Air France/KLM - Flying Blue
From Grounded to Soaring: Transforming the Flying Blue Experience
Project Overview
Client:
Air France/KLM Flying Blue & Isobar Paris
Industry:
Aviation & Loyalty
Project Goal:
To enhance customer loyalty and drive revenue during periods of reduced air travel by expanding the airline's loyalty program through strategic partnerships and innovative digital solutions at a pace.
Challenges:
The global pandemic brought the aviation industry to a standstill. Air France-KLM, like many airlines, faced unprecedented challenges, including grounded fleets and declining revenue. A critical question arose: How could we maintain customer loyalty and engagement in a world grounded by travel restrictions, and stand up solutions fast?
Our Approach
Research and Discovery:
To gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities, we conducted in-depth interviews with key stakeholders across the business. This allowed us to identify pain points, gather insights, and align project goals.
While the pandemic presented challenges, particularly in terms of face-to-face user research and testing, we adapted our approach to incorporate remote methodologies. This included online surveys, remote usability testing, and virtual workshops.
We also embarked on a thorough analysis of successful loyalty programmes globally, identifying key success factors such as:
Personalised Experiences: Tailoring rewards and offers to individual preferences.
Seamless Integration: Ensuring a smooth user experience across all channels.
Strategic Partnerships: Collaborating with complementary brands to offer additional value.
Data-Driven Optimisation: Using data analytics to refine the programme and improve customer engagement.
In addition to industry research, we leveraged existing Material Design library merging it with Flying Blue's emerging rebrand to accelerate the design process. By utilising pre-tested design patterns and components, we were able to achieve a faster time to market without compromising on quality.
Our research highlighted several key insights that shaped the development of the loyalty programme:
Simplicity and Ease of Use: We recognised the importance of minimising friction in the redemption process. By enabling seamless integration with digital wallets and online platforms, we aimed to make it effortless for users to earn and spend points.
Speed and Accessibility: Given the fast-paced nature of modern life, we prioritised the quick and easy access to loyalty cards through mobile apps. This ensured that users could effortlessly redeem points, even in busy environments.
Strategic Partnerships: Collaborating with a diverse range of partners, including supermarkets, ride-sharing services, and financial institutions, allowed us to expand the reach of the loyalty programme and offer a variety of redemption options.
By focusing on these key areas, we were able to create a loyalty programme that not only engaged customers but also drove tangible business value.
Design Process:
The first stage of the design process involved gathering requirements from the business via group conferences. Given the time challenges of myself being in New Zealand, the client being split between France and Holland, and the copywriter being in Canada, these meetings often occurred at 2 AM. Requirements were gathered in discussion and summarised in user stories, agreed upon by all parties. These user stories outlined the challenge and were used to plan timelines and key tasks.
The hands-on design process involved blending Google's Material Design principles with Flying Blue's emerging rebrand. We adopted a flexible approach, using both mobile-first and desktop-first design methodologies depending on the specific requirements and user needs.
Solutions were presented to relevant stakeholders at regular intervals. These feedback sessions allowed us to gather insights, challenge assumptions, and iterate on the design rapidly, often in real-time.
Results and Impact
Key Metrics:
The successful deployment of the new Flying Blue designs has yielded impressive results. The platform has seen a significant 61% increase in homepage conversions to the e-commerce platform. Additionally, the number of Miles&Points customers has tripled, and there has been an 11% increase in reward ticket usage.
Showcase:
Client Testimonials:
"A digital expert with an huge amount of knowledge/experience and a relentless willingness to create the best possible solution. Rich has the ability to translate high level business demands into clear, high quality, and consistent design proposals. A true sparring partner who guides you through the process. Not being afraid to ask the difficult questions. However always proposing a possible solution.”
"I have been working with Rich for 14 months together during a project related to re-designing of the new Flyingblue.com website part of Air France KLM. We hired Rich as lead designer to the team and it has been a great journey together: we learned so much and deliverables are currently in development or have been already launched! Rich has been of great value to this project. As a professional but also as a true person. Rich is flexible, easy to talk with and really an awesome, experienced design lead to work with. I would recommend everybody to work with Rich. ”
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