How it started

British Airways (BA) wanted to better understand the online path to purchase for trips by air. Human8’s challenge was to design an approach that would capture the complexity of the path to air-trip purchases. The team needed to look at the journey from different perspectives:

• In-the-moment reporting and observations
• After-the-event reflections
• Bottom-up trend spotting in behaviour

How we inspired change

Through a combination of methodologies, we explored several perspectives, deepening our understanding of the path to purchase. These are the key steps taken during the project:

• Consolidated existing research from British Airways. A behavioural economics expert engaged with frontline staff and observed interactions with customers at the BA contact centre.

• Utilised existing knowledge and built hypotheses in workshop settings, to test with fifteen key stakeholders at BA.

• Tracked real-time online behaviour among those converting to purchase online with our partners at Experian.

• Connected with travellers via ‘TripTalk’, a bespoke online community, to get in-the-moment ‘snapshots’ from their individual path to purchase and discussed these in face-to-face and video in-depth interviews to develop a journey map.

• Prioritised findings, based on implications for key areas of the business in a dedicated workshop.

The impactful path-to-purchase model was shared with the organization, supported by a pocket guide to keep it top of mind.

How it lives on

The research deepened BA’s knowledge of the total end-to-end customer experience, and the path-to-purchase model is embedded throughout the organization as part of a single consolidated view of the customer journey. BA is using it as a framework for strategic planning, not only within marketing, but also in other teams such as data analytics.

The layered methodological approach has enabled the involvement of stakeholders at various points, engaging them throughout the project, and facilitating reflection and debate.