? You definitely should! Check out their experiences and try their amazing racing experience for yourself.
Are you looking to be more customer focused, data-driven, save time on bookings, significantly increase your average order value and offer the best multi-activity days out?
Start with Briq’s multi-activity booking and scheduling software.
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