75% of travel money transactions are conducted between April and September. Over 80% of consumers buy their currency in advance but 43% of consumers will buy it in the last few weeks before they travel. And when they do buy, 54% of consumers accept the first deal they are offered.
So given these market dynamics, how can you best protect and grow your market share during this crucial trading period?
Andrew Buller our travel money expert considers 7 things that could help you develop your 2017 travel money plans.
1. Understand who your customers and competitors are
Carry out research with your customers and non-customers to find out:
- Who is your current customer? Why do they buy from you? What channel did they select you through and why?
- Who are you not attracting and what would it take to attract them to your business?
- Who are your real competitors and in which channels do they compete? Depending on your proposition and your target customer, you maybe surprised by who your real competitors are.
This research will help you understand who your most valuable customers are, why they come to you and who you compete with to win these customers. With this information you will be able to define your strategy and gain market share against your direct competition.
2. Know how your proposition compares to your competitors
Once you know who your most valuable customers are, you need to assess how well your proposition meets their needs or if their needs are being better met by competitors.
- How well are you delivering on your brand values or do competitors do it better?
- How does your proposition measure up in the market?
- How do you compare on:
- Customer satisfaction or NPS score
- Online customer journey
- Rates
- Convenience
- Buy backs
- Incentives
- Staff helpfulness
This insight will help you understand where your current capabilities are and highlight any areas you need to focus on to build compelling propositions in your market.
3. Use your data
Understand the data you already have and develop a business strategy based on attracting back previous and existing customers.
Based on previous years’ purchasing patterns you will have a good idea when they might go on holiday which means you can create campaigns and customer communications that encourage them to purchase from you again.
You can also use your data to keep in touch with your customers, for example by creating an email newsletter offering them advice on when is the best time to buy currency or other aspects of their holiday such as new destinations, travel insurance or health advice. This way travel money becomes part of their broader holiday preparations.
Think about touchpoints that enable you to collect data that will enable this kind of approach in the future such as offering to send an electronic receipt to their email address.
4. Focus on loyalty as well as new business
According to our latest Travel Money Survey 46% of consumers shopped around before picking a provider. Cost and convenience were the main reasons for changing provider closely followed by fast processing and a better exchange rate.
Consider what you can do to increase loyalty and attract your customers back to you time and time again.
- Based on their previous purchases, when is the best time to contact them? Did they respond to a particular campaign or incentive?
- Which channel did they buy through?
- How often and when do you measure customer satisfaction?
This insight helps you understand what’s working and highlights any issues that may prevent repeat purchases in the future.
5. Evaluate incentives
Before you repeat what you did last year or copy your nearest competitor consider how well incentives are performing for you right now.
- How important are they to consumers?
- How much do they influence the consumer to buy from you?
- And are they really driving incremental sales?
In our March Travel Money Survey only 5% of consumers cited offer/incentive as a reason for choosing a provider.
6. Don’t forget price comparison websites
Our most recent travel money survey showed that 34% of consumers use price comparison websites to research the best rates. Consider testing how your position impacts on your sales volumes. It is important to make sure that your price comparison website strategy is aligned to that of your other distribution channels, offering a cheaper rate on a comparison website to that on your website will drive loyalty to the comparison website and away from your own.
7. In branch experience and rates
63% of consumers currently purchase their travel money in branch. And when you ask them what stands out as good experience, quality of advice given as well as excellent rates and customer service are often mentioned.
So how well your branch delivers customer service and competitive rates is crucial to achieving your sales target in the key trading period.
Create tactical or local campaigns based on the location of your retail outlet.
Consider how much your branch location may impact trade, are you in a shopping centre or are you near offices? Tailor when you promote your offers or run in branch events to make the most of your high foot fall periods.
- How competitive are you in your locality?
- How well does your front window advertising work for you?
Our survey showed that 19% of consumers use the branch to do their research.
A Typical Year In Travel Money
75% of travel money transactions are conducted between April and September. Over 80% of consumers buy their currency in advance but 43% of consumers will buy it in last few weeks before they travel. And when they do buy, 54% of consumers accept the first deal they are offered.
So given these market dynamics, how can you best protect and grow your market share during this crucial trading period?
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