Actionable Intelligence: The Next Best Thing to Reading your Guest’s Mind
Modern guests are here to hold hoteliers to a higher standard, one in which each property makes it their foremost mission to understand, rather anticipate, the needs of current and prospective guests. Savvy hoteliers know understanding and properly leveraging data is a primary driver of success. But what does it mean to be data-driven? How can hoteliers unlock and maximize the potential of guest data in a way that is truly applicable, actionable, and meaningful?
The answer lies in predictive analytics and actionable intelligence.
Actionable & Insightful
It is one thing to understand your guests and quite another to be able to act on guest data. In simple terms, actionable intelligence is a pioneer application of big data aggregation, analyzing and suggested application of data in a way that is relevant, personal and improves the quality of a guests’ experience. Data from different sources is structured to give an insight into the intent of a guest. Simply put, data on its own is represented by raw facts, while information is represented by processed data. Actionable intelligence is generated by analyzing information, predicting behavior, as well as drawing intelligent conclusions.
It’s important to distinguish the difference between actionable intelligence and just more data. Many companies admit they struggle to make sense of their data and create value with their big data investments. Forrester reports that 74% of firms say they want to be “data-driven,” but only 29% are actually successful at connecting analytics to action. For hoteliers, this realization remains true — actionable intelligence is often the missing piece to the puzzle.
Insights should be viewed as a means to an end – a critical tool that allows hoteliers to strengthen guest relationships. Insights add value at every guest touch point, including anticipating guests’ intent while browsing online and expectations before they even arrive on property. Ultimately, using actionable data along with historical guest information to serve a next-best communication that is individualized is sure to inspire enhanced engagement and subsequent guest satisfaction. Actionable insights derived from guest data can be extremely useful to hoteliers, allowing them to predict booking behavior and motivations, drive relevant communications, and develop comprehensive guest scores and profiles. And the more guest data hotels are collecting and analyzing, the better.
“Customers who bought X also bought Y.”
It is important to clarify that actionable intelligence is not as simple as tracking what a guest purchased last week or referencing transactional data. Derived data introduces new records that bring in valuable information pooled from multiple sources.
Top consumer brands have already figured out advanced algorithms to make smart recommendations on what customers may want to watch or buy next. Some sources estimate more than one-third of Amazon’s total sales are generated through their recommendation engine, and more than 75% of Netflix viewer activity is driven by recommendation – a value of more than $1 billion annually.
These algorithms also work by analyzing both past behavior as well as others with similar behavior. With data science powering insights and recommendations based on patterns and trends that go far deeper than demographic profiles, hoteliers can know precisely how guests are most likely to respond. It’s not reading a guest’s mind to determine that a guest that loves photography may enjoy a hot air balloon ride, but it may mean there’s a correlation that can be intelligently utilized. From guest acquisition to retention and loyalty, wherever the opportunities or challenges may lie, hoteliers can use data to optimize the entire guest journey.
Guest Intelligence Technology Powered by AI
Guests today expect to have their needs understood without having to say much. Going beyond expectations is always their wish. Many hotels fail to keep up with the pace, complexity, and other demands of the new digital world.
With this in mind, hoteliers should go beyond CRM and PMS to selectively invest in an AI-powered guest intelligence solution that leverages the full scale of data analyzation — from the aggregation of historical data to the application of predictive analytics. Rather than simply relying on historical data, hoteliers can leverage guest intelligence solutions that can make, and test assumptions based on all data sources to predict future behavior and expectations. This information can include social influence, loyalty, long-term value to your hotel and targeted upsell, and upgrade suggestions. Taking it a step further, that same platform can provide detailed guest-centric recommendations and summaries that would be challenging to gain by individual human analysts. These specific, intelligent actions powered by AI lay the foundation for a hyper-personalized guest engagement model, which is as memorable as it is profitable.
For hoteliers, actionable intelligence represents a key advantage within an ever-competitive landscape. Harnessing the power of insight-driven, actionable data, hotels can offer their guests a truly personalized, intelligence experience across every touchpoint throughout the travel journey. Optimizing the guest experience is a great way to get new customers and also one of the best ways of fostering long-term loyalty and even a step beyond – getting guests to become not just loyal, but brand advocates as well.
As the late Steve Jobs once said, “a lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
About the Author
The capability to understand today’s hotel guest is a priority for Concilio Labs. Terri Miller and her team developed a way to leverage hotel and public data to help hoteliers provide exceptional relevant experiences to its guests. As CEO of Concilio Labs, Terri is responsible for driving the strategic and tactical growth of the company, while ensuring innovation is at the forefront when delivering solutions hoteliers truly need. Her wealth of experience in business, management, and technology guides all facets of the company’s success. Prior to Concilio Labs, Terri was the Vice President of MICROS eCommerce leading the creative, delivery, and technical departments. With a passion for delivering results, Terri continues to grow Concilio Labs with a focus on becoming the leader in developing and delivering smart hotel products and services.
About Concilio Labs
Concilio Labs is on a mission to solve key issues in hospitality today—those of guest personalization and hotel loyalty—by developing innovative technology solutions that push boundaries. Concilio’s Insight Engine, a guest intelligence platform, empowers hoteliers with actionable insights to create personalized guest experiences that go far beyond traditional and existing capabilities in other similar tools. Other core service offerings target guest experience, including a tailored mobile app and integrated booking engine solutions for hoteliers looking to take their guest engagement to the next level. The management team has decades of proven experience working with technology leaders, including MICROS, giving them credibility and a deep understanding of the hospitality industry and its growing needs. Concilio Labs is a rapidly growing brand with offices in the Washington, DC area and Ukraine. To learn more, visit conciliolabs.com.