Way back in 2013, Forrester Research dropped us all into the ‘Age of the Customer’ – a World where the consumer is in control of their own destiny and that the new battleground is around winning and retaining customer loyalty.
Building on this concept, we see that brands like Airbnb and Uber have built on this by effectively creating the ‘Age of the Interface’ – a whole business proposition on the back of exceptionally slick, easy to use and near-frictionless search, cost and book experiences.
However, delivering an amazing interface is a level playing field – throw enough time and money at it and anyone can create a platform that delivers a user experience better than yours, so it quickly becomes less of a USP and more of a necessary evil.
Whilst we’re all hopeful that Boris’s announcement will see a strong second half to the year we cannot ignore that as an industry we are bruised and much leaner than before we entered the pandemic.
To support the bounce back, we as an industry need to look at how we manage our own efficiency and scalability… and technology is a great lever we can use to help us return stronger and fitter than BC (Before Corona).
Bringing this back to customer experience (or ‘CX’ as we love an acronym!) the key and often untapped asset that most travel businesses are sitting on is their customer data.
To frame this thinking a little more, the question all travel businesses should be asking themselves is how they can use their customer data, with some sensitive application of technology, to address both the efficiency and customer experience demands placed upon them.