4 Ways Your Travel Brand Can Innovate with the Help of the Crowd

By: Rob Hoehn

When you’re thinking about innovation in the field of travel and transportation, more horsepower, hydraulics, and fuel efficiency might come to mind. But with the pace of change increasing rapidly, it’s difficult to imagine how government organizations and private companies will be able to absorb some of the most exponential and impactful changes that are sure to come in the next decade.

Just think: if the city of New York makes over $500 Million from parking tickets, what happens in an era of driverless cars where it’s impossible to violate a parking restriction? How will the city and its citizens shift to accommodate this new trend? The good news is that NYPD and its citizens are working together to look ahead to develop new systems that help everyone live in an unpredictable new future. And I think this attitude of looking to the crowd for new ideas is one that is going to continue.

But it’s hard to know what you need to focus on first. At IdeaScale we’ve identified four areas in transportation that require innovation in order to stay competitive and maintain sustainability.

• Customer Service: This area seems obvious, but in many industries it is one that is commonly overlooked. Crowdsourcing your customers for ideas on how to improve their travel experience provides critical feedback on what you’re doing wrong and what you’re doing right and how you can create smart change that meets the customer’s needs.
• Costs: Lay-offs are not always the answer. A reduction in your production team often compromises quality and fails to target the real problem. By engaging your employees you can identify which solutions match your budget and your profit margin goals.
• Security and Safety: As security guidelines demand more personal data, transportation firms are at a higher risk of cyber attacks. A security breach can be detrimental to your customers and brand. This is why innovative approaches to risk management and data guidelines are necessary on every level of your company.
• Technology: A willingness to adapt to the dynamic changes of technology can predict your success as a company. Technology alone has had a profound effect on the possibilities for transportation growth. Whether we’re discussing apps, social media, or digital machinery, technology as a whole can inform and predict areas of your business model that lacks efficiency.

Now, we’ve identified these four components as the four principal areas of concern for transportation organizations in 2016, but the truth is, these are problems that almost every sector faces. They are also all areas that can use the crowd to find next generation solutions to problems. If you want to learn more about the trends in transportation innovation, download our white paper today.

By Rob Hoehn

Photo: Passenger Jet Plane Flying by Shutterstock.com