How does the CUSTOMER find the experience they want, not just a house, quickly and easily, when the experience is more important than the exact dates. As a customer, do you find yourself constantly tweaking dates to see if you can get more returns on a property search?
Are you tired of digging into a specific property to see available dates? Some customers, including homeowners, have expressed frustration with existing limitations of the current search feature.
Here is a related discussion on the HomeAway community forum.
Empathy for the customer is not enough. As designers, we need to know the customer and understand at a specific level the customer’s objectives. In this case, there is a set of flexible customers looking for a vacation experience that rigid search parameters often do not satisfy. The customer needs more options to achieve their goal of finding the perfect home for their family or friends.
Current Search
Design Goal
Provide the customer with tools that expose more stay options just outside of their chosen search requirements to facilitate the experience they seek.
Proposal
- Give the customer the ability to extend the search date range without changing their original travel dates.
- Implement a quick calendar view for each property on the list view.
Together these features expose a greater variety of stay options and better visibility to available dates, quickly and easily on the list view. This allows the customer to make a more informed decision about the experience they desire.
Measuring KPIs
It is essential to test and measure the impact of new features against both customer and business goals. Here are some potential KPIs to measure during A/B customer testing.
- Compare the number of specific property views required, on average, to reach a booking.
- Measure the rate at which customers extend original stay duration when using flex filters to extend search options.