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REPORT PREPARED FOR: STA Travel

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MODEL ANALYSIS

BY: KOUNJAIRTHONG INSIRI

POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS

APMG 8119: DIGITAL ENTERPRISE

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DR. NITIN SETH

August 15, 2014

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AUTHOR CONTACTS

NAME: Kounjairthong Insiri

Mobile: 021 0817 9268

Email: at_1812@hotmail.com

Student ID: 1430674

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

AUTHOR CONTACTS...................................................................................................................2

TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................................3

EXCUECUTIVE SUMARRY.........................................................................................................4

I. BUSINESS BRACKGROUND...........................................................................................5

II. CONSUMER EXPERIENCE MAP....................................................................................6

1. Consumer experience.....................................................................................................9

2. Consumer behaviour......................................................................................................9

III. CONSUMER REAL VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE..............................................................10

1. Interview one...............................................................................................................10

2. Interview two...............................................................................................................11

3. Interview three.............................................................................................................12

IV. KEY FINDINGS................................................................................................................12

1. Theoretical implications...............................................................................................12

2. Managerial implications...............................................................................................13

REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................15

APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................16

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Executive summary

The aim of this report is to illustrate the customer experience from STA Travel website. The

flow of this report starts with the business background of the STA travel agency, and following

by consumer experience map and lastly with the customer interview and its comparison.

In the business background, the information about who is STA travel is informed with the key

aspect of stakeholder, shareholder, the field of business operation, target and market, which are

the young age and student. In addition, what is their value and mission strategy to convince the

buyers also mentioned.

Customer experience map is created under the observatory and combination with the research

model by Byoungho and Jin Yong (2006) to comprehend how the customer starts the journey,

what are the antecedent of the behavior and after associating with it. To research on this, number

of theories is asserted to confirm the correct attitude of output.

Three interviewees are the clarification of the real virtual experience that we use to test the

correctness of theory and assumption of the model. The interview is informal on the qualitative

discussion in general manner to make the information providers feel comfort to answer questions

in relation to the model factors.

Finally, the comparison between customer experience map and real virtual data is measured in

the two specific aspects. The theoretical implication suggests that STA travel has completed the

model map purpose and responded well to the consumer. For managerial implication, many

fruitful advices are introduced to modify and strengthen the STA website.

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I. Business background:

With world wide web, the tremendous data has been transferred to the surfers in which

enhances unlimited potential advantages for retailers (Berners-Lee, 1997). To harvest

greater profits from selling, retail stores are now shifting from the marketplace to the

marketspace opportunities (Rayport & Sviokla, 1994). Online shopping becomes a

channel that enriches the sale volume and reduces cost of various payments for retail

stores (Alba & Lynch, 1997).

STA travel is a global travel company operating over 30 years since 1970s. The company

headquarter bases in London and hundreds of branches with 24/7 working hours

worldwide and now opens the business retail stores in New Zealand. The founder is

Diethelm Keller Ltd a Swiss, 4th generation private trading company. The company is a

family business that has success for a century. Each year there are more than 6 million

people who trust the service and have traveled across the world. The company provides

several terms of services such as airfares, accommodation and insurance. The company

hires staff excess of 3000 people who can speak over 60 languages (Startravel.com,

2014).

STA Travel is recognized as a pioneer of quality, choice of prices and awarded as the

professional travel service. For example, in 2007, 2009, 2010 the business was selected

as top Australasia’s leading travel agency. These are the supremacy in terms of product

range, customer service as well as company culture and technology. Online service is the

main attention of the company as the customer can access through time, space and in any

location all over the world (Startravel.com, 2014).

Inspiring young people to travel from the STA’s affordable and attainable prices are the

core purpose of the business. Beyond the prices and sales, value is what the STA offers

because the company believes that travel experience will explore life, break down culture

barriers. STA’s product range is built up on responding the need of our traveler, and this

is how the business connects differently (Startravel.com, 2014).

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To sum up, STA Travel is a global flight ticket agency which targets young travelers. The

lower prices tickets, better offer of complementary and good service before and after

purchasing than other competitors are attractive tactic to persuade buyers.

