Related to the topic of my paper I wanted to look at Travelocity’s competitors and at the same time look how the companies differ in their methodologies of building experiences and products for their customers. As previously mentioned, the reading “The Executive Guide: An Organization Roadmap for Your Customers.com Initiatives” details how companies can build their online stores through analysis of information they gain from their customers. A successful online store continuously strives to meet their customers’ ever changing needs. So between the three leading online travel agencies, how do they build customer experiences and at the same time stay successful meeting the many different needs of their online shoppers?
If you visit the websites of these three companies, at first you may not notice a difference. They all have a search engine for flights, car rentals, or hotel reservations and they all offer some variations of travel packages for popular vacation destinations. Also all of these websites have some type of trip planner to assist you with your vacation or other travel plans. Thus, the products from these dot com travel agencies are very similar and differentiate from each other by small variations in price. However, if you look a little bit deeper into these sites, these companies are not exactly alike. In fact, the companies are trying to separate themselves from each others to become more competitive.
I have been an online shopper of travel packages for a long time and I constantly compare and utilize these companies. These companies do in fact, have differences in their products. For example, Expedia is the leader in travel packages; the company promotes family travel packages and the major savings a customer receives from buying in bundles (flight and hotel or hotel and car). Travelocity promotes their great membership program and highlights suggestions and activities shoppers can plan for their trips. On the other hand, Orbitz builds competitiveness through their pricing strategies; the company offers the lowest prices in hotels and car rentals. As more and more consumers turn to online shopping to reserve their travel plans, these companies are going to become more and more competitive with different features and methods to build unique AND different experiences for their customers.
These differences in the companies are not just different features of their products. Instead because of the uniqueness of their online element in their business, they use these slight yet effective differences to build customer experiences. As I mentioned, at first look the websites and companies may seem very similar; however the more you use the products the more you begin to see the differences that contribute to your online travel shopping experience. So which travel giant is for you?
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Loyalty Programs - Who benefits the customer or the company?
Frequent flier miles, frequent buyer rewards, and store coupons, all components of different customer loyalty programs. These programs have been a popular methodology for companies to collect data about their consumers. However, as more and more companies use these programs, we have to ask ourselves who really receives the benefits, the customer or the company? As we discussed in our class, when building the experience framework companies assume that if they increase the value for the customers, they will also increase the value customer will provide for the company.
Value for the customer. So in order to receive value through the loyalty programs we as customers receive benefits and incentives to enroll and participate. Most if not all of us are part of some loyalty program whether it’s with a clothing store such as GAP or Express or with a music “store” such as I-Tunes with promotional music downloads or with another online or brick and mortar store. From these programs we receive pieces of direct mail marketing from postcards to catalogs reminding us of an upcoming sale and coupons with our billing statements or at the stores at the point of purchase. If you pay close attention to most of these programs, companies carefully designed them to create relationships with consumers. For instance, during seasons of high consumption levels (i.e. Christmas, Valentine’s Day) companies send out many coupons and brochures to have you come and “save” with their products. Some companies go way beyond the average coupon; some will provide extra benefits, bonuses, or special treatment to their enrolled customers. For example, with American Airline’s popular frequent flier mileage program, not only do their customers receive frequent flier miles but they also have the options for upgrades and special treatments on their flights. As we become more and more involved with different companies and their reward programs, our expectations will continue to increase raising the bar for many companies to continue to be innovative and to meet the high standards.
Value for the company. For many companies, execution of these loyalty programs are low in cost and high in benefits; related to the assumptions of creating the customer experience framework, when companies provide value through the programs customers will be willing to make more purchases resulting in higher sales and profits. In addition, higher sales mean more consumer data for the companies, and this will result in more information about their customers and their purchasing behaviors. Finding out more information about customers allows the companies to not only improve their products but to create opportunities to build relationship with them. Thus building long term relationships will hopefully create long term customer loyalty. However, even though the companies may receive many benefits and successes from these programs, they MUST continue to build relationship with customers through other elements such as customer service and quality and pricing of products.
Value for the customer. So in order to receive value through the loyalty programs we as customers receive benefits and incentives to enroll and participate. Most if not all of us are part of some loyalty program whether it’s with a clothing store such as GAP or Express or with a music “store” such as I-Tunes with promotional music downloads or with another online or brick and mortar store. From these programs we receive pieces of direct mail marketing from postcards to catalogs reminding us of an upcoming sale and coupons with our billing statements or at the stores at the point of purchase. If you pay close attention to most of these programs, companies carefully designed them to create relationships with consumers. For instance, during seasons of high consumption levels (i.e. Christmas, Valentine’s Day) companies send out many coupons and brochures to have you come and “save” with their products. Some companies go way beyond the average coupon; some will provide extra benefits, bonuses, or special treatment to their enrolled customers. For example, with American Airline’s popular frequent flier mileage program, not only do their customers receive frequent flier miles but they also have the options for upgrades and special treatments on their flights. As we become more and more involved with different companies and their reward programs, our expectations will continue to increase raising the bar for many companies to continue to be innovative and to meet the high standards.
