Travel providers must bridge the personlisation gap

Emerging technologies have created unprecedented opportunities for travel industry providers to offer seamless, context-relevant and personalised experiences. However, a new survey commissioned by Mindtree titled, “Expectations vs. Reality: How to Better Serve the Connected Traveller,” analysed responses from over 2,000 U.S consumers and found that despite the advancements in digital experiences, many travel brands lack a holistic view of the customer and struggle to accurately personalise their offerings.  

 

“Whether traveling for business or for pleasure, travellers have very high expectations from the brands that they depend on to make their experience memorable,” said Nalin Vij, SVP & Global Head – Travel, Transportation & Hospitality. “The technology around personalisation is available, but our survey found that most travellers are disappointed in how effectively their travel provider offers a custom-fit ecosystem. This is a challenge travel brands need to address, as many are still burdened with their investments in legacy systems.”  

 

The survey found that the most common reasons why travellers don’t use offers that they receive are that they don’t arrive at the right time, expire before they can be used, don’t offer enough savings or don’t apply to their areas of interest. Most respondents (88 percent) indicate that they are more loyal to a brand that offers relevant deals. Almost half (47 percent) of respondents said they would be open to paying a premium of at least 17 percent for more contextual and relevant offers. Yet only 22 percent of respondents say travel providers always recognise them as a past customer. 

 

The survey also revealed that leisure activities are an integral part of travel for 92 percent of respondents who do so for business. This opens up further opportunities for providers to introduce relevant leisure offers to encourage a richer experience as business travel presents increased opportunity for leisure activities.  

 

Mindtree recommends travel providers take the following steps to deliver more personalised experiences:  

 

Integrate data silos for a more accurate view of customers from multiple digital touch points. 

• Build rich customer personas, powered by a strong customer 360 foundation, enabling customer recognition at every touchpoint. 
• Create tailored customer offers by creating content, offers and recommendations using context-weighted personalisation algorithms. 
• Employ omnichannel strategies across channels including voice, mobile and web to target and deliver personalised information and services.  
• “Travel providers are poised to harness the most advanced digital technology in the age of personalisation by delivering seamless, context-relevant and connected customer experiences. Our leadership in digital, combined with our extraordinarily deep expertise in the travel industry domain, has given Mindtree a range of personalisation capabilities that is bridging the expectation gap that most travellers in the market today are experiencing,” said Vij.