Pricenow Highlights How Data-Based Customer Engagement Improves Revenue And Guest Experience For Lift Co’s
With automated, personalized communication along the entire guest journey, mountain railways create greater relevance, stronger customer loyalty – and measurable sales impulses.
Growing data volumes – untapped potential
Mountain railways today have more data at their disposal than ever before: booking time, length of stay, product type, and revenue per guest have long been digitally recorded. This presents enormous potential that can be leveraged in a targeted manner – for personalized communication, relevant additional offers, and long-term customer loyalty.
This development isn't just a technological shift—it's a strategic opportunity. For mountain railways in particular, it opens up opportunities to communicate more effectively based on existing data and to specifically improve the guest experience. Because those who interact with their guests in a personalized way throughout the entire digital customer journey not only increase revenue but also the relevance of their offerings—and thus guest loyalty.
The key here is the interplay of various elements: A seamless booking experience, a solid data foundation, optimal pricing, and the ability to personalize all form the foundation for effective customer engagement with business impact. The better these building blocks intertwine, the greater the leverage – for operational efficiency, effective communication, and guest satisfaction.
In an industry that is becoming increasingly comparable, this creates a clear competitive advantage: relevant offers, at the right time, via the right channel – data-driven, automated and effective.
The result: Personalization at Scale – enabled by targeted data usage and intelligent automation.
The status quo: Much potential remains untapped
Despite growing digital opportunities, data-driven work still lags behind the realm of feasibility in many mountain railway companies. While booking data, revenue information, and stay details are available, the appropriate tools, expertise, or internal resources to create real added value are often lacking.
Standardized communication instead of relevant content: In most cases, the digital dialogue with the guest ends after the purchase is completed in the online shop. Email newsletters are widely distributed but rarely personalized. Inspiration for the next stay or contextual recommendations during the stay are nonexistent. The result: Guests receive content that is only partially relevant to them – and quickly lose interest.
Untapped up- and cross-selling potential: Although it's usually clear when and what a guest has booked, this data is rarely used for targeted additional offers. A sunrise trip, a ski school offer, or a ski pass upgrade remain uncommunicated – even though they could generate double-digit additional sales.
Customer loyalty has plenty of room for improvement: Loyal guests – often families who book multiple times or regular guests – are barely addressed in any differentiated way in communication. Thank-you messages, feedback requests, or personalized loyalty benefits are largely absent. This target group would be particularly receptive – and crucial for higher customer lifetime value (CLV).
The causes of these challenges are manifold: fragmented data silos, a lack of automation, and a limited view of the guest. Yet the path to relevant communication would often be obvious – if the right levers were available.
The potential is obvious: mountain railways that manage to make targeted use of existing guest data, automate processes, and address guests in a context-related manner will gain a decisive competitive advantage.
The solution: Personalized customer journeys with the Omni Suite
Today, guests expect experiences that are tailored to them – at the right time and via the right channel. This is precisely where a modern customer engagement platform like the Omni Suite from our partner Inside Labs comes in.
The solution enables mountain railways to deliver automated, personalized campaigns throughout the entire guest journey—before, during, and after their stay. The goal is to turn one-time buyers into repeat guests and turn transactions into strong guest relationships.
Pricenow’s systems provide the foundation for this:
- The e-commerce solution provides real-time information on bookings, user behavior and transactions.
- The data analytics solution connects and analyzes all relevant guest data centrally.
- Demand-oriented pricing ensures optimal pricing depending on capacity utilization, demand and target segment.
From these structured data points—such as booking date, product selection, ticket validity, location, or history—mountain railways can use the Omni Suite to create personalized customer journeys for each guest. Across channels via email, push notification, SMS, app, or website, various campaigns and user flows are orchestrated to maximize guest relevance and the likelihood of conversion.
What is special about it:
- Content is not curated manually, but created dynamically based on live data.
