At the recent TED conference in Sydney, ehotelier.staging.wpengine.com spoke with keynote speaker, Sophie Skillin, Industry Analyst – Travel with Google Australia about the increasing role Google is playing in the global travel industry.
Most would be aware that Google, as the largest search engine globally, collects the browsing behaviours of its customers, however few may have considered how they might leverage this information and integrate this into their own businesses.
Three Core Components to Support Business Development
Google’s Think Insights delivers research, analysis and insights by industry sector to support business decisions, growth and opportunity, and yes, there is a section dedicated to Travel & Tourism. Sophie explained that Google’s focus is on three core components to support the development of business to consumer relationships:
- Technology
- Personalisation
- Loyalty
By leveraging the information available through Google’s technology, companies are able to tailor their customer experience to each individual’s demographics, behaviours and interests, based on past behaviours, and deliver this experience optimised for their own device of choice. This personalisation may be further leveraged to drive loyalty, even if the person visiting the site is not yet a customer.
Developing Customer Relationships through Personalisation
Google believes that companies should be working on maximising the use of their own data first – what has become known as “Big Data”. Harnessing customer data drives personalisation of your product to specific customer requirements, thereby developing customer relationships and loyalty. Further, integrating the insights gained from your own data and pairing this with the insights available through Google would provide a richer understanding of your customer.
For example, rather than relenting to customer demands and providing Wifi free to all guests, provide free wifi to only those guests who are loyal – identified through a login to your site rather than a manual reception based process.
Meanwhile, Google are practising what they preach and are rebuilding their search engine from scratch to deliver even greater device optimisation, personalisation and reward for loyalty, including intuitive delivery of information such as the weather in your current location, the traffic expected on your way home from work or possible delays to your flight this afternoon.
There is no doubt that with the explosion of “Big Data” can, without a strategy, seem overwhelming. However, leveraging access to detailed customer information, both within and outside your organisation, may deliver MoonShot opportunities in customer satisfaction and profitability, rather than the routine 10% if you’re lucky.
Where is the balance between technologically delivered service and traditional human interaction in the quest to exceed customer expectations?
