A dynamic is emerging between travelers and travel brands.
Tech-savvy frequent travelers who expect streamlined, stress-free and flexible
trips are driving travel brands hard to innovate and orchestrate a
differentiated customer experience. That said, meeting the needs of these
so-called connected travelers can be a heavy lift for brands.
One of the many challenges is that powerful intermediary platforms continue to
dilute the travel provider-customer relationship (and access to information).
Thus, brands look to various relationship management tactics, including
specialized experiences for customer segments, ad campaigns to redirect
customer attention, beefed-up loyalty programs and (for airlines) New
Distribution Capability (NDC) content distribution.
Omnichannel personalization, which McKinsey
describes as “Advances in technology, data, and analytics [that] will soon
allow marketers to create much more personal and ‘human’ experiences across
moments, channels and buying stages,” is a more expansive approach to
revolutionizing the customer experience. It can play a more prominent role in a
connected traveler strategy than the ad hoc schemes brands use now.
The connected traveler concept
The profile of the modern traveler is evolving in a way that
makes it both challenging and well-timed for travel brands to leverage
omnichannel personalization. Uber-connected consumers use various technologies
and channels to facilitate their travel, including websites, mobile devices,
check-in kiosks, chatbots, email and social media. Connected travelers want
efficiency, convenience, consistency and control across all channels and stages
of the travel journey, from ideation and booking to experiencing and sharing.
Omnichannel personalization in travel
In its simplest form, omnichannel personalization is a
strategic approach to recognizing individual customers at scale and providing
them with tailored experiences and services regardless of where the interaction
occurs. In travel, it means collecting data and insights on individuals’
behaviors and preferences (where they have traveled, brands they prefer,
seating, room types, cabin class, loyalty status — the list is virtually endless)
and surfacing it in meaningful ways (a flight attendant slips a first-class
passenger a “happy frequent flyer anniversary” note on a napkin).
According to Zolon Wilkins, global head of client success and strategy for retail, consumer, travel and logistics verticals at customer experience
management firm Sutherland, a data-enriched approach to customer service is
emerging. “We see the trend of enriched omnichannel personalization guiding
customers through the transaction and travel journey," he said. "It’s really where the
travel industry is headed.”
The retail transformation currently taking place in travel — brands upping their
game as travelers demonstrate they want a better buying journey and are willing
to pay for it — is likely fueling the omnichannel personalization to which
Wilkins refers. They share overlapping objectives, and the cross-channel
tailoring of customer experience is critical for changing how travel brands
sell products and services.
Travel retailing and personalization across social, mobile, web, email and
other marketing and sales outlets point toward the same goals:
- Enhancing the customer experience
- Increasing customer loyalty
- Converting inquiries into bookings
- Leveraging data
- Improving operations
- Maximizing revenue
However, omnichannel personalization is a particularly
potent contributor to the redesign of retail travel. As a two-way pipeline for
delivering bespoke customer experiences and messaging and gathering detailed
customer data, omnichannel personalization is a foundational component of the
end-to-end infrastructure for modern retailing.
Benefits of unifying the customer experience
Delivering tailored customer experiences across channels is
a brand imperative. McKinsey
says 76% of consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that
personalize, and 78% are more likely to make repeat purchases and refer friends
and family to companies that do so. The business consultancy also reports that
fast-growth companies attribute 40% more revenue to personalization than
average-growth companies.
While personalization can sound very nuanced and complex, brands can automate
much of the process. Creating a technology infrastructure for customizing
experiences makes it easier for travel companies to enjoy the many benefits of
delivering surprise and delight to customers, including increased customer
loyalty, greater lifetime customer value, lower personalization costs and
higher operational efficiency.
Best practices for automated cross-channel personalization
Whether a brand builds a system in-house, integrates with
other systems across travel partners or outsources the design, implementation,
management and optimization to a trusted third party, the building blocks of
omnichannel personalization are the same:
- Leverage data analytics - Personalization is only possible with data. To gather,
process, protect and activate customer information — who they are, what they’ve
done in the past and what they prefer — brands need a centralized database
infrastructure and a workflow for collecting data points during multiple
customer touchpoints.
