Guest comment: The customisation kerfuffle

Guest comment: The customisation kerfuffle

Customisation in retail is an area that is absolutely booming. Think personalised luxury goods, shoes that you’ve had a hand (or foot) in designing, custom this, bespoke that. It’s a move from pret-a-porter to on-demand manufacturing of all kinds of things. Even Coca-Cola is in on the act. McDonalds, too. Once again, there’s disruption afoot.

It’s a shift that has been rumbling through the travel industry for a while now. After years of seeing hotel chains standardise their offerings, replicating precisely the same guest-experience across their property portfolios in the name of consistency and quality control (same decor, same services, same amenities, same breakfast buffet, same breakfast buffet, same breakfast buffet…), we’ve seen a big shift.

Hotels now seem to be falling over themselves to differentiate from one another, and to provide you – the guest – with the things you really love, quirky surprises they hope you’ll love and tell your friends about, or even fulfilling the strangest of guest requests.

They’re trying to be more like you, to stand out and serve up personalised touches. It’s a tricky juggling act…consistency, process and alchemy.

It’s what Virgin Atlantic calls Brilliant Basics and Magic Touches.

It can be as simple as a cabin crew member topping up a water bottle whilst you tip-toe down the aisle bleary-eyed for a mid-flight comfort stop, even opening the lavatory door for you as you get there. Or, as you leave the aircraft, remembering something you said in that pre-takeoff conversation. Have a great weekend with your Nan!

If you can pull it off, it’s a smart play. One that makes the consumer feel more connected to your brand. And when things get all emotional like that, it can be a match made in heaven.

In my experience, your customers want you to remember them.

If you’re an airline I regularly book with and you don’t recall that, say, I prefer an aisle over a window seat when flying long-haul (the reverse on short-haul), as well as my frequent flyer details, my phone number and contact email (please don’t make me type them into those tiny fields again), then you’re very likely to lose my business. And even though websites are becoming more intuitive with each generation, can they really ever be as intuitive as someone who really knows you?

With staff-client relationships developing in our businesses over many years, decades even, we get to know each other very well. Our consultants know precisely what their clients like and dislike, which new hotels, airlines, restaurants and spas they might be open to trying in a new destination.

I hear those interactions every day in the conversations that take place around me. Hi Susan. Yes. Absolutely. I’ll book you to London. I know your preferred seat and meal requests, and I’ll get that driver, Don, to pick you up from home at 7.00am to get you to the airport. Would you like me to book that spa treatment in the lounge again? 8.30 OK?

Even better, I love seeing a consultant actively listen to a client on the phone then respond confidently with, I know just the place. That just about makes me weak at the knees.

We have a client who requires rooms on lower floors due to being afraid of heights. Another survived a plane crash long ago and now has very specific requirements as to where she sits on different aircraft types. We know which couples prefer a pair king-singles, even where to book the – ahem – mistress. We have another who can’t stand those fiddly, locked-down coat hangers that some hotels have in their wardrobes. Needless to say, he’s never booked in one that has those.

Our staff travel all the time. They inspect rooms, they open the wardrobes and the mini-bar, they check out the bathroom amenities, know which rooms have separate shower and bath, and which have shower-over-bath. They know the a-la-carte fine diner from the bistro, even the great little place just around the corner. They’re invited by hoteliers and airlines to trial their latest lovely things. They know because they go.

The way we see it, intuitively blending those insights with a client’s preferences is customisation on steroids.

It might not be a fancy new pair of shoes, but we guarantee a perfect fit.

 

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