Selective excellence

Dylan Stuart, partner strategy at creative consultancy Lippincott, explains how travel businesses can use ‘selective excellence’ to enhance their customer’s journey.

‘Brexit is expected to send shockwaves across the travel industry, but even in times of economic uncertainty, consumer choice is not driven by price alone. In today’s experience-led economy, opportunities exist to win customers by providing products and services that might not be the best or cheapest, but are instead ‘selectively excellent’.

Selective excellence is an approach that can enhance customer satisfaction, while also driving business results. It involves choosing where specifically to innovate and excel and where to deliberately compromise in order to ensure good value for money spent.

The idea of creating clear value propositions that excel in some areas and only satisfy in others follows the logic of many leading brands. The winners are those able to avoid overinvestment on features that don’t resonate or deliver on the brand idea while delivering value to the customer in the moments that really matter to them.

Consider Virgin Atlantic’s mobile-first online booking website. High consideration purchases like air tickets are still rare on smartphones, in part because many websites are difficult to navigate on a smaller screen. Virgin’s new responsive site stands out not just for its ease of use but also for its distinct lack of advertising. Small innovations can be powerful emotional drivers for customers.

Tour operators are also well-versed in selective excellence. Sandals doesn’t try to be all things to all people and instead focuses on providing the ultimate all-inclusive experience. Family-friendly tour operators like Tots Too and Thomson make sure they are the best in providing facilities and activities for kids, knowing their customers see value in ensuring younger members of the family are well-catered for. And high-street agents, often unable to compete on price, find customers that are willing to pay a premium for a face-to-face, knowledgeable and tailored service that they won’t necessarily find online.

The in-flight experience is another area where selective excellence can help carriers stay focused on differentiating themselves and improving customer satisfaction. No frills, low-cost operators like Ryanair focus on high operational efficiency to deliver low prices and an industry-leading record of on-time departures.

Hotels, too, are adopting this strategy. Hyatt Centric, a new line of lifestyle hotels, was designed to cater to the burgeoning market of millennial travellers who prefer authentic local experiences to traditional hotel stays. Each Hyatt Centric hotel is designed to reflect the city it is in. Hotel associates offer a locals’ guide to the city’s best restaurants and bars while the hotel itself serves up locally inspired food and cocktails. But an important success factor for any selective excellence strategy is knowing where to compromise— while Hyatt Centric emphasises unique experiences for the millennial, you won’t see it promoting amenities many other mid-tier hotels offer business travellers.

Applying the principle of selective excellence requires a detailed understanding of both the costs involved in delivering elements of the existing experience, and how new experience innovations will impact the cost structure.

Examples abound of companies that have relied too heavily on cost analysis without calibrating the relative efficacy of the customer journey, damaging experience perceptions and customer advocacy. This is why utilising consumer research, in combination with cost breakdowns for delivering discrete elements of the overall experience, is critical to effectively evaluating existing practices and innovating new experiences.

Selective excellence is a powerful principle that enables brands to unlock the potential of experience innovation. Get it right, and a business at any point along the travellers’ journey can not only cost-save and raise efficiency, but unearth special and unexpected experiences that differentiate, impress and delight.’