otoinsights travel webinar, may 13 2010

www.OTOinsights.com 1

“Winners & Losers”Customer Experience Among the Top 8 Travel Sites (United Kingdom)

February 25, 2010


“Winners & Losers”Customer Experience Among the Top 8 Travel Sites (United Kingdom)

February 24, 2010


Established in 1997, One to One Interactive is the first global enterprise to assemble a complete solution for brands, agencies, and publishers executing one-to-one marketing strategies. The company employs over 140 professionals in 7 offices located in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

One of the 20 “Hottest Independent Digital Firms” GloballyAdAge, 2007

One of the Fastest Growing Private CompaniesInc Magazine, 2008


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fhios quantemo Customer Experience Research Neuromarketing Research


Sampling of Clients:

5

Amusement Parks & AttractionsDestination Marketing OrganizationsHotel ResortsTourism Special EventsCasino Hotels & ResortsGolf ResortsSki ResortsTravel Transportation

Complete Solutions For:

6

Dr. Philip Rhodes, Ph.D.

Philip holds a Ph.D. in Information Design from the University of Portsmouth. He has extensive research and teaching experience in hypermedia design and information architecture. He speaks fluent Portuguese, having lived and worked in Brazil. Before joining OTOinsights, he worked with US solution providers Rare Medium and Sapient, as Director of Information Architecture. Specializing in offering user-centric online solutions within the banking, education, and telecommunications sectors. He also taught at several universities in Brazil and the UK, and has been widely published. Philip is both the Managing Director and the Director of Customer Experience Research & Design at OTOinsights, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Managing Director & Director of Research

7www.onetooneinteractive.com

Agenda


THE TRAVEL LANDSCAPE


Online has changed the way we book holidays

• Travel accounts for approximately 50% of all online transactions

•Almost half of all leisure and un-managed travel bookings are now made online in UK

•Online travel market is mature, but still growing in the UK, strongest players:

•Airlines (50% of all online travel booking)

•Hotels

•Tour operators (projected to make the biggest increase in 2010-11)

•Aggregators



• So who is booking holidays online?

• 55% of internet users book holidays online

• 2/3 of internet users take two or more holidays a year

• Demographic details…

•People who book online book more than offline bookers

•Tend to be younger

•Book within 1-4 weeks of travelling

•Just as likely to be male or femaleOnline UK travel business due to grow to £56 billion by 2014 and include 37 million buyers

Forrester 2009


Context: Travel Landscape

Users expectations for online booking directly correlate with their reasons for wanting to book online

Why do people book online?

•Price

•Feel in control

•Choice

•Flexibility

•More informed



Finding /Trip

Making the

Booking

Review Trip

Planning to Travel

• Know what they want

• Looking for ideas

How long is the process

• For the majority of offline bookers (85%) there is a 90 day lag between searching and booking



•Finding the holiday/trip

•Online Research is key even if people do not book online

•Search engines are important but not key

•Aggregators are vital

•3rd party recommendations e.g. TripAdvisor

•Friends/colleagues – great influencers

•TV programmes

Where do people book their holidays

• 9% book on the High St.

• 17% book over the telephone

• Both of these groups research online before booking


Methodology

•Expert Approach

• 2 experienced customer experienced consultants

• Independently reviewed 8 leading travel UK sites

•Task based

• “Use the search panel to look for a break for 2 adults in Barcelona for

the Easter weekend”

Focusing on:

• Homepage (search panel)

• Search results

• Product information

• Booking


COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE


SITES REVIEWED


Methodology

Finding /Trip

Making the

Booking

Review Trip


Methodology•Criteria

•Layout

• Intuitiveness/

navigation

•Content

•Efficiency

•Likelihood to revisit

•Trust

Overall

satisfaction


RESULTS


Results


• The entire ‘search to book’ process consisted of 7 pages. The overall satisfaction of using the lastminute.com site to look for a relevant product was rated 9/10.

• The navigation, call-to-action buttons were very easy to locate; also the look and feel was consistent and each button was clearly labelled.

• Content provided is useful and easy to understand, including one convincing lastminute.com recommended ‘flight and hotel’ package located at the top of the page.

• Despite travel insurance was pre-selected, it is very easy to de-select it and proceeded to the next page.

lastminute.com

0.002.004.006.008.00

10.00Layout

Intuitiveness/Navigation

Content

Eff iciency

Likelihood to revisit

Trust

Results


• The entire ‘search to book’ process consisted of 6 pages. The overall satisfaction of using the ebookers.com site to look for a relevant product was rated 9/10.

• Content provided was precise and relevant, despite the horizontal scrolling slightly detracted the browsing experience.

• Registration with the site was not required.

• Travel insurance was not pre-selected.

• The likelihood to visit the site was rated 8.67/10, since the site was highly trustable, including transparent charges of using different type of cards for payment.

