Blast Analytics and Marketing

Improving the Customer Experience (CX) Increases Booking & Revenue for National Railroad Company

Supporting Leaders to EVOLVE

Overview

A top five transportation enterprise¹ partnered with Blast Analytics & Marketing with the objective of becoming a data-driven organization. They were looking for a Customer Experience (CX) team that would take the lead and provide strategic recommendations for testing ideas, while also creating a collaborative culture where educating their team throughout the process was a priority.

Challenge

The client knew they needed to boost their credibility across both desktop and mobile site visitors in order to see an increase in booking rates and revenue. As part of the onboarding process, Blast analyzed their website CX to identify potential ways to move visitors further along the purchase funnel and drive meaningful action.

Solution

Testimonials work as strong social proof for visitors, especially when those testimonials are from a well-known and trusted sources. To add an extra layer of trustworthiness and credibility, it was decided to test the addition of a TripAdvisor testimonial on targeted pages.

Blast implemented two individual A/B Tests via Adobe Target that ran for two weeks to determine whether the inclusion of a testimonial on those pages would ultimately persuade visitors to take action. By using a testimonial, Blast expected to see an increase in click-through-rate, booking rate, and revenue.

The test was split across devices (Desktop versus Mobile) and targeted the following pages:

  • “Long Distance Savers” page (Desktop URL)
  • “Long Distance Savers” page (Mobile URL)

Each test contained the following structure:

  • Control (50% of traffic): No testimonial
  • Variation (50% of traffic): TripAdvisor testimonial included

Results

With the inclusion of a TripAdvisor testimonial on the “Long Distance Savers” page, test results varied depending on whether visitors were coming from mobile.

The experience with the testimonial performed well for non-mobile users. Specifically, tests results showed a positive trend in click-through-rate on the “Find Trains” CTA. Moreover, this experience had a significant positive impact on the following metrics:

  • Booking rate +11.85% lift (99% confidence level)
  • Revenue Per Visitor +13.32% lift (97% confidence level)

For booking volume, there were more than 2,000 bookings per variation. This is sufficient conversion volume, and the test covered two business cycles, providing greater confidence in the results.

As an integral part of this strategic partnership, Blast created a long-term testing roadmap for the client with a focus on optimizing the customer experience across devices. Key learnings from this test were incorporated to evolve the testing roadmap to include future test ideas to optimize mobile such as testing a shorter testimonial and relocating the “Book Now” button higher up on the page to reduce scrolling.

Blast Analytics is a pleasure to do business with. Every person I’ve worked with there has treated my team as a partner rather than just another client. They are the most reliable and efficient agency I’ve ever worked with. All projects are met with thorough research and discovery preparations which has instilled a high level of trust with me and my team.


*1. Based on FY 2016 data, ranked by total domestic passengers carried compared to U.S. airlines