Online Persuasions Insiders 2016

How does British Airways optimise conversions?

Benjamin LigierCRO Project Manager

8 neuroscience ✔principles applied 10 mistakes ✘

to correct 4 proposalsfor improvements

An analysis of British Airways’ conversion process

I reveal what’s working, what’s not working quite so well, and propose some changes to help increase the site’s income…

Summer is here but the weather is leaving a lot to be desired so I think I’ll head over to the South of France instead where the sun is far more reliable! I need to book a flight to meet my friends in Marseille so I turn to British Airways.

As a Conversion Optimisation Consultant, I can’t help but take note of both the positive aspects of their site - and also the areas for improvement.

Join me on my user journey and discover some of the most relevant neuroscience principles I found that apply to their site.

The context

A path in 9 steps

2 3

Fly-DriveProposition Search Results

Passengers

6 7

Seats

8

Payment

9

Price

4

5

Add Car Rental

1

Homepage

Log In

A path in 9 steps

9 steps! That’s a lot of steps to have to go through for a flight booking… But then it seems every airline does this.

Fly-DriveProposition

Search Results

Passengers Seats Payment

Price

Add Car Rental

Homepage

Log In

Homepage

Fly-DriveProposition

Search Results

Passengers Seats Payment

Price

Add Car Rental

Homepage

Log In

Homepage

There’s no Call-to-Action on the slides: there’s nothing to catch my attention!

Attentional bias ✘

Homepage

This is the first time I’ve used British Airways so why is this Call-To-Action displayed? It should only be displayed to returning customers otherwise it is just drawing attention away unnecessarily.

Attention Ratio ✘

Homepage

There are too many fields! Are they really all necessary right now?

Ambiguity Aversion ✘

Homepage

Placing a Call-to-Action on the slider will make it clearer what you want people to do and lead them to the right information.

A photo would improve the appearance of the site and make it more modern and engaging.

Proposalfor improvement

Von Restorff Effect ✔

Reducing the number of fields will make the page clearer and encourage more people to complete the search.

Homepage

Usefulness &

Relevance ✔

If I leave and come back, even days later, the fields are already pre-filled with my most recent search.

Homepage

Framing Effect ✔

The word “Find” is far more positive and motivating than “Search”.

Fly-Drive Proposition

Fly-DriveProposition

Search Results

Passengers Seats Payment

Price

Add Car Rental

Homepage

Log In

Fly-Drive Proposition

I clicked on “Find flights”, I want to see flights not cars!

The option for this is already on the homepage AND again after the flight choice. This is surely more than enough?

Intention &

Self-Regulation ✘

Search Results

Fly-DriveProposition

Search Results

Passengers Seats Payment

Price

Add Car Rental

Homepage

Log In

Search Results

Curse of Knowledge ✘ What is Avios? There’s no explanation and the banner isn’t clickable!

Cognitive Fluency ✘

Search Results

We first have a big blank zone, then too much information crammed in to one space.

Search Results

The presentation is cleaner with the details of the different classes still available on hover.

Proposalfor improvement

Cognitive Fluency ✔

Scarcity Effect ✔

I am going to hurry and book because they tell me there’s only one seat left at this price!

Search Results

Information Bias ✔ When I click on “More Details” a pop-up tells me everything I need to know about the different classes.

Search Results

Visual Cueing ✔

This shaded arrow draws my attention down to the Call-To-Action.

Search

Search Results

Price

Fly-DriveProposition

Search Results

Passengers Seats Payment

Price

Add Car Rental

Homepage

Log In

Price

Price

Don’t Make me Think ✘

I have to scroll to the very end of the page to see the Call-To-Action. Do I really have to read everything? All this excessive information is inducing stress and cognitive friction.

Price

Price

This could be a floating window visible anywhere on the page which directly leads to the bottom of the page and the CTA. The wording of the text also makes it clear that these are all just options and not necessarily important info.

Proposalfor improvement

Don’t Make me Think ✔

Add Car Rental

Fly-DriveProposition

Search Results

Passengers Seats Payment

Price

Add Car Rental

Homepage

Log In

Add Car Rental

Commitment &

Consistency ✔

This is the right time to show me car rental offers - and the prices have already been calculated for my whole trip!

Log In

Fly-DriveProposition

Search Results

Passengers Seats Payment

Price

Add Car Rental

Homepage

Log In

Log In

Need For Certainty ✔ The reasons why I should register are clearly displayed.

Passengers

Fly-DriveProposition

Search Results

Passengers Seats Payment

Price

Add Car Rental

Homepage

Log In

Passengers

Foot-In-The-Door

Technique ✔

This page is divided in to three forms: Passengers, Person paying and Keeping you informed. This keeps each form short and clear, which encourages me to complete them all.

Passengers

Seats

Fly-DriveProposition

Search Results

Passengers Seats Payment

Price

Add Car Rental

Homepage

Log In

Seats

Cognitive Fluency ✘

The progression bar has suddenly disappeared on this page! This is confusing.

Seats

Cognitive Fluency ✘And even when the progression bar is present, there are many differences between each page in terms of design, names of steps, number of steps … It’s confusing and lacks visual fluency.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 2 bis

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Payment

Fly-DriveProposition

Search Results

Passengers Seats Payment

Price

Add Car Rental

Homepage

Log In

Payment

Payment

Pain of Paying ✘

The colour red is too aggressive and stressful; it makes me feel like paying will be extra painful.

Payment

Payment

£ 329.00

The aggressive red has been replaced by a relaxing green; the amount has been rounded up to something simpler, smoother, with fewer syllables; and “GBP” has been removed from the total price to avoid excessive & unnecessary monetary reminders.

Proposalfor improvement

Price Cognition ✔

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Contact us ✔to optimise your revenue

1 2 3“Thanks, I know how

to optimise my website.”

In this case: Click here to discover 5 cognitive biases you

might not know about.

“I need an expert to optimise my

website.”

“I don’t have time to think about this.”

Sounds like you’re suffering from the “Status Quo Bias” -

read more here.

Benjamin LigierCRO Project Manager