II. Consumer experience map:

Travelling is all about time and location. An obvious solution to keep people communicte

no matter where they are or what time zone they belong to, is to open the online

connection website that assists people to check in and then screens for their choice. The

customer experience map below (Figure1) will illustrate how the business website

functions from the first interaction until delivering the product. In this map, customers

experience will be explored.

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Customer STA Website

Brand recognition

(STA)Loyalty

Input information Purchase Transaction Delivering

product

Communication Security/Privacy

Satisfaction Trust

Figure1: Customer experience map of STA Travel

Screening choices

Select a choice

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Service process:

Mental symbolism of goods now is portrayed by the online virtual usage of consumer. As

the company promised to create adventured experience and help discover a new world, it

is the promise to make people remember STA brand.

Communication channel: First of all, the customer starts up by opening the browser and

locating the STA website (http://www.statravel.co.nz). Secondly, the required

information is input, and options are introduced for personal favorite screen. Next, the

buyers select from alternative options by their need and process into security/privacy

procedure. Price sensitivity is why people log in to STA website. In the main page, much

information, promotion and searching tools are located in order to engage the customer.

Security/Privacy: Today trust in transaction is a factor to create loyalty (Sharma &

Chaubey, 2014). In this block, personal identity information is necessary, so required data

like name, address, passport numbers are filled in, then purchasing procedure would be

implement. This includes banking channel online including credit card number and

security code. After the customer clicks the purchase button, the transaction of money

will start. Finally, when all transfers are done, online ticket will be issued and sent to the

buyer’s inbox. Throughout this procedure, the company has programmed a high security

check to gain people’s trust.

Satisfaction/Trust: Satisfaction and trust are created during the process of communication

and security. If the customers enjoy the process and option, then satisfaction is stimulated

while in between the security steps, if the buyer’s data is confidentially locked, then the

trust emerged. The concept of brand signifies products, magnifies communication and

constitutes long term engagement in a trusting relationship (Davis, Buchanan-Oliver, &

Brodie, 1999). Loyalty and value are the combination of satisfaction and trust. After

using the service of online shopping, if the customer feels entrust to the site as giving

them the value, then the acknowledgement of the brand will happen and this is how the

customer decides whether to return to the website again or not.

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1. Consumer experience:

Regarding antecedent of interaction, it is all about the interface between the website and the

consumer. Every customer is expected to have some knowledge of search engines in order to

fulfill their need of searching for information. In case of STA Travel website, it is a simple

interface to search and also plenty of attractive advertisements in order to capture clients’

attention. In addition, Funk (2013) mentions that in online marketing, content is the king. STA

Travel has magnetized their website to capture attention with discount and cheap price

promotions.

The flawless flow during interaction with the site demonstrates how well the site is and this

challenges the success of online shopping (Hoffman & Novak, 1996). This is an essential aspect

to be concerned about as it determines how much and how often the consumer would like to

spend their time in the online world (Nan & Wan, 2011). STA Travel explicitly separates the

website in terms of where the search window belongs and where the advertisements should be.

These help signal the consumer about where they should go straight forward and where they

could pass their spare time looking for another holiday trip.

In summary, according to Hoffman and Novak (1996) , the flow experience of the consumer is

indicated as: seamless interaction sequence with the site, deep enjoyment, unconscious

communication and self reinforcement. One constituent of the flow in online surfing is trust

(Davis et al., 1999). When there is trust, the customer feels unharmed and they will

unconsciously fall into the flow. The flow is the status of the consumers’ unconsciousness when

they immerse themselves into the product or service (Hoffman & Novak, 1996), Just like when

the consumer passes into STA Travel page, people start concentrating on the lowest price they

might find, dreaming about the advertisements of the paradise holiday destination that website

has published. In the end, these implant the value to the customer’s mind.

2. Consumer behavior:

As described by Hoffman and Novak (1996) two major consumer behaviors are goal directed

and experiential behavior. In relationship to the concept, the level of purchasing experience relies

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on initial condition and consequence of the flow. The antecedent behavior of the customer to

STA travel online is described as a high promising expectation for their goal. The consumer

reacts to the website as the best choice from several of substitute competitors. With excitement to

accomplish their goal during the relationship development with the website, experiential

behavior occurs due to intrinsic motivation. The customer starts becoming involved, and this

forms the feeling of benefit and value. The consequence after the interaction is that the consumer

has a new perspective, feels passionate and wants to return to the service again because they are

aware that this source responds to their need.

