The travel and hospitality sector in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) is a hotbed of innovation in customer experience (CX). One of the keys to success in this dynamic industry lies not only in delivering exceptional service but also leveraging cutting-edge technologies to enhance the customer journey.
Here, we spotlight five success stories where APAC travel and hospitality brands have successfully harnessed various techniques and technologies, from smart chatbots to omnichannel solutions, to transform the customer experience.
Through these examples, we explore the power of digitalization, personalization and automation in helping to provide memorable experiences for travelers and guests.
Digitalization: The Peninsula Hotels
The Peninsula Hotels is a luxury chain operated by Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. The brand recently enhanced its CX offering by implementing a range of digital initiatives in collaboration with tech solutions provider Tekcent.
These included the launch of a WeChat mini-program, which in six months attracted more one million users and generated more than 10 percent of all online bookings for the hotel chain in China. This success contributed to a 40 percent increase in user retention and a 35 percent rise in referrals.
Meanwhile, optimizing the brand’s homepage resulted in a 20 percent longer average time spent on the site, a 15 percent increase in page views and a 10 percent higher click-through rate. Users were reported to have appreciated the enhanced relevance and personalization, and the brand received positive feedback for its user-friendly interface and improved navigation.
In addition, redesigned in-room interfaces – including tablets, wall panels, IPTV and SIP phones – led to an impressive 30 percent increase in guest satisfaction, as validated by surveys and reviews. Furthermore, these interfaces boosted the usage of hotel services by 25 percent.
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Personalization: Mandarin Oriental
Mandarin Oriental, an Asia-Pacific luxury hotel chain, focused on blending personalized digital experiences with in-person luxury.
The objectives included adding mobile-first options, unifying physical and digital experiences, increasing engagement on digital platforms, enabling guest connections across channels and enhancing personalization.
In 2021, a website refresh contributed to a 10 percent increase in guest engagement. Then, in early 2023, a "grand relaunch" of the website prioritized a mobile-first approach, offering multimedia content, virtual property tours, price matching, hyper-personalization, and integrated communications.
The brand's approach was rooted in understanding guest preferences, with an emphasis on layout, visual appeal and emotional connection through photography.
The website offered simplified navigation, allowing guests to explore properties in detail, book services and create a personalized online profile for a tailored experience.
Results were impressive, with a 91 percent increase in organic traffic, a 17 percent rise in unique visitors and a 42 percent increase in revenue from online bookings year-on-year.
Mandarin Oriental's ‘Fans of MO’ loyalty program was also introduced, rewarding direct bookings with perks and personalization. What’s more, the sharing of guest data collected through MO accounts gave properties the opportunity to inform and enhance customer experience across devices and touchpoints.
Customer satisfaction: ANA Group
At Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA Group), management had an ambition for the brand to become a leader in global customer satisfaction and value creation. To achieve this, the airline set about developing a strategy where every aspect of the customer journey was prioritized, with the aim of making customers "glad to have chosen ANA”.
Part of this strategy involves the collaboration of all departments within the ANA Group, with each proposing measures to enhance the customer experience. These measures are reviewed and decided upon in CX strategy meetings presided over by ANA's president and board members.
The company’s CX platform integrates customer and operational information, allowing timely access to essential data and providing a comprehensive view of the customer journey. This digital platform complements human efforts, with a view to ensuring that customers receive a “more finely detailed” service.
The ANA Group utilizes the Net Promoter Score (NPS) to gauge customer recommendations and continuously enhance offerings. The company also values customer feedback, actively incorporating it into its services to help maintain the overall value of the ANA experience.
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Automation: AirAsia
As the popularity of Malaysian airline AirAsia surged, so too did brand interactions, raising the risk of long wait times for live agents. In a bid to improve customer service, the company initiated an automated support strategy with technology solutions provider Ada.
With support from Ada's automated customer experience (ACX) consultants, AirAsia's non-technical team built a customized chatbot, enhanced with images, videos, and GIFs.
The chatbot was hosted on the firm’s website, Facebook, WhatsApp and WeChat, offering support in 11 languages. It provided real-time flight status, booking, information updates and ancillary product additions. For more complex issues, customers were seamlessly transferred to live agents via Salesforce Service Cloud.
The automation solution had the ability to take on more than 20 million interactions annually. Within one month, AirAsia reduced the average wait time by 98 percent to less than one minute.
After the full rollout of the solution, 75 percent of interactions were resolved without live agents. Customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores improved from 60 percent to 90 percent and ancillary product upsell/cross-sell increased eight-fold.
Omnichannel: Singapore Airlines
Singapore Airlines has been a champion of the omnichannel approach to CX strategy, partnering with AOE-integrated airports and shopping malls to seamlessly blend online and offline interactions. This collaboration allows travelers to shop, modify flight options, and make pre-bookings across both physical and digital platforms.
The SingaporeAir mobile app complements this effort, offering features like online booking, digital boarding passes, and access to onboard magazines.
The airline has also leveraged this omnichannel approach to enhance its customer service offering, integrating call, email, and web chat functions through its Genesys solution and improving inbound and outbound interactions. This unified strategy consolidates customer-facing teams into a single system, which also facilitates the integration of new services.
A significant innovation is 'Kris’' a Google-based chatbot. Virtual concierge Kris handles basic inquiries and redirects complex questions to human agents, managing over 85,000 queries weekly.
Singapore Airlines has reaped several benefits from its omnichannel approach, including personalized service, increased brand loyalty, enhanced efficiency, streamlined collaboration, real-time reporting, and optimized resource allocation.