Fox World Travel

In the last decade, technology and the data revolution have unrelentingly reshaped the landscape of modern business, hitting some more than others. The travel industry in particular has seen large shifts in how customers are served. It has become a race to stay ahead of the widening chasm between sustainable growth and becoming obsolete, but speed won’t save you if it’s in the wrong direction. Building up your tech and strategies on the right information can mean the difference between surviving and thriving with your customer base. So, what’s the best source? Your customers themselves, of course.

Consider, for example, the case of Fox World Travel. The agency is no stranger to the idea of a customer-centric culture. As one of the top travel companies in the country serving business, meeting, incentive, and vacation travelers, Fox is committed to meeting the needs of its customers. A brand-wide dedication to customers coupled with new tech has provided insight into traveler pain points. Fox has used these insights to help maintain award-winning growth for the better part of the last decade.

Building up your tech and strategies on the right information can mean the difference between surviving and thriving with your customer base.

Customer Experience Director Mia Beltran was heavily involved in the implementation and development of Fox’s customer engagement efforts, and she’s watched them blossom over the past 6 years. “The foundation and the focus were there,” she says, “but this just brought us up to that next level.” She’s referring to implementing the Net Promoter System. Developed by Bain & Company, NPS® has become a pillar of customer experience for business leaders the world over. Through careful research, Fox discovered the value of the customer-driven methodology and partnered with Listen360, an NPS® tech company, to automate and aggregate the customer feedback process.

Using NPS® and compiling data, Beltran can assist Fox in learning from customers. “I love digging into and finding the facts to support what I might be feeling or seeing,” she says. A hunch about customer trends can only carry Fox so far, but hard numbers from customer feedback establish patterns and point Fox in the right direction.

By surveying customers with questions pursuant to the NPS® technique, Fox generates a score for the brand’s overall customer loyalty. Open-ended questions and text analytics also shed light on specific opportunities to improve the customer experience that otherwise could have gone unnoticed. Armed with this information, the organization can set benchmarks and goals, improve operations, innovate new technologies and work with clients to solve problems. “Customer feedback is invaluable to us,” Beltran says of the NPS® findings. “Gifts from our customers that we wouldn’t otherwise have if we weren’t asking the questions.”

Those same questions give Fox a leg up in another unexpected way. “Our technology teams were hungry for this sort of information,” Beltran shares. In 2018, the agency won the Travel Weekly Magellan Award for innovative tech. That tech, designed to help travelers deal with cancellations and flight waivers, might not have come about if the development teams hadn’t been in tune with the customer need. “So much of that comes from us listening to what our customers were saying about travel disruption,” Beltran adds. Innovation is changing the game, but knowing specifically how and where to innovate is what keeps Fox ahead of it.

Armed with this information, the organization can set benchmarks and goals, improve operations, innovate new technologies and work with clients to solve problems.

Perhaps one of the most vitally important ways Fox uses the data is sharing across the entire network of leadership and associates. Internally Highlighting the voice of the customer boosts morale and helps associates understand what drives customer loyalty. Having a sort of scoreboard that shows progress, areas to improve, and goals helps to motivate and focus an organization. A customer feedback report shared company-wide is just one more way Fox has found to harness the power of customer relationships to fuel growth.

When you bring together award-winning tech and a deep-seeded caring for customers, good things happen. Individual travelers and larger clients alike consistently notice that Fox is steering the industry in the right direction through NPS®. With a 99% customer retention rate, it’s pretty difficult to argue otherwise.