Value for the company. For many companies, execution of these loyalty programs are low in cost and high in benefits; related to the assumptions of creating the customer experience framework, when companies provide value through the programs customers will be willing to make more purchases resulting in higher sales and profits. In addition, higher sales mean more consumer data for the companies, and this will result in more information about their customers and their purchasing behaviors. Finding out more information about customers allows the companies to not only improve their products but to create opportunities to build relationship with them. Thus building long term relationships will hopefully create long term customer loyalty. However, even though the companies may receive many benefits and successes from these programs, they MUST continue to build relationship with customers through other elements such as customer service and quality and pricing of products.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Online Customer Experience – The Travelocity Guarantee
There are a couple of articles related to my topic from the class readings; my topic is about the popular online travel agent, Travelocity. I will analyze and assess their current strategies to provide their online customer experience through the concepts and theories we have learned in class.
The reading “Framework for Managing Customer Experience” by Bernd Schmitt details the different Strategic Experiential Modules companies can use for their products and services to build an “experience” for their customers. It explains how companies appeal to their market by creating a marketing campaign and experience through the five different SEMs (feel, sense, act, think, and relate). The reading also includes how these modules are created through the experience provides such as communication, people, web sites and email, and etc. Utilizing these tools will be helpful in building and managing a successful customer experience for any company.
Likewise, the reading “The Executive Guide: An Organization Roadmap for Your Customers.com Initiatives” features the different steps to build and implement a .com program in e-commerce for the company. The steps begin from focusing the company’s vision and putting into action, internal controls (i.e. targeting, strategy, and etc) to improving the processes continuously to keep up with the changes. The process of this initiative also focuses on the customer and how to improve their experience through interactions and analysis of data that can be collected from the websites and other online activities. The reading also notes that it’s not just about the website or just about the customer but rather to create the in-depth analysis and reform of the websites from these analyses.
Today, technology seems to be a necessity in any type of business, in fact, it seems companies are transitioning into “clicks companies” (i.e. Blockbuster) and many businesses are launched on the Internet without a physical location (i.e. Amazon.com, EBay). However, how do any of these companies stay alive and continue? As we have seen after the 2000 dot com boom and failures, most businesses only see the quick fixes and enthusiasm associated with the Internet. Therefore, in order to become successful companies must develop a program and process that builds customer experiences and create loyalty like a “bricks company”. The strategic goals are the same whether or not you are an Internet company or a company with a website.
Travelocity is one of the leading online travel agent/guide companies today; their marketing strategies and low-cost products attract millions of customers to purchase and interact with their online website. They build customer experience through not only specific SEMs and experience providers but other important tools that include the user-friendliness of the website as well. I have been a satisfied Travelocity customer for the past three years and have seen some of the changes that over the years created an overall customer experience. I frequently compare Travelocity to some of its competitors like Expedia and Orbitz but always come back to Travelocity because of their low prices and my relationship with them. Through this research and analysis I hope to learn more about the company and their strategies for customer experience and building loyal relationships.
Sources:
1. “Framework for Managing Customer Experience” by Bernd Schmitt
http://reserves.lib.utexas.edu/eres/documentview.aspx?cid=2904&associd=70931
2. “The Executive Guide: An Organization Roadmap for Your Customers.com Initiatives”
http://reserves.lib.utexas.edu/eres/documentview.aspx?cid=2904&associd=70934
The reading “Framework for Managing Customer Experience” by Bernd Schmitt details the different Strategic Experiential Modules companies can use for their products and services to build an “experience” for their customers. It explains how companies appeal to their market by creating a marketing campaign and experience through the five different SEMs (feel, sense, act, think, and relate). The reading also includes how these modules are created through the experience provides such as communication, people, web sites and email, and etc. Utilizing these tools will be helpful in building and managing a successful customer experience for any company.
Likewise, the reading “The Executive Guide: An Organization Roadmap for Your Customers.com Initiatives” features the different steps to build and implement a .com program in e-commerce for the company. The steps begin from focusing the company’s vision and putting into action, internal controls (i.e. targeting, strategy, and etc) to improving the processes continuously to keep up with the changes. The process of this initiative also focuses on the customer and how to improve their experience through interactions and analysis of data that can be collected from the websites and other online activities. The reading also notes that it’s not just about the website or just about the customer but rather to create the in-depth analysis and reform of the websites from these analyses.
Today, technology seems to be a necessity in any type of business, in fact, it seems companies are transitioning into “clicks companies” (i.e. Blockbuster) and many businesses are launched on the Internet without a physical location (i.e. Amazon.com, EBay). However, how do any of these companies stay alive and continue? As we have seen after the 2000 dot com boom and failures, most businesses only see the quick fixes and enthusiasm associated with the Internet. Therefore, in order to become successful companies must develop a program and process that builds customer experiences and create loyalty like a “bricks company”. The strategic goals are the same whether or not you are an Internet company or a company with a website.
Travelocity is one of the leading online travel agent/guide companies today; their marketing strategies and low-cost products attract millions of customers to purchase and interact with their online website. They build customer experience through not only specific SEMs and experience providers but other important tools that include the user-friendliness of the website as well. I have been a satisfied Travelocity customer for the past three years and have seen some of the changes that over the years created an overall customer experience. I frequently compare Travelocity to some of its competitors like Expedia and Orbitz but always come back to Travelocity because of their low prices and my relationship with them. Through this research and analysis I hope to learn more about the company and their strategies for customer experience and building loyal relationships.
Sources:
1. “Framework for Managing Customer Experience” by Bernd Schmitt
http://reserves.lib.utexas.edu/eres/documentview.aspx?cid=2904&associd=70931
2. “The Executive Guide: An Organization Roadmap for Your Customers.com Initiatives”
http://reserves.lib.utexas.edu/eres/documentview.aspx?cid=2904&associd=70934
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