Tag: customer experience management

Are Travel Fairs a Good Way to Sell Holidays?

February 7, 2012 • Blog • 4 comments

In the hypercompetitive travel trade in Singapore, merely putting together a compelling itinerary with an attractive price isn’t sufficient. With a plethora of online travel portals like Expedia, Travelocity, Zuji and Wotif muscling into their space, brick and mortar travel agents need to find new ways to differentiate themselves. With the help of online travel service providers, consumers are booking airline tickets, selecting hotel rooms, renting cars, arranging land transfers, and even making reservations for restaurants and shows in advance.

While some players like MISA Travel have gone on to develop a more e-commerce savvy website, others such as ASA Holidays have organised full-fledged trade fairs to showcase their various offerings. Together with other big outbound tour operators like CTC Travel and Chan Brothers, ASA Holidays is pre-empting the upcoming NATAS Travel Fair with their own pre-sales event (I told you it was competitive).

Are these travel fairs successful? Well, join me for a tour of ASA Holidays’ recent fair at Suntec City and decide for yourself.

The Role of Showmanship in Marketing

December 25, 2011 • Business and Management • no comments

On a recent visit to Takashimaya Shopping Centre for Christmas shopping, my family visited their highly popular basement food mall area looking for gift ideas.

Amidst the festive air, I noticed that there were many stalls offering gourmet food items for sale where the delectable pastries and candies were made ‘live’ by chefs.

Dinosaurs Live! at Singapore Science Centre

November 19, 2011 • Blog • 3 comments

Tina and Ethan posing next to an animatronic Apatosaurus

“Roar, Growl, Hiss, Grr, Screech and Scream!”

Welcome to the world of the fabulous dinosaurs (also known as the “terrible lizards”) at Dinosaurs-Live!, a recently opened exhibition at the Singapore Science Centre. Happening from now til 26 Feb 2012, the exhibition showcases almost 50 life-sized dinosaurs, reptiles and other prehistoric creatures brought realistically back to life by awesome animatronics.

Why Branding Isn’t Just a Marketing Problem

October 25, 2011 • Blog, Personal Branding • 1 comment

Ensure that all customer touchpoints are branded (courtesy of Marketing Brainstorm)

You’ve probably heard variations of these conversations in your own organisation:

“Our branding sucks! Let’s change our logo and splash it all over the place.”

How To Create Delightful Customer Experiences

October 8, 2011 • Business and Management • 4 comments

In an age which some may term as the “experience economy”, companies and businesses can ill afford to focus solely on quality products or low prices. The entire spectrum of engaging and enrapturing a customer through every single touch point – both online and offline – becomes critical.

It isn’t just the transaction itself that matters. Rather the entire customer experience journey becomes important. This includes reading/hearing about your product online or offline, browsing your stores/ websites, speaking to a retail associate, purchasing the product, experiencing the product, and after sales customer service.

A Pain Removal Solution

January 26, 2011 • Blog • 1 comment

Remove Our Pain and We’ll Reward You For it (source)

It often puzzles me why companies and businesses don’t focus on the obvious pain points of their customers. Why do they not listen to the repeated complaints and criticisms that have emerged both online and offline by their regular customers?

Examples of commonly felt “pain” points include the following:

The Science of Excellent Exhibitions

December 30, 2010 • Blog • no comments

As the importance of 360 degree immersive marketing grows, companies should consider curating and choreographing experience-rich physical environments in their retail outlets. A good way to do so would be putting up 3D exhibition displays that help to augment and enrich the overall experience of one’s customers.

In this regard, the Singapore Science Centre can be considered one of the leaders of the craft. Attracting more than a million visitors a year, the Science Centre offers education, enrichment and entertainment all under one roof. As part of the PS21 EXCEL Learning Journey, I had the benefit of understanding how the Centre – considered one of the best in the world – goes about creating, developing and implementing an exhibition.

August 29, 2010 • Blog • no comments

Social technologies and networks have driven demand for meet-ups like Social Media Breakfast

One of the greatest misunderstandings about the rise of social media platforms is that it will replace the need for being physically present at places and events. After all, it is far cheaper contacting somebody via Twitter, Internet Messaging, Facebook or Skype than to meet them in the flesh.

Now that social technologies have gone mobile, your iPad, iPhone, android or symbian smartphone allows you to plug in and participate in conversations 24 by 7. Need richer levels of interaction? Simply get a mobile broadband device or tether your 3.5G phone to your laptop and you can share documents, wikis, blog posts, presentation slides, spreadsheets and more.

You Are Probably Guilty Of These Customer Service Mistakes

August 26, 2010 • Business and Management • 4 comments

Courtesy of sayitcommunity.com

Customer experience management is the new marketing. While the world swoons over the impact of digital technologies on customer experience, it is often basic customer service which determines if a company swims or sinks.

Getting (and Teaching) Your Customers to DIY

May 15, 2009 • Business and Management • no comments

Its the journey and not the destination (courtesy of dadadreams)

What is the best way to capture your customer’s hearts and minds? How do you make them feel a sense of ownership for your brands, products and services?

The secret lies in getting them involved as much as possible.