I Attempted To Increase Customer Satisfaction And Revenue For Cleartrip By Adding A Cross-Selling Feature In 48 Hours

Have you ever decided to book tours or activities happening in the vicinity of your hotel while booking your hotel, because you wanted to plan your trip more seamlessly and make the most out of your travel experience?

If yes, what did you do?

You went to another app or website to search for good tours nearby and ended up feeling puzzled and tired trying to find a website you can trust and a tour that suits your location, budget, and schedule.

Now, instead of going through all of this you can have a one-stop-shop solution and book all of the services you need for your vacation in one place, rather than having to visit multiple websites or make multiple purchases. Sounds easy and flexible right? Let’s understand how I proposed and designed this idea for Cleartrip.

📍Index

A brief on the challenge:-

1. Product design challenge
2. Plan of action

🎯 If you want to cut to the chase and see the final outcomes, check these out:-

1. Comparisons between the current design and the revamped UI design of the app
2. Changes I made after testing with real users
3. Final working Prototype

For a Detailed explanation of the process check out these:-

1. Problem statement
2. Cleartrip and its current flow
3. Why cross-selling? (Core Idea behind the feature)
4. Research and Assumptions
5. Who are my Target users?
6. User story
7. What to cross-sell and how?
8. Wireframing; reaching clarity from ambiguity
9. Complete UI Flow
10. The Enlightening feedback
11. I’m learning and mistakes happen
12. Future scope of the project
13. My learnings from this challenge

👉Product Design Challenge

In this case, study I talk about how I introduced a new feature in the Cleartrip app hotel booking flow to improve the business revenues and customer loyalty and satisfaction in a 48-hour long Product Design Challenge held under the mentorship of my mentor Anudeep Ayyagari.

We were divided into groups of 8–9 members where all the group members worked on one product(a travel booking app) on different Problem statements. My group got to work on Cleartrip.

We worked individually while supporting and helping each other in releasing any mental blocks and confusion throughout the challenge.

⌛Plan of action

The challenge started at 11 p.m on Friday and ended at 9 p.m on Sunday. It was a very time-constrained challenge so there were tight deadlines for each step in the process.

All this in 48 hours

👉Problem Statement

The problem statements were exploratory in nature. I went ahead with cross-selling one:- Add a feature to cross sell other services of the same product while checking out a particular service.

Problem statements to choose from

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🔸Cleartrip and it’s current flow

Cleartrip is an online travel company that offers various travel-related services such as booking flights, hotels, and trains. It is a travel company based in India that helps customers book and plan their travel itineraries. It offers features such as searching for flights and hotels and booking them in a seamless manner. It also offers a mobile app and a website for customers to book and manage their travel plans.

Current hotel booking flow in Cleartrip

💡Why cross-selling? (Core Idea behind the feature)

As this was an exploratory project I wanted to work on a Problem statement that gives me enough scope to bring a significant positive impact on the business of the app by adding a valuable feature and something that the app lacks at the moment.

Cross-selling means that you display related products on the product page the user is buying from.

The core idea of the feature: The goal of this feature is to increase revenue for Cleartrip by cross-selling related services to users while they are in the process of purchasing a particular service.

📍Research and Assumptions

For me to move forward with the problem statement I am required to assume certain aspects about how will the feature impact them and whether is it worth building. For this, I took help from desk research and competitive research.

Impact on business metrics: It is expected that this feature will increase the average order value (AOV) for Cleartrip by encouraging users to purchase additional services. This could also lead to an increase in customer loyalty and repeat purchases, as users are made aware of the full range of services that Cleartrip offers.

How it helps users: This feature will provide users with a more personalized and seamless shopping experience, as they will be made aware of related services that they may be interested in. This can also save users time and effort in having to search for additional services on their own.

🔶Assumptions I made: -

1. It is assumed that there is sufficient demand for the related services that are being cross-sold.
2. It is assumed that the cross-selling of related services will not negatively impact the user’s perception of Cleartrip’s brand or reputation. It’s important to consider how users may react to being presented with cross-sell options.
3. Depending on how the feature is implemented, it is possible that it may lead to an increase in customer support inquiries or complaints if the feature lacks in providing clarity about the product.

🔶Constraints:-

1. There may be limitations on the types of services that can be cross-sold, depending on the specific service that the user is purchasing and their location.
2. Additionally, care must be taken to ensure that the cross-selling of related services is done in a way that is not overly intrusive or annoying to the user and doesn’t obstruct the purchase flow in a negative way.

