CRM Analytics Spur Travelocity

Orlando -- Online travel site Travelocity.com is crediting a 200 percent increase in preferred membership enrollments to a campaign involving analytical software from vendor SAS. Though rebounding, no segment was hit harder than the travel industry over the past six months. Seeking to capitalize on what it perceived as a recovering economy, Travelocity, which provides Internet and wireless reservations for more than 700 airlines, 55,000 hotels and 50 car rental companies, used SAS technology to drive a marketing campaign that applied predictive analysis to member information aggregated from multiple data sources. The results were segmented, and predictive analysis allowed the company to offer bundled packages based on seasonal and regional travel preferences. Chris Warwick, director of Travelocity.com relationship marketing, says predictive analysis allowed better understanding of customer behavior and the timing of those behaviors by segment; analysis of overlay data, like demographics and personal interests by segment; and also let Travelocity determine the value of customer segments as a whole. Beyond the increase in memberships, Travelocity also has better knowledge of the best prospects for future campaigns, and an understanding of who not to target with promotions. "We're counting on [predictive analysis] to power our customer reactivation efforts," says Warwick. "Customer intelligence is the key to our company's success, so everyone, customer service professionals to our senior executives, backs this CRM initiative 100 percent." Jim Ericson also writes for Line56.com