Travel Features
Demonstrating Southwest Airlines’ UX opportunities to maintaining brand loyalty through speed-to-market.
In 2018, as mobile purchasing surged, I leveraged my background in marketing and product design to examine the Southwest Airlines mobile app. By focusing on a user-first approach, I aimed to show how enhancing user experiences can drive business value.
True Leaders Keep Improving
Digging into yearly air travel rankings, I got the scoop on where Southwest Airlines stood. From delays to lost bags, I spotted some glaring issues. After sizing up the competition's apps, it was clear where Southwest could shine. And guess what? There's tons of untapped potential in the app to make travelers happier with better mobile experiences and support features.
Navigating Challenges in the Skies
The Southwest Airlines mobile app, while a key touchpoint for travelers, fell short in addressing critical user concerns such as baggage management and real-time updates. This gap posed a challenge: how could the app be elevated to enhance customer satisfaction and foster brand loyalty?
Our objective was crystal clear: to extend the app's customer service support and leverage the burgeoning landscape of mobile payments to drive an enhanced user experience.
Charting a Course for Success
With a clear understanding of user pain points, we embarked on an exhilarating journey of design charrettes. These collaborative brainstorming sessions fueled our creativity as we sought to integrate new features and functionalities into the Southwest Airlines mobile
app.
Among the ideas from our design charrettes were solutions to address prevalent issues head-on such as managing lost baggage claims, nearby suggestions, and travel bundles.
Concept information architecture (stars show impact of study)
Concept user flow for lost baggage claims
Where Function Meets Form
With each new feature conceived, our focus shifted to ensuring its seamless integration within the existing app framework. Every addition underwent meticulous scrutiny to align with the established design language, ensuring a harmonious blend of functionality and familiarity.
We made subtle design changes to ensure that the new workflows we proposed were consistent and familiar experiences. These adjustments allowed us to maintain a cohesive user experience, even as our challenges became more complex.
Introducing the new Southwest Airlines mobile app, offering a seamless experience with enhanced customer support. With the rise in mobile usage, we prioritize smooth interactions and top-notch customer support. Our goal? Elevating user experiences with an intuitive journey and robust support features to strengthen brand loyalty.
Submit a lost baggage claim
Retrieve baggage
Lost Baggage Claims
Ranking poorly in mishandled baggage claims, we recognized the limitations in directly solving the issue. However, we believed that providing more assistance through the app during these moments of frustration and anxiety could be beneficial.
Previously, customers had to visit an airline representative at the airport to file for lost baggage. Now, with the dynamic dashboard, they can file claims faster, accessing flight details for improved efficiency. Real-time app notifications offer timely updates, while integrating baggage claim options with invoicing data simplifies form submission for users.
Nearby Suggestions
Suggestions for nearby activities and dining could be an added benefit for travelers that have delays or have arrived early. This has an added potential for fostering partnerships with local businesses to provide added benefits to the customers as well.
Travel Bundles
Offering bundled services within an app was rare during this project (and remains so today), but holds significant potential in securing customer loyalty by streamlining workflows and enhancing purchasing flexibility.
Book a Hotel
To enable the booking of bundled services, it's essential to ensure a consistent experience for booking hotels individually within a seamless workflow. During the time of this study, booking a hotel was feasible, but limited to desktop usage and not available natively on the mobile app. This discrepancy highlights an opportunity where enhancing purchasing flexibility could significantly benefit the business in a straightforward manner. By addressing this gap, we not only improve user convenience but also expand revenue potential through increased accessibility across multiple platforms.
Takeaways
Improving customer relations and fostering loyalty requires swift issue resolution, insightful support metrics analysis, and diverse purchase options. Let's delve into how these strategies contribute to ensuring a seamless user experience and encouraging repeat business.
Enhanced Customer Relations: Swift issue resolution strengthens bonds with customers, fostering trust and loyalty.
Insightful Support Metrics: Analyzing support data uncovers improvement opportunities, guiding targeted enhancements.
Repeat Business Assurance: Seamless mobile experiences and diverse purchase options secure customer loyalty and encourage repeat transactions.
