Whether travellers and holidaymakers are looking for a couple of weeks abroad, a staycation or even a long weekend getaway, the pressure is always on for anyone working in the travel and leisure industry to meet demand and exceed customer expectation.
While competitiveness across the sector is rife year-round, getting operations and logistics spot on is even more important when travel companies need to ramp up for a piece of the action. Between seats on coaches being offered for £1 or plane fares for as low as £9, travel sector organisations, perhaps more than their counterparts in any other industry, are seeing their margins get lower and lower as they increase their competition each year – all in aid of attracting more customers.
However, securing custom at such a low price is merely the beginning of the relationship. There is still a long way to go to impress customers before you have helped them arrive safely at their destination. So, what steps can you take as a travel operator to make sure customers want to travel with you time and time again? Of course, the different ways to improve a customer’s experience are limitless – and tactics differ from company to company. For some organisations, taking care of the customer means providing the right correspondence with them prior to travel. For many, it’s how you take care of passengers while they’re on-board. And, for others, it could be as simple as making sure the right refreshments are available.
Gaining visual and accurate insight that helps drive improvement and change around any of the above is where making use of customer and operational data comes in. And it’s a tactic some are already doing well. In fact, we have seen a number of Europe’s leading travel companies turn to data-driven analytics and used the insights to help with the development of products, propositions and the contact they have with customers – all in the aim of giving them a top-notch experience.
