MOOC DESIGN THINKING /REFLECTION : LEARNING LAUNCH

CHALLENGE  I am the founder and CEO of a small tour operator created six years ago. With my team of five experienced travel  consultants, we design tailor-made tours to unusual destinations for our clients. Our tours are not packaged or  « ready-made », each tour is individually crafted to suit our clients’ needs.   Over the years, the competition between tailor-made tour operators has increased greatly and travellers have  increasingly played with this competition to get the best prices. At the same time, they have get used to booking  online simple services like one night accommodation or plane tickets and they now turn to tour operators like us for  more and more complex services (like tours implying multiple service providers not available online), requiring more  and more time from us to build. Traditionally, making an enquiry for a quote and a detailed itinerary to a travel  specialist has always been free for the customer. The result is that clients copy paste their enquiry to many travel  companies, looking for the best prices and the best attention to their request. On our company side, as a result, we  now transform only 10% of the enquiries into bookings ( versus 20% 3 years ago). We thus had to increase our prices  and reduce the time devoted to each enquiry, going on the opposite directions of the clients’ needs.    SELECTION  Before using the tool we are going to speak about here, the learning launch, we used different design thinking tools  like journey mapping with some clients but also with the travel consultants, and value chain analysis. We then used  the brainstorming tool to come up with new ideas.   The most innovative idea was inspired by the repair services for cars or household electrical : asking our clients to  pay for the quote they ask for and deduct this cost from the price of their trip if they book. This solution seems  perfect from a travel consultant’s point of view : by asking clients to pay for their quote, we assume travel  consultants will receive less enquiries, will only receive good-quality enquiries from clients ready to travel for real,  will be able to spend more time on each enquiry and reduce their margin. Moreover, the travel consultant will be  more motivated and dedicated to his work as a better conversion rate is more rewarding, according to them. From a  client’s point of view, the client who confirms a journey won’t have to pay for the time spent by the company on all  the enquiries that were never converted, he will get better prices and more time from a more motivated travel  consultant.  But that left a major question : will the client accept to pay for an enquiry when the competition reply to enquiries  for free ? A quick survey to a sample of repeat clients learnt us that they could be ready to pay for an enquiry if the  cost was reasonable ( lower than 100 euros), deducted from their bill if they confirm and if it was well explained that  paying for the enquiry would imply a better deal if they book. We thus decided to use the learning launch tool which  seems the best way to test our idea in the real marketplace.     APPLICATION  For our learning launch, we decided to choose a month that was not really strategic for the business ( a month when  numbers of enquiries was relatively low). We design a new webpage for our enquiry form explaining why clients had  to pay online with a credit card before sending the enquiry and what would be the benefits for them. The previous  years, volumes of enquiries had been quite stable during the first 2 weeks of the months and the last 2 weeks. So we  chose to divide the month into two periods of time so we could test two different scenarios. The first 2 weeks, we  put an enquiry fee at 45 €, promising 5% discount on the price of the trip compared to competition. The last 2  weeks, we put an enquiry fee at 90 €, promising 10 % discount on the price of the trip compared to competition.     INSIGHT & APPROACH  We then analyzed the results of the month in google analytics, compared to the previous year. The number of  visitors to our enquiry webpage remained almost the same. The time spent on the page increased ( + 47%) as if  visitors took time to read our explanations about having to pay for an enquiry or hesitated. The number of enquiries  compared to the number of visitors to the page decreased of 80% for scenario 1 and 65% for scenario 2. Let’s be  honest, we expected a fall but not that big a fall. The difference between scenario 1 and 2 suggested that the  discount of 10% was far more convincing than the discount of 5% even if the cost of the enquiry was higher. The  conversation rate ( number of booking confirmed compared to number of enquiries received) jumped to 55% in

scenario 1 to 65% to scenario 2. That was quite a surprise too. Finally, travel consultants said they felt more  motivated and dedicated to their work and clients said they were very satisfied by our services.    Although we had expected a decrease of enquiries and an increase of the conversation rates, the figures were really  a surprise. On the one end, the results reinforced us in the idea that an enquiry client has to pay for was an  interesting track. On the other end, the figures completely challenged our profitability hypotheses and left us with a  lot of new questions. If travel consultants had less work and if we didn’t want to dismiss some of them or reduce our  margins, we had to increase volume of enquiries and thus communicate, nearly evangelize about our solution. How  will we communicate and how much will it cost to convince enough clients ? What would be the impact on margins  and profitability in the mid and long term ? One thing is sure : we still have a long iterative process to go to try, to  learn, and to adapt our communication…


