3 ways the top Hawaii diving company keeps an edge on the competition
Learn how Byron Kay led Kona Honu Divers to massive success with his trailblazing attitude, keenness to try new strategies, and adoption of new technologies.
“My business philosophy is that you should always try [a new strategy]. If it doesn’t work, you don’t have to keep doing it. And if it does, that's great. I’ll always say to give it a try because you don't know until you do so if it's going to work.”
Byron Kay
Owner
The business
Kona Honu Divers is a highly successful (you guessed it!) diving company based in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
They offer a variety of experiences including diving tours, scuba classes, snorkeling excursions, and even gear rentals. Customers have the opportunity to see incredible wildlife, such as manta rays, turtles, eels, and sharks, as well as breathtaking coral reefs and pristine waters.
Rated as the number one dive shop in Hawaii, their once-in-a-lifetime offerings keep customers coming year-round. However, that is not the sole reason for Kona Honu Divers’ prosperity. Owner Byron Kay continuously uses his innovative attitude to stay on top of his competition.
A bit of backstory
We sat down with Byron to discuss his business: how he incorporates cutting-edge technology and is never afraid to try something new — even if it ends up not working.
“My business philosophy is that you should always try [a new strategy]. If it doesn’t work, you don’t have to keep doing it. And if it does, that’s great. I’ll always say to give it a try because you don’t know until you do so if it’s going to work.”
Byron acquired Kona Honu Divers eight years ago and has been the major component in the profitability of the business today. Being based on an island with competition in every corner, it can be difficult to stay on top. While Byron mentioned that he and his competitors are very cordial with one another — participating in underwater cleanups together, for example — it is still important to maintain an edge.
Sarah Ellis, who is Byron’s account manager from FareHarbor, chimed in to note that “I really think Byron is ahead of the game. [And with everything he has implemented recently] we’ve seen some amazing growth.”
So, now let’s dive into a few of the ways Byron Kay helps make Kona Honu Divers thrive.
Why FareHarbor works for Kona Honu Divers
When Byron acquired Kona Honu Divers, the business had already been set up with FareHarbor. In his nearly 10 years of using FareHarbor, Byron has certainly become a power-user, utilizing the Dashboard’s new and tenured features to continue to scale up his business.
More importantly, Byron works very closely with his trusted account manager, Sarah, to learn and implement her recommendations to optimize FareHarbor for his unique business.
He also uses FareHarbor to the fullest by taking advantage of our product, support, services, and resources. For instance, he adopts new features to stay innovative, participates regularly in the FareHarbor Community to connect with operators from across the globe, and is a partner of the FareHarbor Distribution Network to stimulate additional income.
3 “edges” Kona Honu uses to stay ahead of the game
Throughout our conversation with Byron Kay, he brought up three “edges” he uses to boost conversions and enhance his business.
These three methods to maintain his competitive edge pushed Kona Honu Divers to see a 60% increase in bookings from last year to this year.
1. Become an SEO master
Byron learned how powerful SEO can be when utilized correctly. Years ago, he did not know much about this topic, so he hired an SEO professional to get him started as well as teach him the basics. As a business owner, it can be hard to admit when you do not know how to do something — but it is near impossible to be an expert on every subject.
Byron makes the point “I didn’t really know a great deal about SEO when I started with her, and that’s fine, that’s what an expert is for. Similarly, you don’t need to know how to fix your car. You can just take it to a mechanic.”
Upon starting with Kona Honu Divers, the SEO specialist ran a website audit and outlined their recommended changes. Byron noted how there were even some very minor changes, like updating the header copy or including meta descriptions, that ended up working wonders.
But SEO is not a set-it-and-forget-it type strategy. Throughout the years, Byron has learned how to implement proper SEO techniques to keep Kona Honu Divers competitive in Google searches and ads.
Tech Rec: Byron uses SEMRush to continue his SEO learning and implementation. Starting at $130/month, SEMRush allows you to do keyword research and run competitive analysis, among many other features.
Byron explained how when someone types “best boat for seasickness” into Google, his blog post on the subject will pop up first. This is a direct result of well-executed SEO.
You can learn more about SEO by visiting FareHarbor’s exclusive online learning hub, Compass. You can uncover strategies about the topics Byron uses like competitive analysis, keyword research, and meta tags.
2. Undergo a website and Dashboard review
As a result of regularly reviewing their online presence and performance with Sarah, Byron has made changes to Kona Honu Divers’ FareHarbor website and Dashboard to stimulate growth. Through FareHarbor’s website and Dashboard reviews, Kona Honu Divers has made changes to their FareHarbor Dashboard or website to stimulate growth. Similar to the experience with SEO, these changes did not always have to be major to garner lasting results.
For instance, Byron notes that “item presence was something we focused on for a while. Like making sure we had enough images that showcased what to expect on the tour. We also reworked item headlines and descriptions to put in all vital information: like the duration, age, and whatever information needs to be shown up front. It just helps people move through that funnel more smoothly.”
Website and Dashboard reviews do not need to happen often, but they are a helpful way to keep your digital platforms up to date and ready to maximize bookings. Byron enjoys working with Sarah because he is willing to try her suggestions to see if they will better his business. He appreciates that “she just goes after it and gets it done.”
3. Incorporate the art of persuasion in the booking process
To further prove Byron’s trailblazing spirit, he is an advocate for a new machine-learning tool called CausalFunnel.
Tech Rec: CausalFunnel is a technology that drives your website visitors along the conversion funnel. Using AI, this software creates personas to predict customer behavior using your website visitor data. Their pricing starts at $249/month. Please note that this is not a FareHarbor endorsed product.
Byron has been using CausalFunnel to create ‘nudges’ that push a customer to book. They are sent at an optimal time using machine learning. For instance, if the software believes that a visitor is nearing the final stages of booking, it will send them a time sensitive promo code via website pop-up: “save 10% if you book in the next hour.”
He mentioned you can create several different types of ‘nudges’ to further persuade people to book your tours and activities — whatever works best for a particular business.
How new FareHarbor features contributed to their success
Byron continuously works with Sarah to learn about new Dashboard features and implements them as soon as possible to maximize bookings. Although not every new feature will work for every business, a few 2023 releases worked well for Kona Honu Divers.
Dynamic pricing
Dynamic pricing is a new tool to customize the pricing of your offerings based on capacity or time. Kona Honu Divers uses dynamic pricing to encourage early bookings and maximize earnings with last-minute bookers. More specifically, the first few spots of each tour are cheaper — allowing the company to reward those who book early.
Dynamic pricing even works with CausalFunnel to ‘nudge’ people to book early for that discounted rate. Talk about optimization of tools!
Google ratings
Google ratings is a simple addition to your FareHarbor book form. It displays your Google rating throughout checkout which in turn showcases your business’s trustworthiness and helps make your company stand out. Of course, this feature works best for a company with a high rating. We recommend having a rating of 4.2 or higher AND 100 reviews or more.
Luckily, that is no issue for Kona Honu Divers as their Google rating is currently at a full five stars with over 4,200 reviews. As most people read reviews before booking a tour or buying a product, FareHarbor’s Google ratings feature made it easy for their company to showcase their fantastic success.
Kona Honu Divers offers its customers a magical experience exploring the world under the sea. Creating an unmatched guest experience is just half the battle. Getting people to book your tours and activities is a whole other feat.
Byron pushes his company forward by incorporating new tech, asking for help (and taking suggestions) when he needs it, and working closely with his account manager to ensure Kona Honu Diver stays on top.
“I feel like my trial and error has led me to the path that I’m currently in.” – Byron Kay