Competitive Research

To understand how other travel bookings and non-competitive companies utilize cross-selling to increase business revenues and if they do so what and how they provide it to keep their users satisfied.

👉Points to note:-

1. I found out that none of the top travel booking apps cross-sells services like tours and activities before the checkout.
2. Some of them like MakeMyTrip cross-sells car rental services before the checkout.
3. Tripadvisor and Booking.com sell activity-related tours but not as cross-selling products.

competitive and non-competitive apps I went through

🔶Who are my Target users?

Target users for this feature will be people from the age group of 18–40 years who have already used the app for booking flights or trips before. There are a lot of scopes to understand what type of users would prefer such a feature more depending upon their destination of booking, and their personal and professional background.

Travelers face a variety of challenges when planning and booking trips, such as:

1. Difficulty finding the best prices and deals

2. Lack of flexibility with travel plans

3. Limited options for transportation, accommodation, and activities

4. Difficulty coordinating multiple bookings and reservations

5. Complexity of the booking process

👉Based on my assumptions the feature will benefit the most to:-

1. Users who are looking to purchase related or complementary services: If the user is planning a vacation, they may be interested in purchasing a hotel room and rental car in addition to their flight. The cross-sell feature will make it easy for them to add these services to their purchase.
2. Users who are looking to save time and effort: Instead of having to search for and book a hotel room and rental car separately, the user can take care of everything in one place with the cross-selling feature. This will save them time and effort.
3. Users who are looking for a convenient, one-stop-shop solution: The user can book all of the services they need for their vacation in one place, rather than having to visit multiple websites or make multiple purchases.
4. Users who may not have been aware of or thought to look for related services: The user may not have thought to purchase travel insurance or consider renting a car for their vacation. However, the cross-selling feature will present these options to them, potentially benefiting them if they decide to purchase these additional services.

📍Hypothesizing my User aka User story

It gave me a clarity on: -

👉Whom I’m designing the feature for, how will they use it, and whether they will be comfortable using the feature without it disrupting the purchase flow?

The user base of Cleartrip is vast and thus following user stories are possible:

1. As a frequent traveler, I want to be able to easily book airport transfers and car rentals when I book my flight or hotel so that I can have a more convenient travel experience.
2. As a budget-conscious traveler, I want to be able to compare the prices and options of add-on services such as travel insurance and attraction tickets before booking, so that I can make the best decision for my budget.
3. As a family, I want to be able to book services such as vacation packages that include family-friendly activities, so that we can have a fun and enjoyable experience as a family.
4. As a solo traveler, I want to be able to book services such as airport transfers and car rentals, so that I can have a more secure and comfortable travel experience.
5. As a nature lover, I want to be able to book services such as guided nature tours and adventure activities, so that I can have a more fulfilling travel experience.
6. As a culture seeker, I want to be able to book services such as attraction tickets and city tours, so that I can learn more about the history and culture of the places I am visiting.

These are the User stories I went ahead with as I felt I could create a seamless and valuable design for them:-

✔️ As a nature lover, I want to be able to book services such as guided nature tours and adventure activities, so that I can have a more fulfilling travel experience.

✔️ As a frequent traveler, I want to be able to easily book airport transfers and car rentals when I book my flight or hotel, so that I can have a more convenient travel experience.

💡What to Cross-sell and How?

Travel insurance: If a user is booking a flight or vacation package, they may be interested in purchasing travel insurance to protect their trip.

Activities: If a user is booking a flight or hotel, they may be interested in purchasing tickets to local attractions or activities as part of their trip

Car rentals: If a user is booking a flight, they may be interested in renting a car at their destination.

Ticketing services: Offer customers the option to purchase tickets for local events, shows, or attractions.

🔶How to cross-sell in the app?

Ways to cross-sell in the app

👉I decided to go ahead with adding the cross-selling feature “In the purchase flow: The user would see a feature selling an additional service based on the product they are buying” which will indicate that the cross-selling service is related to the service user is already trying to purchase and can make it look more personalized.

🎯Wireframing (Ambiguity to Clarity)

Wireframing helped me more in the understanding of :

1. Which feature would work best with the hotel booking flow?
2. Which feature would be possible to implement in the time I had and would bring out the most impact in terms of revenue generation by the business?

👉I was confused between car rental service and Tour booking service because both seemed valuable and familiar. But due to time constraints implementing only one feature was possible.