- The platform automatically detects trigger points (e.g. canceled booking, approaching arrival, day 2 of stay).
- Communication can be fully automated based on predefined scenarios – without requiring additional resources in the marketing department.
Whether pre-stay reminders, in-stay offers, or reactivation campaigns: The Omni Suite, in conjunction with Pricenow solutions, enables relevant, efficient, and continuous guest support.
Application examples: How customer engagement becomes effective in practice
1. Increase conversion rate with shopping cart abandonment campaigns
Situation: A guest places a ski ticket—for example, a day pass—in their shopping cart in the online shop. They then cancel the purchase process and leave the site.
Solution: The Pricenow e-commerce solution automatically detects this behavior. Based on this data point, the Omni Suite triggers a personalized message 24 hours later – via email or SMS. This encourages the guest to complete their order in the store. Optionally, an incentive in the form of a limited-time discount can be offered.
Effect:
- Guests feel welcomed and remembered without it being intrusive
- Conversion rate in the web shop increases by an average of 5–10%
- With an average shopping cart value of CHF 70 and 1,000 abandonments per month:
- Increase in sales: CHF 7,000 / month
2. Personalized pre-stay communication for more anticipation – and sales
Situation: The guest has booked, the trip is imminent – but communication is at a standstill.
Solution: Three to five days before arrival, guests automatically receive a personalized message. It includes useful information about their arrival, weather forecasts, parking information, or information about the valley station—combined with specific additional offers, such as an upgrade, a breakfast package, or a ticket for a partner hotel.
Effect:
- Additional revenue through pre-bookings
- Average conversion rate: 2%
- With 50,000 pre-stay messages and an average of CHF 20 per conversion:
- Increase in sales: CHF 20,000 per season
3. Up- & cross-selling during the stay – where it works
Situation: The guest is on site, but many attractive offers remain invisible: ski school, events, restaurants or mountain trips.
Solution: Based on the length of stay, ticket validity, and previous booking history, targeted recommendations are automatically sent via app push, WhatsApp, or email—for example, on the second day of the stay: "Today the weather is perfect for the sunrise cruise—seats are still available."
Effect:
- Guests receive offers that match their stay
- Generation of additional sales during the stay
- Average conversion rate: 2%, average conversion value: CHF 30.–
- With 50,000 guests per season:
- Increase in sales: CHF 30,000.– / season
4. Reactivation after 12 months – turning first-time visitors into returnees
Situation: A year has passed – the guest was satisfied, but has not (yet) booked again.
Solution: Exactly twelve months after their last stay, the guest receives a personalized message. From the sender: the same destination, same travel time, suitable offers—or even a thank you for the last visit. Optionally, with an early bird discount or inspiration. The Omni Suite automatically triggers a campaign based on the last stay—no manual effort required.
Effect:
- Guests are reminded at the right moment
- Early bookings are specifically encouraged
- Average conversion rate: 1%, average booking value: CHF 70
- With 50,000 guests/year:
- Increase in sales: CHF 35,000 / season
All four examples show how data-based communication in small but effective moments creates noticeable sales impulses - while at the same time relieving the burden on the marketing and sales teams.
Conclusion: Individual, data-based guest experiences for every guest
Mountain railways that manage their communication based on data can:
- Address guests more specifically
- Significantly increase relevance and conversion
- Consciously design the customer journey of guests
- Sustainably strengthen their own competitive position
Together with our partner Inside Labs, we support mountain railways on this path – with the right tools and the necessary expertise.
Now, as the online shift in the industry continues to accelerate and comparability between destinations increases, it is the right moment to differentiate yourself through data-driven experiences.
The combination of Pricenow's e-commerce solution, data analytics solution, and demand-driven pricing, as well as Inside Labs' customer engagement platform, creates an integrated foundation for reaching guests individually, contextually, and effectively.
they say "Let's discover together what potential lies within your company – through targeted data usage, automation, and personalized communication along the entire guest journey."
