Boxever the Rise of Relevance and Customer Intelligence-2

8/19/2019 Boxever the Rise of Relevance and Customer Intelligence-2

1/11

www.boxever.com | 1

The Rise of Relevance

and Customer

Intelligence

Driving Travel Bookings through Seamless,

Personal Experiences

February 2016


2/11

www.boxever.com | 2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Every time a traveler considers taking a trip, airlines, hotels and online travel agents (OTAs) have a

tremendous opportunity to become a trusted partner and earn more business. But the window toturn searchers into bookers and beat the competition is small.

While there is a sweet spot when travelers can be persuaded to book with a certain carrier or travel

website over another, few companies proactively take the right kind of action to win the sale, and

instead leave the consumer’s decision up to price, convenience and timing.

Travel marketers and e-commerce executives may think that a traveler’s decision is largely out

of their control, as most travelers tend to select the option that is cheapest and most convenient.

But beyond cost and schedules, new Boxever research shows that providing a better customerexperience and a more personalized booking process can help airlines and OTAs start to win the

loyalty game and stand out from the competition.

Boxever surveyed more than 500 travelers and found that:

Relevant experiences and offers drive purchases. Relevance is second only to

cost in most travel purchase decisions. In fact, more than 85 percent of those

surveyed said they’d value travel websites that remember personal preferences and

automatically present the most relevant travel options first.


3/11

www.boxever.com | 3

Comprehensive information and personalized marketing is a must. Travelers want

to know that they are making the best possible choice, with all relevant information

available. The majority of travelers surveyed will spend weeks researching and

considering the possibilities before booking, which creates a critical window for travel

providers to add value and influence the purchase decision with personalized andtimely offers.

Travelers pick convenience over creepiness. Travelers are willing to provide more

personal information to airlines and travel providers if it supports a better customer

experience. More than half of all travelers surveyed would like travel companies

– such as OTAs, ground transportation, hotels and airlines – to work together

and automatically share information to create a more seamless, connected travel

experience.

Customer loyalty is available for the taking. According to Deloitte, just 44 percent

of all travelers fly at least three-quarters of their air miles on their “preferred” airline

today. This lack of brand loyalty creates a major opportunity for airlines to better

connect with their customers and build a brand reputation that elevates their

offerings over competitors.

This report shares new consumer findings around the travel search and booking process and

reveals critical insight for travel executives looking to increase conversion rates, drive more revenue

and earn repeat business.


4/11

www.boxever.com | 4

RELEVANCE MATTERS

What do travelers want during the search and booking process?

Surprisingly, it’s more than low-cost flights and accommodations. While

cost has long been the number one consideration for travelers, only 47

percent of those surveyed said they prefer airlines and OTAs to present the

cheapest flights first in online search results.

A close second in importance is relevance. Nearly a third of travelers want

the best, most relevant options presented first, those that take into account

a spectrum of key elements: price, timing, duration, personal preferences,

travel history and needs.

Those personal preferences and travel histories are particularly important: 48

percent of travelers who purchase extras or services do so when booking.

The window of opportunity for upselling customers is small: just 16 percent will

add extras in the days before a flight, and even fewer wait until they actually

arrive at the airport. To maximize conversions and ancillary revenue, it’s crucialfor travel providers to know what an individual customer values most before,

during and after the booking process.

When are you most likely to buy travel extras or ancillary services

(such as early boarding, in-flight Wi-Fi, seat upgrade) from an airline?

Truly relevant marketing helps drive purchases. And today, relevance is

about much more than “pseudo personalization” like including a traveler’s

name in an email. It’s knowing personal preferences, identifying context (is

the consumer traveling for business, with his or her family or for a friends’

weekend in Vegas?) and leveraging that intelligence to create a more

personalized and easier booking process for customers.

Did you know?

Relevance is second

only to cost in

importance when

booking travel.

15%

When I’m at the

airport

19%

Right before I

board the plane

43%When I book

my flight

17%

A couple daysbefore I travel


5/11

www.boxever.com | 5

A key channel for accomplishing this type of relevance is airline and OTA

websites. In fact, more than 85 percent of those surveyed said they’d value

travel websites that remember preferences and automatically present the

best and most relevant travel options based on their individual needs and

travel history.

Regardless of channel, reaching travelers is harder than ever before. Ad-blocking technology and changes in the way email is managed and filtered

mean that travel marketers need to be incredibly targeted and relevant

to drive action. Consider that, according to Boxever’s survey, less than

a quarter of consumers check their promotions folder daily; almost 40

percent never even look.

How often do you check the promotions, clutter or advertisement tab

in your personal email?

