DATA AND PERSONALISATION BY ROB GILL
fact, several buyers have criticised the failure of suppliers to keep up with up with these consumer technologies, particularly with products such as self-booking tools (SBTs). One buyer even decried the technology of some travel management companies (TMCs) for “still using green screens”.
NDC ISSUES
One of the biggest projects based around personalisation within the industry is the much-vaunted New Distribution Capability (NDC), created through the leadership of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which has the long-stated ambition of offering an ‘Amazon-style’ shopping ex- perience for those booking flights through a TMC or other third-party supplier. Even to the casual observer, progress
with NDC has been painfully slow, al- though several airlines are undergoing pilot projects, including British Airways. These trials have been mostly based around replicating the sort of services that are already available for direct customers using individual airline websites – BA, for example, is using NDC to allow seats to be selected through trade portals. Institute of Travel and Meetings (ITM) chairman Mark Cuschieri probably spoke for many buyers when he said that NDC – and personalisation generally – was “not hap- pening fast enough”, during a panel session on the subject at the Business Travel Show earlier this year. “With personalisation, the frustration is that it takes a very long time to change,” he said. “Buyers are not averse to change but I don’t think they have tools in the market to enable that to happen.” TMCs have defended their progress by explaining the complexities of producing online platforms that combine multiple feeds from different travel suppliers. Jason Geall, UK general manager of American Express Global Business Travel, says: “We are building mobile apps that will offer a globalised platform, which will be agnostic on the GDS, so that clients can choose the way they want to book. But it’s not simple technology and requires a lot of developer capability.” But given this “frustration” about the slow pace of change, when are buyers likely to
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see more tangible use of personalisation within managed travel? Amadeus’s UK boss Champa Magesh has admitted that the concept of personalisation has so far been “very fuzzy” in business travel and it may take another couple of years for the situation to become clearer. Former Astra Zeneca travel buyer
Caroline Strachan, who is now managing partner at consultancy Festive Road, says that personalisation will “come in many forms” and it will not solely be based around technology. “Technology will play a part with the way travellers are com- municated to, but how they’re handled as an individual will be important, too. I love that my local coffee house knows I drink a decaf macchiato – that’s not technology, that’s a staff member’s great attitude. “Similarly I love that my supermarket knows I’m about to run out of smoothie based on the data of how regularly we order it and reminds me I need to get ordering. I can see many points across the traveller experience that could be personalised with the human touch or, indeed, technology.” Using data to offer business travellers
a more personalised service also forms a central plank of the newly forged concept of Managed Travel 3.0, which was discussed in the previous edition of Buying Business Travel (issue 79), and promotes the idea that employees will have the ability to make more of their own decisions on their busi- ness travel plans. Greeley Koch, executive director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), says that personalisation within business travel has been “evolving for decades”, which can also be seen by the increasing number of companies that now allow staff to choose their own work laptops
The holding of individual traveller data by suppliers often sounds alarm bells for buyers
and mobile phones. “Ever since carriers, hotels, and TMCs began saving traveller profiles to improve service for their most frequent clients, there has been growing consideration to appeal to the individual tastes of the business traveller,” he says.
DATA DILEMMA
The holding of individual traveller data by suppliers often sounds alarm bells for buyers as this can provoke fears that air- lines or hotel groups may simply try to sell direct to the traveller and entirely bypass the managed programme and policy. It can also lead to questions about pricing – as one buyer says: “Personalisation raises a concern when it starts to differentiate on price, but it’s a good thing if it rewards traveller loyalty”.
So what will be the key element to using personalisation within managed travel in the next few years? Most TMCs and tech- nology suppliers believe that this may lie in the creation of a single ‘one-stop-shop’ app or web-based portal that will cater for all of a business traveller’s needs. Jill Palmer, managing director of tech- nology-focused TMC Click Travel, says that consolidating the booking process within a single portal is vital and will end the need for travellers to use a multitude of different apps or websites from individual suppliers. “The power of data and consolida- tion of that data is crucial to delivering the right customer experience,” she adds. “Personalisation is inevitable and we want to support it. The important thing for busi- ness travellers is to have one place to go to book all their travel – personalisation from the supplier needs to come through this portal. “A hotel may offer free wifi for a direct booking but that kind of personalisation is not going to work for the business travel- ler – you just end up having ten different apps for travel, each with their own offers.” Christian Gleave, CEO at fellow TMC
Review Travel, admits that it has “taken longer than expected for suppliers to satisfy the demand for mobile compatibility” but this is changing with e-tickets increasingly being used by airlines, train operators and other suppliers.
BBT MAY/JUNE 2016 53
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