That’s always the magic question that everyone in business wants to know. We’re all sellers and buyers and have our own, often logical, interpretation of what that is for everyone else. Is it price? Is it a binding experience? Is it a great site? Or is it the company goals? We’ve studied this across our customers and found a pleasing polarization.
Being travellers, over half focussed on price, whereas half specified our company’s objective as being a motivate to move away from their current habits. These folks wanted to make a more informed decision about their travel from the onset, and that had to start with the lowest prices. These folks wanted companies to do something creative. Our year-end donations to travel sustainability weren’t good enough; they needed to see something now. They needed cheaper fares to Africa. They needed to see ethical hotels in Spain. And we needed to market on Facebook more. We needed to display faster results (7 seconds is not fast enough). And they needed us to be more than just a site (too bad you’re just a start-up).
Ultimately, we continue to explore what motivates our customers to research sites, compare prices, withdraw at the last moment, or to call 5 agencies and book at the last minute (a recent booking.com study states that 65% of their mobile users book within 24 hours for North American stays). Also, turns out, over 70% of today’s air bookings involving more than 2 cities need a travel agent. We think, and in the words of Deep Purple, “it’s not the kill, it’s the thrill of the chase.”
As customers and travellers ourselves, we experience it: In this digital age, technology allows for a strange mix of apathy and time compression. Customers want to be elastic with time, express their needs openly, micro-analyze companies, critique colours and themes and be rewarded for their purchase. They want to be wowed (yup, got that covered!). They want to believe explicitly that they got the best deal. They want to do something good with their time and money. Call it the digital age of entitlement – we can get what we want, when we want (this includes the thrill of a deal), and we want help a worthy cause while we’re at it, too.
In your quest for the travel deal, believe that it exists. In your quest for a better world, believe that it exists. In your quest for a provider that humbly tries both, know that it exists. We started close to a year back, and the response from you has been fantastic. We need to build a lot more, including a loyalty program, information hub, partnerships and interfaces to donations, volunteer hubs and carbon exchanges. It starts with you considering us for your next trip. Nothing happens without you. #thankful and # humbled.
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