Almost never

A couple times a year

A couple times a month

About once or twice a week

Daily

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

38%

9%

13%

19%

22%

Consumers’ disinterest in promotional messages stems from being on the

receiving end of years of poor targeting and marketing spam. According to

a 2015 Boxever report, for more than 50 percent of consumers, three out of

every four sales offers they receive are irrelevant to their needs and

preferences – an incredibly high number considering the amount of

customer data available to brands today. This means that millions ofconsumers are being spammed daily, an ineffective communication

strategy that negatively impacts future sales, conversion rates and

customer loyalty. The impact of this type of marketing approach is

significant—40 percent are less likely to buy from companies that target

them with irrelevant messages and 59 percent would unsubscribe from that

company’s content.

According to survey respondents, they would consider permanently moving a

company’s communications from promotions/clutter/spam to the primary tab if:

Email content was consistently targeted to their needs andpreferences, and not the marketing priorities of the company (33%)

Did you know?

For more thanhalf of consumers,

three out of every

four sales offers

they receive are

irrelevant.


6/11

www.boxever.com | 6

Emails consistently added value by providing additional information, offers and supportabout something they are already doing (or planning to do) (33%)

The content consistently offered products, experiences, trips or services that they wereplanning to purchase in the near future (24%)

The company is one of their favorite brands (24%)

Personalization is the path to better conversations, faster conversions and ultimately more loyal

customers.

SHORTENING THE BOOKING WINDOW

Travel decisions are not made lightly. 67 percent of travelers surveyed spend weeks researching

and considering the possibilities before purchasing.

With a long gap between looking and booking, how can travel providers better nurture customers

and make them convert faster? According to the majority of travelers, there are three ways airlinesand hotels can influence them to book faster:

Send communications that recommend the best choice (for the traveler, personally) alongwith a few “next-best” options

Send proactive, personalized and relevant email communication about the potential trip(“proactive, smart communications”)

Send push notifications about the trip to his/her mobile devices

Once you’ve decided to take a trip, what is your approach to searching for and booking travel?

21%

I book

immediately

3%I’m the ultimate

procrastinator, and don’t

purchase until the last

minute

8%

It takes me weeks to pull the

trigger, even if I think I’ve found

a good deal

67%

I research options for a couple of

weeks and then book


7/11

www.boxever.com | 7

In taking time to book their trips, travelers want to know they’re making the best possible choice.

Having a solid understanding of all the options, like price, schedule, etc., as well as a clear

understanding of fees associated with a trip, is incredibly important for consumers.

When looking to book a trip, which of the following are important?

That my favorite brand, carrier or hotel is offered

Amount of seats/rooms available

Whether price will rise or fall

Fees and taxes

Understanding all options

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

22%

38%

51%

70%

76%

Perhaps surprisingly, brand loyalty was least important. Only 22 percent of travelers said they care

about whether a particular brand, carrier or hotel is offered. In fact, nearly 50 percent of travelers

aren’t members of any brand loyalty programs, with just 28 percent believing that being a member

of such programs leads to more personalized service and better customer experience.

The fact that less than a quarter of travelers care whether a particular brand is

offered is a startling, but harsh reality for travel providers, who need to take a hard

look at loyalty and what truly wins customer love and share-of-wallet, beyond cost,

convenience and location.


8/11

www.boxever.com | 8

TRAVELERS WILL TRADE INFORMATION FOR BETTER

EXPERIENCES

It’s official: the desire for convenience, customization and a seamless

experience officially trumps privacy concerns. Travelers want airlines and

hotels, for instance, to know what will make their lives easier. In fact, more

than 75 percent of those surveyed would find value in an airline or hotelauto-synching relevant trip details with their calendar and mobile devices.

Of those who travel at least once a month, 54 percent would like airlines,

hotels, ground transportation providers and other travel companies to

automatically share their travel information to create a more seamless,

connected travel experience. The majority of those surveyed would

appreciate it if an airline automatically knew things like their seat preferences

(87%), connection schedule (87%), dietary needs (72%) and drink preferences

(68%). Where does the convenient-creepy line get crossed? Most travelers

seem to draw the line when it comes to airlines having automatic insight

into their vacation or destination plans (58 percent would find this intrusive)and hotel plans (62 percent said no thanks).

THE NOFRILLS EXPERIENCE: COMPETING WITH LCCS

While many travelers crave and will pay for more comfortable, customer-

centric and luxurious flights, that’s not the case for all flyers. In fact,

according to Global Traveler, on top 10 lists of airlines since 2012, more

than half are low-cost airlines, due to their rapid expansion in aircraft and

destinations.

This rising demand for no-frills, more affordable flying has left many airline

executives pondering how to roll out new services and booking options to

more effectively compete on price. To that end, Boxever asked travelers

what they would be willing to give up for a cheaper ticket. Here’s what they

identified:

Access to in-flight movies, magazines and music (73%) Drink services (49%) Boarding zone (board the plane last) (48%) Seat size/leg room (19%)

Carry-on luggage (18%) Bathrooms (8%) A seat in favor of standing room (8%)

While some of these options are clearly not practical today, they underscore

an important reality for travel executives: no two travelers are the same.

