We usually book our hotels on yatra.com, makemytrip.com, expedia.com, or some such site. However, we go on tripadvisor.com to record our travel experience. The hotels where the traveler actually spends time do not care to collect and use any data. The only information they seek is the mundane customer feedback.
On the other hand, online companies collect and use a lot of data to engage with customers. For example, a friend of mine booked a vacation through such a site. When he reached the hotel, he was shocked to know that the place was sold out. The company offered to get him a booking in another hotel. Despite the discount they offered, it was still way too expensive. Grudgingly, he paid the difference. However, within a day or two, he got a full refund from the online site to his account. The hotel booking expense was on them!
Do you think they would do it with everyone? I doubt. My friend travels a lot and always uses the same site to book his travel. Probably, they mined the data and realized that he was too important a customer to lose.
Now, contrast this with my experience. I stayed in a hotel in Manali. The water heater in the room wasn't working. I called and told reception to fix it. They promptly sent a mechanic. The mechanic identified the problem but, he did not have the spares to fix it. The mechanic asked me to call up the manager to ask for a room replacement. The manager came and apologized for the inconvenience. He escalated the issue to the property manager. Finally, we were offered another room. There is nothing wrong with the process they followed. Unfortunately, this process ignores the most critical component - the customer. It took the hotel a good 2 hours to make the final decision of relocation. I had stayed in the same hotel at least twice in the past. I had referred it to many people. The hotel simply did not have this data with them. So, they worked only on point data and followed the same process for every customer.
Tomorrow, if makemytrip.com or yatra.com were to recommend me a hotel, I would blindly follow their advice. They have used my data to entangle me.
The hotels have much richer data than these booking sites. They know my eating and sleeping habits. They know in and out time. It is time they use that information to personalize their service.
What is applicable for the hotel industry is also true for most of the brick and mortar businesses.
Metrics:
Do not copy the business model of any company.
Focus on your strengths and develop a system of gathering data. Build a business model that differentiates your customer experience from others.
Use the insights from data analysis and use them to create unique experiences for the customer.
Do not make these inferences subservient to your processes. A celebrity chef once told me that he never follows the same way of preparing a dish. Instead, he focuses on the outcome. And that is customer delight.
Subodh
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