NB: This series is a guest post by Mark Tilden, co-founder of Conducive Technology and a creator of FlightStats.
Part Three - Engaging the traveler using smart mobile devices
The cornerstone of an agency's integrated customer service strategy must be engaging the traveler throughout the travel experience to ensure successful travel outcomes and encourage corporate policy compliance.
Itinerary monitoring services can automate many of the contact points, with relevant messages delivered at key scheduled times before and after the trip as well as high-value event-driven messages during the trip.
While one-way "broadcast" email messaging has been available for years, new messaging systems now being deployed allow more precise targeting of messages and also facilitate two-way conversations directly in the context of an itinerary.
We've already described a scenario where a traveler requests a change to an itinerary simply by clicking on an existing itinerary segment and filling out a few fields to indicate the nature of the change they are requesting.
This message goes directly to the agency, who responds either by making the requested changes or returning a message to the traveler with several options for the new segment.
Of course, these conversations have been possible using email for some time.
However, mobile itinerary applications provide a more convenient platform for such interaction and also help the agency rise above the "noise" of typical business traveler email.
In addition, when the communication with the traveler flows through an integrated customer service platform, it's easy to create a full audit trail of the conversation with the traveler along with any itinerary changes for later review, reporting and service validation to the corporate client.
Imagine a mobile itinerary application that shows message icons in the context of the itinerary indicating various types of messages that are available for the traveler.
Some types of messages may use push technologies to automatically open the itinerary viewer and display a message.
Others will just appear as icons in the itinerary display that the user can click to open the messages.
In addition, agencies, airlines, airports, and other providers will be able to publish messages that are specifically targeted to a group of travelers based on their itinerary.
For example, an airport might wish to notify passengers arriving or leaving through their airport of construction that will cause delays or detours.
Passengers who are connecting through the airport won't be affected, so their itineraries would not be targeted with this message.
All messages delivered to the mobile application are under the control of the agency and wrapped in the agency's branding, so that they reinforce the agency's proactive customer care.
Some existing mobile travel applications already provide static destination content, links to weather and other general tips.
However, moving beyond that relatively static content to highly targeted, highly relevant, up-to-the minute information available through a publishing network like this provides real compelling value to the traveler and offers the agency more opportunity to interact with the traveler and build loyalty.
NB: This series is a guest post by Mark Tilden, co-founder of Conducive Technology and a creator of FlightStats.