Recently, we were invited by Mysa to talk to their clients and audience about what can be done to help improve direct booking conversions online via their own websites rather than relying on Online Travel Agents (OTAs). We’ve summarised the talk below, as the advice isn’t only niched to the travel sector and can be applied across many different booking journeys. 

Adopt user centred design

This approach to design (user centred design) will require all design decisions to be based on the needs of your users. Instead of having business processes dictate how you need your customers to behave, understand your customers behaviour to change your business processes. 

E.g. You know that your customers are time poor and looking to book things quickly based on 3 details: price, location and ease of booking. Your website shows prices and locations but your booking form takes 30 minutes to complete because your business process dictates that you need all traveller details at the point of booking. This lengthy process will ultimately make your customer go elsewhere to a competitor's site who can help them make a booking in 3 minutes and send a follow up email asking for travellers details at a time more convenient. 

Make a start by simply asking yourself ‘Does this approach solve my customers problems? Needs? Or Answer their questions?’. If yes, you are on the right path. 

Know your customer

Make sure you know who your customer is. Take time to research them and create persona documentation to record these findings in meaningful ways to support the wider team when making design and marketing decisions. This is a helpful tool when adopting the user centred approach mentioned above. 

Personas can be as simple or complicated as you need but should always have the key goals, considerations and main frustrations of the user. A good number to start with is 3. Over time this may grow or segment as your process becomes more user centred and your research more in depth.

Match your language to the customer journey

Language has such a large role to play in conversions. Everything from main page titles, supporting copy through to the micro-copy of buttons and links. You will want to pay particular attention to the copy of your buttons to reflect the stage of your customer’s on their booking journey.

For example, while a customer is researching options via a list of properties, ‘Book now’ for a button to move them to a property page feels very final when it simply provides more information. Using language like this creates the expectation they will see (without seeing anymore detail about the property) a checkout process they are not ready for, making them nervous. Replacing this copy with something less committed like ‘View property’ gives the customer a much more relaxed journey, delivering more information, moving them down the funnel and closer to booking. 

Inspire trust

If you haven’t been a referred connection then you will need to inspire trust in other ways. Use case studies and testimonials from previous customers that highlight the experience and difference you can deliver. Can you create videos alongside written testimonials to show more authenticity? A mixture of media will cover all preferred ways of content consumption by your users.

What brands have already used you or are you associated with? Make sure to highlight these relationships. Confidently showcase those brands that trust you and by association provide more confidence to new customers.

Have you had any awards or press coverage that celebrates your company or properties? Make sure to celebrate this recognition across relevant pages on the website for new customers to take note of or read more about. 

Simple booking journeys

One that is obvious but is still designed badly or not designed at all. When it is wrong, it's usually because the journey is dictated by a business process instead of informed by customer behaviours. Many abandonments and drop-offs can be tied back to a complicated or time consuming booking process. 

To avoid this make sure you keep requests for booking information down to a minimum. What is the minimum you need to confirm a booking? Not the minimum for your CRM to market later down the line. You can build this picture over time if you make it easy for the user to book and rebook, lengthening the lifetime of your customer. 

Bonus: Page load speed

In a world where people expect instant access to information, page load speed is critical. To keep on top of your page load speed you need to make sure you optimise all your assets to get the weight of your pages down for faster loading. There are other technical and infrastructure details that you can get a web professional to look at, such as using a CDN (Content delivery network), the location of where your website is hosted vs your main traffic (the closer the two are the better) and reducing the amount of code, scripts and processes needed to deliver your website.

A recent statistic shows a site that loads in 1 second has an e-commerce conversion rate 2.5x higher than a site that loads in 5 seconds. (Portent, 2019) 

In conclusion

Adopting a user centred approach will mean that you can shift away from a business first mentality that could very well be putting the hard work onto your customers. In short, asking for too much of their time. With a user centred approach, you can make sure their time is used valuably to increase conversions and trust.

Need some help with your booking conversions? 

Book in a FREE 30 minute session with our UX Director, Jason Hancock