With consumer behaviour changing rapidly, firms need to be focused on important trends. A senior data analyst at Skyscanner shares insights with Pamela Whitby

In the past, Skyscanner’s PR team would approach the firm’s data analysts with what seemed like a fairly simple request for a company that aims to surface the best travel deals for consumers. What they wanted was access to data that revealed the top hot destinations in Europe.

“We were getting a lot of these sort of requests with very urgent timelines,” explains Skyscanner senior data analyst Ewan Nicolson.

After all, in the fast-paced world of new media when news journalists want statistics they want them fast. Recognising that this was taking up a lot of PR time, the data team talked their requirements through to establish typical requests that came through on a daily or weekly basis. Then the analysts went away and built tools that helped the PR team to answer those questions.

This has had the impact of allowing the PR team to independently access the data they need, thus delivering journalists with the interesting, newsy insights much faster. At the same time this has freed up the data team to get on with other things to advance the business - for example coding another algorithm that plugs into another member of the team’s product.

We’re more open and trusting, trying to educate and influence rather than telling people exactly what to do with the data, or doing it for them

Ewan Nicolson, Senior Data Analyst, Skyscanner

This shift in culture is a work in progress. However, since Nicolson spoke to EyeforTravel earlier this year, the firm has got closer to its goal of liberating data so that it’s at the centre of the organisation. The aim, as the example above shows, is that all who need the data can access it and use it in a way that they see fit.

“We’re more open and trusting, trying to educate and influence rather than telling people exactly what to do with the data or doing it for them,” says Nicolson, adding that for “a traditional analyst this can be quite frightening”.

The crystal ball  

In a world of rapidly changing consumer behaviour, Nicolson sees significant uncracked opportunities for forward-thinking firms: mobile and personalisation.

While mobile has been on everybody’s lips for some time, it’s now really “taking off and accelerating,” he says. Of course, Skyscanner is no stranger to mobile. Since launching in 2003, it has seen its mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Windows 8 downloaded over 30 million times. Yet in spite of this, Nicolson says mobile continues to have a huge impact.

In fact, when Nicolson looks around the office at the firm’s Edinburgh headquarters, what he sees is several reminders that this is a mobile first company. “Everywhere there are posters telling us that mobile is the future,” he says.

And the firm’s data backs this up. With consumer behaviour emerging and shifting all the time, Skyscanner is witnessing some important mobile trends.

• Mobile devices are being used for longer, and at different times of the day to the desktop. When browsing in the evening, consumers are more relaxed and open to inspiration.
• People are far more willing to search and book via mobile.
• Many more customers are using mobile to search for travel in multiple countries. With data roaming charges falling that could become even more common.
• Right now the firm distinguishes between smartphone and tablet but Nicolson believes that with browsers becoming more sophisticated and screen sizes getting bigger, it won’t be long before that distinction falls away.

What’s clear is that all firms need to ensure that their products are ready for mobile and the business is ready too. For Nicolson this means “keeping an open mind and being willing to respond quickly”.

Aside from mobile, the push to personalisation is a major focus. Not only is nobody getting this right, it’s tremendously difficult to do. One of the biggest challenges is the privacy and security of personal information. That’s crucial and is something that Skyscanner takes incredibly seriously.

“You have to have that personal data locked away so that nobody – not even internally – can access it,” Nicolson stresses.

You also don’t want to personalise for short-term profit by sending, for example, lots of spam-like email. That will only serve to reduce trust – entirely counterproductive in a world where getting your customer onside is arguably the one thing that data can deliver on.

To hear more from Ewan Nicolson and other data-driven executives, join us for Smart Travel Analytics 2015 taking place at the New Yorker Hotel on January 28-29 .