Results

ebookers.com

0.002.004.006.008.00

10.00Layout


Content

Eff iciency


Trust


• The number of pages to go through was less than other sites.

• No ‘extras’ (cross-sell products and services) was introduced within the process, therefore, the efficiency of completing the task was rated 8/10.

• Each button was clearly labelled, a short statement was included next to the button describing the next page.

• A mini-basket was listed consistently on the right-column.

• The look and feel of the site was trustable and guest checkout option was included if users did not prefer to register with the site, they could still make a purchase.

Opodo.co.uk

0.002.004.006.008.00

10.00Layout


Content

Eff iciency


Trust

Results


• ‘City breaks’ was an unusual option included on the search panel, rather than ‘Flight and hotel’.

• Since lastminute.com and travlocity.co.uk were from the same parent company, the look and feel, page layout, structure were very similar to lastminute.com.

• However, the overall satisfaction was less compared with lastminute.com, because minor mistakes were found e.g. inaccurate a process indicator, tiny font size and inconsistent label on buttons, etc. which detracted customer experience.

Results

travelocity.co.uk

0.002.004.006.008.00

10.00Layout


Content

Eff iciency


Trust


Expedia.co.uk

0.002.004.006.008.00

10.00Layout


Content

Eff iciency


Trust

• The entire ‘search to book’ process consists of 7 pages.

• There is an inconsistent use of links and buttons for ‘Call to action’.

• The left column is very narrow and not used sufficiently for navigation.

• Common functionalities (list of airports, no predictive wording) in the booking panel are missing.

• The page layout is unusual (1440X900) for both Internet Explorer 8 and Mozilla Firefox.

• The overall satisfaction of using the search panel to look for a travel package is 5.75/10

Results


• The ‘search to book’ process is not intuitive, and there is no clear information whether the offers include both hotel and flight.

• The layout received high score due to the blue colour scheme and use of images.


Thomson.co.uk

0.002.004.006.008.00

10.00Layout


Content

Eff iciency


Trust

Results


The Co-operative Travel

0.002.004.006.008.00

10.00Layout


Content

Eff iciency


Trust

• The entire ‘search to book’ process consists of 6 pages, which is an adequate number of steps.

• The terminologies are in several cases not conventional terms, and may influence the low score in intuitiveness/navigation.

• A ‘back’ button is missing throughout the ‘search to book’ process complicating the navigation unnecessarily.

• It can be confusing for the users that all fields are pre-filled in the booking panel and making it take longer time to fill in the fields.


Results


• The entire ‘search to book’ process consists of 10 pages, which is the maximum number of pages found in this study.

• It is further confusing and unnecessary that the T&Cs are displayed two times in the booking process.

• On the positive side, it is positive that users don’t have to login in order to make a booking. This may have had a positive influence on the relatively high ‘efficiency’ rating.

• The search panel lacks in functionality (predictive wording, flight connectivity etc.) to link selected options so the users don’t frequently make unsuccessful searches.

• The ‘search to book’ process lacks in intuitiveness and it is not always clear how to proceed to the next step.

• The overall satisfaction of using the search panel to look for a travel package is 3/10

Thomascook.com

0.002.004.006.008.00

10.00Layout


Content

Eff iciency


Trust

Results


Finding the holiday: The Search Panel


Search panel is a vital tool for users who know exactly where, when, who & how they want to travel.

Three key rules for this panel:

• Ensure the location of the search panel is clearly visible on the homepage

• Ensure the panel is easy to use

• Ensure that the panel supports the users, providing salient and efficient interactions

• Focus on user needs:

• Destination

• Time/duration

• Product e.g. hotel, flight + hotel, etc.

• Number of travellers



Weaknesses

• Required to type in their starting location and the destination

• No predictive word suggestions to assist when filling in the ‘Leaving from’ and ‘Going to’ fields

• Users are required to be spell places correctly and precisely

• Age of ‘Adults’, ‘Seniors’ and ‘Children’ are not clarified

• ‘Seniors’ option is not commonly included, yet here no additional information or benefits or selecting this option are provided



Strengths

• Useful examples of supportive text:

• ‘From’ and ‘To’ fields e.g. City name, etc.

• The age of ‘Adult’ and ‘Child’

• ‘dd/mm/yy’ date format

• Calendar must also be included!

This providing users with clear instructions as what to enter

• Predictive completion when user enters text is recommended

• Very useful customer helpline (pity is not a free phone number)



Strengths

• Salient feedback

• The selected option is clearly highlighted

• Engaging drop-down list including ‘our top 10’

• Prioritising the destinations is useful – but with caution

• Advance search option is available

• Dynamic updates depending upon user selection is useful e.g. select

Important to distinguish between ‘recommend’ and ‘our top 10’



Search results are fundamental, but it is not only the results; the user experience factors associated with the results are just as important. These include:

• Efficiency – speed to present the results (including feedback on search progress)

• Layout – presentation of the results

• Manipulating the results – filter, sort, compare, etc.

