Gaining Personal Information From Travel Consumers
I recently read an article published by Forrester that discussed what types of information travelers are willing to provide companies online. The report referenced a 5% decline in travelers “who feel that their personal information is secure when making online purchases.”*
As channels are becoming more and more fragmented, personal information can be extremely valuable in creating meaningful and relevant communications to consumers. After a review of several sites asking for personal information it became clear why the report showed downward trends.
In order to battle this lack of confidence, companies should focus on the following:
- Providing upfront links to privacy policies and written assurance that information gathered is secure and will not be shared.
- Provide links to past or upcoming communications.
- Making sure that the user can easily opt-out and/or modify their input values.
- Present context around why the information is being collected.
- And the simplest yet most under-utilized way to reinforce confidence is to use the information collected in meaningful ways that provide value to the end user.
Here is an example of the user experience for a person researching a beach vacation:
- User searches for beach hotel and finds a sign-up page. The page clearly states how the information will be used with a link to the company privacy policy. Samples of previous communications with links to live content are available.
- All required information is first.
- As more detailed information (not required) is requested the user is told what this information will do for them, such as filtering content and offers based on families, art, sports, etc.
- Once the information is submitted the user is provided links to manage their preferences.
- The first communication be it an email, text message or custom landing page provides content specifically tailored to the information provided.
Reference: *How Travel eBusiness Can Persuade More Travelers To Share Valuable Personal Information, Forrester Research, Inc., March 3, 2010.