As the travel industry becomes more competitive, companies are constantly looking for ways to stand out and improve the customer experience.

To do that, it is imperative for Travel & Hospitality businesses to go beyond basic use cases like flight/hotel abandonment and first-name personalization.

This blog post will explore some of the more advanced use cases for Travel & Hospitality businesses and how they can be leveraged to drive growth and improve customer experience. We also demonstrate the ease of implementing them on the WebEngage dashboard so you boost sales faster, smoother, and more efficiently.
Here we go.

1. PERSONALIZED OFFERS BASED ON AIRLINE

APPROACH:

1. Send personalized communication to users based on attributes like signed up on platform, transacted beyond XYZ amount, exceeded minimum cart amount, with the help of brand/bank collaborative cards.
2. Collate details like user behavior, attributes, engagement history, and order history on the WebEngage dashboard. Identify users’ language preferences to send messages in their native language.
3. Further enhance user experience for booking abandoners using the Recommendation engine by showing them offers related to their search destination, tour, or activity, across 12+ channels.
4. Moreover, you can personalize booking offers per the user’s selected airline.
5. For instance, for a channel like email, use nunjucks to ease if/else conditions – if your airline_name is GoAir, then offer a 10% discount on HFDC cards. Else, if airline_name is United, give your user a ₹2000 discount.

PRO TIP:
Use geofencing to send special deals to users on routes where volume/seat bookings are low.

EASE OF IMPLEMENTATION
★★

2. AUTOMATE FLIGHT PRICE DROP ALERTS FOR YOUR USERS

APPROACH

1. Create a business event for a drop in flight ticket prices.
2. Segment users based on a. reachability on push/email, b. search abandonment c. payment confirmation drop off.
3. Inspect if user is known or unknown. If known, use best channel to target personalized communication. If unknown, use Web Push to personalize experiences for users.
4. Consider using multiple emails, SMS, and push notification channels to reach users across different devices and touchpoints. This can help increase the likelihood that users will see and respond to your communications.
5. Check for all conditions fulfilled in the relay/funnel. On a timeout, send them a mobile/email push notifying them of a price drop for their favorite products.

PRO TIP:
Redirect users to travel blogs or resources basis the last destination/route browsed.
Additionally, comply with all relevant regulations and best practices for user privacy and data protection. Finally, stay up to date with industry trends and emerging technologies to stay ahead of the competition.

EASE OF IMPLEMENTATION
★★★

3. USE CATALOGS TO PERSONALIZE COMMUNICATION

APPROACH:

1. Create customized segments based on a hotel partner’s key attributes: Country & Type of accommodation.
2. Track user (hotel partner) actions in real time and add or remove them from segments as and when their actions match the rules created for a particular segment or vice-versa. To use said segments to their optimum degree, you can use Catalogs to update your users (travelers) with a list of hotels they can visit.
3. Use Relays to update users about new rooms or hotels in their area. Alternatively, use the recommendation engine to Recommend hotel stays to users who have booked a flight in that area.
4. With the help of catalogs, you can efficiently collate data for over 5 lakh hotel partners.

PRO TIP:
Fetch updated price information for a product from an uploaded Catalog and ensure you never send stale or incorrect data in your messages.

EASE OF IMPLEMENTATION
★★★★★

4. INCENTIVIZE PLAYERS TO REFER FRIENDS AND UNLOCK NEW FEATURES

APPROACH:

1. Segment users likely to refer a friend based on their behavior and demographics.
2. Create a drip campaign using WebEngage’s Journey Designer, including API blocks for triggering events.
3. Encourage users to refer their friends and trigger a journey that creates a new user.
4. Add the new user to an onboarding pipeline and initiate nurture and retention campaigns.
5. Enhance user experience by incentivizing referrals with a credit system, gamifying platform attributes, or offering better rewards.
6. Unlock benefits, rewards, special offers/characters, points/discounts/wallet money for the user with each successful referral.

PRO TIP:
Providing incentives to both the referrer and the new user can encourage more referrals and increase the likelihood that the new user will convert into a loyal customer. Moreover, you can personalize referral codes to users.

EASE OF IMPLEMENTATION
★★★★

5. ENABLE LOYALTY PROGRAMS TO BRING REPEAT PURCHASES

APPROACH:

1. Implement a credit system for users who spend above a certain threshold or book a higher-end room on the platform, offering rewards or incentives for their continued use.
2. Add credits and a redeeming system to user profiles, and reflect those on your website.
3. Offer rewards or incentives, such as discounts, upgrades, and exclusive access to brands/events, to increase repeat order rate and purchase frequency.
4. For instance, offer users free flights, hotel stays, fuel, and merchandise options.

PRO TIP:
Gamify the credit system by adding a points-based system or leaderboards, which could encourage users to spend more and compete for rewards. Moreover, you can create a tiered rewards system, where users who spend more on the platform can unlock higher rewards (gold/silver, platinum, etc.) and incentives.

EASE OF IMPLEMENTATION
★★

6. DRIVE WEB PERSONALIZATION TO BOOST SALES

APPROACH:

1. With the help of WebEngage’s personalization engine, you can tailor communication based on custom events, business events, or user attributes such as gender, location, birthdays & anniversaries, and more.
2. You get the flexibility to personalize any part of the website for known and unknown users alike.
3. For example, for users who browsed a certain tour/travel experience/activity, but did not complete purchase, show a personalized banner with tour details and nudge users to complete the purchase. This can also be executed for unknown users to further boost sales and revenue.
4. Moreover, you can use these user attributes to map known/unknown users with locations to show relevant location-based offers.
5. For instance, for unknown users, nudge them to sign in to get ₹500 off on their next booking.

PRO TIP:
With Web Personalization, you can further run replenishment campaigns, acquire new users through a referral program for existing users, gamify user experience, and increase repeat purchases.

EASE OF IMPLEMENTATION
★★★★

7. REDUCE SUPPORT QUERIES VIA WHATSAPP CHATBOTS

APPROACH:

1. To enhance customer support and provide quick responses to frequently asked questions, implement a WhatsApp chatbot with the WebEngage dashboard.
2. To further reduce the number of support queries, offer self-service options within the chatbot. This saves users time and frees your support staff to handle more complex issues.
3. Provide users with access to a knowledge base, FAQs, and other resources that can help them find answers to their questions without contacting support.
4. By leveraging data analytics, you can personalize the responses based on users’ previous interactions, thereby improving their experience and reducing the number of support queries.
5. By providing personalized and self-service options within the chatbot, you can significantly improve customer support and help users find the information they need quickly and efficiently.

PRO TIP:
Download and schedule reports from the WebEngage dashboard to analyze the performance of multiple WhatsApp campaigns over a specific time frame.

EASE OF IMPLEMENTATION
★★★★

IMPACT STORIES – TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY

Headout – Learn More About Headout, An On-Demand Marketplace For Tours, Experiences, And Activities, Minimized Their Tech Dependency, And Carried Out 90% Faster Campaign Implementation With WebEngage
GoIbibo– Read About How Goibibo Used WebEngage’s Hyper-Personalization Engine To Increase Their Conversion Rate By 11%
Go-MMT – Check Out How Go-MMT, India’s Leading OTA Brand, Boost Its Hotel Partner Engagement By 20% Using WebEngage

CONCLUSION:

The travel industry is constantly evolving, and companies that fail to adapt risk falling behind. By implementing these advanced use cases, travel companies can improve the customer experience, streamline processes, and stay ahead of the competition. From personalized recommendations to dynamic pricing, there are countless ways for companies to leverage technology to their advantage.
Take a demo with WebEngage today to implement these use cases, boost sales, and skyrocket your revenue.