Here is one vision of your future interactions with a fictitious travel service, CyberTravel Inc. The first time you visit CyberTravel’s Web site you’ll complete a short profile indicating your preferences for airline, seat assignments, airports, payment methods, frequent flyer numbers, etc. For an example check out Microsoft’s Expedia travel service www.expedia.msn.com. But that’s just the beginning.

Over time you’ll tell CyberTravel what cities you frequent either for business or pleasure. You’ll rate the trips you’ve been on, the accommodations you’ve liked or hated, the hotel amenities you’ve used, the activities you enjoyed on the road, and how your travel companions rate these same subjects. Eventually the travel service will know more about your travel habits than you do, and will start to make highly relevant, customized travel recommendations.

For example, CyberTravel knows you visit Boston every couple months on business, and sometimes your spouse accompanies you for a weekend stayover. So you’ll be notified, via e-mail or Webcast, when the Boston Hilton (one of your favorites) is offering a weekend package. Or when American is offering free companion tickets to Boston.

Once you’ve fed it enough data, CyberTravel will even anticipate your upcoming needs to help you save money or avoid problems. For example, knowing that you are due for a trip to Boston, you might receive a message suggesting you book a flight this week to take advantage of an expiring airfare discount program. The travel pioneers are already implementing these concepts. Expedia offers Fare Tracker, a free e-mail service that sends information on discounts available on your frequently traveled routes. Outtahere from Worldview Systems and Internet Travel Network www.outtahere.com provides a low-fare ticker that runs in a separate window.

The possibilities are endless. And provided CyberTravel offers high-quality service and competitive prices, you’ll be hooked, and far less likely to respond to a $99 weekend package from a no-name company unaware of your requirements for a data port and exercise room while traveling.

Furthermore, CyberTravel doesn’t have to waste money advertising loss-leader specials in the hopes of luring in new, often transitory, customers. CyberTravel can focus its resources on providing solid advice and recommenda-tions to its loyal customer base. (CyberTravel could also set up a profitable side-business selling aggregated user-preference data to resorts, airlines, and hotel chains.)

Sometimes it’s easier to see the opportunities of a new tool by visualizing how it might be used in a different industry. The same techniques used by CyberTravel to engender long-term loyalty and repeat purchases can be used by a bank. In fact, because of the nature of your business, you already know more about your customers than the travel agent will ever know about theirs. You’ve got a credit application on file, you’ve got purchasing habits, savings habits, etc. And while financial services may not be as sexy as travel services, on a day-to-day basis they are much more relevant.