Give the Gift of a Personalized Travel Experience - Phocuswright/Maxymiser Webinar

© 2014 IBM Corporation
IBM Software
G
Give the Gift of a
Personalized Travel
Experience
Wednesday, December 3, 2014

© 2014 IBM Corporation
IBM Software
#MaxLessons
Chloe Lind
Digital Optimization Strategist
Maxymiser
Robert Cole
Senior Analyst, Hotel & Leisure Travel
PhoCusWright, Inc.
Your Presenters

3Source: PhoCusWright White Paper The Changing Dimensions and Benefits of Personal, Relevant Travel Experiences
© 2014 Phocuswright Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Agenda
 Customer Experience Optimization
 The Personalized Organization
 Daunting Obstacles
 Many Flavors of Travel Personalization
 Looking Ahead

Customer Experience Optimization
 Customization
 Personalization
 Quality Data

Customization
“For first time website visitors, there is no magic - only actionable analytics”
 Explicit Signals from Unique Individual
 IP address = Geographic location
 Screen resolution = Mobile device
 Customer profile = Stated preferences
 Tag = Offer response
 Contextual Adaptation of User Experience
 Search from IP address = Destination travel guide links
 Frequent flyer ID = Miles as payment option
 Search 2 Adults/2 Children = Images of Families

Personalization
“Personalization is not a strategy – it is the company”
 Implicit Signals Based on Experience of Similar Individuals
 Navigation path
 Offer responses
 Social signals/Ad retargeting
 External factors (e.g., weather, etc.)
 Inversion of Traditional Marketing
 Starts with converted business
 Works backward up funnel to identify signals
 Calculation of highest converting signal combinations

Quality Data
“Good data beats good analytics every day of the week”
1 Big Data Startups, Kayak Uses Big Data To Predict The Best Day To Book Your Travel Journey – December 2013
2 Skift, Interview Expedia’s CEO on the Transformation of Travel Booking – September 2014
3 Eye for Travel, Playing to the booking curve in the hotel space – July 2014
 Big Data is VERY Real
 Ideally, every action and result captured
 Kayak
 Adds 40 million rows of data daily1
 Updating 43 fact tables
 Expedia
 Processes over 600 terabytes of data per day2
 Expedia 800 A/B tests in 2013
 $1.9 billion invested to improve conversion3

The Personalized Organization
 Customer Centricity
 IT Integration
 The Human Factor

Customer Centricity
“Personalization is the foundation of our organization – we would not exist without personalization”
1 IBM Institute for Business Value, Greater Expectations - Consumers are asking for tomorrow, today – 2014
2,3,4 Phocuswright Inc.
5 Tnooz How one airline is taking small steps along the road to personalization - June 2014
 Consumers Increasingly Willing to Offer Data to Enhance Personalization1
 36% location via GPS
 32% social media handles
 22% mobile numbers for text message alerts
 And It Works…
 Alitalia increased bookings by over 7% in three months2
 Europcar increased online visit conversions 15% and ancillary item purchases at check-in by 12%3
 Hotels4u.com grew search on mobile devices by 61% and increased visitors viewing hotel pages
by 22%4
 Southwest Airlines grew bookings 1.14%, lowered homepage bounces 1.43%5

IT Integration
“We must have integrated systems… without that apparatus, we can’t get personalization right –
because, we don’t know what right is”
 Two Approaches
 Multi-year commitment reconfiguring operational systems to support Big Data capabilities
 Add cloud-based/SaaS layer on top of existing technologies to integrate:
 Customer data analytics
 Testing
 Personalization
 Investment Justification Frequently Straightforward
 Personalization positively impacts:
 Every virtual customer touch point in the sales funnel
 Every face-to-face contact during the travel experience

