Case Study

AIRMILES' conversion rates soar

AIRMILES is the UK's leading travel rewards scheme, offering members a huge choice of travel rewards.

Objectives

AIRMILES wanted to improve the usability of their site but didn't really have a clear picture of the current user experience. As a result, we were commissioned to improve the user-friendliness and customer experience of the AIRMILES website. During the 2-month project the main objectives were to:

• Gain an understanding of users' goals on the website
• Find out how well the site navigation supported users in the main tasks
• Discover the effectiveness of the main processes and booking forms
• Improve the accessibility of the site

What we did

We gathered extensive user feedback, and carried out testing, research and an in-depth competitor analysis to help define a new and improved AIRMILES website. Key elements of the process included:

• Focus groups with each of the key end user audiences
• Card sorting to create a site map and organise the site content
• Usability testing to judge the ease with which users completed common tasks
• Accessibility audit to judge blind and disabled users' ability to use the website

We then worked closely with the AIRMILES team to identify the key requirements of the site and provide solutions accordingly. AIRMILES implemented our recommendations on to a fully redesigned site, including:

• Homepage explaining AIRMILES' products more clearly
• Travel page offering customers a wide range of travel rewards with which they can use their Airmiles
• Collect section showcasing AIRMILES partners - Lloyds TSB, Tesco, Shell, SSE
• Insider's guide section allowing users to share and pick up the latest tips, competitions and insider information
• Inspiration section, where offers on flight and hotels are based on seasonal themes such as Valentine's, Christmas, Father's Day etc.

Results

Following the initial launch of the new site, Webcredible has continued to work with AIRMILES, following-up with expert reviews and usability testing of new page designs. AIRMILES has seen dramatic improvements for specific user groups, as well as the uptake of information and successful delivery of online sales.

Customer drop out rates on key pages such as the homepage have dropped by as much as 60%. They continue to fall based on AIRMILES continuing to listen to customer needs through user research and implementing the results efficiently through collaboration with us.

“Webcredible’s user research for AIRMILES more than paid for itself. Within just a few weeks we saw an increase of over 10% in travel booking volumes and an increase of 33% in customer logins to online shopping on our website.”

Stephen Scott, Airmiles