CO-BRANDED CREDIT CARD

LATAM Airlines

2017

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The second project I participated in while working at Globant for the client LATAM Airlines was Co-Branded Credit Card. Before this project, there was no direct access for obtaining the Co-branded credit card LATAM Airlines had with different banks across Latin America through the website. This project was very interesting and challenging at the same time, due to the fact that as the main UX of the project I had to work and coordinate with many people, including the Product Owner, stakeholders, and other teams where we had to work together to make this project happen.

PHASES OF THE PROJECT

Discovery

The discovery began with the purpose of getting to know the needs of our stakeholders and of the users. To do this we did a series of activities proper to the discovery phase to detect opportunities and be able to reach a clear definition of the solution.

1

Opportunity Assessment

We began defining the macro hypothesis for the project and the product vision after being introduced to the business landscape by our stakeholders.

2

Setting our goals

Through a few stakeholder interviews, we set our goals after gathering the existing data they had from campaigns realized up to the date.

3

Customer Research

We then set our target using LATAM’s frequent flyer program data base and set out to interview them to understand their needs and wants.

4

Competitive Landscape

Last but not least, I carried out a benchmark of industry trends to identify possible touchpoints and observe the storytelling used. 

Definition

Customer Use Cases: In the definition phase, the main goal was to identify customer needs. I constructed different story-like use cases based on the data from the customer research gathered in the discovery phase. Each use case was based on a different type of user, including all types of frequent flyer category, incomes, and their flying frequency in order to detect opportunities personalized for each case and obtain a better conversion.

Customer Empathy and Journey Maps: Next step was to create empathy for the customer we were building for and created empathy maps, and later went on to build the customer journey map to get insights on how we could impact on the different touch points based on our macro hypothesis in which we believed we had to offer the co-branded credit card to our users at the right moment through a personalized experience.

Micro hypothesis backlog: I worked alongside the PO to make a list of micro hypotheses which would be validated through different AB tests. Our goal was to increase the amount of credit cards applied for through the site, but not affect the conversion of the other products we would be intervening.

Inception: To conclude the definition phase, we had a 3 full day inception with the team and the stakeholders in which we presented the discovery and definition phases and realized a series of prioritization activities with the list of functionalities we had built together.

Delivery

With the inception concluded and the first MVP’s defined, we began working on the banners in the different touch points we had detected on the journey map and began experimenting through AB Tests to discover which touch points generated more conversion and did not affect the usual booking flow or other flows, always keeping in mind the objective of increasing the number of credit card applications by increasing the number of visits to the application form landing page. Following are a few examples of AB Tests we realized:

AB Testing "Statement" section

One of the AB tests we realized was in the “Statement” section of a user logged into his/her LATAM Pass account. The goal of this test was to identify how many applications where generated from this touchpoint, the final conversion comparing two different versions and also identifying any possible negative outcome with user satisfaction.

Results

The slim version made a slight better conversion, so this was the banner implemented. Over all, the applications that came from this touchpoint was only 5% of the yearly goal, so we had to keep working hard to achieve that ambitious goal. Also, by knowing the user’s category, we could personalize the banners based on which credit card he/she could apply for.

Multivariable Testing in the Redeem flow

Another example was a multivariable test we did on the redeem booking flow. Because we did not want to affect a large amount of our users when we were just starting out, we started out with the redeem flow instead of the normal booking flow. If this test was successful, we would try it out on the booking flow. The goal of this test was to measure conversion of the banner on all 6 steps and measure if the conversion of the flow was affected. There would be 7 versions of the test. Version 1 would be the control (no banner), version 2 would have the banner on all steps, and version 3 to 7 would have the banner only on one step of the whole flow.

Results: The banner was implemented on steps 3 and 6, due to the fact that on these steps the conversion of the flow was not impacted, and the click rate was highest. Below are screenshots of the redeem booking flow with the banner on each step:

Redesign of the application form

We knew from the beginning that the application form had to be redesigned. To begin with, it was not responsive and had a few usability problems. I began with an analysis using Hotjar to understand all the problems it had. Some of the highlights I obtained from the recordings:

• There were inputs (like the date of birth) that were difficult to complete.

• The input for choosing your credit card was almost the last one, and many users would start with that one to see if it is what they needed or wanted.

• There were many links that where distracting and users would leave the application form.

• About 30% of the users from the 200 recordings analyzed, abandon in less than 11 seconds either with no interaction with the form or only a few interactions but does not begin completing the form.

Apart from all the usability problems the application form had, it also had no consistency in its graphic or communication from the banners, and there was no attractive marketing copy to motivate the user to complete the form.

Screenshot of the old application form:

The next step was to obtain feedback from our users. The way we did this was setting up a feedback button with Usabilla on the landing page to understand their expectations and motivations. We also activated an abandon campaign poll to understand why they were not interested.

FINAL MOCKUPS

RESULTS

The project overall was very successful. Before this project, there was no direct access for obtaining de co-branded credit card through the online site. In about 1 year into the project, we had already sold over 12,000 credit cards contributing 3.2 MM USD profit to the company. With the new responsive application form, the conversion rate increased from 10% to 15% the first months in production. After a few months, the conversion became stable in 13% being still a big improvement compared to the old one.

For me, it was my first project where I had to lead a discovery phase and got the chance to expand my knowledge on user research. I also worked much of my soft skills, maintaining a close relationship with the product owner and stakeholders to better understand the company’s needs, but always maintaining our user’s needs first in line.