Travelers seek to optimize their budget for flights, lodging, and experiences. Full-fare carriers set the benchmark for airline expectations, making it difficult for budget airlines to compete. To improve the travel experience and remain competitive, customer feedback is crucial.
Customers may go to great lengths to save money, including parting with personal belongings at the gate to avoid unexpected fees.
My team and I were assigned to collect market and customer data to create personas and enhance the customer journey.
We tackled this initiative in three phases: Phase 1 involved customer interviews and market analysis at various airports. In Phase 2, we created personas and user journeys using the gathered data. Finally, in Phase 3, we conducted workshops to map the journey.
The most impactful task for my partner strategist and me was visiting three airports in one day. Armed with only a pen and paper, we embarked on this tiring yet rewarding experience. I heard directly from travelers, agents, and flight attendants about their airline preferences and complaints. Our notes and audio recordings were extensive and needed to be analyzed and synthesized.
After collecting various sources of data, my next task was to sift through and organize it while extracting customer insights.
At this point, we had collected these sources:
I collaborated and contributed to the initial readout report presented to the main stakeholders, which marked our first milestone. This key deliverable provided Spirit's team with insights and potential opportunities to consider, including new areas they had not previously focused on.
Getting towards the end of this project, a workshop was hosted to bring together various leaders from Spirit, including executives, to participate in a journey mapping session. The entire cohort was split into four teams.
I led and facilitated journey mapping for one of the teams.
One of the key artifacts that I produced was a comprehensive user journey. For this deliverable, me and the team wanted something the client could digest as well as showcase internally to their teams and inspire new ideas for change.
Equipped with dependable and actionable customer insights, Spirit Airlines was now able to take the lead and invest in key initiatives to improve the customer experience.
Our success led to a follow-up contract to redesign the mobile app experience.
