A recent white paper by Trendwatching examined how precious a customer’s time is, and how best a brand can seize or save it. Despite a world of digital empowerment many feel time-starved. Customers value their time and attention, if it has been wasted you won’t be forgiven.

Saving attention during the customer journey is often invisible. Methods may be noticed the first time and then become routine. This attitude has been driven by on-demand expectations, virtual intelligence and the perception of a higher status the busier you are.

Tools to save attention include:

Outsource the thinking process – use hidden intelligence to make decisions for the customer such as a sensor and mobile app that tracks tire data.

Shorten the customer journey – improve the experience at each step such as groceries delivered straight to your fridge.

Eradicate pain points which waste attention.

Seizing attention is getting harder. To get consumers to engage, brands have to break loose and pop up in surprising places and delight new customers.

Tools to seize attention include:

Shock and awe – surprise your customer, redefine expectations.

Self-improvement – hard to impress clientele seek colourful stories to share with peers.

Experience factor – brand driven venues for work, coffee or performance can bring people together and seize attention.

The fundamental question is, are you seizing or saving your customer’s attention? It won’t be possible to be a saver or seizer throughout the customer’s journey, methods may vary at each step and from one customer to another but it is vital that you ask yourself the question on how best you can achieve this.

To find out more about how your tourism brand can seize or save attention at every single encounter with travellers, get in touch.