One traveler may value the comfort of extra leg room and the convenience

of drink and snack service, another may just want to get from point A to

point B, as quickly and affordably as possible. In order to provide the best

service, delight customers and drive loyalty, airlines need personalized

insight into what matters most for each and every one of their customers.

What else do

travelers want?

The future of travel

likely holds many

new technologies

and services, but we

found travelers are

most interested in:

- Functionally

arranged in-flight

seating (57%)

- Biometrics (55%)

- Self-driving cars

(38%)

- Personalized

in-flight digital

magazines (37%)

- Websites using

advanced intel to

auto book (36%)

- Robots (31%)

- In-flight sharing

economy (21%)

Learn more by

downloading our

Future of Travel

Tech infographic.

http://info.boxever.com/the-future-of-travel-technologyhttp://info.boxever.com/the-future-of-travel-technologyhttp://info.boxever.com/the-future-of-travel-technologyhttp://info.boxever.com/the-future-of-travel-technologyhttp://info.boxever.com/the-future-of-travel-technology


9/11

www.boxever.com | 9

TAKING THE NEXT STEP:

DRIVING BOOKINGS THROUGH RELEVANCE AND PERSONALIZATION

To influence travelers’ purchase decisions, shorten the booking cycle and delight customers in

a way that drives loyalty and repeat business, Boxever recommends the following strategies for

airline, hotel and travel providers:

Personalize offers by the individual, in their context, across all channels. The days

of personalizing offers based on high-level demographics are long gone. Consider

what you know about your customers and what their preferences are. Remember that

context matters. Otherwise, you are missing opportunities to acquire, convert and

retain customers.

Invest in a single customer view. Collect data on customers in one record and

provide seamless experience across the entirety of a trip. Data is an untapped

resource that can make your business smarter and help develop one-to-onerelationships with your customers.

Make customer delight the end game. Travel brands can win major loyalty points by

leveraging what’s already known about a customer to create small, but meaningful,

experiences. In today’s landscape where travelers typically book based on price and

schedule, the airlines and hotels that can stand out and differentiate their brands

through the customer experience will be best positioned to capture more market

share in the years ahead.

Add value through comprehensive offers and options. The more relevant, the

better. Invest in making your search function more relevant and comprehensive to

drive faster conversions. Add value to something the consumer is already doing

(or planning to do), or revisit a product or service in which the customer previously

expressed interest. Provide valuable, timely communications to address traveler

wants and needs.

What’s the state of travel marketing today?

Download our report Grounded by Untargeted Marketing to learn

more about traveler frustrations and how to overcome them.

OFFERS

http://info.boxever.com/untargeted-marketing-survey-reporthttp://info.boxever.com/untargeted-marketing-survey-reporthttp://info.boxever.com/untargeted-marketing-survey-reporthttp://info.boxever.com/untargeted-marketing-survey-report


10/11

www.boxever.com | 10

BOXEVER

Boxever is the leader in data science and omni-channel personalization solutions for airlines and

travel companies.

Boxever’s Customer Intelligence Cloud enables travel marketers to build a 360

degree view of every customer and apply predictive analytics and machine learning

to automatically create personalized, one-to-one marketing experiences that lead

to higher conversion rates, increased revenue and truly differentiated customer

experiences.

Boxever’s platform represents a new class of enterprise IT and enables digital transformation within

airlines and travel organizations. Today, leading travel brands from all across the globe – including

Emirates, Air New Zealand, eDreams ODIGEO, Cebu Pacific, Alitalia, AeroMexico, Brussels Airlines

and Aer Lingus – rely on Boxever to help acquire, convert and retain customers. The company isheadquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Learn more at www.boxever.com or follow us on Twitter @Boxever.

https://twitter.com/Boxeverhttp://www.boxever.com/http://www.boxever.com/http://www.boxever.com/https://twitter.com/Boxeverhttps://twitter.com/Boxeverhttp://www.boxever.com/https://twitter.com/Boxever


11/11

www.boxever.com | 11

Web: www.boxever.com

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @boxever

Linkedin: boxever

Google+: boxever

Find us at:
http://www.boxever.com/https://twitter.com/Boxeverhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/boxeverhttps://plus.google.com/+Boxever/posts/3XetvcxDB9ohttps://plus.google.com/+Boxever/posts/3XetvcxDB9ohttps://www.linkedin.com/company/boxeverhttps://twitter.com/Boxeverhttp://www.boxever.com/

Documents

Boxever the Rise of Relevance and Customer Intelligence-2