RSS: Why it’s Important to the Bottom Line…

RSS is a topic I don’t spend enough time on. I say this because I’m confident it’s going to be a valuable tool to all types of businesses in the coming years.I’ve also been meaning to write this since I read a great post on InFlightHQ last November. In it, Andrew Sparrow predicts a major change on the horizon for online travel due to the implementation of this technology.I found this article interesting for a number of reasons.

First, at the time of this article, I was experimenting with a number of different RSS readers. One of them was MyYahoo.com. It’s a great “feel-good” aggregator with all the bells and whistles a person could need.

One of the widgets offered is Best Fare Tracker and with this tool, the User can can keep an eye on the best rates available on the internet via an RSS feed that tracks this information. I thought it was great because all I had to do was set it up, sit back and watch the feeds come in.Next, I was also in the begining stages of my company’s private site redesign. I’ve been working very hard to make this site low-maintainence by taking advantage of tools like this. I thought if kayak.com or Best Fare Tracker can do it, other mainstream travel vendors could do this also.I was wrong. I went to every one of the 50 plus vendors we currently work with and only one of them uses it to push inventory (Marriott). Check it out, you’ll find some incredible last minute deals.Lastly, I had worked in the yield management area of Carnival Cruise Lines. To push any inventory was a huge undertaking from identifying the product to push, then effectively communicating it internally (generally via email, Excel, etc.) and finally finding an avenue to communicate it externally. A simple task like this could take days and it took too many valuable resources that could be used for more important things.

And if time was wasted in any way, so was the yield on the product.

Going back to the article, Andrew brings up a great observation and the rest of the travel industry should take notice of. This tool offers a way to effectively communicate with your clients. Regardless of what you sell, this is the resource of all resources. It pushes instant information to people who crave this information.

However, the initial challenges are obvious:

You still have to enter the information

You have to implement an internal system that can seamlessly capture this information and “feed” it

You have to educate your clients on why they need to use this and how to use it

You have to make all three of these easy for everyone involvedBut once the above is done, just think of the ROI. Communication has become seamless to customers who want it and use it.

Now think about all those people who were involved before and what they could be doing now…

As a side note: I apologize for the lack of posts lately. I have stepped into a new role (Director of Creative Services) at my current company and I’m still getting adjusted.

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