• Take action – learn more, purchase, save


• Prioritised

• Scannable

• Complete (but not overwhelming)

• Actionable (clear calls to action)

• Support/advice



Weaknesses

• Visibility of functions - The ability to refine the search criteria is not immediately noticeable

• Confusing terminology - Inappropriate use of terminology e.g. Sort by ‘Best value’ – is confusing. ‘Best value’ refers to the site’s recommendation, rather than the cost

• Poor functionality - Horizontal scrolling should always be avoided



Strengths

• Very easy to refine the search criteria

• One clear recommendation at the top of the page

• ‘Eye-catching titles’ - ‘Our lowest available fare’ and ‘Our bestselling hotel’

• Easy means to alternatives, e.g. users can pick from ‘View all flights’ or ‘All hotels’

• Confidence & Trust: A ‘Price match promise’ message is included to reassure their offerings



Strengths

• Differentiating external content e.g. ads from search results



Individual product content is key to persuade users to continue purchasing on the site

• Users would expect to see transparent information of the product, and would like to fully understand what they are going to purchase.

• Clear description

• Attractive imageries

• Trustable brands

• Competitive price

• Special offers and savings


• Detail (questions answered)

• Reassurance

• Opinion (what do other think)

• Control (easy means of going back to results)

Finding the holiday: Product content


Weaknesses

• Limited information is included without clicking on to expand for further information.

• The location of the ‘Flight and hotel per person from’ remark could be easily overlooked.

• Total price is less prominent compared with price per person, users should be made aware of the full cost which they are required to pay.

Strengths

• Clear presentation of the star rating: 4/5 stars



Weaknesses

• Too complicated: Two different presentations of the star rating

• Lack of information – images must illustrate not just include for ‘effect’

Strengths

• Total price is clearly listed

• Useful to include price per person

• Promotional discount is clear



Weaknesses

• Ensure related content is in close proximity e.g. Hotel name and star rating

• Total price is not prominent

Strengths

• Customer helpline is clear

• Promotional discount is highlighted in red

• 3rd party (Nectar) service is included

• Customer rating is salient (but not distracting)



Finding the holiday: The ‘Extras’


During the booking process, many travel sites take the opportunity to cross-sell other products and services

There has to be balance between the these ‘extras’ and information on the product, some basic rules:

• Keep them relevant

• Ensure users have a choice

• Never opt-out – always allow opt-in


• No distractions

• Advice



Weaknesses

• Excessive page length

• Information overload

• Location of the call-to-action (link/ button) is at the very bottom of the page

• User must ‘read’ through the offers to find how to proceed



Strengths

• Useful, relevant suggestions

• Reminders such as car hire, airport parking, travel insurance are all relevant



Strengths

• Default option for the travel insurance is ‘No, thank you’

• Users are required to select an option if they are interested to purchase it.



Finding the holiday: Checkout


Completing the purchase must be obstacle free and reassuring. It must not raise doubts but confirm the transaction:

• Total cost must be transparent and clear

• Only require users to give the appropriate amount of personal information

• Register later (guest checkout)


• Secure: Instil confidence

• Payment vehicle choice

• Efficient

• Complete – confirm action



Weaknesses

• Users must ‘Register’ with the site to complete purchase



Strengths

• Informative communication (although users must register the ‘tone’ is more approachable):

• ‘Not a member? After you complete your booking, we will send you an email confirmation and a temporary password to allow you to access your booking in My Bookings.’

• Payment vehicle choice – and real choice because fees for different cards are clearly listed



Strengths

• Useful option to ‘checkout without registering’



PREDICTIONS FOR 2010


Predictions

• More people will be booking online

• Increasing role for social media

• Calendars will be ‘unlocked’

• Maps will become more important

• Mobile Apps will grow

• Travel guides will go ebook

• Maybe Augmented Reality will deliver e.g. data overlaid on mobile phone camera

• Customers will be even more important – service will be king

Prediction for Online Travel in 2010


CONCLUSIONS


Develop a strategy

• Remember the user

• Focus on the users needs

• Ensure that users are in control, informed and flexible

• Make the user’s experience usable and engaging

Conclusions


Next Webinar: From Email to Universal Messaging: Reaching the Multichannel ConsumerThis webinar will help brands understand the strategic and operational aspects of Universal Messaging: • The Shifting Digital Messaging Landscape• Customer Identity FragmentationPublishing and• Measurement ComplexityConsumer Expectations

around Permission ManagementSolutions to these• Disruptions in Email-centric Marketing• Case Studies• Register for May 27th, 11 AM Eastern Time: http://bit.ly/99fyml • Register for May 27th, 2 PM Eastern Time: http://bit.ly/cgSZxr


Dr. Philip Rhodes: [email protected]

For copies of the presentation or further info on fhios services:

[email protected]

Questions