FUTURE GAZING
things to do than think about what to do next to book your products. If you think your online presence has too much friction, do something about it. Perhaps get your website independently audited to fi nd out just how good or bad it is. This is something that the big online businesses are very good at. They have learnt that improving your online presence, reducing friction, is actually a never-ending process. There is always something that can be improved whether it is a small incremental improvement such as changing the colour and size of the ‘Book Now’ button to a complete redesign.
The big online players can afford to invest in their technology. They can spread the investment over many more bookings than their smaller competitors. Hence, we see continual consolidation in the travel world as small but successful online players get bought up by their larger competitors. In fact, superlative technology and the amount of investment to achieve this is so large that one might think there is no room in the market for smaller companies.
The good news is that, in fact, smaller travel businesses can still compete. I think it is very important that small companies focus on a particular niche, for example, sports such as wind-surfi ng or skiing, destinations, holiday types such as honeymoons or adult only. I think we are reaching the stage where small generalist travel businesses will be seeing their customer bases dwindling in the face of competition from the large online travel agencies (OTAs). If you are in a niche, if you have the right products at the right prices then you should be able to compete but you will need the right technology. Your products must be viewable and browsable online and your website must look fantastic whether viewed on a PC, mobile or tablet. If you are able to offer online booking that’s great but I do know several successful travel companies that manage well by having an online enquiry capability rather than online bookability. Personal service still counts, it will enable you to compete and differentiate yourself from the large, highly automated OTAs; so, you need to be reachable and responsive.
In the next year or so, technology is going to become increasingly sophisticated. Artifi cial intelligence driven by big data will personalise and contextualise product offers and content, seeking to offer consumers just the products they are interested in. Chatbot technology will, to a signifi cant extent, automate interaction with customers, answering their simpler questions without human involvement, freeing up call centre staff to deal with the more complex queries. Expect to see commodity products such as fl ights, taxis, car parking, being sold via messaging apps such as WhatsApp. Consumer commercial transactions are already happening in China on WeChat so, for example, quite soon we may be speaking to our voice devices such as Amazon’s Echo and asking questions such as “get me prices and times for fl ights to Paris next Tuesday” and then booking by voice. Technology is continuing to take us on its journey towards ever- increasing convenience and ease of use. Luckily for us in travel, our products remain the same and our customers love them. Just make sure you have the technology in place to remain visible and onsale, so that the digital natives of Generations Y and Z will fi nd shopping with you an easy, pleasant and frictionless experience.
Paul Richer
Paul is a Senior Partner at Genesys Digital Transformation. The Genesys Summit on Future Digital Thinking takes place on November 7, from 10.00-12.00 in Platinum Suite 4. |
genesys.net
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