How sensitive is the topic of vacation? How important is it for the vacation experience to be positive, in line with our needs, desires, even dreams? How significant is the role of the accommodation that hosts us in creating a moment in life that, especially today, must meet our expectations?
A vacation is a space-time where we all, whether consciously or not, place significant expectations. It is a territory where we can enjoy a break from all responsibilities, both work-related and personal or familial. A moment to breathe.
This thought is not always explicit. But if it is not met, the discomfort we feel is strong, and the annoyance is tangible. It is something that can even be shared (sometimes angrily) on a review platform.
Now, let’s take this experience, which is part of all our lives, and bring it into the difficult years we are living through: the need to “breathe” becomes even more important, the experience must be positive.
The tourism sector is facing all the difficulties of this moment. It is among those that have suffered the most from the limitations brought by the pandemic, but at the same time, it is the embodiment of that crucial space-time for us.
Therefore, understanding and meeting the needs of the customer has become even more important.
A great opportunity to meet this responsibility is offered by digital technology. The year 2020 was the year of digitalization. For people, first and foremost, but consequently for all commercial sectors that have a relationship with these people.
Tourism is, evidently, one of these sectors, where digitalization can be a key first to understanding and then to action, to establish and make the relationship with the customer fruitful. Listening to this customer means improving their experience and, consequently, maximizing the attractiveness of the tourist offer.
The Voice of Guest to Listen to the Customer
Satisfied customers drive growth. They spend more, make transactions more frequently, and become promoters of our brand.
Conversely, dissatisfied customers spend less, cost more (due to the handling of potential complaints), and can discourage the business prospects of those who host them.
Truly understanding customers means, for an accommodation facility, undertaking the necessary strategies to meet their expectations and needs, retain them over time, and focus on business actions that matter to grow the activity.
The dreams of tourists, their desires, and expectations for their vacation are central to making their experience unique at all times of the journey: from the moment before booking to the return home, tourists expect to fulfill their desires.
The Voice of Guest is a process of acquiring and analyzing information about the needs, habits, and expectations of the guests of an accommodation facility, aimed at:
- Knowing the tourists, deeply understanding their explicit and latent needs
- Identifying the drivers that influence attitudes, preferences, and choices related to travel and vacation
- Activating dynamics of continuous improvement of offers and services
- Reacting quickly to market dynamics
- Improving competitive positioning
- Personalizing the offer, optimizing it to the specific needs of each guest
The Guest Tourist Journey
The first step in building a unique and personalized vacation experience is creating a continuous listening journey throughout the Guest Tourist Journey: from the moment of first contact, through the experience at the facility, until their return home. The goal is to create a continuous feedback collection journey from both prospective visitors and customers, enriching the listening phases along the way.
By incorporating the information known as Soft & Small Data, which will serve as the new focal point for understanding each guest deeply, we can outline the subsequent stages of vacation offer proposals and generate an intimate relationship.
But what does it mean, concretely, to listen to the Voice of the Guest throughout the Tourist Journey?
First and foremost, it’s important that listening begins before the stay, when the customer (prospect) starts exploring different opportunities. In this phase, our investigation will aim to:
- understand the different types of guests, their expectations, and desires that influence vacation purchase behaviors
- customize promotion and communication based on different guest types and their desires
- undertake Lead Generation activities, with goals of Awareness and generating new contacts.
Subsequently, an evidently crucial and unique moment, in terms of opportunities to obtain reliable information and data, is during the stay itself. Here, we will:
- collect continuous and real-time feedback during the stay, on all services
- establish a continuous and direct relationship with each guest, to personalize their vacation experience
- promote a tailor-made vacation experience, enhancing customer caring and counseling performance
Finally, after the stay, it will be important for us to gather all the information we can then use to verify the effectiveness of the work done so far and improve the proposal if necessary. Therefore, our activity will aim to:
- collect Customer Satisfaction feedback on the experience at the facility
- customize storytelling and direct communication of offers
- create new acquisition and retention strategies, through Call to Action for returning to the facility.
Real, Ready, Relevant
We’ve dubbed our approach Real, Ready, Relevant.
Real because the profiling models and analysis techniques we employ are novel and interdisciplinary, capable of understanding guests’ genuine needs to personalize their experiences and boost loyalty rates.
Ready because data collection and analysis occur simultaneously. Programmable triggers sensitive to context and channels like Fb Messenger, Alexa, and WhatsApp allow for activating listening paths near a hospitality structure, indoors, and at every other stage of the Tourist Journey.
Finally, Relevant, because deep knowledge, coupled with an approach focused on the single customer view, will enable personalizing the relationship with each guest through offers and communications aligned with their dispositional traits, needs, and true emotions.
The personalized vacation experience is mapped out in a Tourist Journey that encompasses all moments: from pre-booking to post-booking, traveling, experiencing, traveling (back home), and post-experience. Each of these steps is enriched with information aimed at profiling the customer, considering their needs, motivations, and emotions.
The challenge for tourism operators is to establish an authentic, exclusive, and continuous connection with their clients, listening to their voice on every interaction channel to personalize the stay experience. Because vacation is a special moment, and we can’t afford to waste it.