👉 Wireframing helped me in the decision of going ahead with the tour booking.

Low fidelity wireframes

📍I thought I needed to go ahead with something familiar yet more revenue-generating and I went ahead with —

Feature: tour booking cross-selling feature

Location: before the checkout during a hotel booking flow

As, I had already seen a car rental cross-selling feature placed similarly in Make my trip I felt it to be more reasonable to try the same implementation since the users might be comfortable with or aware of it.

📍Why is the tour booking cross-selling feature helpful?

1. Increased revenue: By offering customers additional travel options, such as tour packages, Cleartrip can increase its revenue by increasing the number of bookings. By cross-selling tours, the company can increase its revenue without having to acquire new customers.

2. Improved customer satisfaction: By providing customers with a more complete travel experience, this feature will improve customer satisfaction by making it easier for them to book everything they need for their trip in one place. It also allows customers to have better trip planning, this way they can organize their time and activities more efficiently.

3. Increased convenience: This feature will save customers time and make the booking process more convenient by allowing them to see and book tour packages that are nearby their destination at the same time they book their flight or hotel.

4. Personalization: The feature will enable the personalization of the tour packages based on the customer’s interests, making it more likely that they will book a tour package.

5. Cross-selling: The feature will also increase cross-selling of the products, as customers will be exposed to tour packages that might interest them and could be a great addition to their trip.

6. Increased customer retention: By providing a more complete travel experience, customers are more likely to return to Cleartrip for their future travel bookings.

7. Better Competitive advantage: By offering tour packages cross-selling feature, Cleartrip will be able to differentiate its services from competitors, which may not have such a feature, making it more attractive to customers.

✅The most anticipated part of this challenge — UI design

I have just started learning UI design and I was quite behind the schedule when I reached the UI design stage but nevertheless, I dived right in with positivity to at least learn something new.

I took inspiration from the competitive apps and non-competitive apps in making the UI and started with the Contact details page where I felt the new feature of the carousel would make the best impact. My groupmates also helped me in making a design system for the App since we were working on the same app.

Components and color system for Cleartrip

No doubt making the components and using them is a challenge but it’s beneficial, time-saving, and helps create a similarity throughout the flow of the app.

I revamped the UI many times and took a lot of inspiration from how other apps are following the same features to get the best out of them.

➡️Comparisons between the current design and the revamped UI design of the app

1. I introduced the tour booking cross-selling feature in the form of carousels on the personal details page in the hotel booking flow of Cleartrip.
2. It has the CTA to add the tour directly into the cart.
3. I introduced the CTA for viewing the complete description of the tour including the itinerary. The focal point is kept on this button to encourage users to view the itinerary.
4. The heading specifies that these are tours that are available nearby the location of their hotel.
5. The time duration of the tour is also given along with the user ratings.

1. The ADD button adds the tour to the cart along with the room the user has selected. The price of the tour per person is mentioned there and that the price changes with group sizes.
2. The What’s Included section has a drop-down chevron which means the section closes and opens on clicking the chevron and has all the facilities that are provided in the tour.
3. This is the highlights section mentioning the preferred language, and the key facilities provided which are private transfer and food.
4. This is the itinerary section with a drop-down chevron. It describes the list of places included in the tour and the user can choose to go to any place from the list. The map also depicts all these locations listed.
5. This is the carousel section for similar tours nearby.
6. The CTA named CONTINUE takes the user to the checkout page.
7. The time duration of the tour is given here.
8. This is the carousel section of the images from the tour. It also has a wishlist button to wishlist the term.
9. The CTA named READ MORE discloses the complete description text of the term.
10. This section mentions the age, opening, and closing times for the term.

Check the entire UI flow i.e. final prototype of the feature:-

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💡The Enlightening feedback

Usability testing gave me much-needed feedback and insights. I tested my product with 3 users and the most important insights that I found worth working on in the time left considering the significant impact they would have brought in the flow are:-

1. Nitin said that Itinerary is the main thing, should be more prominent

2. Kishley thought that the map might be showing just general places in Darjeeling and is not related to the tour itinerary.

