How are Dynamic, Personalized Offers Changing Our Industry?

In my last post, I told you how technology is changing your conversations with hyper-connected customers.

I also promised to tell you what your biggest asset is.

You might think your biggest asset is your airplanes, or your people, or your newest business class seats. But no, the most vital asset that any of us in the airline industry have in our relationship with customers is “The Offer.” Without the right offer, nobody buys and nobody stays loyal. Without the right offer, you lose the relationship and the revenue.

The offer is what flows from you to your customer throughout this conversation and this relationship. The offer is truly your biggest and most important asset.

The concept of an offer is not new, of course. Offers have always existed. But in the past, an offer was a price on a product or service, and everybody who came to shop in your store – or even your website – generally saw the same prices or close to the same prices as your competitors.

Today, the offer is complex. In fact, its every bit as complex as the customer relationship you are in now. Every offer needs to be personalized and optimized – created specifically for a specific situation, person, product, and service. In other words, every offer is unique; just like people are unique in their own ways; just like every customer you have is unique. You could even say the offer has its own anatomy, or DNA. Every offer is unique and created dynamically in real time.

Think about it this way. Every single time you interact with your customer, a new strand of DNA – a new offer – is created. And what goes into the manufacturing of this offer? A lot!

We’re talking about Merchandising, Dynamic Pricing, and Predictive Analytics. We’re talking about loads and loads of data! There’s customer data – things like demographics, shopping and buying history, and loyalty. There’s data about your products and services. What’s the aircraft or the load factor on the flight, and how many premium seats are left? These might impact what you offer and for how much. There’s also data that comes from Predictive Analytics. What is this traveler’s propensity to buy this particular product?

All of this data is assembled and analyzed, and an impactful offer is dynamically calculated in real time. Hopefully, this unique offer delights the traveler and makes you some money in the process. This is the future of Revenue Management, and it’s the holy grail for the world’s leading airlines.

And guess what? Nobody except you – as the supplier with access to all of this data and intelligence – can ever create an offer this good or this impactful. You can’t outsource this to a third party or a GDS, or even a PSS – because they don’t have all the data! They are not in this specific, hyper-connected relationship. It’s you, and only you, creating your offer – your biggest asset. Think about it!