Don’t Get Mad—Get Personal!, a white paper on the impact of personalization in the hotel industry from Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International and Infor, offers some valuable insights for meeting professionals.

In the travel world, customers literally face millions of options when planning a journey. The more knowledge hotels can gain about those individuals (preferences, behaviors, patterns), the more customized, attractive and satisfying their offers, services and the entire experience can be — from initial search to return home.

“When you look at how Amazon, Uber and Netflix use data efficiently and effectively to improve the customer experience…you begin to see how personalization is becoming a business imperative for any consumer service industry,” the report said. Indeed, many travelers are willing to exchange personal data for relevant and memorable experiences. The benefits can be great, but data must be ethically gathered and used with equally great care.

If your goal is to personalize the meeting experience for your audience segments, assess the data you have on them and focus on these points in order to maintain trust:

• Identify clear value. What does your audience gain through the exchange of personally identifiable information?
• Set clear guidelines as to who can access the data and for what purposes.
• Put control in customers’ hands. Tell them what data you collect and what it’s used for, then give easy-to-follow options for opting out or updating their preferences.
• Find opportunities to use the data, but place the emphasis on improving the audience experience.
• Protect the data. Breaches can cause major damage, especially to trust. Ensure that data security practices and policies are updated and followed.
• Act incrementally. Test and learn in stages. — Maxine Golding
Click here to access the full white paper.