Customer experience is critical – so critical, in fact, that customers who had the best past customer experiences spend 140% more compared to those who had the poorest past experiences. In the travel industry, customer experience has traditionally focused on only the stay or trip itself; but today, leading organizations are thinking beyond just the in-person touchpoints, to all touchpoints throughout the traveler journey.

Airlines, hotels and cruise lines must think across the four stages of their customer journey: customer awareness, customer acquisition, customer experience, and loyalty and retention. To remain competitive and drive profits, organizations in the travel industry must enhance the traveler experience across each of these dimensions. But how?

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What is “FOMO”? It’s simple: the Fear Of Missing Out. This term has traditionally been used in social settings, for example: “Jane had major FOMO when she was out of town for the summer party, because her whole team attended and it was always fun.”

However, the FOMO epidemic has now spread from social circles to the business world. Many organizations are experiencing FOMO when it comes to optimizing their promotional strategies – or, in other words, suffering from “Promo FOMO.”

Consider an organization that deploys a promotional campaign, first trialing it with a subset of customers to understand its impact. In this common scenario, there is a challenging balance to strike. Executives want to maximize the exposure of the campaign to the most relevant customers to avoid missed profit opportunities. However, the process of using test vs. control analysis to evaluate a campaign requires holding out a group of customers from the campaign in order to have a baseline comparison – meaning that fewer customers are receiving the campaign.

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Loyalty programs are a growing strategy for restaurants – over 40 percent already have a loyalty program, and 27 percent plan to implement one within the year. However, restaurant executives are quickly learning that it is one thing to introduce a loyalty program, and another to build signups and engagement.

For some chains, such as coffee shops that often have daily interactions with guests, driving engagement can be a more straightforward endeavor. For brands that may have less frequent interactions with guests, however, it can be difficult to gather the consumer touchpoints necessary to build, inform, and bolster their loyalty programs.

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There is an undeniable appeal to shopping without ever leaving your home. As devices like Amazon’s Alexa further shorten the path to purchase, it is becoming increasingly easier for consumers to fulfill their shopping needs online.

The growing competition from online players places greater pressure on traditional retailers to capitalize on one key advantage: real estate. While a majority of online shoppers still prefer to make purchases in physical stores, it is vital for brick-and-mortar retailers to optimize the in-store experience as the process of browsing shifts more and more to online and mobile channels.

To make the most of their physical locations, retailers must proactively take steps to enhance the in-store experience. One innovative way they can do so is through working with their CPG partners to develop new strategies and refine existing ones. Through this collaboration, retailers and CPGs can launch initiatives ranging from sampling and in-store events to live consultations and demos designed to drive shoppers into the store and keep them there, with the ultimate goal of increasing sales.

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Retailers are no strangers to refining their assortment of merchandise, but this concept is new territory for hotels. Traditionally, many hospitality brands have had a largely uniform product offering – standard rooms with minor differences in amenities, and varying tiers of suites – but now, their business model is shifting. Hotels are beginning to “merchandise the room” through customized design and amenities to provide guests with greater choice and appeal to different guest segments.

Hotels have historically focused on personalization through targeted marketing intended to drive bookings. However, research shows that now, in the face of industry disruptors like AirBnB, 27 percent of hotels are rethinking hotel and room design to be more “apartmentlike.” As a result, personalization is becoming increasingly oriented toward the room experience, as hotels seek to provide amenities and services catered to guests’ specialized lifestyles.

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Trade shows, conferences, webinars – tech companies invest in all of these events to grow relationships and acquire new ones. Since sales processes are often six months or longer, strategies that can accelerate them are quite valuable – and the conventional wisdom is that events play a key role in speeding up sales cycles. Given this, events are a core component of many companies’ go-to-market strategies, and organizations worldwide spend hundreds of billions of dollars in this area alone. Further, hosting, attending, and exhibiting at events can comprise up to 21 percent of corporate marketing budgets.

However, it is extremely difficult to understand an event’s true ROI. Tech companies face a major challenge in determining not just which events are worth big investments, but how much marketing budget to allocate to each event. Complex sales processes with many sales and marketing touchpoints pose an obstacle to isolating the direct impact of any individual action, such as inviting a prospect to an event.

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From major M&A deals to an increased focus on in-store foodservice and beverages, as well as the ongoing evolution of convenience stores from pit stops to destination spots, convenience retail is evolving – and operators must continuously innovate to keep pace.

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The broad reach of the digital revolution now includes the ubiquitous grocery circular. In the first half of 2016, the number of digital coupons available grew by 23.4 percent, while the number of mobile coupon users in the U.S. rose by almost 18 percent. While traditional print circulars are not likely to disappear completely, many grocery chains are now developing circulars specifically for digital and mobile platforms. Wegmans, for example, introduced a mobile app, allowing customers to clip virtual coupons, while Safeway offers a weekly online circular.

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The average time between a consumer’s vehicle purchases continues to grow. Reports indicate that people expect to own the same car for six, seven, or even eight years – a notable shift from the typical past purchase cycle of every three to four years.

This shift is just one reason why automakers must think critically about customer retention strategies and how their new revenue streams can grow customer relationships. As leading OEMs increasingly invest in mobility programs like car-sharing services, these initiatives serve the dual purpose of providing an additional revenue stream and an added touchpoint with consumers between vehicle purchases. These benefits align with an evolving goal in the auto industry: Nurturing the customer relationship throughout the sales cycle, including between purchases.

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The market for financial products is more crowded than ever. How can financial institutions not only capture new customers, but acquire the right ones, and create enduring relationships?

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