26 Feature TECHNOLOGY
Paul Richer
Three steps to digital transformation
1. Provide an exceptional user experience: Whether end users are the people within your business, your suppliers or your customers, the objective is to provide them with an easy, instinctive and knowledgeable interface with your organisation. This user experience must also meet the need for intuitive interaction and relevant, contextual information exchange.
2. Understand the customer: Know your clientele and they will continue to beat a path to your door. Advanced data analytics provides the insight your business needs to converse with your customers in an intelligent manner, proving to them that you know them, understand their preferences and have the products they want to buy.
3. Create frictionless business processes: Your company should run like a well-oiled machine. Achieving frictionless business processes results in your operation running at maximum efficiency and minimum cost. Business process bottle- necks that can create frustration for your people and your customers need to be ironed out.
“Personalisation and the use of customer data is the most significant trend for 2017”
Transformation Summit
TODAY 10:30am TO 12:30pm
The latest from industry thought leaders making a real difference in the
Expedia smartphone app
Q: What type of data should travel companies be collating and analysing to better personalise their interactions? A: Harnessing data to provide the insight you need to personalise customer interactions is not a new sales technique. It has been practiced in retail for centuries. A storekeeper gets to know his customers. He learns what products they like, how much they spend and when they want to buy. If they walk into his store and browse prod- ucts on the shelf, the storekeeper can see what is of interest to customers at that very moment. He can then respond accordingly, perhaps suggest- ing a relevant special offer or bringing out some goods from a back room that weren’t previously on display. Until now, this has not worked well online. However, with the new technology that powers big data analytics it is now possible for large online businesses to behave like that store- keeper of old. The customer data that might be collected and used to personalise online product offerings is very straightforward. Examples are the size of the travelling party (family, couple and so on), spend, destinations travelled to, preferred hotel grades and so on. Utilising this data can allow online travel companies to customise prod- uct displays to customer preferences, which makes it far more likely that a purchase will be made. If you are offering customers the prod- ucts that they want to buy, this can only enhance customer service.
world of digital travel at the Travel Tech Theatre.
ATM Digital
Q: How can travel companies harness technol- ogy to run like a well-oiled machine? A: Travel tends to be a low profit-margin industry, particularly away from the luxury sector. Having technology in place that keeps your business running as efficiently as possible keeps costs down and customer service up. Efficient and effective technology is a necessary requirement for a successful travel business, but this must be backed up by friendly and knowledgeable staff. Companies should focus on encouraging customers to use automated technology for
low-margin bookings while encouraging custom- ers with high-margin requirements to talk with experienced members of staff who can focus on closing high-net-worth deals.
Q: What technology trends will shape the future of the travel and tourism industry? A: Personalisation and the use of customer data is the most significant trend for 2017. Getting this right increases the conversion rate of lookers to bookers and improves customer service as well. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology
connected with the intelligent application of big data. If you hold data on your customers, AI will use predictive analytics to offer the right products at the right time. Also, with the intro- duction of technology such as Amazon Echo, Siri, Cortana and other chatbots, consumers are becoming conditioned to find it accept- able to speak to a chatbot rather than a human. This has significant implications for redeploy- ing customer service staff, who can move away from answering mundane queries and focus on more productive work.
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