It’s the Journey, Not the Destination: Travel Perks Matter

Ebook

Airlines would be grounded without loyalty programs

This CNN Business article does a great job of summarizing the absolute necessity of frequent flier loyalty programs for airlines. It states that everyday purchases like gas and groceries add up to billions of dollars each year for airlines that sell bulk miles to banks and credit card issuers to incent cardholders to make purchases. According to TD Cowen analyst Tom Fitzgerald, the profit margin on selling these miles is about 50%. And, as long as customers don’t rack up major debt on their credit cards, these loyalty programs generally amount to a good deal for travelers. Yet, according to a survey of 2,041 U.S. consumers by iSeatz, 84% of travelers cited user experience issues as their biggest frustration when using travel rewards. With the mutual benefit to airlines and consumers alike, why are mediocre experiences so common?

Complexity abounds in travel rewards programs  

One thing that may not be apparent to the average traveler is the complexity behind the scenes with travel reward programs. As an example, in my case, I had applied for a major hotel’s rewards program offered through a major global bank’s credit card. A certain amount of spending on the card translates to hotel nights. In my case, this didn’t happen. As I hit my spending goal, I was to have earned a set number of hotel nights. I called the hotel brand and they said the problem was with the bank. And as you might guess, when I called the bank, they said the issue was with the hotel side. In the end, it was an issue with the bank not synching the card with the hotel’s rewards program. 

The missing link here is that the two organizations don’t feel the pain that I did. When this happens, customers can drop off because they feel like a number. I was frustrated, taking time out of my busy day to fix something that should have been working. Even if one of the organizations had been able to fix the issue on my first call, it still would have left a bad taste in my mouth and me thinking, “Hmm, maybe this isn’t going to be as fun and useful as I thought. I wonder if I should think about switching cards.” First impressions being what they are, organizations offering rewards programs simply can’t afford to miss the mark on their “first date” with a customer. There are simply too many other options.

The scenario I describe exists between two organizations, but what about Expedia, Travelocity or any other hub travel services? In these cases, their back-end systems are connected to many different brands and complexities become significantly compounded. 

In Team Article: Our Most Frustrating Redemption Experiences, Travis Cormier and several of his 10XTravel.com colleagues share their frustration around missed opportunities for loyalty programs to provide stellar experiences. It seems I’m not alone in my experiences.  

Does your experience fly with humans?

As we say a lot around Applause, you need to shift left to build the right experiences. If you do, for example, generative research studies and understand customer sentiment and expectations, then you start to build your program focused on a targeted end result based on actual feedback from your users. There’s no guessing, no dependency on gut feeling in development.

If you use seasoned travelers, they will bring a sophistication and critical eye to your research that will truly inform your work. What is most important to them when they open their loyalty app? How do your experiences compare to those of your competitors? This demographic is happy to tell you. In this improved world, after initial research, QA performs the right testing early on. They don’t wait until something is discovered late in the software development life cycle. They test as much as possible.

Applause did a study for a major bank’s credit cards to see how users felt about the process of redeeming loyalty points related to travel experiences. It honed in on the customer journey of these frequent flyers in airports: specifically how they could use points in various restaurants and stores there. The company that runs these airport storefronts and the credit card company received specific insights around friction points in the customer journey. For example, it included feedback that some users on specific phones and OSes couldn’t apply a complimentary beverage coupon in store.  

In another test, this time for a major digital payment service, we sent testers on flights with a specific airline to test payment for food and other purchases that can be made in flight. They found that redemption of loyalty points only worked after reaching approximately 12,000 feet altitude. Obviously, this isn’t something you can test in a lab. And using savvy travelers not only gives you insights around what works and doesn’t, but how this makes them feel within their journey.    

Whether testing in-flight app functionality or putting testers through rental car queues after landing at their destinations, using real travelers in real-world scenarios is the only way to truly know if your loyalty program is taking its members to new heights. 

Completing the journey

Like so many things in life, building traveler loyalty programs is complex and simple at the same time. When you look behind the scenes, there may be many moving parts, but this complexity can guide organizations to carefully evaluate existing processes and see where they might need improvement. Build clarity into the SDLC, execute on research early, involve a diverse population in your design phase, including people with disabilities. This helps shine a light on complexity. 

Then there are the basics that often get overlooked: 

• Are you communicating in clear terms to your valued customers? For example, is a special deal on flights clearly communicating restrictions that might otherwise frustrate your customers – things like extra baggage fees, blackout dates, etc.? 
• Have you recently, or ever, asked your most valued customers how they like your app?
• Is your app easy, even fun, to use? 
• What about soliciting their input on innovations that would benefit everyone? Does your brand radiate trust? This can be done in simple ways: immediate confirmation of a ticket being purchased, an email that reminds you that you can check in online in advance of your flight, a reminder that you have loyalty points that may be applied in various ways throughout the journey and more. 
• Do you relieve your customers’ anxiety at key points of their journey or do you add to it? 

It’s these simple questions that travel brands must ask themselves…and the way to gain clarity is to ask your customers. Getting ahead of your customers expectations is key in this regard.      

If you don’t know what your customers want, you can’t make the experience work for them. Meanwhile, another brand is luring your customers away from you.