3. Kishley felt that there is no need for one star written along with 4.9 in the reviews. feels insignificant.

4. Prudhvineguri felt that the Font is hard to read in the “whats included section”.

5. Prudhvineguri said that the list of itinerary should be numbered.

6. Prudhvineguri felt that separation between map and itinerary caused confusion if the map is a part of the itinerary.

7. Kishley assumed that it is an activity that you can do there and not a tour that you can buy initially.

👉Changes I made after testing with real users

1. Personal details and Contact details page

1. I have added a button in the middle to customize the number of people the tour is being booked for. I have also changed the text and font size of the other buttons.
2. I have changed the font sizes here to create a focus on the name of the tour. I have shifted the star on the right of the number indicating that it has a 4.9 out of 5-star rating according to the user reviews.
3. I have changed the text to create a relationship between the tours with the room being booked.

2. Tour Description page

1. Added a CTA for customization of the number of people added for the tour and changed the position, size, and text of ADD button. I removed the price details about group size because it was confusing to the users.
2. I changed the text here as it made more sense for the tour.
3. The direction of the chevron is changed and the font is changed with the improvised layout for better understanding.
4. I removed the chevron and made the list always visible on the page. Added a little info about the itineraries
5. I added more information about the tour itinerary to make the itinerary easier to understand for the users since users were confused about the relation between the time duration mentioned the under the carousel of the tour and the actual itinerary.
6. I changed the heading of the carousel to Similar Tours nearby to establish a relation between the tour that the user is checking and other tours available nearby.
7. I changed the position of the name of the tour from the upper left corner to the bottom left because I wanted to add a back button in the former position.

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📚I’m learning and mistakes happen

Some mistakes that happened during the project:-

📍While testing

1. I talked with the users and tried to explain them how and why a particular feature is the way it was when they questioned them. I think it happened because i did not want them to get a wrong idea of the intention behind the flow.
2. I agree I should not be biased and not attach myself with my product. I need to be more neutral while receiving the feedback. It’s the best way to grow.

How to prevent that from happening?
1. Listen to their views and if they question something just answer that i can only observe how you interact with the product.

2. There is no need to create a bond with them or they might start becoming biased.

📍In the flow:

1. I did not put proper spacing between ui elements and some of them were just irregularly spaced.
2. I haven’t yet provided a way for a completely new user to understand that the new feature i have introduced will affect their total checkout price if they add it. Because the users were confused if it was an activity that they can perform there or is it something that they’ll have to buy to access.
3. There were some mistakes in the flow of the prototype like not having a back button on the itinerary page on which the user asked me how to go back.
4. I should’ve explored more during the wireframing stage to understand the different possibilities of where the feature worked best.

🔮 Future Scope in the project:-

1. Filtering options: Users should have the ability to filter the suggested tours and activities by different criteria such as location, price, duration and type of activity
2. Personalized recommendations: To Increase the visibility of the feature I can add a personalized recommendation of such tours based on their past trips and bookings and promote the feature more on the homepage and give notifications for the personalized tour recommendations to the users.
3. Adding the feature on Homepage: I can add the feature in the homepage as well with its own icon for a bigger reach and visibility.
4. Wishlist: I can add a wish-list feature for this feature where the users can access all their wish-listed tour
5. Provide a comparison feature for tour options, allowing customers to compare different tour options side by side, making it easier for them to make a decision.
6. Adding filters and sorting options based on price, type of activities etc.
7. Showing a reviews page to give the users clarity on the tour experiences and thus helping them in the decision making process and keep the process transparent.

👉Learnings from the Challenge

1. It’s important to keep in mind that validation is an iterative process and I should keep testing and gathering feedback on the feature to improve it over time.
2. It’s important to make assumptions and have trust in them in time constrained projects like this.
3. Deadlines are really important so that you accomplish and learn in your projects. It’s unbelievable how much can be accomplished within 48 hours. When you are working on a time constrained project like this you really realise how much time you spend otherwise procrastinating and just overthinking about what you can do and the perfectionist mindset just stealthily sets in.
4. Group projects are bliss. There is a lot that you can achieve working alone in a project but there’s much more that you can in a group project or just by taking help of people in your community. It saves time, gives motivation and you get inspired to do more.
5. Quantity over quality. It sounds controversial but I feel by completing more fast paced projects I can learn faster compared to completing very few slow paced ones. It also teaches you the importance of a Minimum viable product and how to prioritize your time and resources.

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At last I want to thank my mentor Anudeep Ayyagari for his guidance and motivation throughout the challenge, my group mates for their quick help and support and all the volunteers who worked on making this challenge a success.

Thank you for reading! If you liked my case study and have any feedback, I’m all ears.

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