- Integrate online and offline - A major tenet of omnichannel communication is
continuity — recognizing the customer and understanding their immediate needs — as
they move across devices and channels. To realize that objective, customer
service representatives must be able to see what the customer sees online and
provide support via whichever channel (including mobile) or mode (voice, text
or video) the customer chooses.
Sutherland facilitates seamless customer experiences online and offline through
its omnichannel customer experience platform, which sits atop the brand’s
customer relationship management (CRM) platform. The unified solution allows
live representatives to communicate with customers via phone, chatbot, social
media or email from a single dashboard.
- Customize cross-platform communication - Omnichannel personalization also involves informed and
contextual outreach, such as delivering recommendations tailored to the
specific individual, channel and stage of the customer journey (suggesting the
best route, flight and onboard entertainment package based on the traveler's
preferences and travel objectives) via email, in-app notifications, social
media and website.
- Offer personalized deals and promotions - Understanding customers, their reason for travel (leisure or
business), purchase history and location can help brands enhance their
interactions with customers through relevant and timely offers and pricing
strategies. Facilitated by the travel industry’s ONE Order initiative, brands
can offer service bundles, such as airfare, hotel or car rental, bringing other
travel partners into the fold and placing a personal touch on the whole
journey.
- Implement artificial intelligence and machine learning - The importance of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine
learning in executing a connected traveler strategy with omnichannel
personalization can’t be overstated. Brands need AI to power intelligent
chatbots that offer 24/7 assistance and tailored recommendations, anticipate
customer needs, provide proactive solutions, and automate issue resolution
triggered via a combination of technology and technology-augmented humans.
Common pitfalls of integrated, personalized interactions
Some industries lead travel in creating tailored customer
experiences and communication across touchpoints and channels. One of the most
valuable outcomes of early adoption is the identification of common pitfalls,
including:
- Overgeneralization - Avoid overly broad assumptions about
customer preferences and needs across regions. Collect data on individual
travelers to help prevent this behavior.
- Intrusiveness - Find the right balance between invading
customers’ privacy and anticipating their needs. Comply with the European
Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) as a baseline best
practice.
- Neglect of offline channels - Train customer service
representatives to deliver consistency, efficiency, convenience and control.
Provide them with the tools to manage the customer experience online and
offline.
- Sacrificing brand consistency - Maintain consistent policies
and procedures across channels. Develop a brand voice that customers can
recognize.
- Failure to connect data and systems - Siloed information is
an omnichannel personalization killer. Centralize data and communications
across all touchpoints.
- Focusing more on technology and channels versus delivering
value to the customer - Set customer satisfaction as a priority.
- Starting with the technology versus a needs assessment -
Outline existing infrastructure — people, processes and platform — first and build
from there.
- Operating in a vacuum: Get buy-in on sharing data from
multiple stakeholders across the customer journey.
Lessons from other industries
Brands that thrive with omnichannel personalization add
refinements as they build the practice. For example, in e-commerce, companies
build detailed customer profiles that include buying history, product and
service preferences and demographics. They store the profiles in a centralized
customer database that synchronizes information across all channels and ensures
that relevant insight is accessible at every customer journey stage, especially
during a service disruption.
Successful brands place context around the customer information they collect.
Incorporating user-generated content, such as reviews that detail the
circumstances and outcomes related to a specific brand encounter or using
location-based technology to understand if or when offering personalized
recommendations is effective, helps them understand customer behavior at a
deeper level.
Brands that excel at personalization across multiple channels constantly
optimize their processes to tap into new revenue sources, increase average
order value and enable access to new customer data sources. They also measure
success using metrics and key performance indicators that allow them to gauge
progress consistently.
The future of customer experience in travel
Although the expectation for tailoring customer experiences
across channels will increase, delivering and maintaining a customized brand
experience is challenging given the multiple providers, legacy systems and
processes governing travel. To succeed, travel providers must innovate and
continuously improve, including (potentially) a retooling of customer care.
Service companies that help brands design, deploy, manage and optimize customer
experiences can significantly redefine the brand-customer relationship. Travel
brands seeking to evolve their customer relationships should begin by assessing
their existing infrastructure and considering the needs of end users, agents
and other travel partners. Connected travelers are counting on it.