Tom H. C. Anderson - Next Gen Market Research

I was quoted in an article that came out in Hospitality Technology this month. You can read the article online here.

Even though I’ve worked with several clients in the travel and hospitality industry during the past few years I’m still often surprised. On the one hand I’m surprised at how many surveys are circulated. These companies obviously value market research/guest feedback more than their customers even imagine.

What I’m also surprised at though is that given the amount of data available to them, the level of analysis and predictive analytics, if there is any, it is often not very advanced. One of the key areas where I think the industry could improve is in the open ends. Why bother someone with a 2 page survey. You can get everything you need by asking the guest to jot down their thoughts on the back of a postcard and then use text analytics to code and analyze the data.

Many of these companies, especially hotels, don’t seem to realize that there is a cost associated with these surveys and their ROI could be oh so much better.

Tom