CX STRATEGY / @ATJ / TRAVELER PORTAL
ATJ Traveler Portal
current process & STAKEHOLDER NEEDS
ATJ requires at least five pieces of information from a traveler before traveling: flight information, passport information, personal information, signed waiver(s) and payment. Currently, this information is collected using a variety of methods, requiring multiple people and systems to follow it up.
Required information and due dates are tracked in ATJ’s custom ERP system and communicated to the traveler by email, phone and/or mail. Outstanding documents are followed up by multiple contact people (salespeople, sales assistants, administrative support and accounting staff), and documents are submitted by email, online payment portal, fax, and post, and manually logged in the ERP system.
PROBLEM FINDING
Based on feedback from internal and external stakeholders (survey data and interviews), it was clear that the existing system was a major source of frustration—both for travelers and ATJ staff.
Many travelers found it difficult to keep track of what information and documents ATJ needed when in order to confirm their trip. This was especially frustrating for families or groups traveling together and travel companions of different nationalities, as requirements could differ per person. Repeat travelers also frequently found it annoying that ATJ would request copies of passports and personal information for each trip, rather than simply reusing or reconfirming the information used for their previous trip.
The current system also proved frustrating for internal staff. The sales team communicated that collecting travelers’ information from various sources, manually entering it into the ERP system and following up on outstanding documents was one of the most consistently frustrating and time-consuming parts of their job. It also created a liability issue. If ATJ staff manually entered a traveler's flight information or passport information incorrectly, it could have serious consequences for which ATJ would have to take full responsibility. (While this happened infrequently, the severity of the consequences made it a serious concern).
“I want my clients to be able to track the status of their required documents and payments online at any time. It would save my team a lot of time by not having to remind them to submit these things. ”
- Eric Kareus, ATJ Sales Director
“I wish there was a way for clients to upload all of their traveler information themselves. Entering it manually takes so long and I am always worried that I will enter something incorrectly, which could cause a serious problem.”
- Jan bachman, ATJ administrative coordinator
“We’ve traveled with ATJ five times, why do we have to send in our passports and personal information every time? Nothing has changed.”
- Miriam and Henry L., Repeat ATJ Travelers
IDEATION
As I brainstormed solutions to these problems with ATJ’s sales and admin steam, we quickly agreed that some sort of online traveler portal would be the best solution. This concept has already been considered (it was already possible to submit personal information and payments online), but no one has taken the time to envision the portal, and its requirements, as a whole.
To start envisioning this portal as a whole, I worked with the sales and admin team to list the required features and functionality.
Features:
Book online (pay deposit)
Submit personal info (per traveler)
Submit standard waiver (per traveler)
Submit additional waivers (ie. high altitude waiver) (per traveler)
Submit passport information and images (per traveler)
Submit flight details (per traveler OR per itinerary)
Save personal information and passport info for repeat travelers
View status of documents for all travelers
View payment schedule
View current itinerary online
Indicate when itinerary has been updated
View Final Travel Documents (10 days prior to departure)
Make payments online
Contact Travel Specialist
Functionality:
Unique, secure URL per itinerary
Sync information between portal and database (dates, traveler information fields)
Update traveler information either in database or in portal
Flag information updated on portal in database
Publish itineraries in database to portal (override last version with updated version)
Automatically show contact information for client’s Travel Specialist
Check database and portal for completeness of necessary documents
Save credit card information for subsequent payments
PayPal API to process payments in portal
Next, I delineated a user pathway to visualize how the various features would be linked together.
User pathway for an ATJ travel information portal, where travelers can submit the information necessary to book and manage their trip in one place.
PROTOTYPE & TESTING
I began to create rough wireframes by sketching out the required information on each page of the portal, using my user pathway diagram as a guide.
Book Trip screen, V1
Active Trip Dashboard screen, V1
Feedback from colleagues confirmed that visually displaying outstanding information per traveler and the most up to date version of their itinerary was very helpful. However, including the itinerary, traveler information, payment and final documents on a single page was overwhelming and the red indicators for outstanding information felt too negative.
Feedback from travelers who frequently traveled with their children and grandchildren also revealed an additional requirement that had not been identified previously: it was very important for some travelers that their travel companions not be able to view the costs or payments associated with the trip. The sales team confirmed that this was indeed a fairly common occurrence.
ITERATION & FURTHER TESTING
I incorporated this valuable feedback to design a simpler front page for both the “Book Trip” and “Active Trip” areas of the portal. I sought to limit the amount of information shown on each screen to only what was strictly necessary, so that there was a clear CTA and overall progress was more visually apparent.
Book Trip screen, V2
Active Trip Dashboard screen, V2
Upon clicking through the following screens, I removed the red incomplete icons from the informational screens and added an additional password to the payments section, to restrict access, upon request. If no password is set, this pop-up would not appear. These versions were viewed more favorably.
Book now (on click)
View traveler information (on click)
View payments (directly on click or display pop-up if password enabled)
IMPLEMENTATION
In order to build this traveler portal, several missing features would need to be developed and other currently independent features would need to be linked together. I worked with our lead developer to define which features needed new development, which features existing internally but needed UI changes to be visible to travelers and which simply needed some restructuring to be accessible in one place.
New features
View current itinerary online
Indicate when itinerary has been updated
View Final Travel Documents online (10 days prior to departure)
Submit additional waivers (ie. high altitude waiver) (per traveler)
Submit passport information and images (per traveler)
Submit flight details (per traveler OR per itinerary)
Existing independent features
Existing Book online (pay deposit)
Submit personal info (per traveler)
Submit standard waiver (per traveler)
Make payments online
Contact Travel Specialist
Existing internal feature
Save personal information and passport info for repeat travelers
View payment schedule
Based on available resources, and the goal of minimally disrupting the existing traveler communication flow, we developed the following rollout schedule:
Step 1: View itinerary online and access all existing online forms (payments, personal info, standard waiver) in one place.
Step 2: View final travel documents online and create additional forms (additional waiver, passport info, flight info).
Step 3: Build traveler portal UI and link forms and documents as specified in prototype
Step one has been completed: itineraries are now published online with expandable daily details (see image) and links to all required documents are specified at the end of the itinerary. Step two was underway when I left ATJ.