Cleartrip.com targets 400,000 transactions in its first year

By EyeforTravel.com Correspondent

Cleartrip.com is targeting 400,000 transactions in the first 12 months of operation in India. The company has marked media exposure worth over US$6.6 million to achieve this target.

Assessing the operations, Stuart Crighton, co-founder, ClearTrip Travel Services says, “The first three months of business has been very productive and we are certainly on track to achieving this objective. Currently, Cleartrip is focusing on the domestic product – Air and Hotel. We will continue to innovate to make the process of search and book simple for the customer. Other products like International air, hotel and holidays will be launched when we feel the market is ready.”

Cleatrip.com has been coming up with enticing offers time to time. On how the company is trying to build a connect with consumers, he says the objective is to build a relationship with the consumer and get them to choose Cleartrip each time they want to travel .

“But the focus is not solely on the consumer. These offers are also instrumental in allowing us to explore tie ups and long-term opportunities with airlines. Through active relationship with all our airline and hotel partners and marketing offers we are offering great deals and value to customers,” said Crighton.

In an interview with EyeforTravel.com’s Ritesh Gupta, Crighton elaborate on differentiating factors, relationship with suppliers and much more. Excerpts: 
   
How do you assess the situation from consumers’ perspective when it comes it planning and buying travel online? Where do you think Cleartrip.com is in an advantageous position?

An online service makes provides various benefits to the customer’s buying process.

·          The ability to compare airfares across airlines in one interface
·          High degree of convenience & quick booking process
·          Transparency of pricing
·          Customer support


The mission of Cleartrip is making travel simple for our customers and this is what drives all initiatives within the organization. Cleartrip offers customers the following:

1.      Simplicity – Clean and non-intruding user interface with a simple search mechanism. You will not find flashing banners or anything non-contextual on the site. This is a huge area of strength.
2.      Reliability – We believe in offering a service that works.
3.      Comprehensiveness – This is both in the area of product (domestic air and hotel), and content on destinations. We offer the customers access to 90 percent of the domestic airline inventory, over 2000 hotels with over 1000 hotels having confirmed inventory,
4.      Content - Small World our destination guide on 450 international destinations through a digital licensing arrangement with Lonely Planet and proprietary information on 50 domestic destinations (that will be taken up to 500 domestic destinations shortly)
5.      Competitive pricing – Offering customers great deals in association with airline & hotel partners.
6.      Specialised Customer Support though a customer support cell set up to assist customers with their booking and provide after sales support. We offer email, SMS and phone support to our customers.

How are you strengthening your relationship with suppliers? What value is being provided to them in Indian context?

It is very important to understand the supplier model that exists in a very competitive market place in India and create a strategy that compliments rather than conflicts at this early stage in order to give the customer the right product at the right price. It is simply not sustainable to continually discount and all players must strive to look for value in all there relationships.

Through our media strategy we give partners both a significant brand building and distribution proposition that allows them to extend a competitive proposition whilst retaining the integrity of their brand.

Can you share info on differentiating services of cleartrip.com?

Cleartrip’s differentiation is as follows:

1.       Focus on the customer: We are truly very focused on the customer and his requirements. This drives all enhancements, new features on the site & launch of new products and services. We actively solicit customer feedback and act on it proactively
2.       Enhancing the customer experience: A clean and non-intruding user interface that takes the customer from search to book in 4 simple steps. We do not overwhelm the customer with flashing banners and non-contextual information.
3.       Partnership with suppliers: We work closely with airline and hotel partners in line with their requirements and complement efforts right pricing the products and distributing inventory effectively
4.       360 degree approach to customer acquisition: Our marketing plan includes a healthy mix of offline & online advertising that include Print, TV, Radio, SEM, SEO, Online display advertising along with a focus on PR and below the line activities.
5.       Obsessed about customer service: We have a specialized team of trained professionals that support customers through phone, email and sms.

Kindly share some info on user-generated content and rich media experience. What initiatives have you taken?

Cleartrip currently has a digital content sharing agreement with Lonely Plant and has launched ‘ Small World ‘ that offers the customer exhaustive travel guide information.

The next release of Small World focuses on building community features including various reviews, blog functionality and information sharing.