In summary, STA Travel website can energize both goal directed as the consumer purpose is

fulfilled and experiential behavior as people enjoy deeply during their journey online. As a

result, the consumer behavior is positively transformed and the customer revisits and uses the

service is going on.

III. Consumer real virtual experience:

The marketspace transaction diminishes costs, accelerates convenience and ubiquity. In addition,

it also represents the new term of content, context and infrastructure that retail store always

dreaming about to increase their profit and new term of value to their customer (Rayport &

Sviokla, 1994). The qualitative method had been used to interview three customers who had used

online flight booking service from STA Travel website before. The purpose is to examine the

reason why they chose the service from STA, satisfaction and value after they had interacted

with STA Travel online.

1. Interview one:

The first interviewee is a man working as IT consultant in North shore. He experienced

STA travel online website a couple of times when he was looking for his holiday

destination. The reason he chose to go online booking because of time constrains and also

he always works with computer. Hence it was easy for him to access the website as time

consuming was an issue. He said that he did not know the website at first but after

searching on Google, this website was on the list. It was not the first website he visited

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because he entered Flightcenter online first to make a comparison about the prices. After

screening for the prices, he found that STA Travel had the cheapest price offer, and that

made him book an online ticket through the site. He elaborated that the process of

booking was very easy; it did not compulsory forcing you to register before buying the

ticket. What he had to do was just filling a few steps of information which included his

ID, and then went to transaction page. He remembered that he could finish it in a very

short time period, and he also noticed that during security and privacy process, there was

a symbol “s” after “http” which that means everything was under secure. He received his

digital ticket immediately in his email address, and all these made he felt he had selected

the right company. The interviewer asked him to rank his satisfaction and

recommendation; he replied that he had high gratification and he will definitely use the

service again.

2. Interview two:

The second interviewee is a school faculty staff. She purchased an online ticket one time

last year. As budget constrain was her problem, she went to different actual retail ticket

agencies to learn about prices, accommodations and other factors. She discovered that the

best price was at STA Travel, but she did not buy at the store. She returned home and

tried to book the online ticket because she did not want to waste her time giving

information to the counter seller. She was surprise a lot when she logged on to STA

Travel because the price was even cheaper than at the real store. She also explained that

she really enjoyed looking for different prices of different holiday vacations that she

could afford. The website was easily navigated even though she was not good at

computing. When the transaction of money finished, she scared that her money would fly

away without her receiving the ticket, but she had the sense of trust after just a few

second when the air ticket already popped up in her inbox email. Since then she has been

confident of buying online tickets from STA travel in her next holiday.

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3. Interview three:

The last person of interviewees works in a business service area. She heard about STA

travel from her friend who used the service before. Her purpose was not just looking for

the best price offer but what she acquired was one stop service. She clarified her point

that she was exhausted to explore various websites like hotels, flight bookings or tour

packages. She sorted out that in STA Travel online; everything she wanted for her

holiday was there. When she encoded inquired data, what she needed was retrieved. After

she bought what she wanted then another complementary had been followed on the

screen to be chosen. She said that she like this website a lot due to the time saving, the

lowest price offers, and the media advertisements of holiday locations. She said she

would also suggest this website to her friends.

IV. Key findings:

1. Theoretical implications:

Base on the point of views from three interviewees, the connection between the

consumer behavior map and real virtual experience is express as three main important

factors as below:

Best price offer: Price seems to be the first prioritize for every customer when thinking

about the air ticket. Everyone focuses on the best offer that they could seek among the

competitor agencies. Before deciding the final choice, all customers will screen from

alternative choices of prices and then about the degree of quality may come later. This

is agreed by all interviewees. As STA Travel makes a promise before, “make travel

affordable for everyone”, the company has proven it is real.

Convenience: Time saving is another criterion of selection. People do not want to

waste their time going out and looking for stores, waiting for long time on the line of

service, talking to the boring reception about the need and then giving their personal

information. The online booking saves their time; they can have fun with the

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advertisements as well as others complementary like hotels, tour packages if they

want. This is confirmed by the first and the last interviewees.

