Overview
VIP Access is a global, invitation only program for lodging partners to reach high-value travelers and grow their business with Expedia Group. Partners commit to offer exceptional experiences and exclusive perks to VIP Access guests (who tend to spend more and stay longer than other guest segments) and in return receive targeted marketing for their properties at no additional cost.
Goal
Expedia wanted to increase revenue and participation in the VIP Access program. In order to do this, it was necessary to replace the manual process involving weeks of approval steps. First step was to bring the manual application form online.
Additional phases of the project would integrate the program more intuitively into the Partner Central platform.
Summary
My role: Senior UX designer for the digital version of the program
Skills: UX, service design, prototyping, user testing, content design, visual design
Launch date: 2019
The project seemed simple on the surface (bring an application form online), but soon the actual complexity of the rules for the program became more apparent. This added to both internal and partner (customer) confusion. I had to negotiate multiple stakeholder goals and come up with something that made sense.
Outcome
Close collaboration with marketing, content, research, product and development resulted in a reprioritization and changes to the content, fine tuning of the form features to better convey the value of the program and guide the partner consistently through picking appropriate perks for their VIP Access status.
With the launch of final application form we yielded a 35% increase in submission rates, and quickly grow the VIP Access network from 5,500 to 7,000 properties in three months.
Process flow calling out pain points of current VIP Access sign up process
Approach
Preliminary task flow mapping indicated there were many gaps that needed to be addressed in the scaling and integration of the program.
Launching an application form was the first step in a full scale integration of VIP Access management into Partner Central. In order to kick things off, however, partners needed to be able to apply for the program online, and do so without confusion. It was our understanding that partners would be fully briefed on the program prior to filling it out. But this turned out to be inaccurate, which we soon learned.
First round learnings
First version of VIP Application form launched
The quickly launched first form immediately reduced the manual work required from the team to manage the program.
However, too many applications were being rejected for not meeting the minimum perk value requirements. This prevented applications from being completed and slowed down the scaling goals of VIP Access. The enrollment failure rates indicated partners were confused over messaging about the minimum value of the perk they needed to offer VIP Access guests.
Even the product team hadn’t understood just how confusing their program was to partners. In order to better understand the problem, we needed access to both internal (market managers) and external users (hoteliers).
More discovery and research
VIP Access had no research data, and we had some serious hunches about problems we wanted validated. A deeper dive into the entire program was required. It was clear the program needed a system-wide overhaul. The product manager and I brought in our researcher to help us shed light on how we could improve things for our users.
After weeks of detailed interviews with properties and market managers around the globe, a few key themes emerged in the research.In particular, inconsistent marketing materials supplied to the Expedia market managers made it hard to sell the program. We wanted to make sure our form reiterated the value of the program without getting bogged down in “marketing speak.”
Design iterations included going back to the drawing board to reconsider information hierarchy and a possible wizard approach to revealing information to partners.
Explorations of a wizard approach to the application form
Explaining how the perk works
Explorations of the perk value explanation
We eventually determined that we could achieve sign up goals by keeping things simple, but really playing up the value of the program and explaining how the minimum perk value worked. Showing the suppliers the number to aim for became key.
In addition to improving the experience for the partners, I made improvements to the flow of the sign-off process for internal users who approved the application. Instead of outright rejecting the form, internal users could put the form into a temporary hold so that details of the agreement could be renegotiated with the property.
