Consumer and shopper behaviouralist Ken Hughes told the Hays Travel Independence Group (Hays IG) conference that catering to each person’s needs would make them feel heard and seen, fostering a deeper relationship and prompting them to come back. 

“Make them [customers] feel special, make them feel like there’s nobody else,” he said in his keynote speech at the Hays IG conference in Albufeira on Sunday (5 March).

Hughes said businesses needed to stop considering consumers like units, to whom they sell products through a one-size-fits-all approach. He singled out millennial and Gen Z clients, in particular, whom he said see themselves as “blue dot consumers” around whom all services must revolve. 

“Customers are the world,” Hughes added. “They stand still at the centre of everything, and everything revolves around them.”

Agents, said Hughes, also have to move from a transactional to relational understanding of their business and their clients, and develop a more intimate rapport with consumers through more attentive customer service.

“Generally, for the market and for customer lifetime value, it is simply about connection,” the consumer behaviour specialist said. “[It’s about] how you connect what you’re offering to the market and those seeking that.”

Hughes’ words were echoed by Celebrity Cruises vice-president and managing director EMEA Jo Rzymowska, who urged agents to follow in her company’s footsteps and offer a tailor-made service to customers.

“Offering a personalised, knowledgeable and genuine service will bring back your customers time and time again,” Rzymowska added.