The use of clean, relevant, and accurate data is critical to all aspects of providing a great customer experience. In the travel and hospitality sector, as in others, this data can be used to provide a more personalized engagement with a brand.

The upcoming Dash Research report, CX Market Ecosystem, profiles many industry participants that provide customer data and analytics support to the travel market. Some examples include Algonomy, Amperity, Braze, mParticle, and Reltio, among many others.

I recently had a briefing with Redpoint Global, provider of the rgOne software platform, which consists of three pillars: intelligent orchestration, automated machine learning (ML), and customer data management (CDM). During our discussion about technology trends in the travel and hospitality market, Steve Zisk, senior product marketing manager, and T.J. Prebil, senior director product marketing, discussed the company’s deep data expertise, the Holy Grail of the “golden record,” as well as some customer successes in the travel sector.

Redpoint Global prides itself on managing data for companies that can be leveraged to support a next-generation customer engagement platform. The data helps provide a single view of a customer, along with insights into what customers really want. Redpoint does not just dabble in data, it lives and breathes it, and according to the company, is one of only a handful of CX-related providers listed in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for data quality. A successful data management system brings in first-party data, cleanses it, and normalizes it. But it needs to go beyond that and match signals across different channels. And this is where some systems can get in the weeds. Matching simple data points, such as a name (e.g., Mike versus Michael) or slightly different addresses, can turn into a difficult task due to the ever-increasing number of touchpoints each customer can now access. Steve Zisk shared how Redpoint strives to provide its clients with a single golden record of each guest using transactional, demographic, and behavioral data. A golden record can be described as a single source of truth for a customer profile. However, it is not frozen; it is fluid and can change as each interaction builds on another.

Inputs into the Golden Record

Zisk further pointed out the benefits of using ML models to help automate marketing decisions and provide deeper personalization. In the case of Redpoint, the company develops models using the client’s own data, rather than having it prebuilt and learning from other data sources, allowing the models to be fit for specific purposes.

What is the reality of implementing an integrated system, such as the one offered by Redpoint? One hurdle is that most customers have dozens of software systems and are already invested in a technology stack. According to T.J. Prebil, one of the keys to success is meeting customers where they are and helping them move from point A to point B. Flexibility and the ability to be nimble are crucial while helping customers migrate their tools. A one-size-fits-all approach is not possible. Xanterra Travel Collection, a group of global hospitality and travel companies, worked with Redpoint Global and routinely saw three-figure improvement scores at certain locations after the system was put in place. At the start of the project, Xanterra had 70 different databases. The databases are now under one centralized tool and Xanterra is able to develop a golden record for guests. This is especially important as its clients often travel with different brands in the Xanterra portfolio, with multiple touchpoints and interactions. This information was used to personalize offers, as well as help Xanterra determine which personas offered the highest returns.

Companies in the travel and hospitality will be looking for more ways to be efficient and save on operational costs as the industry starts to ramp back up. Data management and smart journey orchestration will continue to be crucial pieces along this road.