Leveraging Customer Data and Traveler Insights to Drive Covid-19 Recovery

This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.

In this video:

• Results of a Covid-19 travel outlook from ICF Next
• How travel organizations can use their loyalty data to inform more meaningful customer interactions during the Covid-19 recovery
• In what ways will travel brands need to adapt their loyalty amenities and offerings in reaction to Covid-19?

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Covid-19 is hitting the travel industry hard. Travel businesses are cutting back inventory and marketing, and travelers are putting trips on hold as they wait to see how uncertain employment and an evolving outbreak will impact their travel plans. But even at this dire moment, there is cause for hope: that’s because many travel brands are turning to their loyalty programs to help them navigate their recovery strategy in the face of this unprecedented challenge.

“Loyalty…has been a very resilient place for brands in times of economic uncertainty and economic challenge,” said Guy Cierzan of ICF Next. “Imbedded within loyalty, the frequency, the richness of the relationship, through all those facets, it is just a tremendous asset to leverage.”

Loyalty programs were already a priceless asset for many travel brands before the pandemic, helping provide companies with deep insights into their customers’ habits. But at a time when many travelers are dreaming or planning for travel, but not always buying, loyalty can actually tell us a lot about customers’ current and future intentions, revealing the hidden intent of different types of travelers, ensuring that brands communicate in an authentic way to build trust with customers, and helping deliver more relevant offers and amenities that resonate with travelers who are still receptive to hitting the road.

“With Covid-19, we’re seeing that, yet again with loyalty and data, and the ability to hyper-personalize to traveler concerns and traveler interests in the future is going to be paramount,” said Cierzan.

In this video from Skift’s 2020 Loyalty Summit, we hear from Guy Cierzan, managing partner, loyalty, for ICF Next, along with Eliot Hamlisch, executive vice president, loyalty and revenue optimization at Wyndham, for a conversation about whathow travel organizations should know about the current Covid-19 recovery outlook, along with insights into how they can use loyalty to help kickstart their Covid-19 recovery plans.

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“What we do today, and in turn, how we plan for tomorrow is really going to define how our members see us long term, and how effectively we’ll be able to build trust and loyalty in our brand over time,” said Wyndham’s Hamlisch.