The rise of online travel agencies (OTAs) is a sure bet, and they are only expected to accelerate as the world continues its march toward more digital experiences.
Modern citizens are on the lookout for booking sites that are both user-friendly and sophisticated enough to anticipate their requirements and deliver tailor-made itineraries.
What is personalization?
According to Gartner, personalization is “a process that creates a relevant, individualized interaction between two parties designed to enhance the experience of the recipient.”
In simpler words, personalization is when an experience or message is made to fit a person based on what a company knows about them.
How do we leverage technology to provide a personalized experience?
These days, it is next to impossible to deliver a personalized experience without employing cutting-edge technologies, such as the collection of vast amounts of data and the development of intelligent programs and algorithms that can process this data and act quickly to arrive at the best possible outcome.
How does it work?
Information as simple as “I am traveling for work” can have a huge impact on the products that are recommended and displayed to customers.
With the help of technology, you can tell the system to automatically recommend certain products to certain customers and hide other products from the display for certain customers based on their location, destination, length of trip, gender, and purpose of their trip, among many other attributes.
Furthermore, the system can recommend alterations to your initial instructions with better ones based on data from user interactions and conversion rates, as well as information about when those instructions were issued, allowing us to determine which products or services are most responsible for generating sales and during what seasons.
Why does personalization matter?
In today’s information age, your conversion rate directly correlates to the quality of the content you provide to your audience. It also affects customer retention and the quality of your relationships with them. The more you can cater to your customers’ individual interests through personalized content and communications, the more they will appreciate you and return.
Conclusion
Today’s users have higher expectations than ever before when it comes to the speed, content, and artificial intelligence (AI) of your OTA. They also expect a more customized experience based on the information they voluntarily feed to your systems.
If your online travel agency (OTA) does not remember my past trips and preferred locations, and can not provide me with the best deals based on my own behaviors and what I have seen or booked, you can be sure that I will be looking elsewhere in the future.
