Image by Caro Wallis

I write to you in this troubled economic climate, as the type of customer who you really should be targeting – but very obviously aren’t. If the media is anything to go by, many of you are currently panicking about the impact of the economic downturn on your travel-related business.

Here’s a suggestion:

Rather than continuing to try and appeal to your usual customer base – the once-a-year holiday brigade or the business travellers who are currently looking at ways to reduce their business-related travel – wouldn’t it make more sense to target a segment of customers who are still travelling – no matter what?

That customer segment would be us – the location independent, globe-trotting digital nomads. We aren’t fair-weather travellers – we travel as a lifestyle. We are the customers who, despite the economic downturn, will still be travelling.

And not only that, we’re customers who “get” and frequently use online social networking – meaning that we use Twitter, Facebook, blogs and more to openly share our feelings, thoughts and experiences on the travel services we encounter – word-of-mouth marketing at its savviest.

Here’s what we’re not big fans of:

• Ongoing reductions in the benefits offered by airline loyalty programmes (US airlines, you are guilty of this more than anyone).
• Complex airfare calculations that make it impossible to know what fare we’ll need to pay for our flights when we eventually book them.
• Charges for basics that used to be included in the standard airfare (again, US airlines you are particularly bad at this – take a leaf from your Asian counterparts if you want to provide superior service and increase customer loyalty).
• Ridiculous over-the-top fees for wi-fi access in hotels – despite the decrease in the cost of wi-fi.
• Rental apartment owners turning down our guaranteed offers of several months occupancy, in return for the uncertain prize of being able to charge just one night at your premium rate.
• Uninformative tourist board websites with out-of-date, inaccurate information.

Here’s what we do and what we’re looking for:

• We may not be your typical business traveller with huge corporations financing our travel plans and paying bloated business class fares but nor are we all backpackers/vagabonds looking for the cheapest possible routes that often mean hour-long layovers and surface travel – many of us are successful business professionals running our own businesses and we’re looking for good service and value-for-money – and yes, sometimes we do fly business class.
• We like to research various routes in advance (sometimes up to 12 months ahead) so we can cost up the air tickets and connection options – this doesn’t mean we go ahead and book the flights yet but we would at least like to be able to see what routes/connections are available and get an idea of the cost.
• We use the internet. A lot. In fact it can be a deciding factor in choosing to travel to a place or not. We would definitely choose hotels & other accommodation which come with free (or low cost) wi-fi access over those which don’t – and failing that, a (free/low cost) cable connection will do.
• City-wide or region-wide websites which provide directory listings for *all* self-catering and short-term, vacation rental accommodation – even better if it comes with some kind of standard rating system to ensure quality of information and quality of accommodation. In fact, if there were some kind of star-rating system for vacation/short term rentals like there is for hotels, that would be even better.
• Two-way communication with travel- and tourism-related companies – take a leaf out of SeatGuru’s book (very active, responsive and interactive on Twitter) – and start interacting more with your customer base to really figure out what it is that matters to us all.
• Monthly rates stated on accommodation websites – or at least a ball park figure. Given the economic climate, isn’t it better to get guaranteed occupancy (and therefore rental income) for at least a month’s rental (even if it is at a lower rat) versus hedging your bets in the hope you’ll get your full nightly rate for 1-2 nights of that month? There’s also the word-of-mouth benefit that a month long tenant may bring versus no-one staying in your accommodation.

We are the type of customer that will continue to travel throughout the economic downturn – we will, because we can and we want to. We are the kind of customer who can help you survive the downturn.

We would rather not have those bad experiences in the first place, but you’ve been warned…if we do, we will quite happily share them on our blogs, on Twitter, on Facebook and any other online social network we’re members of. Now is the time to raise your game.

Share This...

Hide Sites