The Human Factor
“We are not looking at segments, we are looking at people”
 Smart, Strategic Thinkers Required
 Understand contextual interrelationships between
 Trips | Travelers | Destinations | Travel Components
 Empowering Business Leaders and Analysts
 Providing access to information in easily understood formats
 Comparison to operational benchmarks and organizational goals
 Creating Actionable Information
 Business units interpret data and implement changes without involvement of IT personnel
 Improves efficiency, reduces costs and enables responsiveness to external challenges

Daunting Obstacles
 Multiple Devices and Channels
 Multiple Personas
 Identifying Intent

Multiple Devices and Channels
Sources: 1 Tnooz/Google/GFK/Nielsen, Deep dive into travel research activity by online and offline bookers – 2013 http://www.tnooz.com/article/travel-research-google-online-acitvity
2 Phocuswright Inc.
 North American Online Travel Buyers, on Average, Visited 32.5 Websites, Over 16.7 Sessions,
Spending 129 Minutes, Over 13.8 Days, Across a 73-Day Period When Planning Travel1
 Travelers Love Their Tech2…
Millennial Travelers Older Travelers
Smartphone 90% 57%
Tablet 55% 34%
Desktop 62% 73%
Laptop 82% 73%

Multiple Personas
“You don’t need to be a genius; test things out –
the customer will tell you what works through their behavior”

Identifying Intent
“It takes a whole lot of data processing to prove something that might appear obvious”

What?

When?

Who?

Why?

Where?

How?

Many Flavors of Travel Personalization
 Actionable Analytics
 Relevant Recommendations
 Personalized Merchandising
 Behavioral Targeting
 Enhanced Profile of Correlated Events
 Customer Sentiment and Other Sources
 Predictive Analytics

Actionable Analytics

 +20.31% lift in bookings

 +6.32% lift in bookings

Relevant Recommendations
 +5.05% lift in revenue

Behavioral Targeting
 +3.51% lift in conversion

Behavioral Targeting
 +32.16% lift in engagement

Predictive Analytics
Function and design
of widget tested
Personalized deals
recommendations
Design & messaging of all
calls to action tested
Offer copy & design tested
Personalized content
Newsletter copy &
location tested
Design and offer
copy tested

Looking Ahead
 Personalization as a Core Competency
 Toeing the Creepy Line
 The End-to-End Travel Experience

Personalization as a Core Competency
“Personalization is not a competing priority – it powers our business and customer goals”
 Travel Technology Advances Democratize Access to Travel Products and Information
 Search and booking functionality gets commoditized
 Efficient transactions and settlement processes
 Price transparency informs consumers
 Differentiation Drives Competitive Advantage
 Ability to match traveler needs to the perfect combination of products and experiences
 Efficiently creating unique, personally relevant travel experiences
 Personalization Analytics and Testing Drive Data-Driven Decisions
 Performance measurement and ROI calculations clarify issues
 Repeat successes and refine for continuous improvement

Toeing the Creepy Line
 Trust is Earned
 Sophisticated consumers expect brands to learn from consumer’s actions as relationship evolves
 Want accurate recommendations based on traveler’s best interests
 Instill confidence that organization can be trusted to take care the traveler
 Potential Pitfalls
 Acting on bad assumptions
 Appearing too smart
 Inappropriate familiarity
“Math can lead you to places that are not socially acceptable”

The End-to-End Travel Experience
“Our goal is simple, it’s all about removing friction from travel”
 Anticipate Massive Increases in Complexity
 Evaluate net differences between conflicting priorities
 Weigh trade-offs in quality, location, service and branding due to availability/price constraints
 Balance interests and preferences for multi-generational and bleisure itineraries
 Travel Sellers’ Responsibilities Grow
 From arranging air, car and hotel bookings
 To transfers, meals, sightseeing, shopping, educational and recreational activities
 Help traveler when things go wrong

Give the Gift of a Personalized Travel Experience - Phocuswright/Maxymiser Webinar

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Give the Gift of a Personalized Travel Experience - Phocuswright/Maxymiser Webinar