Post-COVID trends in the travel and hospitality industry
Summary: After a COVID-19 dry spell for two years, the travel and hospitality industry has finally been roused from a deep sleep. As pandemic regulations loosen and borders reopen (to various extents) in multiple regions, flights and accommodation are experiencing a steep surge in demand. What does this new landscape look like? What are some of the key developments and trends that businesses should take into account while formulating their strategies? We’ll take a look at some of these key trends driving travel and hospital organizations to reshape how they’re meeting the expectations of a post-COVID, digitally savvy traveler base. Virtual tourism To maintain relevance during the pandemic, many companies launched various VR tours and immersive experiences to promote various destinations and give prospective travelers a different kind of sizzle. Some of these experiments have paid off in the form of bookings from travelers captivated by the virtual journeys. There is no inherent need to discontinue them now, either. Imagine an interactive space online that offers prospective travelers try-before-you-buy experiences for different flights, train routes, heritage sites, and more. This focus on virtual prospect engagement can, through absorbing content and online community building efforts, foster long-term engagement and conversion. By implementing the right solutions to properly leverage the data sourced through such interactions, travel and hospitality brands can tailor these experiences to individual audience members and engage them more holistically across the entire lifecycle. Cloud technology With the cessation of travel due to border restrictions, the industry struggled as rigid, siloed, legacy ecosystems prevented businesses from adapting to the current situation. As digital became the new normal for work and commerce, many organizations invested in cloud-based solutions across multiple processes and touchpoints. For example, cloud-centered customer engagement solutions—especially those with an omnichannel focus and equipped with a strong data layer—have grown in popularity by allowing businesses to manage the rapid boost in online traffic and data volume. It is crucial to acquire technology with the scale and sophistication to achieve a 360° view of the ever more digitally savvy travelers. Making digital transitions a breeze for all
RESUL platform features: A November showcase
Summary: In our article from the previous month, we covered some of the features RESUL offers to simplify marketers’ activities. In this article, we will be continuing that thread and discuss further on how the RESUL solution can facilitate effective customer engagement. Resulticks’ new enhancement on our multidimensional canvas (journey builder for drip campaigns) now enables sending additional follow-up communications after your initial communication. What’s more, instead of wasting your customer journeys as one-off assets, the canvas allows you to save them as templates. This means you can simply redeploy them for another campaign, or adjust various aspects of the experience later on. Every mistaken communication or subpar campaign content could spoil potential customers and dent the relationships with longstanding brand loyalty. Ergo, ensuring error-free campaigns is crucial to smooth brand management. RESUL provides a streamlined approval process for our users. It has now expanded this capability to encompass all campaign types—single-dimension, multi-dimension, and trigger.
World Environment Day 2023: The plasti-city problem
Here’s a quick thought experiment: how many things within your arm’s reach are made of plastic? When it comes to sustainable development, plastic is often given a free pass because it’s so convenient. However, free passes also come with expiry dates. The tipping point Plasticity refers to a material’s ability to be molded into any shape and retain it. It’s an inherent characteristic of plastic, which is also a silent environmental threat as it is difficult to degrade naturally. This is an issue which we can’t sweep it under Earth’s rug anymore. To put the problem’s magnitude into perspective, 400mn+ tonnes of plastic waste are churned out every year worldwide, and only 10% of it ends up in recycling systems. Plastic convenience is a loan our environment can no longer afford to pay. It’s time to #BeatPlasticPollution Fortunately, there are large efforts underway to address this issue. The theme for World Environment Day 2023 aims to look beyond the surface of its central motto’s statement. Leading by example through its 2014 ban on plastic bags, the host nation of Côte d’Ivoire hopes to shed light on the best practices for sustainable use of plastic, from big corporations down to everyday individual use. The partner host, The Netherlands, echoes the same sentiment. “Plastic pollution and its detrimental impacts on health, the economy and the environment cannot be ignored. Urgent action is required. At the same time, we need true, effective and robust solutions.” – Vivianne Heijnen, Minister for the Environment, Netherlands. With this goal in sight, the scientific community has forged ahead, devising new strategies and solutions to reduce plastic’s detrimental impact on the environment. The good news? There have already been some major breakthroughs and success stories. New-age solutions The common thread among these three solutions is governments making a difference in plastic pollution on two fronts: backing research for sustainable plastic alternatives and creating awareness on an individual level amidst the general public. The way forward Modern civilization as a whole is responsible for plastic pollution. While researchers and governments do their part, as individuals, we also have a pivotal role to play in eliminating the threat down to its roots. Mindful use, regular recycling & awareness on eco-friendly alternatives are duties we can no longer afford to ignore.
Unified data: the fuel that powers personalized experiences and deep engagement
Summary: When a customer walks into a store and is immediately recognized by name and receives personalized preferential treatment, that person will almost always leave the store feeling happy, cared for, and ready to come back for more. Now, imagine another scenario. That same customer visits the brand’s online store and receives a similarly rewarding experience including name recognition and personalized treatment based on purchase history and preferences. Such experiences, delivered regardless of channel, create a deeper level of engagement between the customer and the business resulting in increased trust, loyalty, and repeat business. Data indicates that investments in customer experience can help brands reap handsome rewards. Accenture’s report states that 75% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that recognizes them by name, recommends options based on past purchases, or knows their purchase history. Furthermore, a report by Deloitte highlights that 80% of customers are more likely to purchase from a company that offers personalized experiences. Delivering this level of individualized engagement is not easy. Without a unified view of customer data across all channels, including online, offline, and social media, it is virtually impossible. The root cause is easily identified: data that is siloed and hard to access. Achieving a united view of customers is not easy, but it’s possible by any brand willing to put in the effort. A well-known example of a company that has successfully gained a unified view of its customer data is Amazon. By consolidating and integrating data from its multitude of channels—including website, mobile app, social media, and physical stores, Amazon creates a seamless, personalized experience for each customer. This has led to increased customer loyalty and sales, making Amazon one of the most successful companies in the world with 20 percent revenue growth year-on-year in 2020, reaching $386 billion. Another success story involves a major global consumer electronics brand with a not uncommon problem. The company had a massive reservoir of audience data that was waiting to be tapped, but its customer data was spread across different departments, which collected data from a diversity of channels including email, social media, and phone calls. Thankfully, with a customer engagement solution that unifies all disparate customer data, they could bring all the customer data in one place, which gave them an overview of the customer behavior, purchase history, and preference. Having unified its data, the electronics brand could identify its most valuable customers and target them with personalized offers and deals. These results reinforces the electronics brand’s experience: personalized customer engagement has led to an increase in cross-sells of 80 percent and an increase in conversion rate of 65 percent. In conclusion, today’s high-performing brands will engage consumers as an individual, rather than as a member of the group. With unified data as a solid foundation, they’ll create value-rich, real-time experiences for each person – not for a large group that shares certain characteristics. This is the path to attribution at the segment-of-one level, leading to a highly personalized experience. Resul can empower brands to do this. With its integrated CDP, advanced analytics, and true omnichannel reach, it helps brands orchestrate sophisticated customer experiences across touch points, at scale. It optimizes every interaction in real time based on past and ongoing communications to deliver individualized customer journeys that maximize your ROI.