Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(Frary 2005). Muhtaseb
et al
. (2012) fi nd the two primary factors that infl uence travellers'
confi dence and satisfaction in a website are content and personalization. Customers want to fi nd
information quickly and easily and they want to be recognized and treated as individuals.
Despite the emphasis on effective design, a lack of appreciation of interactivity and
personalization in websites means that many remain in the domain of advertising (Corigliano
and Baggio 2004). A study into the importance of good design concludes that travel companies
could lift sales by at least one third if they address customer experiences rather than their own
perceptions of what is a good website (Gianforte 2003). This organizational focus in design is
being replicated in the development of Web 2.0 offerings where there is 'a high propensity of
traditional advertisement and limited collaboration with users' (Hvass and Munar 2012: 93).
In the airline sector Hvass and Munar (2012) note that a lack of clear strategies and inconsistent
use of social media applications has resulted in missed opportunities for relationship building.
Such views echo those of Vogt (2011: 360) who argues that organizations should aim to 'delight
consumers with more insightful service interactions and ultimately consumption experiences
stand to strengthen customer loyalty and commitment'.
Albert, Goes and Gupta (2004) present a framework for the development, design and
management of customer-centric websites. Such sites facilitate gathering of data on visitor
characteristics and behaviour, understanding where they come from, segmentation, tracking of
segment behaviour and development of site content and interactivity to meet the needs of each
segment. In essence, to fulfi l customers' needs for specifi c information or transactional capability.
Such sites are models of best practice and not within the resources of many smaller organizations
within the travel sector, although adherence to basic principles can improve customer experience.
Social media do not affect the basic principles of web design, but do call for greater speed and
new ways of interacting with customers that should complement, not replace, other marketing
activity (Hvass and Munar 2012).
Design considerations also impact on customers' willingness to use SSTs. Perceived control
encourages self-effi cacy and encourages repeat use by customers and can be enhanced through
design features that provide interactivity and comparative information (Zhu, Nakata, Sivakumar
and Grewal 2007). Once consumers have engaged with an SST, problems may arise in completion
of the transactional or informational process. Early evidence suggests that customers are unwilling
to take the blame for failure of an SST process, although nearly 60 per cent of failed procedures
result from customer actions (Forbes 2008). Where the problem is held to be the result of design
problems, consumers will assume that it is a long-term issue and are likely to discontinue use
(Meuter
et al
. 2000; Forbes 2008). Again, simplicity of design is more important than complex
offerings that do not meet consumer needs (Zhu
et al
. 2007), supporting arguments for effective
relationship marketing to enable organizations to understand customers' needs.
Identifying the customer
Differentiating market segments is a central tenet of marketing and the ability to segment very
large markets is a feature of effective Information Systems (Vogt 2011). Market segmentation
facilitates targeted marketing and enables organizations to identify the contribution to sales of
each segment (Reichheld
et al
. 2000). Not all customers are equally profi table and organizations
need to recognize what appeals to the most potentially profi table segment to encourage greater
depths of loyalty (Peppard 2000). In other words, organizations should be careful to concentrate
appropriate resources on the high value customers (Luck and Lancaster 2003).
In travel and tourism a range of metrics are used to identify valued customers. For example,
airlines tend to regard frequency of travel as a measure of a valued customer whereas an online
