Rental cars
Real-time user reviews and ratings
Overview
User reviews are proven to be conversion drivers and has come to be a commonly expected feature across eCommerce. However, when it comes to renting a car users seldom have a chance to view social feedback. Taking advantage of this opportunity I presented an ecosystem to collect and playback customer reviews.
The recommendations provided car companies with an opportunity to transform a negative feedback into a delightful experience. It led to a share shift towards companies providing a much better customer experience as well as provided us with specific and actionable real time data on common pain points that could directly be addressed with car companies across locations.
Background
It is estimated that 75-90% of online shoppers read online reviews before they make a purchase decision. The presence of online reviews/ratings not just play a role in increasing conversion and engagement rates but have also been proven to have considerable SEO benefits.
Rental car shoppers have had very limited options to compare customer experiences across multiple rental companies and locations.
Due to a lack of feedback from actual customers, shoppers have very little insight in anticipating what their trip experience might be like for e.g. how long is the queue? will there be any surprises in my charges? will I get the type of car I rented?
Our goals were not just limited to provide design options on collection and playback of customer reviews but also provide car companies with opportunities to fix the experience in-trip.
Our Approach
The UX team did a competitive review of the review collection and playback patterns across several e-commerce sites and competitors: Amazon, Rentalcars.com, Yelp, and Groupon.
We looked at our top detractors for data to baseline as well as to feed into the type of review questions we would like customers to respond. Their responses would be helpful in differentiating across car companies.
Customers would be presented with a minimal, but relevant, set of questions, determined by where they were in their trip (e.g. picking up their car, dropping off etc.).
We also sketched out several options to determine a viable pattern to playback the responses, as well as how/when we should pass this response back to the car company. Car companies would have the opportunity to transform real-time, a poor encounter into a delightful experience, perhaps even turning them into loyal customers.
User reviews on AMZN pages
Detailed reviews and filtering on AMZN
User reviews collection on AMZN
Car rental timeline on Expedia
Real-time review collection on Expedia
Examples of review playback explorations on Expedia
Outcome
Following the display of reviews, we saw a share shift towards car companies that provided a better customer experience. However, these companies typically charged more than the company with a poor rating.
It provided us with rich, real-time data of customer feedback across different rental companies and locations which could then be utilized to improve service and experience. For e.g. customers renting from company A at SFO airport commented on longer wait times on the weekends, which suggested adding more staff during the peak hours.