Travelex leverages cloud-based customer data platform to boost retention

Money generated from prepaid travel cards is set to quadruple between 2022 and 2032, from $120.5 billion to $492.80 billion, according to Allied Market Research. This sharp upward trajectory is due in large part to an increase in international travel as tourist numbers slowly climb up to pre-pandemic levels.

Acknowledging the potential this trend offers for a foreign exchange company like Travelex, Hans van der Waal, the company’s global IT director, is constantly looking for more strategic ways to unlock the power of data to service their travel card customers. According to him, it’s fairly common for customers to load money onto Travelex’s Cash Passport money card, head off on a trip, and then come home only to forget about the money left on it. If left unused for long enough, this remaining balance is often depleted by annual maintenance fees. “This situation isn’t good for us or our customers,” says van der Waal. “It’s bad news for us because we aspire to have repeat customers, and it’s bad news for our customers because they just waste money servicing an inactive or idle card.”

Keen to address this issue, he wanted to come up with ways to alert customers about using their loaded funds and also encourage them to reload their cards before their next trip. But the data around card use and balances is part owned by Travelex, and part owned by third parties, he explains. As such, he and his team had to negotiate with these third parties to ensure they could access the data in a specific and secure format, either in real time or near real time. To do so, they developed a cloud-based customer data platform (CDP) that allows them to bring in and analyze third-party data and combine it with their own data so they can flag unused balances.

These insights allow Travelex to proactively approach customers, and hopefully influence their behavior, by encouraging them to cash out their remaining balance or, even better, use their existing balances for future travel. The ultimate goal is to send the right reminders to the right customers at the right time, he says.

Step by step

Once Travelex had a clear idea of the type of data platform they wanted to create, they adopted an iterative strategy to bring the idea to life. “This isn’t groundbreaking, but I think it’s very important to start small, try things out, stop things that don’t work well, and don’t hesitate to start over again if needed,” he says. In doing so, they could build something, test it out, and then go through various cycles of changes and improvements so the final product was production ready when it was launched.

In addition to partnering with third parties to access the required data, van der Waal also had to work closely with Travelex’s marketing and product teams — as well as data privacy and security execs— to come up with different theories on why someone might not spend the money on their cards, and then create the most appropriate messaging. They also spoke to customers in airports to find out more about their preferences and use, and not just lean on internal expertise and resources to guarantee project success.

The decision to host the platform in the cloud, in particular on AWS, was a question of efficiency, he says. Rather that having to build something themselves from the ground up, they could leverage the native cloud solutions available through AWS and then tailor them to meet their specific requirements.

But to make the most of cloud, the right skills are needed. While the business does have internal talent, they also enlist the help of third parties like SourceFuse and Mesh AI to ensure they leverage the cloud in a way that’s most effective, given the specific project requirements.

“These third parties either complement Travelex’s internal tech team, or they’re brought in to do things for us we can’t do ourselves,” he says. “This is one of the primary benefits of partnerships like this because we can access the advanced skills and knowledge needed to support our future business needs.”

To measure the impact of their efforts, Travelex established a small control group to whom they initially didn’t send the card balance related alerts, even though they fit the profile of the type of customers they’re trying to target. “From the data, we see these messages have made a tremendous impact,” he says. “So much so that we’re now extending the project to other territories.”