Confidential: One of the most important reasons is security. Every customer from the

talk had a worry about the reliability of the site. For example, after the transaction

nothing may happen, there is “s” symbol for security on the site or not. STA Travel

website handles the problem very well. The site is fully secure when the customer has

to fill out for data; the delivering of product is immediate. All of these create the trust

and high satisfaction to the customer and it consequences to loyalty to the brand image

like the customer experience map expressed.

The outcome of three bullet points above can be interpreted that STA Travel can lead

their consumer into the cognitive state that they feel like the website has value to them

at the beginning of interaction. Recommendation, discussion and suggestion always

take place and influence the online buyers before a decision is made (Funk, 2013). As

a result, this feeling amplifies to positive affective state, satisfaction and this turns up

by the scenario of consistency (customer journey, emotional, communication)

(Byoungho & Jin Yong, 2006).

2. Managerial implications:

STA Travel has performed very well to serve the customer. The company is full of

responsibility to address problems from the customer. The company builds up the

appearance as high standard and world class business. From transparency, trust and

good service to their clients through the online channel, these modify their standard

degree of service into uniqueness of operation. However, due to different kind of

people and behaviors, the company should be prepared to cope with some certain

extent as below:

There are still many people that lack computing skill, and they are afraid to

use online navigation. For example, the old age people. Hence, STA Travel

should implement a new method to access the need of this group.

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Be aware of bombarding information to the site. Even though people may feel

exciting at first when entering the site, this feeling may turn into annoying and

dislike when they think that too much information means nothing and what

they are looking for is not there because it is hidden by scrap information.

Human being means socialize: On the website is one way communication

dominant. STA Travel should extract the new method to increase human

interaction into the page. For example, using artificial intelligent (AI) to

interact with the customer based on data process collection and make the

customer feels like they are chatting under the guideline of the tourist experts

or invent online video call that can open real time interface with the retail

store.

Always creates value, new products and services that are unique and hard to

imitate to keep the business competitive advantages one step ahead from the

market challengers.

Social network is the richest channel to advertise the business. STA Travel

should use social linkage like Facebook, Twitter to publicize and broadcast

the service. As we can see from the interview, three of them did not

acknowledge the existence of STA Travel unless someone told them or from

the search engine like Google.

Human perception and diversity: Different people have different perceptions

as well as the diversity that diversifies people behavior. Therefore, STA

Travel should have a good plan to cover all or the majority of the consumer.

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Reference

Alba, J., & Lynch, J. (1997). Interactive home shopping: Consumer, retailer, and manufacturer incentives to participate in electronic marketplaces. Journal of Marketing, 61(3), 38-53.

Berners-Lee, T. (1997). World-wide computer. Communications of the ACM, 40(2), 57-58.

Byoungho, J., & Jin Yong, P. (2006). The moderating effect of online purchase experience on the evaluation of online store attributes and the subsequent impact on market response outcomes. Advances in Consumer Research, 33(1), 203-211.

Davis, R., Buchanan-Oliver, M., & Brodie, R. (1999). Relationship marketing in electronic commerce environments. Journal of Information Technology (Routledge, Ltd.), 14(4), 319-331. doi: 10.1080/026839699344449

Funk, T. (2013). Advanced social media marketing: How to lead, launch, and manage a successful social media program. New York: NY: Paul Manning.

Hoffman, D. L., & Novak, T. P. (1996). Marketing in hypermedia computer-mediated environments: Conceptual foundations. Journal of Marketing, 60(3), 50.

Nan, N., & Wan, F. (2011). Web user' optimal online experience: An examination of matching hypothesis.

Rayport, J. F., & Sviokla, J. J. (1994). Managing in the marketspace. Harvard Business Review, 72(6), 141-150.

Sharma, M., & Chaubey, D. S. (2014). An empirical study of customer experience and its relationship with customer satisfaction towards the services of banking sector. Journal of Marketing & Communication, 9(3), 18-27.

Startravel.com. (2014). Startravel. Retrieved from http://www.statravel.co.nz/

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Appendix

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