MOOC DESIGN THINKING /REFLECTION : LEARNING LAUNCH CHALLENGE I am the founder and CEO of a small tour operator created six years ago . With my team of five experienced travel consultants , we design tailor - made tours to unusual destinations for our clients . Our tours are not packaged or « ready - made » , each tour is individually crafted to suit our clients ’ needs . Over the years , the competition between tailor - made tour operators has increased greatly and travellers have increasingly played with this competition to get the best prices . At the same time , they have get used to booking online simple services like one night accommodation or plane tickets and they now turn to tour operators like us for more and more complex services ( like tours implying multiple service providers not available online ) , requiring more and more time from us to build . Traditionally , making an enquiry for a quote and a detailed itinerary to a travel specialist has always been free for the customer . The result is that clients copy paste their enquiry to many travel companies , looking for the best prices and the best attention to their request . On our company side , as a result , we now transform only 10 % of the enquiries into bookings ( versus 20 % 3 years ago ) . We thus had to increase our prices and reduce the time devoted to each enquiry , going on the opposite directions of the clients ’ needs . SELECTION Before using the tool we are going to speak about here , the learning launch , we used different design thinking tools like journey mapping with some clients but also with the travel consultants , and value chain analysis . We then used the brainstorming tool to come up with new ideas . The most innovative idea was inspired by the repair services for cars or household electrical : asking our clients to pay for the quote they ask for and deduct this cost from the price of their trip if they book . This solution seems perfect from a travel consultant ’s point of view : by asking clients to pay for their quote , we assume travel consultants will receive less enquiries , will only receive good - quality enquiries from clients ready to travel for real , will be able to spend more time on each enquiry and reduce their margin . Moreover , the travel consultant will be more motivated and dedicated to his work as a better conversion rate is more rewarding , according to them . From a client ’s point of view , the client who confirms a journey wo n’t have to pay for the time spent by the company on all the enquiries that were never converted , he will get better prices and more time from a more motivated travel consultant . But that left a major question : will the client accept to pay for an enquiry when the competition reply to enquiries for free ? A quick survey to a sample of repeat clients learnt us that they could be ready to pay for an enquiry if the cost was reasonable ( lower than 100 euros ) , deducted from their bill if they confirm and if it was well explained that paying for the enquiry would imply a better deal if they book . We thus decided to use the learning launch tool which seems the best way to test our idea in the real marketplace . APPLICATION For our learning launch , we decided to choose a month that was not really strategic for the business ( a month when numbers of enquiries was relatively low ) . We design a new webpage for our enquiry form explaining why clients had to pay online with a credit card before sending the enquiry and what would be the benefits for them . The previous years , volumes of enquiries had been quite stable during the first 2 weeks of the months and the last 2 weeks . So we chose to divide the month into two periods of time so we could test two different scenarios . The first 2 weeks , we put an enquiry fee at 45 € , promising 5 % discount on the price of the trip compared to competition . The last 2 weeks , we put an enquiry fee at 90 € , promising 10 % discount on the price of the trip compared to competition . INSIGHT & APPROACH We then analyzed the results of the month in google analytics , compared to the previous year . The number of visitors to our enquiry webpage remained almost the same . The time spent on the page increased ( + 47 % ) as if visitors took time to read our explanations about having to pay for an enquiry or hesitated . The number of enquiries compared to the number of visitors to the page decreased of 80 % for scenario 1 and 65 % for scenario 2 . Let ’s be honest , we expected a fall but not that big a fall . The difference between scenario 1 and 2 suggested that the discount of 10 % was far more convincing than the discount of 5 % even if the cost of the enquiry was higher . The conversation rate ( number of booking confirmed compared to number of enquiries received ) jumped to 55 % in scenario 1 to 65 % to scenario 2 . That was quite a surprise too . Finally , travel consultants said they felt more motivated and dedicated to their work and clients said they were very satisfied by our services . Although we had expected a decrease of enquiries and an increase of the conversation rates , the figures were really a surprise . On the one end , the results reinforced us in the idea that an enquiry client has to pay for was an interesting track . On the other end , the figures completely challenged our profitability hypotheses and left us with a lot of new questions . If travel consultants had less work and if we did n’t want to dismiss some of them or reduce our margins , we had to increase volume of enquiries and thus communicate , nearly evangelize about our solution . How will we communicate and how much will it cost to convince enough clients ? What would be the impact on margins and profitability in the mid and long term ? One thing is sure : we still have a long iterative process to go to try , to learn , and to adapt our communication …