Because sometimes when you only view yourself, it becomes a bubble.
Quote from Kyle Richey, founder and chief product officer at Richey International, in an article on PhocusWire this week.
Reimagining customer experience, part 3: Airport innovations
Assumptions in strategy have a tendency to rest uneasily on the edge of what is possible based on sound knowledge, and what is hoped for based on second-guessing.
In the world of trying to improve the customer experience, assumptions are a delicate balancing act.
Consumers are fickle, especially in the melting pot of how they move from A to B, or where they rest, or what they do in a destination.
They have more often than not, as the industry should never forget, paid a lot of money for their trips (or their employers have).
Technology, especially with the introduction of artificial intelligence and machine learning, is helping with many of the assumptions - or at least perhaps making them better than solely human-based guesses.
Yet the "bubble," as Richey notes above, is still prevalent in many places in the industry.
Too many brands waste time and money based on hunches, or solely their own experiences - forgetting that they are NOT "normal" travelers.
They live and breathe technology and travel; they have the knowledge of what to do when things go wrong; and they understand that the industry and its mechanics are not perfect.
Equally, startups can often sail far too close to the winds of assumptions about scale.
Travel brands have the perfect opportunity, by using technology and new processes, to understand what might work for them and their customers.
These techniques, coupled with some good old-fashioned human intuition, can only help companies and their traveling customers.