How LATAM Airlines Builds Seamless Travel Journeys with Optimal
Chilean multinational airline
In the competitive landscape of global air travel, LATAM Airlines has distinguished itself by creating intuitive digital experiences for both passengers and employees. Behind their user-friendly interfaces and passenger-centric design lies a data-driven approach to user experience powered by Optimal's platform. By leveraging sophisticated user insight tools, LATAM has transformed how they organize flight information, support disrupted travelers, and structure their loyalty programs.
Challenge: Navigating the Complexity of Air Travel
LATAM Airlines faced significant challenges in creating digital experiences that could effectively serve their diverse passenger base across multiple countries in Latin America. With various customer journeys, from booking flights to managing disruptions to navigating loyalty programs, LATAM needed to ensure their digital touchpoints were intuitive and accessible for all users.
Additionally, the airline needed to optimize their internal knowledge management systems, ensuring employees had easy access to UX research insights that could inform passenger experience improvements across multiple touchpoints.
Solution: Crafting Clear Flight Paths
LATAM implemented Optimal's comprehensive research toolkit to address these experience challenges with precision:
- For their internal teams, LATAM conducted focused tree testing to assess how effectively employees could navigate their user experience research hub. This approach helped them evaluate whether staff could easily locate critical insights needed to improve passenger experiences.
- For their customer support infrastructure, LATAM deployed tree testing to optimize their help center information architecture. This research focused on creating intuitive pathways for passengers seeking assistance during their travel journey.
- To enhance their loyalty program experience, LATAM conducted card sorting exercises exploring how frequent flyers understood and navigated the LATAM Pass program and additional service offerings. This research revealed how passengers naturally categorized various loyalty benefits and ancillary services.
- When considering potential changes to their fare naming structure, LATAM utilized closed card sorting to evaluate passenger understanding of branded fare options, ensuring that any renamed fare categories would align with traveler expectations.
- During times of travel disruption, LATAM surveyed passengers to identify which information categories they prioritized when facing flight cancellations or schedule changes. This critical research helped LATAM understand what matters most to travelers when plans go awry.
Results: Smoother Journeys
LATAM's strategic use of Optimal’s platform delivered tangible benefits:
- The internal tree testing revealed opportunities to reorganize their UX research hub, making critical passenger insights more accessible to employees who could implement improvements.
- Help center optimization identified navigation pain points that, once resolved, allowed passengers to find critical information faster, reducing support call volume during high-demand periods.
- The LATAM Pass card sorting exercises uncovered distinct patterns in how frequent flyers conceptualized loyalty benefits, enabling the airline to reorganize program information in alignment with passenger mental models.
- Research on additional services categorization helped LATAM create more intuitive pathways to ancillary offerings, improving upsell opportunities while enhancing the passenger experience.
- The disruption information prioritization survey provided crucial insights into passenger needs during stressful travel situations, allowing LATAM to redesign their communication protocols to address the most urgent passenger concerns first.
Ensuring Long-Term Success
LATAM's investment in comprehensive user experience research continues to deliver sustained advantages:
- The refined internal knowledge management systems have empowered employees with clearer access to passenger insights, fostering a more customer-centric culture across the organization.
- The optimized help center has improved self-service success rates, allowing passengers to resolve issues independently while reducing operational support costs.
- The restructured loyalty program navigation has increased member engagement with premium benefits, driving higher program participation and ancillary revenue.
- Enhanced disruption communications have improved passenger satisfaction during irregular operations, strengthening brand loyalty during challenging travel situations.
LATAM's case demonstrates how sophisticated UX insights transform air travel experiences from basic transportation to seamless journeys, directly impacting passenger satisfaction, operational efficiency, and ultimately, competitive advantage in the challenging airline industry.
Want to learn how you can get started gathering meaningful user insight with Optimal? Reach out to us today.
