Imagine you are here…

Yes, for those of us buried in snow, now is the time we’re keen to book those much needed vacations to the sunny south! And for lots of us, we turn to the web for inspiration and great last minute deals! Comparison shopping is easy. This is the good part.

But it’s not all good. Before I explain the woes of my online travel booking experience, I want to remind you of the traditional travel agency route that many people still use. You know the one where we work with – gasp – a real person who listens…

With the traditional travel agency, it’s all about building a relationship with a specific travel agent. If I had taken this path, I would have called a few agencies and spoken to a few agents. Depending on which agent impressed me the most – i.e. which agent seemed to listen and understand my vacation priorities – that would be the agent I go with.

Through a conversation, this agent would know exactly what I want in terms of a vacation. For example, they would know I am looking for a family-friendly resort in Mexico…specifically in the Mayan Riviera. I want a last-minute, 7-day, all-inclusive, beachfront resort, 4 stars or better and under $1,500 per person. Re a departure city and date, I want to fly out of Ottawa somewhere around the weekend of Feb 16. That’s it. With one visit, the agent would be armed with everything he/she needs to know. And best of all, I only had to say it ONCE.

Now let me share the online version I literally just experienced. It mirrored the traditional story of above. I clicked buttons and drop-downs that outlined every detail of my desired vacation. But here’s the crap part. I had to repeat my vacation details over and over again! Even though I was a repeat visitor to numerous travel sites, not one of them started building a profile on me so they could serve me more efficiently with each visit. On every site – and I searched several big ones including selloffvacations.com, redtag.ca and gotraveldirect.com – I had to keep repeating myself. By this I mean with each visit, I had to go through the process regarding desired departure city, departure date, budget, desired resort star rating. And every time I had to say I want last-minute deals, beachfront, all-inclusive…

If I had been speaking with an agent, and she/he had kept asking what I wanted (when I had just told him/her), I would have asked “what part don’t you get?” I would have said, “I just told you I wanted to fly out of Ottawa…why are you making me tell you that again and what makes you think I suddenly want to fly out of Toronto or Montreal?” Knowing I am interested in last-minute deals, the agent would proactively tell me (via email or phone) about them…since they literally change daily, almost hourly.

When are online travel sites going to figure out they need to change their process? When are they going to realize they need to recognize visitors and present a web experience that makes sense? It’s so easy with web personalization. Just take this scenario and get smart. Recognize where visitors are coming from and present offers that make sense. Here are some very easy personalization ideas that would drastically improve the overall customer experience which in turn would increase sales:

1. Recognize where are people are from and geo-target accordingly. If it’s a Toronto visitor, show the vacation deals that depart from Toronto…odds are they’re not interested in the
Montreal departures!

2. Recognize repeat visitors and serve vacation deals that make sense! In my case, I was a repeat visitor always clicking through to see last-minute vacations in the Mayan Riviera. Odds are that’s probably the destination I want to go to, so why not cut to the chase and show me those specific last-minute deals right up front, early in the visit.

3. As for other data you should be gathering, it should also be clear that I want a 7-day, all-inclusive, beachfront resort for under $1,500 per person….so why not show me that stuff from the get-go as well? Again, it’s unlikely the 7-day vacation is suddenly going to morph into 14 days or that my budget is suddenly going to jump over $1,500 per person.

4. Oh and get this! I even had a few abandoned shopping cart scenarios! Yup, out of curiosity I went through the check-out process without booking. My intent was clearly very high. Why didn’t one of these travel sites follow-up with me?

5. And another scenario related to a site that suddenly sold out of all vacations to the Mayan Riviera. Had someone not told me this site suddenly released more trips to the Mayan Riviera, I wouldn’t have gone back to check it out! Wouldn’t it have been smart if the web site had presented a message saying “More trips to the Mayan Riviera might be announced! To be first to know, sign up here!” Or to show something like – “Can’t get the Mayan Riviera vacation you hoped for? Check out these similar destinations!”

Pretty common sense stuff, don’t you agree? But clearly, common sense isn’t so common.

To end on a high note, I am thrilled to say this vacation is a reality! We’re off to the Mayan Riviera this Friday! A big thank you to my friend who works at GoTravel for calling me about the bonus releases! But since she is only one person and she doesn’t personally know every other visitor that had been watching deals to the Mayan Riviera, there are a lot of unnecessarily lost sales. Odds are they went elsewhere. Hmmm…maybe next year, web personalization can be a part of the mix!?!? What a concept. Imagine the impact.

Alright, I have got to speak to the entire confusion around Personalization. Unless, of course, you’re not confused. If you’re not confused then please help us poor souls who are. Wisdom is great, but honestly I prefer wisdom that leads to conversions that leads to revenue.

And that’s the rub. Is personalization about revenue? Or is it about loyalty? Or is it about customer retention? Or is it about brand development?

Well, in my world, I can tell you that I don’t work for Intel, or General Motors, or Proctor and Gamble. My budgets do not have much allocated solely for brand development and I can absolutely assure you that every dollar I spend is scrutinized by my CEO, my CFO and my VP Sales. And while I value and understand the importance of all of the above, I also understand it’s Marketing’s job to feed the sales machine. Can you relate to that? If you can, read on.

So we agree the number one purpose of Marketing is customer acquisition. To me, the corollary to that means my number one focus should be on conversion. Think about it. We spend all of our time and money on creating programs and campaigns to drive traffic to a website, or to a trade show, or to a webinar, and then we typically hope the message is compelling enough that the recipient will simply act on our call to action because they believe our message. I don’t know about you, but when I go shopping, I go comparison shopping. And when I go comparison shopping, I evaluate price and availability first. Only after I have found a merchant who can provide what I want do I suddenly find myself facing a decision; whom to buy the product from. So, using myself as a focus group, what motivates me? For me it’s simple. Who do I trust the most? Trust is the secret ingredient to making each of our programs convert to revenue.

Can you relate?

If you can then answer me this. What makes you trust a merchant you’ve never dealt with before?

There will always be lots of opinions on this but I think it’s simple. I trust the merchant I identify with, who speaks my language, who understands my persona, whom I can relate to.

How does the merchant do that? By personalizing the experience based on my behaviors and my actions. If a picture is worth a thousand words then my actions must be a whole set of books. Don’t believe me? Next time you go shopping in the real world, watch that sales clerk as they approach you. You can be sure they’re assessing your wardrobe, your preferences based on where you are in the store, your body language, your projected financial well being, and your engagement. And you can be sure that the good sales clerks will be mirroring your actions so that you will trust them. In essence, they’ve created a personal experience for you. Why? To convert the customer.

So that’s where I’m starting with my Marketing dollars. I want to convert each prospect I engage with. I want a personal experience for each of them.

Later on I’ll think about retaining them. When my budget goes up. Or my CEO complains.